Swiftcurrent Creek Cars lining the streets, choking the place where kids could make believe

Reaction time was within normal parameters. The volume of her growl was perhaps a touch higher than the average tyke's, but that made sense given her dam was quick to snarl at everything and her father was an insufferable blowhard. The banshee scream that followed was certainly outside the norm for wolf pups, more of a fox's blood-curdling yowl, and Wylla snatched both her ears and her paw back, scowling at her toddler.

"Okay, okay, jeez," she said, tucking her paw back under her chest and allowing Tiercel to reclaim the ear. Her shifted so both hind legs stuck out from her side in what might be called an elegant side saddle, if only this were a horse. "Nobody's gonna want you later in life if you scream like that," she advised. "No one likes a screamer in the bedroom."