The trees were Teal’s best friends for as long as she could remember. They always had the patience and empathy to listen to her, silently, their leaves occasionally giving a rustle to comfort her foreboding sadness. Atop the trees, the wind would acknowledge her, hugging her lightly, and for that moment, she wouldn’t feel like a virus plaguing the southern pack. It was the same air they breathed, and even though she was a Beta, she was still a wolf after all, she thought. She had climbed her first tree at age seven, when she tried to get away from all the noise, the bloodthirsty stares and deadly murmurs, and it had worked, even more than she had expected it to. She got better, stronger as time passed. Her calves had sculpted into the needed form to propel her weight upward, and she found
