Once she woke up, Rose began her work on cooking the grouse the boys delivered her. She placed more firewood in and stoked it to get it going.

  She turned her head to face the boys, who were slowly waking up, except for Gabriel. She noticed that he was watching Hunter.

  She sighed to herself.

  Gabriel turned his gaze away from Hunter and walked away. When he looked at her, Rose can notice that the was deeply drowsy.

  I thought he'd gone to sleep, she thought.

  When Hunter awoke, he walked outside with Max. Howl lifted his head and looked at the stranger make his way to the entrance.

  The blond wolf sighed in relief and changed his form, her brother as well.

  Gabriel yawned and rubbed his eyes. Zack walked over and knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  "Thanks."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Gabriel nodded. "Anytime."

  Rose folded her arms as she stared at him. "I thought you went to sleep." She said with concern.

  "I WAS, but Zack needed a break. So...I stayed up the rest of the night."

  Rose sighed. "How about you take the opportunity to do that now, now that we have breakfast here and not out there." She pointed to the entrance of the cave, where the forest will be on the other side. "I'm sure your friends wouldn't mind you not being present for a while." She said calmly.

  Gabriel looked at her with concern, then looked at Zack. "What about Hunter?"

  Zack patted him on the back for reassurance. "We'll be fine. You get some rest." Gabriel nodded, and set himself up to go to sleep.

  ....................................................

  ""We need to do something better than constantly watching Hunter...I don't like the thought of you guys sacrificing your time and energy for this." Rose declared.

  "I know, according to your brother...this is what we've got for now." Zack said.

  "And Max won't listen to him?"

  Zack nodded.

  Rose sighed. "Great."

  "Isn't everyone following my brother's plans though? Should HE be handling this situation?"

  Zack scoffed. "You'd THINK, but...I don't know. He thinks it's best that he backs away from the leadership position."

  Rose looked at him. "Because of his....problems?"

  Zack folded his arms and nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

  "Okay, I don't like the way he acts, but it seems like he's a good leader to you guys."

  Zack sighed. "I know, I told him he should at least guide Max."

  Rose chuckled to herself. "Fair enough."