The grey wolf gazed at her six newborn pups, a sudden, profound realization washing over her: nothing else mattered. Neither life nor death. Even the profound heavens and the vast earth had to be content with second place.
The first five were mirrors of their heritage: bundles of charcoal-tinted fur evolved to vanish into the shadows of the forest. The sixth emerged as a ghostly anomaly, a snow-white runt dwarfed by its kin, a glaring beacon of defiance against its grey heritage. Its eyes were a bright yellow and its hairs thinner than normal. The grey wolf mother inspected the eerie creature with predatory intensity, searching for a lie, yet the undeniable scent of her own blood clung to its white fur. She licked the little thing until she was satisfied that it was hers and would always be.
To stave off starvation, the grey wolf mother was forced to hunt beyond her usual limits, preying on foxes and rabbits to keep the milk flowing. The hunt was very time-consuming and stressful since she had to make sure that she stayed away from things even more powerful and vicious than she was. She stayed in the shadows and crept through bushes. Her instincts were on high alert and her eyes were always on the lookout for anything that could stop her from returning to her pack. Even though she was a demonic beast with a truly inferior bloodline, the grey wolf still had a few bloodline abilities. She controlled the wind, allowing her to form and shoot out wind blades that cut her prey into pieces. She also had a powerful sense of smell and sight. She could see in the dark and she could smell her target and track them from as far away as ten kilometers. Once she locked onto a scent, she did not give up until she ate every piece of her prey including the bones.
The pups couldn't eat solid meat yet, but the extra food allowed the grey wolf mother to produce all the milk her pups needed.
This primal struggle went on for a few weeks until the pups were old enough to feast like the carnivores they were. When the mother returned from a hunt, the pups would lick their lips, and she would regurgitate the meat for them. After two months, all but the little white wolf were fully weaned. Strangely, while the others transitioned to blood and bone, the white runt remained anchored to its mother's teat, refusing to let go of its infancy. It was as though it understood that this peace would not last for long.
When the pups turned two, their mother began teaching them to hunt. She taught them to track by scent, obliterate every whisper of their passing, and the many other survival skills needed in the Endless Forest. Soon, they were throwing out wind blades like their mother. With the help of their bloodline memories, they quickly got used to life as hunter and prey. Time passed, and the wolves became seasoned hunters, capable of living independently. Yet, they chose to stay with their loving mother, who never chased them away. The den became cramped, but the small pack stayed together and was, by all accounts, happy.
With time, the pups grew as powerful as their mother, and the family became a pack of hunters willing to do whatever it took not to starve to death. They hunted together, and their combined skills and strengths allowed them to take down larger prey and expand their territory. Even with their newfound power, they didn't become arrogant. They knew that far stronger beasts roamed the forest, so they kept their territory a manageable size and avoided conflict.
Their happiness, however, was short-lived. A passing white tiger decided to claim their territory. In this green hellscape, the weak had no voice, and the strong had no ears. A level two (nascent) demonic beast, the tiger simply showed up at the wolf den one day and launched an unprovoked attack. The wolf pack was strong, but seven Level One (Fearless) demonic beasts were no match for a single opponent of this caliber.
The battle was hard and long, lasting the entire night. It was the night the idyllic wolf pack came to an end. When dawn broke, the white tiger retreated into the thick forest, leaving behind three members of the pack shredded to pieces and the rest injured, with one on the brink of death.