A/N- Hello everyone! Aren't ya glad I didn't make ya wait 2 months again? Lol! Well, anyways, This story is sadly about to end (not in this chapter though), but fear not, there's still one chapter left to go and an epilogue afterwards ^_^. Update on the move to Colorado- I'm going back to Oklahoma for college next fall semester (sigh) it's beautiful up here, but my petite body wasn't made for blizzards and mountains. I'm made for humidity (though I find I sleep better with out that…. Ah, sacrifices…) heat, rain, odd weather and well…. Plains. Lol. The horses still haven't made it up here with my dad, but they should be coming around new years. Also, we're welcoming a new addition to the horsy family!! A friend of ours can't take care of her 15-year-old pony named Foxy (she's sooo cute!!)

So yeah, there's the boring update I should save for my non-existent blog… maybe I should take up blogging…. Nah.

Special thanks to:

LeopardDemenNovelist, Kaitline, Shadow and Little Shadow!

Acknowledgements: (I seriously love u guys! Thanks for all the support you've given and happy holidays to you all!)

Savagecreature, RedFang, tigerjaw, Amber, Dhole, Wildcreature, Sabertooth, Hellhound, gossipgirl, Snowstar, Quickstrike, Vixie, emilyruby, blackpanther, Siren, White Fang, QueenofSpades, Aquamarine, AngelOfVengeance, coldfire, WildKat, little shadow, sweetooth, alvinfreak676, freakingod, Furyguy, Hybrid, Carnage, fannyone325, HottyKat, Shurtugal, bloodymary, Venom, Blackwidow, Emeraldragon, howling1, stargirl, GangsofFury, Prettykitty67, merlyn1382, freddbing323, lucky, SilenceofDoom, Dusk, Dawn, wolfsbane, TwiLightzone, emeraldream, RavenDiesel1 …. (is that everyone?)

Side note- Sorry for all the confusion, but all I can say is that all will be revealed in these next two chapters (as they usually are) so I don't want to really post the questions and answers here just yet.- it'll ruin the surprise….

Enjoy!!

Chapter 37 The Full Moon Searches…

"I'm searching, I've been searching so long for you"

That voice… she knew that voice. Her heart demanded her mind to recognize that voice and her very soul shivered in a good way at the feel of it reverberate with in her very being. She felt dear to this voice, but…… she didn't know who it was.

"I've been searching for so long for you, yet you and I are too far away. Why can't I make you stay here with me? Why do you keep running away?" he sounded so sad and in pain to her. Akira wanted desperately to reach out and touch that voice. She wanted to bring it into her arms and never let it go. She was also searching for it, its owner. She was always searching……

"Please," she called out to the darkness of her mind, "Let me see you? Why do you make my heart race and soul shutter?"

A low wolf howl in the distance greeted her, again, the voice of that howl was so painfully lonely it broke her heart. It called out to her as a lost lover calls to its mate. She felt herself wanting to return the howl, but unable. Tears sprung to her eyes, "Please…please let this pain end… Let me see your eyes…" she asked.

She saw a pair of blue human eyes in her minds eyes. The face was shadowed over and she couldn't discern the details of the body, but those clear blue human eyes looked back at her through the darkness, looking right at her with such adoration that she took a startled step backward. The blue eyes flashed into that of golden wolf eyes that watched her. A pained whimper echoed in the darkness.

"Remember me. Don't forget me…"

A sudden snarl from behind her drew Akira's eyes away from the pained beauty of the amber orbs that gazed at her to turn and face the snarl of a black wolf that was so dark, night fall was envious of the true dark color. A golden wolfs eye and a blue humans' stared at her with hate and pain as the wolf snarled at her.

"You… you're…" she was struck with sudden fear.

"I will not let you forget who you are so easily!" the black wolf roared as he shot forward and pounced at her.

Her world went black.

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Akira shot up from bed panting. Her long red bangs covered her eyes for a moment, their thickness blinding her before she shoved them out of her way and into the mess of tangles and bed-tangles her long crimson tresses became during the night while she tossed in her sleep. She couldn't remember a night when she slept peaceful, she always tossed and turned restlessly when she slept as she was pledged with dreams of longing while she heard a wolf's sorrowful howl for her and a voice that sent shocks of pleasure to her soul. Tonight was the first night she was granted the color- or colors- of eyes to her mysterious man who haunted her dreams so longingly. It was also one of thousands where an adult alpha wolf with an uncanny resemblance to one of her three cubs, Shadow, attacked her after accusing her of forgetting him.

What did these dreams mean? Why did that alpha wolf look so much like her child, Shadow as a wolf?

Akira bent her head to rest in her palms and wept. Her heart was still hurting from the longing she felt during the dream. The overwhelming urge to remember put her in physical pain, but her mind was still too shattered from her wounds. The doctors had told her she was lucky all three pups survived the birth unharmed when she arrived nearly dead and unconscious in an ambulance, not only needing immediate care for her injuries no one was quite sure how she sustained, and going into labor as soon as she was stabilized.

It was over six months since all three of her pups were born: Shadow, Dakota and Mori. All three of them all different colors of wolf, but all having some kind of likeness of their mother. They alone where what kept her going and eventually, with the help of her family and pack, helped her decide to return to her studies in a different collage to get her degree so she could support her new family the human way as well as wolf way.

Over and over, she had been asked by expert investigators, family and friends about how she came to be so injured the night she was driven to the hospitable. The ambulance driver said they got an anonymous call from a pay phone and found her laying in the back ally, exactly where the tipper had suggested they'd find her. She had been alone and there were no other blood marks other than where she had fallen. She honestly couldn't recall anything of what happened that night. Her dreams were terrifying to her when she thought too much of it. She could see nothing in them, but she felt herself being tossed around and heard someone crying out to her telling her to run. She could hear the sound of wolf snarls and snapping jaws, but she always woke up quickly when one of these dreams occurred. Then there was the one she just had….

She still felt like something was missing, but it wasn't her memory. She felt it was a warmth that was lost from her side and she wanted it back. Her mother and close girl friends said it was probably her lover she had consummated with and father of her pups, but she didn't remember him. Her family knew nothing of him either since she met him during the 4 years she had gone off on her own as a lone wolf to explore on her own and go to college in the capitol city, Sanforran. They received a call from the hospital the next morning she was admitted into the St. Francis hospital of Sanforran, and that's all they knew. She had moved back home with only her clothes she wore on her back and her three newborn pups her family accepted into their pack as cherished new members of their pack. Her mother, step-mother and father all looked after the pups as their own and her elder adopted brother and his newly acquired and united mate also looked after the pups when Akira needed so she could attend her last months of college.

Masters degree, here she comes! Come May, she wouldn't have to worry about ever finding a good paying job to support her children. Her pack wasn't the richest- they were actually a country-traveling entertainment band. They did carnivals and circuses alike. Their main focus was musical, but the wolves often joined variety shows along the way, where ever there was entertainment to be needed, Sasuke's pack was willing to entertain. While their talents were usually used to entrain however, their physical prowess was also sold out for temporary guarding jobs. After all, humans knew the best guard dog was a wolf able to shape shift to a human.

Yep, they were carnies and guard dogs- two things that usually didn't coexist, but this life suited them. They loved to make people laugh and have a good time.

Lately, Sasuke had canceled all their family's dates until he was sure his daughter was well enough and the pups were old enough to not have to depend on the adults every moment of every day in their young lives. They were getting there….

Akira sighed as she swallowed back the useless tears. She hardly knew why she cried anymore. There was nothing to cry about other than the unknown of lost memories and the pain of an unknown lost love. She sat back and bonked her head on the head bored of the bed. They were all staying at Jasper's permanent home near Sanforran city until the pack was able to move on again. Her sensitive ears caught the whimper of the pups in the next room over- one of them must have woken up to the sudden noise she might have made in her sleep, Shura, her step-mother admitted that Akira did cry out in her sleep once in a while. Her real mother, Diya was a very heavy sleeper and therefore never heard Akira's cries, but apparently one of the pups had.

With a heavy sigh, Akira pushed her personal problems to the back of her mind and dragged the heated blankets from her person, shivering as the cold winter draft bit into her human skin as she swung her bare legs over the side of the bed and stood up with a stretch. Since she started breast feeding three gluttonous pups, she'd taken a habit of wearing comfortable boy shorts and an easy access slip top for night clothes. Sniffing back her earlier sobs, Akira walked out of her average bedroom and turned to her immediate right- the door to the nursery.

All three pups lay snuggled in one large crib custom built by Sasuke and Jasper as a present to the pups. They seemed to sleep longer together. She peered over the high rails of the large crib and smiled to see her children in their wolf forms. As pups, even though born in human form, they preferred to sleep as wolf pups than human infants. She didn't blame them. It was early December outside and the snow was starting to get heavy and cold winds harsh. She should have slept in the fur as well, but she usually woke up to torn pillows and ripped sheets when she slept in wolf form since she got a bit more violent in her nightmare troubled sleep.

It was Dakota who had whimpered awake now. Little 'Kota was the middle born of the three, she was also the only female of the small litter. Her white fur the color of snow and she had bright orange-golden eyes, a mix between her mothers and probably her fathers'. As a human, she had the soft beginnings of platinum blond hair growing in and beautiful light brown eyes that were only a few shades darker than her wolf eyes. Akira bent over the crib to take hold of the pup that lay between her brothers as she whimpered half asleep. Once the pup felt her mothers' human hands take hold of her to pick her up, the pup instinctively reverted to human form, curling to her mother for comfort as Akira hugged the child to her breast to reassure the whimpering girl.

"Shhh- ssshhh- shhhh" Akira cooed as she gently bounced the baby in her arms, "There, there, Kota…. I'm here, Momma's with you" Kota was still on the verge of crying. Akira's heart tore in her chest at her child's tears. The pup must have had a nightmare as well. The gentle mother could hear the howl of the snow storm outside, and she knew Kota didn't sleep well through any kind of storm. So she tried a different approach, one that never failed to calm her pups no matter if they were frightened, frustrated or had tummy aches. She sang a lullaby.

"Little child be not afraid,

The rain pounds hard against the glass

Like an unwanted stranger,

There is no danger

I am here tonight

Little child be not afraid

The thunder explodes and lightning flash

Illuminates,

Your tear stained face

And I am here tonight

Someday you'll know

That nature is so

The same rain that draws in the ending

Falls in rivers of land

And forests of sound

Makes the beautiful world that you see

In the morning…."

Dakota lay in her mothers' arms limply and lightly snoring half-way through her mothers' lullaby her own step mother had taught her. Akira smiled lightly at the sight of the sleeping child, Kota with her own small smile on her face. She would sleep soundly for the rest of the night until her obnoxious brothers woke her up at dawn. Akira approached the crib once more and gently re-tucked-in her daughter between Kota's two brothers, watching as the white-blond baby girl became the white furred wolf pup that stood out in stark contrast to her darker brothers.

Mori snuggled back up to his sisters back once he felt her warmth return to the crib with a sigh. His dark rustic red fur had a tan under belly, muzzle and shadow above his eyes gave him a nearly fox-like appearance as he had a downy white tip at the end of his red tail. His paws looked like they'd been dipped in black paint, he was the most colorful of his litter. Nearly four different colors on his coat with hazel-golden eyes that had a rim of green around his irises in both human and wolf form. His human hair color was a reddish-brunette almost like his mothers auburn. He had a more of an array of colors in his hair though.

The eldest, Shadow, lay with his back to his siblings. His sister, Kota snuggled into him and he snuggled back, but he did not turn to her. Akira could already see the makings of a strong independent wolf in him. Diya warned that he'd be murderous to control in his adolescent years. The pup was nearly pure black, but was a smoky-shade that had a mixture of black and darker silver gray hairs to his fur, giving him a sleek shine to his fur. His eyes were mismatched- one blue as the sky and the other as gold as the sun. As a boy he already had a longer, thicker truf of black hair than his brother and sister- Kota only had wisps and Mori had less than that, but none of them were bald babies.

Akira shivered at the thought of her eldest' sons' wolf form. Shadow looked so much like the alpha wolf she saw in her dreams at night, but she knew it wasn't her son. She could feel it.

Her son would never attack his mother…

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"Kiba, I know you're out to get the pack back together, but you should have expected this" Hige sighed as he watched his leader pace back and forth before him in their pack den that was also a bar run by Tsume and Heart. Said wolves were currently half way across the world on their honey moon, leaving the bar in the care of Heart's younger sister, Blue and her fiancé, Hige. Both of which stood behind the bar, leaning on the counter and resting their chins on either their crossed arms on the counter (Hige) or in the palm of their propped up hand (Blue).

"They should have called back by now" Kiba grunted.

"It's their honey moon" Blue pointed out, "They're a bit busy"

"Heart promised to hack the hospital records and check for names" Kiba insisted.

"Well, I saw her with her laptop when they left, I'm sure she has by now" Hige yawned. It was too early on this Monday morning…

Their leader turned sharply and stopped his pacing to glare at them with sharp blue eyes, "Then what's taking her so long to get back to me on this?"

"My guess is that it's Tsume" Hige raised a brow.

Kiba snorted, "Gluttonous bastard" he mumbled and started to pace again.

Just then, the back door near the employee entrance to behind the bar opened and in walked the youngest members of the pack- Toboe Tsuchiri and Lauralai Wytewater. Both of which were seniors in high school with Toboe at eighteen and Laura at seventeen…. Speaking of which…

"Hey, runt," Hige glared at Toboe as the elder wolf stood straighter from where he had hunched over the counter, "What are you two doing out of school so early?"

"You guys just left like two hours ago," Blue also sounded suspicious. With out her sister or her new brother-in-law to watch over the two pups of the pack, Blue and Hige had taken over overseeing to the pups.

"There was an on-campus shooting" Toboe said tonelessly as he protectively held Laura to his person. The female teen wolf looked shaken as she stared blankly at the floor, snuggled tightly to his embrace.

"Shooting?" Kiba looked up alarmed.

Toboe nodded, "Some human gangsters were making a statement on how they felt about going to the same school as shifters. He shot down a tiger shifter, Jamal. A fight broke out since Jamal was still alive between some humans that are against shifters and Jamal's pride that were there. Laura was close by Jamal when it happened so she got a bit traumatized. I found her after one of her friends sought me out in my class and I just took her home."

"They'll see that as skipping you know." Blue sighed.

"Like I give a fuck" Toboe rolled his eyes.

"Watch your tongue pup" Blue shot back with a growl.

"What? Hige doesn't." Toboe protested.

Blue smacked her intended upside the head, causing him to yelp in pain, "WHAT?"

"Shut up" Blue gave him a dry look.

At that moment, Kiba's cell phone rang. He quickly dug it out of his jeans pocket and flipped it open, noticing Heart Hellsin's ID on the screen before he put it near his ear. The volume on as low as it would go with out being on mute- wolf senses and all…

"Kiba" Kiba answered promptly.

"Hello Mr. High and Mighty and Slave Driver of my Life" Heart teased with a dry tone.

"Heart?"

"Who else?" Heart replied, "You wanted a list of the hospital admittance right? I'm looking for someone named Akira Kuratsu?"

"What did you find?" he got down to business. He had slowly, over the six moths of recovery after he'd been admitted into the hospital by his friends remembered what he had temporarily forgotten. The girl he met and fell in love with three years ago…. And then that damned accident that tore her away from his side…

"She was there." Heart replied with a smile in her voice as she heard his sigh of relief, "And you'll never guess why."

"She was injured?" Kiba replied.

"That too, but looks like you were pretty busy with little miss Muppet" He could almost hear the smirk in her voice as he heard Tsume growl impatiently in the background as his mate dragged out the conversation over the phone with their alpha, Kiba, "Kiba, she gave birth at the hospital."

"What??" Kiba was shocked.

"Yeah, three pups. Two boys and a girl" Heart relayed.

"WHAT!" Kiba yelped.

His pack mates watched their alpha curiously until they heard the hushed and muffled voice of Heart say three pups.

"WHAT?" "EH?" "EXCUSE ME??" "I KNEW IT!" they all clamored at once.

Their alpha held up a single finger to jab up in the air for them to shut up.

"You're sure?" he demanded, still a bit shell shocked.

"It's right in front of me, the very report you asked for. These things are rarely wrong, unless there's more than one Akira Kuratsu. The dates and times match your fight perfectly." Heart replied.

Kiba groaned, suddenly realizing why she avoided him for the last long months before that fateful night only to disappear afterwards.

She had been pregnant with their pups and was afraid to tell him because he had once mentioned to her how pups tended to annoy him. Thinking back now, he'd said that well with in the nine months it would have taken her to go through her terms. She must have been trying to gauge his reaction by small questions she brought up and he had blown it!

"So, if we're done….?" Heart ventured.

"Address. Does it tell her current address?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose below his forehead to ward off a self-induced headache.

"39005 E Garder Road, Haylin. That should be just out of the city- a suburb even." Heart said, "Sorry, Kiba but if I keep making Tsume back off from trying to get in my pants again I think he'll resign from being beta…"

"Go on…" Kiba curled his lip in disgust, "I didn't need a visual of what he was trying to get from you… That's all I needed. Have a…. good time on your honeymoon"

"Oh we plan to" Tsume Hellsin's husky voice rasped over the phone before Kiba heard Heart giggle and the line go dead.

"Bastard." Kiba grumbled under his breath. He and his beta often had a brotherly love hate thing going on between them. They had once been rivals when the pack started off, but Tsume had backed down as the Alpha long ago. He didn't feel the position worth it anymore and had chosen instead to chase after Heart's tail until the female agreed to be his mate.

Clamping his flip phone closed, Kiba heaved a frustrated sigh while he turned to his anxious pack. All four faces were caught in expressions of varying intrigue, worry, and anticipation. Blue frowned as their leader chose not to tell them anything as he walked through the bar to the back stairs that led up to the loft apartments each of the pack members occupied- this was their den after all.

"So…?" she pursued him when Kiba didn't offer any information, "What's the plan?"

Kiba stopped at the threshold of the stairs, leaning one hand on the frame and turning to look over his shoulder at his pack, "I'm going after her." he said simply, as if it were obvious.

"I as in just you or can we come with?" Hige pressed.

"Oh, I'd love to see this Akira girl" the usually silent and reserved Lauralai meekly chimed in, "She sounds lovely"

"Yeah, Heart said she gave birth to your pups, right? So that makes her our alpha female!" Toboe concluded excitedly. They had all been waiting for the day when their alpha took a mate to ease his usually cold disposition of life. They'd all noticed a lift in his spirits those few times he'd come back to the pack in the last three years, so they were all curiously eager to meet the female.

"First, I'm going up stairs to clean up." Kiba said, turning away from them, "After that, I go after her alone"

"Bull shit" Blue scoffed, "You went alone when you chased after her tail after you screwed up and ended up in a trap alone- you fought them off alone and ended up in the hospital with temporary amnesia alone. Not this time, Kiba." Blue smirked, "We're either going with your permission, or we're just going to end up stalking you as you go alone. Your choice."

Kiba fully turned to face them all with a hard glare, willing them to stay out of his business, but they all had defiant looks of their own. It wasn't like they were committing a mutiny here, they had his best interests at heart, but they were really grating their alpha wolf's nerves. Kiba growled in annoyance, but he didn't want to waste time battling for wills with his pack when he could be reuniting with Akira right now.

"Fine." He grumbled in defeat. As his pack started to celebrate their little victory, he pointed an accusing finger to emphasize his point, "BUT- you guys wait outside while I talk to her alone, got it? You can come, but if I say wait, you wait, understood?" his blue eyes flashed gold, telling them he meant this.

The other wolves nodded with smug grins on their faces.

"Tell me you understand and are not just nodding at me to placate me." Kiba demanded dryly.

Lauralai tried to contain a giggle at her leaders over kill in ensuring that he had his alone time with his chosen woman, "Yes, Kiba, we'll back off so you can have a proper reunion with your new family. Right guys?" she looked around her innocently believing the others would agree.

"No problem" Toboe nodded with a grin as he tucked Laura to his side closer.

"I don't see anything wrong with that, sure" Blue submitted with a shrug of indifference.

Everyone turned to Hige expectantly. When the stocky wolf said nothing to confirm his compliance, Kiba growled lowly in irritation while Blue cleared her throat and gestured at Hige with a quick glace from him to Kiba- silently telling him to get on with it.

Hige pouted, "Do I have to?"

Kiba growled louder.

"Okay, okay fine! I'll do it, I'll step down when you tell us to" Hige complied grudgingly, "Though I don't really see why. Its not like you're going to throw her down where she stands at first sight of her and have your merry-deviling-way with her."

Kiba actually flushed at that and quickly turned around marching up the stairs, "Get ready to go. Blue, look up the address Heart gave us in the computer to give us a direct map to get there."

"I'm on it boss-man" Blue gave a two-finger-mocked salute and then pushed away from the counter to consult the flat-screen desktop computer in the employee room.

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Akira yawned widely in her wolf form as she lay propped up against the trunk of a fallen tree that lay under a large oak in the small field her brother owned on his large ranch. Laying across from her, also in wolf form, was her sister-in-law, Yumi. Both relaxed in the shade watching as the tree pups dashed around the field, romping and frolicking amongst themselves and the winter wonderland around them. They were still a bit wobbly legged and often tumbled about in the powdery snow, but they always scrambled right back up again to chase their prey they mock-stalked or bolt after a sibling they tumbled with. They were inexhaustible- always running about with more energy than any of the adults could muster to keep up with them.

Yumi sighed in content as they watched the white pup, Kota stop and sit on her haunches, panting, only to have her brother, Mori pounce on her from behind and then Shadow crashing into her from in front of her as he chased after a butterfly. The aunt-wolf chuckled as Kota yelped in surprise then growled as she fought off her meddlesome brothers.

"It must be nice to have them" the black and golden-brown wolf complimented, "I can't wait till Jasper and I have pups." She day dreamed.

Akira glanced at her sister-in-law, again wondering how such a strong wolf that was a pure-bred warrior to be envied even by alpha-males for her strength and prowess…. Could look exactly like a tamed German Shepard dog that was larger than normal with forest-green eyes. Akira's orange eyes shifted back to her playful pups with a smile on her wolf lips, "The day will come when we'll be watching over two litters instead of one rowdy one" her gentle smile turned to a wicked smirk as she turned back to look Yumi in the eye playfully, "Just keep your hopes up and faith strong and keep trying. I'm sure they'll come to you sooner or later."

"Oh, we've been trying." Yumi grinned wolfishly back, "That part of the deal's well taken care of."

"Alright, forget I said anything" Akira giggled as she grimaced at the thought of her brother trying to make a pup with Yumi.

"You're so easily flustered for one that looks like a vixen" Yumi teased.

"And you're so strange to look at for one that is probably the strongest of the wolf warriors yet resembles that of a human military dog" Akira teased back.

"Touché"

"Momma! Momma!" Shadow's little voice bleated, "Watch dis momma! See how fast I run?" the little black pup darted around, showing off as he weaved in zigzags through the tall grass that stuck out of the two-inches of snow layered on the ground.

"That's very fast, little Shadow." Akira complimented motherly as the little pup slid to a stop near her and his aunt.

"One day you'll be the fastest wolf out there" Yumi said enthusiastically.

Shadow puffed with pride.

"That's baby-stuff" Kota snuffed as she pranced up to her mother with her nose in the air, jealous that her brother was hogging the attention of both their mother and aunt, "Anyone can flop about like you do"

"I don't flop!" Shadow growled.

"Do too, you look like a baby"

"Do not"

"Do to"

"Not"

"To"

"Not, not, not!"

Akira and Yumi shared exasperated looks as the pups bickered. Akira sighed and started to try and calm down her frazzled pups.

"Shadow, Kota" she gently said, but they ignored her as Kota shoved her nose against Shadows to glare at him eye to eye.

"To, to, to!"

"Not time a thousand!" Shadow smirked at her, daring her to try and best him.

"To- infinity!" Dakota grinned mischievously as she leaned away from her brother to coyly smirk at him, "Beat that!"

"Why you little-!" Shadow crouched down slightly to pounce, snarling angrily as his sister copied his stance.

Little Mori had caught his first field mouse and at that time chose to hobble through the snow drifts and out of the thick tall grass to proudly show his family, but dropped his prize startled at the death-glares his brother and sister were giving each other. The reddish pup whimpered and ran to his mother for comfort, not liking how scary his siblings were being.

"I'll make you eat your own liver for that!" Shadow cursed as he pounced, just as his aunt caught him by the scruff of his neck, growling lightly, "Put'meh down! She's got it comin to her!" he protested kicking and squirming in his aunt's grasp.

Kota was about to jump up at him when Akira's larger paw pressed down slightly on the pups back, holding her where she was, "That's enough you two. The fights' gone on long enough. You should be ashamed of yourselves for acting that way."

"But Shadow was showing off like a jerk! He thinks he's better than me" Kota whined.

"Do not!" Shadow pouted.

"Do so!"

"Not"

"So!"

"NOT THIS AGAIN!" little Mori yelped and huddled closer to his mother's shoulder.

Akira sighed, "Look, will you two just…" her nose twitched and her orange eyes darted in the direction the wind blew, alert suddenly. With out looking back she addressed Yumi, "Yumi…."

"I smell them too." Yumi confirmed. The warrior female turned to look at Akira who glanced at the pups then up at the awaiting sister-in-law.

"Take the pups back to the den. You're larger and stronger than I am. Protect them" she said in a tone that wasn't to be argued with.

"I'll send for Sasuke and Jasper right away," Yumi nodded her compliance and stood to shake the snow from her fur.

"What about you momma? What's going on?" Mori looked like he was about to cry even in his pup form.

"I want you three to go with your aunt Yumi and stay with her," Akira said gently to her pups, "I'll be fine, I'll catch up as soon as I can." She nudged Mori with her muzzle so he'd follow his aunt along with his brother and sister, "Stay in your wolf forms until I or the other adults say so." She told them, watching as the large German Shepard-looking wolf quickly disappeared in the tall grass with three pups trotting under her belly to stay with in her shielding body.

Akira's ears pinned back as she looked back where the scent was coming from.

'Now to lead these intruders away from the pack and by dad some time to catch on' she thought, stalking off.