“You can’t feed with us, Tinker.”<br/><br/>“Go away, Black Beauty, we don’t want to play with you.”<br/><br/>“If Karl finds out you are still around, he will rip you to shreds.”<br/><br/>Tinker slunk along in the shadows as the other wolves taunted her. She, who had once been the precious princess, only offspring of the Alpha male and his consort. They had pampered her and never once mentioned how different she was than the others. Her glossy midnight black fur had endured many hours of Mother’s grooming and her tiny pointed ears seemed full of Father’s words of praise for her daintiness and cunning. She had lacked for nothing. All the other wolves would nip her under her chin as they did to Father and Mother. She was always surrounded by wolves, male and female, who would wrestle with her and run with her. There had been no responsibilities for Tinker. The others hunted for her, dropping their kill at her paws. But that was before Karl and his pack had found them.<br/>Father’s muzzle was streaked with white now and Mother was content to bask in the sun. Karl, Tinker shuddered to think of him, had torn out his throat and beaten Mother into submission. She now lived on the fringes of the pack with her mind as shattered as her body. Tinker, on the other hand, was not like the others, a dull brown or muddied white or striated grey, who could blend in to the shadows and hunt as a unit.<br/><br/>Karl had demanded that she leave and threatened the other pack members with slow death if he caught them aiding her. Tinker was in shock that none of the pack had stood with her, with her mother. She was in greater shock that her playmates of just last week now snarled a warning at her. She realized that all along they had been putting on  a good face for her parents and down deep had truly hated her.<br/><br/>Tinker was not mean, but she was spoiled, if she had understood the meaning of the word. She didn’t go out of her way to be cruel to anyone and was truly gentle. She didn’t quite understand that her parents, in loving her, had condemned her to die for without survival skills, she was doomed. Tinker had heard whispers about herself since Karl had took over. That she was not really one of them, that she was a shifter, a foundling left with the pack but Tinker had no idea what a shifter was. There had been rumors that her Father was a shifter but he had learned to remain Wolf to be with her mother forever.<br/><br/>The pack started nipping at her heels, their sharp teeth catching her skin. Tinker began to run, blindly, paying no attention to where she was. Soon their yips and snarls faded but still she ran. If Tinker had known how to shift into human form, she would have been crying her eyes out but as it was, her ears were pressed flat against her finely formed head and her bushy tail was tucked between her flashing legs.<br/><br/>She ran out of the woods and along a deserted highway as it began to snow heavily. Tinker’s coat was warm so hypothermia was not a problem but the aching loneliness in her heart nearly burst her chest. She said in the glowing light of a small building that emitted scents which made her drool, and panted. And then Tinker burst into the saddest wolf song she had ever sung and there was no hope for an answer.