[J] Bubble Up Inside

The alpha female would soon be indisposed to do tasks such as these. But while she still could, she would; she had, she estimated, a week or so left to these tasks of looking to the borders to welcome or give chase to wolves. She had recently entered her fourth week, and was just about to her fifth; at the sixth, the woman would give to her instinct of searching for a den where she would first raise her brood. 

But for now, she answered the call, a low howl of her own responding. And then the black bear was on her way, swift in her approach. The wolf was near their borders, and the alpha female's tail was well over hindquarters, ears thrust over her brow in a show of authority and a demand for respect both. She had not yet made it to him, descending the hard-to-travel Spine with ease that attested to her experience for such land and also her longevity here. 

There before her was the wolverine. Unlike Iqniq, she did not think his testing his boundaries in the pack unbecoming. It was normal; why sit beneath someone unworthy of the title? She knew full well that Nanuk could handle herself; it was why the woman had become Beta. Once, the dark one had tested she herself. He learned his place swiftly. Learned of her ruthlessness, and her "grace". The others defiance would melt away as quickly as it came when he was bested; it was how one learned their place. So long as no blood was shed in the process, Tonravik felt no need to give the other reproof for it. 

And here, he would learn his place, too; he would rise, or he would not. It came with time. His spirit was something she was curious about. 

Tonravik sidled beside her mate at last, surveying the strong looking male before them both. The other looked spent from their journey. The toils of a lone wolf was not something she envied. The woman was content to let her mate handle this, and would only speak if she disapproved of something the lone wolf said, or did.