It went without saying that Lacey was a lover of life and all it had to offer her. In particular, she was a lover of her life, with her ma and pa and no one else to share it with. She spent her days with one or both of her parents, the center of their attention, and they the center of hers. She knew nothing of the pack she was destined to properly join one day or the responsibilities expected of her. She didn't know that she would grow and become her own wolf in time. For now it was just her, Kerberos, and Maera, and Lacey wouldn't have had it any other way.

So it also went without saying that the arrival of three more cubs, while exciting at first, had put quite a damper on this cub's mood. She stared across the den at the three newcomers with flinty eyes and a stubbornly set jaw. Her little ears were pricked to their highest. She didn't understand dominance yet and didn't intend to convey that, but it was interest as well as mistrust that kept her ears straight and forward. An ugly crinkle marred the top of her blunt muzzle, which was tucked toward her chest as she pouted jealously in the corner, wondering where she went wrong, that Kerberos and Maera felt a need to add these others to their lives. Wasn't it better with just her?

Try as she might, Lacey couldn't quell her curiosity about them forever. She didn't like the situation much (it would become much better when she understood that it wasn't permanent), but she would have to deal with it. So as the sun was rising toward its peak in the sky, setting the den ablaze with light, the pudgy young Rigel waddled over to the nearest Tainn cub and greeted them with a firm, no, and a puppy-sized scowl.

Very close inspection would reveal the slightest wrinkling of Lace's muzzle and the tiniest hint of a lifted lip, an indication of displeasure that she was wholly unaware of. As it was, she simply looked like an overly fluffy pup puffed up like a kitten and all of her indignation was lost in translation. The two darker cubs responded to her reprimand, which she supposed was well and good. The first one followed her example, a fact Lacey found funny and empowering—yeah, do what I say, even though I meant you too, she internally cheered—while the second retorted with a jiggle of his flabby belly.

She wasn't sure which was the more fascinating: the wobble of his stomach or that he knew her name. At some point, they'd probably all been introduced by Treyah, Kerberos and Maera, but sulky Lacey had been paying the barest minimum of attention if that. She had no idea who these cubs were, only that they had invaded her life. That Cannon was probably more observant and had learned her name was sort of like an amazing magic trick to inattentive Lacey, whose awe reached critical mass. Lana was pretty great, if only because Lacey was an attention whore the kind of wolf who approved of willing followers, but Cannon was a bloody magician and automatically cooler for it.

She'd forgotten her desire to scold these pups until they left her den and her family. She shot the paler one a glance, but his lack of involvement made him boring and she soon forgot about him. She turned back to Cannon, wide-eyed, and asked, how oo nooo, paused, then finished with, I Way-seee, as if he didn't already know that. Then, because she had yet to fully understand how conversations actually worked, she swung her head around to Lana and repeated, I Way-seeee, for the female cub's benefit.