Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/80

 turn the snap. She soon found that he meant no harm to her. He was a massive, splendid figure of the true lobo; a mate to win the savage heart of any lovelorn she wolf. The urge of motherhood was warm within her. At last she stopped and they walked stiffly around, nosing each other until satisfied that all was well. She whined softly and he tried to answer. She seemed to understand the deep rumble which issued from his throat and he leaped about in a frenzy of delight and caressed her with his tongue.

She was a slim northern wolf with a dark strip along her back, blending into a soft silver gray on sides and flanks. Half an hour of courtship and the big lobo and the silver she wolf started for the valley in quest of meat.

Close under the rims they found where a lone steer had left his bed at the lobo call above and started out across the flats. Always before Flash had felt a furtive sense of wrong when on his raids but now with Silver running with him there was no thought save to kill—kill food for her. She whimpered eagerly and as he ran swiftly on the warm trail he was all wolf; the yellow eyes were streaked red with the lust to tear down his prey.