Alpine Lake i'm hopeless and awkward and desperate for love.

Wisteria continued to follow her family from afar, often lagging significantly behind them and knowing their path only by their collective tracks and scents. She kept her distance for as long as she could. For what reason, she couldn't say; nerves, perhaps, or fear of rejection. Eventually the hunger morphed into a hollow, all-consuming ache and she knew she couldn't continue to follow them much longer without the food they procured for themselves.

She had grown too weak to catch anything for herself, and with four adult wolves and four voracious pups, there was hardly anything but bones left behind from their meals. Nothing for the drifter to pick over. Knowing that she now had to choose between life and death made it easy to push aside her fear as she approached the mountain lake where her family camped and, more importantly, the ridge where her parents presently stood.

She lurked on the fringes as she often did, hugging the side of the mountain as her thin limbs trembled under her. But it was now or never—she would not make it to the plateau alive without revealing herself—and she made her decision with a timorous howl for their attention.