The snow glowed silver around me, draping me with icy cold, freezing my breaths of air into white steam that faded as quickly as they appeared. The winter reeked of black soil and animal urine, and the air crisp and dry. Skinny gray barks loomed over my thin figure, their bald branches blanketed in white. The bare soil grazed my violently quivering flesh when I moved and from the corner of my dilating eyelids, frozen puddles reflected my figure in the gleam of faint sunlight. Everything seemed to glow silver, the trees, the ice, the snow, the rocks, the mountain....

Even the wolf.

It had appeared again, just when I'd thought it had abandoned me. It stood at the edge of a rock, hovering above me between two frozen pines, its fur magnificent against the pure backdrop, and eyes as penetrating as ever. When it lowered its head to peer at me, it looked as though it was pressing its head down in greeting, as Asians did as a sign of respect. But when it held its head up high again, arrogance was written over its cold features, the eyes rippling like clear water in the sun. The sun. As soon as the flare pierced through my irises, I shied away, like a wounded animal which had been struck, shielding my face with a weak elbow with my head under my left arm. A slash of epidermis on my left leg had been torn with some sort of twig, and the frostbite was eating at it, chewing like real teeth against dead flesh. The tugging pain that still lingered at that area comforted me, for it meant that I hadn't lost it, but I was also torn by hunger, thirst and a terrible fatigue. But I daren't sleep, not when in the middle of Pemberly forest. I used to think that I knew everything there was to know about Pemberly, but no matter how many times my eyes trailed wildly, I couldn't recognize a single brook.

Winter was a maze of beauty, every turning had its dark secret. There seemed to be nothing but snow everywhere, but look closer, feel harder, inhale deeper, quieten down, and everything in the purity is alive. There could be a white fox stalking you whilst you limped, rabbits watching you sleep... and wolves following you whilst you felt your life slip further and further away.

Then, something slid down from above me and skidded at my feet. Reflexively, I shuddered, and shrunk away some more. I was surprised when I saw what it was.

A dead hare lay at my foot, its innards had been torn out messily with what I presumed to be fangs. The liver and heart was gone, only the stomach and intestines remained. I glanced up at the wolf again, but it was gone.

Slowly, I picked up the hare and before I knew it, sank my teeth between the hare's endoskeleton.

*

2 years later

For Luhan and Yixing, shift started from nine in the morning and ended somewhere around three in the afternoon, no less than eight hours. Whereas for Kris and Tao, their shifts took as long as they pleased, as long as they started at five in the morning, before the break of dawn. Even with Kris still missing, Tao's daily shift was highly routined without need of instructions. At 0505 hours, he would be dutifully stationed in front of the bear cage, filling Koma and Kina's pail with their medicinal blend and patch up Koda's tire swing, which he breaks every evening before retiring. That was followed by a parole in the reptile zone, to check if the glass displays were all intact at 0635 hours. Not that it was a problem, business had always been slow, and the boss blamed it on a certain Harry Potter movie, where some kid assumable fell into a boa's cage. Then, he would be shooting his way through the 'bird' section, as Yixing called it, the rodent display house (a huge hit with the kids) where he'd check for dead ferrets (they fought a lot), check on the lone ox in the fenced lemongrass field at the edge of the centre, hose down an antelope who lived with the cows in another fenced up field and then finally, check on the wolves.

They had two, which weren't captured for destroying public prop like the ox, boa and the antelopes. Kris had saved them as newborn puppies when he was taking photographs of otters by the river. Like the reckless idiot he was, he had emerged from his camouflage as soon as he heard whimpering, and looked around for the source. He'd found a full-grown mother wolf no more than ten feet away from him, and fortunately, yet surprisingly, she was the one whimpering.

She wouldn't mother her babies, no matter how much Kris tried to lure her close to the pups. She didn't even budge when Kris cautiously reached for the babies and bundled them up in his coat. But she followed him all the way to his cabin, where he fed them with his ink dropper. She'd stayed outside until night fell, and he never saw her again.

That was the thing about wolves, you could never find them. They, on the other hand, are the ones that find you.

Kris named the twins Devor and Kira, but he never told Tao what they meant. Unlike Kris, Tao wasn't familiar with them, and always kept at least five feet distance away from their cage. Both of them were too small a group to form a pack, but nevertheless, Kira played the role of the alpha – the leader, where she was protected by her brute brother – Devor, who played the beta wolf.

Like the human organization, wolf packs were categorized by statuses. The head of the pyramid – the female alpha, was the leader of the pack, where she was heavily protected by the other wolves. Then, she's followed by the beta wolf – the fighter in the pack, which was often chosen through fights when stranger wolf challenges it to take its place. The beta wolf isn't supposed to lose, if it does, there are no demotions. It gets booted out of the pack where it becomes a lone wolf – one that lives in solitude. Then, there's the omega wolf – the weakest one, which plays a pretty important role in the pack, even though it isn't as efficient as the beta. It's the moderator, which throws itself in fights between wolves from a same pack, mellowing them down. In other words, its the peacemaker.

Then, there's the tester wolf, which is often exceptionally aware of lone wolves seeking to join the pack. It's the one that decides if you enter the pack by 'testing' you, in case you should slow down or endanger the pack.

Devor also played the tester wolf, in Tao's opinion, even though Tao had no interest in joining his little 'pack', the huge wolf had taken it as a necessity to follow Tao's footstep's along the cage everytime he went near to toss in the meat.

With its teeth sticking out from its upper lip.

Needless to say, Tao did not like Devor.

On stereotypical days, where everything was normal and sane, Kira would be clear out of sight, sleeping between the trees or skulking in the shadows. Today, she was waiting for Tao at the fence, Devor pacing left to right behind her. Devor was a brute of an animal, at least ten feet long and three feet wide, with curved nails that only Kris knew how to trim without getting his ear bit off, thick black fur and blue eyes that seemed to glare you down all the time. Its teeth were huge, but its facial fur grew in the right places, giving him a somewhat handsome appearance for a wolf instead of the usual mangy expression. His sister had identical light blue eyes, but lighter coloured fur – light grey, with patches of black on her tail. Her expression was softer, but her teeth were as razor-sharp as her brother's.

Most people probably think that in television discovery biographies, the ones leading the pack was the alpha. Truth is, the one in front is the beta, the lead protector of the alpha and its pack. The alpha is too precious to be in the front line, just as how the Secret Service always surrounded the President. That's why most tourists thought that Devor was the leader amongst them both - Devor was the alpha. What they didn't know was, the one in the pack that always blends right in, probably at the end of the pack, or right in between the others, invincible, unnoticed, was the alpha all along.

That's why Tao finds it strange that Kira should be sitting in plain sight on a grey rock, watching him with her freezing eyes. They were searching, cold, yet unreadable. Tao refused eye contact with her, holding the bucket of chicken meat, and clomping his way heavily to the left section of the fence. This time, the beta did not follow him. He stopped.

Kris had always told him that animals could sense fear, could sense the first hint of increased adrenaline fifty feet away, hence, never let it show. That was the first rule. Second rule was never look a high-ranking wolf in the eye.

For the first time, he defied it and stared right into Kira's eyes.

She stared back, holding their gaze before standing up, walk towards the trees, and sit down again. Then, she turned and stared at Tao again.

Follow me.

Tao knew that's what she wanted to say, but there was no way he was going into the cage with Devor close by. Devor hadn't moved, he simply sat next to the man-made brook, watching Tao. As though he had lost his mind, Tao pulled out his comb of keys and unlocked the cage. Devor still made no movement. He gave the gate a slight push, his heart palpitating madly even though he tried to breathe slowly. Devor still didn't move, but he was still close by.

Then, Tao took two steps and entered the cage. Devor tensed.

What did Kris use to do when he went into the cage? Tao tried to think, then...

Devor lunged.

*

Fourteen hours ago, there was a scream from within Pemberly forest.

Every wolf heard.