Great Bear Wilderness I made it all look painless,

What’s wrong with you?

Though unmistakably young, the voice was cold. And the accompanying stare was just as fierce. Such things hardly seemed capable of coming from such a small-statured wolf. A mere starveling to the untrained eye.

She stood at a distance, dwarfed between the evergreens that loomed over them like gods, yet the girl’s posture easily mirrored their mighty rigidness. Her pelt, gunmetal in the shade, appeared clean and otter-sleek, however, a closer examination would reveal tufts of her fur that lay raised in places where a burr or three had taken root.

Needle regarded him with thinly-veiled disdain.

Strangers no longer frightened her.

Especially not ones who looked unsteady on their feet.