AN: Thank you for reading this chapter. It was a little hard for me to write this update after so long but I really hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Ten – Reina's Pawprints

10.1

"Bears are predators." Denahi said to himself. "Bears are predators." He looked around not wanting to focus on the enjoyment of the hunt or the thrill of activity he had just witnessed. He needed to think calmly and try to keep his humanity. Kenai was his family and that was what was important to him, family. Denahi heard the flutter of wings above him and sat still, keeping his nose to the air.

"Sitkha," he asked as he kept his eyes glued to the skies. "You trying to tell me that this is a bad idea? I know that I'm not like them but it's best to keep wise. You know wolf of wisdom or whatever. At least I'm doing something which isn't very fair to you….now that I've said it."

Denahi saw Sitkha form fly off into the sky and just sighed. He had to look out for his brothers. Right now he needed to find some game, something which he could bring back from his hunt He heard a noise from behind him and turned, sinking his paws into the ground as he heard movement from the bushes. He had to be more sensitive to sound. He had to listen and try to keep complete awareness of his surroundings.

Leaping out at the target, Denahi saw it to be the wolf Reina and caught by surprise, Reina was able to tackle him onto the ground and place her foot on his throat. He panted as he lay on his back and watched her. "I thought that you wanted to hunt with us. I was expecting to see great things from you," she said and Denahi coughed.

"Yeah, guess I disappointed you, huh?" he asked and Reina lifted her head but still kept her paw to his throat. She stared at him not knowing what to do with him. "I am guessing that you were told to observe me."

"Watch you, you're quite an unusual being," she said and Denahi let himself calm a little. She might have the upper hand or well, upper paw over him but she wasn't hurting him. She sniffed him and he just stared at her until she bit his ear and he flinched. "You really are a newbie to hunting, aren't you?"

"I'm great in a pack," Denahi lied and Reina laughed as she sniffed him again and bit his ear. "I'm more used to hunting when I have my brothers with me," he informed her and Reina hummed. She pushed her nose against the side of his face.

"Is that so?" she asked him with a hum. "You know family doesn't have to mean the cubs that you're born with. I haven't seen my whole family for a long long time. You make your own family and haven't you heard of survival of the fittest."

Denahi laughed a little in surprise, "Woah, I'm really surprised that you have, being a wolf," he said and Reina looked at him completely taken aback by that statement. He was a wolf and had obviously heard of it unless he was one of those strange wolves that someone had taken into their house to turn into a house dog or something. Humans were sometimes really weird when it came to that and Reina was happy that she hadn't been taken in and tried to be turned into someone's lap dog. She had heard of those disgusting lives.

"You think that because I'm world class in my hunting abilities, that I haven't heard a little bit about the ways of the world," she asked. "You gotta shape up though. You're too soft."

"I'm not -" Denahi argued but Reina bit his ear again and then laughed as he looked aside. She could have ripped his ear off if she had wanted to. He stared at her. She wasn't going to kill him but asking this question might lead her to want to. "You really hate humans, don't you?"

"I pity them," Reina replied. "Humans can only see to the end of their nose and they can't smell or track, they just carry pointy sticks and think they own everything."

"Would you ever want to be human?" Denahi asked and Reina stared at him as if he really had gone and eaten all of the peyote. She leapt off of him and sniffed around him. Denahi lay still as he watched her and she dug her paw into the earth and sprinkled dirt onto his face.

"You're an idiot," she told him. "Imagine a question like that, only humans ask those kind of dumb questions, "she said as she looked away and Denahi slowly sat up.

"So, are you going to report to Pacha what you've seen and that I'm pretty much a failure as a wolf?" he asked and Reina looked away.

"Maybe not in those words," she replied. "You've still got time to prove to Pacha that you're better than he thinks you are and better than I think you are come to that. Kill something, a moose, a bear, a wildcat."

"How about moose?" Denahi answered and then looked nervously to Reina. "You don't really think they're hunting bears, are they?" he asked and Reina stared at him again She sniffed him but didn't say anything, however she did continue giving him a rather wary stare.

10.2

"Bears eat meat. Wolves eat meat. It's just the circle of life."

Denahi had tried to make sure he was alone when he had left from where the other wolves had been. He cared about Reina but she was a wolf and what he truly wanted was to see his brother. He was only one part of a family and Kenai had accepted his wolf form. No matter how any other wolf might see him, he could take comfort in knowing his brothers loved him.

He sniffed the ground to make sure that he was close to where Kenai was. As he approached the cave, he could smell Koda and was surprised he could identify his scent so well. He really was becoming one with his totem.

"Koda, it's me," he whispered as he looked to the leg of the moose he had killed with Reina's help that night. He brought it up to the cave and pawed at the wall. "I found this," he said. Okay. He didn't exactly find it. It was from a younger moose anyway and he and Reina had actually brought the whole beast down. He had seen the scramble from the other wolves for their meal and had luckily ripped a leg off. Maybe it was enough for the three of them to share.

"You brought something real big," Koda laughed as he widened the entrance of the cave and pulled at the hoof of the beast. "Yeah, freshly dead. I mean, do you know if they died from natural causes?" Koda asked and Denahi froze and looked between the medium sized bear and the leg. No. This beast did not die from natural causes.

"I don't think so. I…murdered them," Denahi said sadly and then heard Kenai's voice.

"You murdered somebody?" he asked, expecting to see a human body there which would be the most scary. Denahi wasn't like that. Denahi wasn't the kind of animal who would kill a human but then he hadn't really been an animal before. "That's not like you."

"It's funny, being this way makes the distinction between animal and man so unclear," Denahi commented as he looked to his paws. "I mean, before everything that happened with you, I thought that we were all so different and that animals were just uncultured, unintelligent, uncivilized but now I think maybe some animals might even outrank man."

Kenai chuckled weakly, "What do you want me to say?" he asked him and Denahi watched him with a playful smile. "I wouldn't take it too harsh on being a lone wolf and looking for prey. I'm a bear. I've made peace with the fact that I like being a bear and I like fish but sometimes there's other game that can be caught."

Denahi sighed before looking to the entrance of the cave. "The air's really nice out here," he told him and Kenai tilted his head to the side. "Did you want to talk outside?"

"You mean that you want to talk to me where Koda isn't," Kenai said and Koda looked over at the wolf. Denahi opened his mouth as he saw a little bit of a hurt expression on Koda's face and he allowed his head to drop. "Okay. I'll meet you out there then," he said before giving Koda an affectionate nuzzle.

"Koda…I -" Denahi replied before hearing a loud thud and growl from outside the cave. Both Denahi and Koda rushed forwards. "Reina!?" Denahi asked as he saw Kenai attempting to fight with her. Kenai was stronger than Denahi had given him credit for but he just wanted to stop this. Jumping between the two, he looked to Reina and forced himself to act more aggressively. He didn't want for her to become part of it and he wanted even less for her to be a casualty from it.

"Leave!" Denahi snapped as he managed to get Reina off of Kenai along with Koda's help.

"What the hell are you doing with a bear!?" Reina asked. "I knew that you couldn't be trusted! You're just a wolf that wishes he were a bear!? What kind of wolf is that!?"

"I'm not a wolf!" Denahi growled at her, "Not really. I'm a human in the body of a wolf and that is my little brother. It's my responsibility to protect him."

Reina stared at him and forced him onto the ground, this time her paw pressed a little bit firmer into his neck. "You're a human!?" she laughed before feeling the scruff of her neck being bitten into as Kenai tossed her and she landed on her side with blood starting to drip into her fur.

"Yes," Kenai said firmly as he stood over Denahi. "He's human and so was I once upon a time. But I'm not going to let anyone hurt my big brother either. So, what is it, wolf? What do you want to do now because another attack against the two of us right now, it doesn't seem very likely."

End of Chapter Ten

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Nine

Guest (3), HeroJoselyn, Writer65