Anaya had been lying around in the fur bed, staring up at the cave wall the entire time and just bored. She wanted to be doing something productive with her time, but being so limited left her with nothing. Rolling over to be on her belly, she grumbled and tried to use her hands to lift herself up to sit on her bottom.

'What is the plan, master?'

Arok flew around and popped down onto her head, staring down at his young master. His little claws dug into the thick head of hair that covered Anaya's skull. The girl sighed, and her shoulders slumped forward.

‘I don't know. I can't go far with my body. If anything, I can only have an adult or someone who can carry me. This is really pathetic. I don’t ever recall a time in the heavens that I needed to grow up as a child there.’

‘Master… Goddess Lilia summoned you from her little world. I feel like there is no real age in that place since everyone is kind of immortal.’

Anaya would grumble, grabbing the poor finch before plopping him down onto the ground. He would squawk angrily, ruffling his feathers. Anaya did not care or bother, but she did have to keep herself productive somehow. ‘What can I do?! I feel like I’ll start pulling my hair out!’ Right when she kept those thoughts to herself, her mother would come up and pick her up.

“What is my little girl up to?” Junica nuzzled her nose at Anaya; it caused the sweet little girl to blush at the feeling since she had never recalled her parents doing that to her.

‘Why do these wolves do this?’ She questioned. Only another babble came through to respond to Junica.

The female chuckled.

Junica turned, holding her baby against her hip as she walked outside. She would spot her mate, and he was training a few of the young males in their pack, including their son. “Do you see your daddy and older brother?” Junica pointed right at the two of them for Anaya, who could easily spot them.

‘They are not the hardest to spot in the crowd. It’s obvious that they are very… handsome in the crowd.’ Anaya felt like looks were too common when one was handsome or beautiful, so it caught too much attention.

Zaki noticed his mate, waving his arm to signal for the boys to halt the attacks. They all had wooden weapons made for training, but most of the time, they would be in their beast forms to fight amongst each other. Zaki went over to his mate and his daughter, “Why are you both here?” He didn’t seem to want to make it awkward, but he had to admit that his daughter was adorable.

“We came to see how you were training the young ones and Camdus. Should we not be here?” Junica giggles. “I was thinking about trying to see if Anaya would be more comfortable playing with babies her age. Maybe it might help with socializing.”

‘Seriously you are going to make me play with other babies when I have a grown up mind. Not if I can do anything about it!’ She could handle Camdus, a young boy, but with more than one baby to play with, then that drew the line. Anaya kept staring at Zaki before she stopped and held her hands out with another babble. “Dada!”

Everyone looked a bit confused by what she was saying, and even Zaki stared a little, but his heart fluttered, and his smile was bright and warm. He had a big grin across his face. "She's trying to talk and is reaching for her dada!" Zaki took the baby in his arms and gave her a tight hug. It made a few kids choke to realize that their strict and stern alpha was actually so soft on a mere human child.

Camdus smiled and went up to hold his baby sister by the hand. “How are you doing, pipsqueak!? You look still so small!”

"You have a lot of potential to grow stronger than anyone here," Zaki told his daughter, nuzzling his cheek to her own. Yet, it was like he was telling himself a lie when it was true that she would be stronger than anyone there since she was more than just a human.

Junica's heart warmed up, watching her husband and son bond so well with their daughter that they considered a family member. It felt like fate when she first caught the scent in the river. 'This is the happiest I have ever seen him in a long time.'Keeping it to herself, they lost their second child, but finding Anaya must have been fate.

“What is for dinner?” Camdus sighed, looking at his mother for a response while his father held his baby sister. Zaki took the time to keep smooching kisses onto Anaya, who was annoyed now but didn’t push the man’s face away from her chubby cheeks.

Junica hummed, thinking a moment.

"It will be a rabbit."

Knowing fairly well that the pack was still trying to have themselves stocked up for the winter. An elder wolf would come up, staring at Anaya, who kept her sharp gaze on him and clinging onto Zaki.

“I see that you still kept it. Are you not going to leave it or even think of returning it to the humans?” The elder spoke without a single care if Anaya survived or not.

“She is my daughter. If you have nothing nice to say, then do not say at all.” Junica was clear on it, giving the elder a warning. She was not a woman who could easily turn her back on an infant.

Zaki glared down at the old male, knowing fairly well that it wasn’t good to spark his anger when it came to his family. He knew well the elder had some sort of resentment toward humans because he had been attacked by a few hunters and suffered greatly. Even losing some of his own children to humans.

The elder snarled a little and stomped off.

Zaki would growl a little, watching the male leave and turn to his wife. Planting a kiss on top of her head, she said, “Sorry, I know that he isn’t the happiest out of all the elders. He hates and despises humans down to the core. I cannot kick him out of the main group of elders, or else they will think that I am being unreasonable since we all know that he lost his family due to humans.”

Junica shook her head, “I know. You do not need to explain it. I know that taking in Ana was the hardest thing to do, mostly when you had to put your pride and position on the line for it. It was because of me that everyone is judging the family.”

“I do not care,” Camdus stated to his parents. “Ana is my baby sister, and she didn’t ask to come here into the pack. We are now responsible and taking care of her by choice. She didn’t force us, and we chose it. If anyone ends up harming or attacking her, then this big brother of hers will attack them!” He was such a bold and brave child, but he took after his father.

Ana had been listening to the conversations, and she didn't like the sound of a wolf that had hatred toward her own race. This was the start of the world that she created, so there would have to be blood and war for things to come as a better result. Neither side will ever come to be at peace with each other that easily. ‘I have to be sure to grow strong and gift my powers to those who will help me.’

Zaki gave his wife and son a smile. He was proud of his little cub for speaking up, "We are a strong family. Ana has the strongest alpha as her dad, a beautiful mother, and a caring brother.” He stared down at Anaya with a loving smile. “You have us. Never be afraid to come up to us, and never forget us.” Bumping his forehead gently to the sweet little baby that blinked.

Anaya never felt such warmth and love before, if she could be greedy then she would and wish to just cherish all her time with this family and these people. ‘You guys are going to make it hard to be a goddess.’

It was time for supper, and everyone was gathered together, having a large rabbit meal for all the hungry mouths that were ready to feast. Everyone was talking among themselves. Zaki and his family had a seat by themselves, while the others had a large fire pit burning with rabbits cooking above. It was just a night around the warm fire with all of the other wolves nearby.

Amongst that night, there would be a wolf speaking to another as if plotting for nothing more than the death of a human child.

Anaya watched the children run and play tighter, young adults blushing and courting, adults talking and planning kids, and elders conversing. ‘All of this seems to be very much a cycle. I still do wonder about much more. How long will I live here in this body, and how many will I come across to stop the Infection from spreading more? There is no chance that I can fight it yet with this small body. I would be pretty much like a twig snapped in half.’

“Why does she always look like she is thinking?” Camdus chews on a piece of cooked rabbit while staring at Anaya.

‘I swear I am going to get you one day for taking so much!’ Anaya felt like this was the most annoying person that she had ever met, even worse than the gods that she met before arriving here.

“Maybe she doesn’t know what to do? It’s a little hard, but she is a pretty easy child to care for. Better than you. You were really hard to take care of Camdus.” Zaki pointed out that he was still holding Anaya while being fed by his wife. They even fed Anaya some food, which was rice that was easy enough to gather and make for baby food.

"That's right. Do you remember the time when Camdus almost fell from a cliff because he thought he was a bird?" Junica recalled.

Both Camdus and Anaya were shocked with wide eyes. “There is no way that I did that! I would have remembered!” He argued.

“Oh, you forget that I am the mother who raised and nursed you. I remember you thought that you could fly when we were wolves. You were crawling all the way uphill, and your dad had to catch you before you went down.” Junica sighed and placed a hand on her cheek. “This is when we have one child that isn’t naughty.”

Arok snickered a little as the little finch ate the few seeds that he gathered up for dinner since the body he was in could only eat seeds. He was a little amused by this entire conversation. It was funny for a small bird to listen to a wolf boy who thought that they were a bird that could fly or just fly in general.

Anaya giggled, a sweet, bubbly laugh. She was enjoying this.

The family turned to her; they had heard the first real giggle come out of her mouth, and the sight of her laughing made them warm. This was genuine, she could not help it thought since it was too funny to not laugh at. ‘I think I’m going to like this place.’

Sleeping in her parent’s room, she was sleeping in between them with Camdus as well. They were all warm that night, hearing only the critters once more.

The morning came around, and Zaki was already gone since he had to patrol around with his pack men. Junica had to be up and ready to see how the females in their pack were starting and stocking. “Camdus, will you be okay watching over your baby sister today?”

“Yes! I will be able to watch over her and take care of her! She is easy to take care of!” Camdus announced.

‘You say that, but is it easy to take care of you? I feel like it is going to be the other way around on who is taking care of who here.’ Anaya rubbed her eyes and yawned, she was still sleepy while Arok slept inside of her little fur hood.