Hide-and-seek sure took a lot of patience. Karina had been hiding so long that she couldn’t even remember who was seeking anymore... was it Orren or Aleksei? Sometimes she hid so well that her brothers gave up looking for her, and it would be ages before Karina came out to find them playing a completely different game, laughing at how stupid she was for hiding so long. Boys! Karina thought darkly to herself. Why couldn’t she have had sisters? Everything would be different if she had girls to play with and they could make No Boys Allowed! clubs to make sure no one ever got their feelings hurt by stupid boys.

She had about given up on hiding when she smelled her father draw near. The pup squirmed further beneath the flat stone that concealed her, knowing that if Maksim saw her and called her name it would be a dead giveaway to Orren.. or Aleksei.. or whoever it was that was seeking. Instead of calling out to her, she heard him lift his voice and shout for the pack to gather. Karina lingered in her spot for a moment, wondering if she would lose the game if she emerged to attend the pack meeting. Then Karpos’ voice addressed her father, and Karina knew she wasn’t coming out. The River princess’s voice as well as her small amount of grace always seemed to disappear in the presence of the swarthy yearling.

Karina heard her family’s familiar voices floating over her head, making her more anxious about her current predicament. Should she come out? Everyone would be looking at her then! The very idea made her quake with fear. Even though she and her siblings had accidentally-on-purpose ditched their mother back at the den, Kisla’s comfort was the one thing the blue-eyed pup wanted most right now. The moment she scented her mother’s arrival she wriggled from beneath the rock and dashed for Kisla, diving between her mother’s legs like she was still a little baby. Her face hot from embarrassment, she refused to look at anything but the ground in front of her.