Horizon Ridge anathema [j]

Don't apologize for a long post! <3 Sorry this one's a bit shorter than yours.

An unearthly howl jerked Akhlut from his sleep, and for a moment the undead wolves that had been slavering and snarling at him in his nightmare were the stuff of his waking life, until he realized that the zombie canines and the eerie howl were unrelated and only one of them was real. The Alpha had taken to sleeping somewhere along his borders each night, the better to guard the Ridge, and so he took quickly to his paws and began to seek out the source of the desperate call. He was unsure how late it was, and supposed he might have been asleep for mere moments or for several hours; nevertheless, his tired eyes were soon wide awake with the adrenaline of an unexpected wolf on his territory's fringe long after a reasonable hour for social calls.

It took longer than he would have liked to find her, but there she was, golden fur touseled and tangled with sticks and brambles, equally-bright eyes wide and round, showing their whites in her fear. "You've come through hell to get here," he observed, "but what can entering Horizon Ridge do for you? There is only the sea beyond us. What are you running from?" Perhaps they could offer her shelter, depending on the nature of her pursuers; perhaps not, if asylum would throw them into an interpack war. Akhlut's features contorted into a frown as he peered questioningly at her, taking in the scars and the slightly misshapen hind paw. Perhaps both were a trick of the scant moonlight, but they spoke of a harsher lifetime than most two year olds had yet posessed.