walkaway joe

"And if I ask you to to go pick me exactly fifteen blackberries?" Saena asked, but her bright grin showed no serious intent to do that at all. She had no interest in blackberries and she preferred to let newcomers settle themselves. Sometimes she would put their skills to the test, and other times, like now, she would take them at face value. Juniper had a spirit that Saena liked, so testing her skills seemed a moot point. She'd made a fantastic addition to the maplewood even if she was completely useless, which the alpha female sincerely doubted. No wolf was completely useless.

"C'mon in, then," she said with a sweeping play bow. "Welcome to the kingdom of sugar and sweets!" And Reek and his coyote babies, but that was something Saena would like to completely forget about, and not mentioning it at all seemed like a good way to do that. "Hey, speaking of scratching backs... you don't happen to know a good cure for fleas, do you?" As if anticipating the golden she-wolf's potential reaction to this news, the alpha stepped back and insisted, "I'm not gonna touch you with 'em! Someone gave them to me, I think outside the pack 'cause I think I'm the only one, and it's killing me."