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mountains and valleys. The rivers ran wild and, best of all, there were no other packs of wolves living there. The hatred towards wolves was even worse in Sweden than in Norway, but this small group of shape shifters had managed to stay alive due to their unique skills, and although the pack included mortal wolves at times, their shape shifter relatives managed to hide their tracks within moments. I had never met a more tolerant pack.
     
    Gunward, as the strongest male, was the unchallenged alpha male and I was accepted as the alpha female without question. The pack included Gunward’s sister Gormal and her partner Anndra, who were not shape shifters. This didn't stop Gormal trying to shift, as she couldn't understand why she was unable to change her form when her brother was one of the most powerful shape shifter wolves of all time. Gormal’s attempts might have provoked ridicule, but her desperate trying and her sadness at her constant failure caught on to us, and thus her attempts mostly left us feeling thoroughly depressed. Anndra had accepted his fate a long time ago and had no heart to stop Gormal from trying. He stood by his spouse to the best of his ability, though it was hard at times.
     
    The third mortal wolf of the group was Iosaph, who had managed to wander to Sarek from Russia. The old wolf’s coat had already shaded to grey and even though he was not the alpha of the pack, everybody respected his experience and listened to him carefully. The two youngest males of the group were shape shifters who had wanted to follow Gunward and Gormal after leaving the old pack. Pol and Nial were boisterous and sometimes played head-spinning tricks, to the extent that Gunward had to reprimand them sternly lest they endanger the whole pack. No one had the heart to be angry with them for long, though, because when they set their minds to it they could look laughably miserable. It seemed that these males had, with an unspoken consensus, agreed to share the title of omega in the pack.
     
    Gunward had noticed already when he was a cub of a few months that he could change his shape. A taste for experimentation had honed his skills of shape shifting to a unique level and he had acquired the skill at such a young age that it had become a part of his personality. Gunward was, without argument, one of the strongest shape shifters who had ever lived and also one of the most ambitious. As a three-year-old mature male, he felt his own pack of mortal wolves was not enough for him and he decided to leave it. Gormal, his sister, decided to go with him. No member of Gunward’s birth pack knew any other shape shifters, but they had heard there might be some specimens in northern Norway. Gunward had decided to find himself a spouse who was as strong a shape shifter as him and whose skills of transformation were exceptional.
     
    Gormal warned him that this mission could prove to be impossible, but Gunward appeared obsessed with finding a female shape shifter. Gunward and Gormal were wandering at the western border of Sweden when they came upon a pack of six male wolves. Hunters had taken down the two females of the pack, and the males were heartbroken. One of the males, Anndra, took an interest in Gormal and they became a couple. Gunward felt a strange bond with the younger males of the group. The young ones were about a year old, but Gunward recognized something of himself in them. Gunward and his sister spent the whole summer with them.
     
    The love between Gormal and Anndra grew stronger and Gunward figured out the secret of the young males. Both Pol and Nial were shape shifters, but their ability was very weak. They could change from wolf into dog, fox, or coyote, but they couldn't remain in their changed forms for longer than a year. When summer turned into autumn, Gunward decided that it was time to continue their journey. Anndra and the young males wanted to join Gunward’s pack, and at the end, three other males from the pack