I worried for Angela though, she had been crying out in pain earlier, and as I watched her now her movements seemed restricted. As I watched her, I saw that one of her hind legs was hurt. I growled at the sight, making my little ones go quiet and still.

That damn fox! He set my pup down wrong, and now we will hunt it down! My Wolf yelled in my mind and I was in complete agreement as I shifted to my skin. Something that I had not done for a long while, and it now made me feel exposed, naked and vulnerable. I took Angela in my arms gently, her small body barely filling both my hands, and looked carefully at her leg. The bone was broken, and because she was so young, I would not be able to do much to help her.

Sobbing at my weakness in not protecting her better, I called out to my brother as tears stared to flow down my cheeks. Angela would never be able to run like her brothers or explore the world as a wolf nearly as much because of this. I could do my best, but her leg would never heal perfectly, and thus leave her as a lame Wolf. She would still be able to walk and run, but it will be more difficult for her. It was not just her leg that was broken, but her hip that had been cracked.

When I heard Danny at the edge of my den, I sobbed again as Angela cried in pain, wrenching at my heart. I gave her a comforting growl and focused on my brother for a moment.

"Danny," I said, my voice breaking as I tried to speak around the lump of emotion in my throat. I knew he was listening though "That damn fox, hurt my baby girl."

I heard him give a threatening growl and I felt better that I was not the only one upset about this.

"I need you to give me strips of leather as fast as you can. They heal quick at this age and I have to help her." I heard him race away as I put Angela down again, this time away from her brothers so they wouldn't hurt her by accident. I changed into my fur again, feeling less exposed and more powerful, as I watched over my pups until Danny came back.

When he did, he had a long strip of rabbit leather in his mouth, still soft from being put under water so that it could be cut into one long strip. I took it gratefully and waited till he was gone before changing into my skin once more. From the feel of it, Angela's hip was only fractured in one spot, and her leg had broken in two. One break was clean, across the middle of her small leg, but the second one was a vertical break that caused the fracture in her hip.

As gently as I could, I pressed her bones together as I wrapped the leather around her leg. I made the binding firm but not so tight it would stop the blood flow into her leg. Crying at her pain, I fixed her as best as I could, then put her back down, with her brothers. The two of them seemed as though they knew that something was happening because they were whimpering as I placed her with them.

I changed into my fur again, my Wolf smoldering at the thought that we would not get the pleasure of killing that fox. Instead Danny would have to do the honors for us, for we were never going to leave the den open for attack ever again. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost any of them, the pain of that though too great. So I bathed my pups, making sure that they were clean and had my scent embedded into their skins.

No one touches what is mine.

Ever.