Luc’s defense of Hannah did more to sooth Grayson’s wolf than anything else could have.  It was the action of an Alpha, true, but it was also an act of compassion and honor.  Honor was highly respected among all were’s, but more so among the predators than most.  Compassion was often seen as a weakness, something that a leader could not show, a philosophy that Grayson vehemently disagreed with.  Compassion was necessary when dealing with the more timid members of a pack, at least in his experience.<br/><br/>He nodded and moved to follow Luc into the cabin only to pause when the faint echo of a howl reached his ears.  He tilted his head slightly, waiting to see if another would follow.  Only when there wasn’t an answering howl did he relax and walk into the cabin, grabbing another spare set of jeans, the last ones in his size, from the cedar chest.<br/><br/>“Do not worry yourself about, Hannah.  She won’t suffer for her disobedience.  She will punish herself enough knowing that I was disappointed with her for even a moment,” he finally said as he fastened the jeans and motioned towards the cedar chest.  “If there’s something there that will fit you feel free,” he added, not because the other man’s nudity bothered him, but because some wolves viewed it as a vulnerability in their human forms.<br/><br/>“I’ve heard rumors about your pack, but nothing confirmed.  Why don’t we start with more of an explanation about what happened and we’ll table your presence in my territory for now.”<br/><br/><div align="center">~~*~~*~~*~~</div><br/>Sonora’s howl had drawn attention from someone other than Grayson.  Ryan knew he wasn’t supposed to be out at night, and definitely not so far from the communal area everyone called the den.  His mother hadn’t been watching, however, and Hannah… who usually caught him when he tried to sneak off, had disappeared with Grayson.  The adults had been talking non-stop since she’d disappeared with Grayson, rumors running rampant, so naturally he’d decided to check it out, only he’d lost their trail near the river.<br/><br/>His ears perked forward as he trotted downriver towards the howl, which he didn’t recognize.  Strangers in the pack territory was exciting to a ten year old boy, let alone an adolescent pup, and it never even occurred to him that he had anything to fear.  Grayson kept the bad people away, that was what an Alpha did.<br/><br/>He stumbled out of some undergrowth on the opposite side of the river from the strange wolf and froze, staring with wide eyes that had yet to take on the full amber color of a grown wolf.  He was small in his wolf form, undersized for his age much to his chagrin, but he was an unusual brown in color that had more than a little red in it.  Coloring normally found in wolves in the southwestern part of the United States, and almost never found in a were.<br/>