Sunbeam Lair i promised i wouldn’t do it again

Thade perked up at the stranger's voice, but did not approach. Mother had warned him viciously against approaching other wolves—most likely afraid that he might accidentally be discovered by someone he knew—and he remembered her fangs at his nape, even as he remembered that she was dead.

The first memory stung harder than the second. 

So he blinked owlishly at the foreign male, and stuttered a step or two backwards, with his tail tucked and clung firmly to his pinched belly. He was scrawny for his age, and woefully underfed by most standards, but he didn't appear otherwise impaired; apart from the dreadful scent of a corpse wafting from him everywhere he went, like the rolling fog of a middle school boy's body spray.

Thade glanced over his shoulder for an exit, but didn't dare take his eyes from the masked timberwolf for more than that. The lad's hackles rippled a feeble warning, as he frightfully stood his ground.