Willow

Impulsively left home as a yearling to begin a pack of her own without any prior knowledge of how one works- and then she met Tala who brought her to her new home where she would find Shadow. She birthed Shadow's pups, Night and Pebble.

Accidentally led her newly formed pack into a struggle after a drought hit and prey became scarce.

Her pup, Night, wandered away from the den in the early morning to get a drink of water from a nearby river. Sadly, he didn't see the well-camouflaged alligator lurking closely nearby before he was snatched away in the reptile's jaws. He died. His death made her greatly question her ability to lead, but her mate, his father, Shadow, was able to calm her enough to continue.

Night's death lead to his parent's separation. The two are no longer mates.

While the drought had not yet washed away fully, Night's death was a wake-up call and she began focusing on keeping her pack happy, rather than welcoming new members.

To lighten the harsh mood the drought brought, she lead a few wolves to the scry stone to see what pairings would equal what.

Upon the arrival of Berry's litter of four, Willow noticed there wouldn't be enough space in the pack let alone enough resources throughout the drought for every pup. She decided the only way to fix this and look out for the pack's future was to only keep the pups who could benefit the pack most as adults. While introducing her idea to the rest of the pack, they were almost as disgusted as she was, but Willow overruled them and evaluated each pup. In the end, half of the twelve pups had been taken into the forest by her and her beta, Shadow, and left by a tree stump.

A few weeks after the pup culling, the drought ended, and the prey returned as a storm cloud blew over the forest.

Went into heat for the first time since her pups had been born, and began seriously thinking about having another litter, but wasn't all that interested in Oak as a father.

After sitting on the thought for two days, Willow gave in and decided to have another litter.

Became pregnant by Oak, but asked him to stay completely out of their pups' lives.

After seeing just a glimpse of the mountains that Bluebell had discovered a while ago, Willow decided to move the pack there.

As her pregnancy progressed, Willow began to yearn for the simple times when she had just begun the pack and she and Shadow were together.

Scried and told she'd have three pups from Oak. Also got nested.

Gave birth to Snapdragon, Augustine, and Rowan. She made it a point to give them to Meadow or Xavier for pupsitting, but when Meadow refused she had to give up Augustine to Zalia, whom she blamed partially for the loss of her firstborn pup, Night. Her ex-mate and beta also began coming around more again, often for simple things like checking up on her and her newborn pups.

Caught some ticks, which quickly multiplied. Shadow started helping Nulberry out with her research.

Finally, after nearly five months of preparations, Willow could move her pack to their new home; the mountains.

Willow and Shadow mended their relationship and became pair bonds. Together, they impulsively adopted a new pup into their lives. They named him Alder.

Always wanted a big family, so, when she and Shadow adopted Carnation, she was naturally overjoyed.

Brought home Branch from the enclave, but swore to herself and Shadow that their family was big enough and they had no need of going back.

Weaned her pups.

Willow noted the last trace of Berry ever being in the pack, her last pup Carnelian, left.

Shadow got badly injured while hunting and scared Willow who luckily had healing salves to buy time for Nulberry to research treatment for his wounds.

Many wolves have been leaving the pack in a matter of weeks, and her pup, Rowan, needed to be reassigned after their pupsitter, Xavier left, saying only "I'm sorry," to Nulberry before going.

Broke her promise to herself and adopted Wiley with Shadow.

All of her pups except Wiley are now adolescents.

With no more pups left in the pack, the pupsitters' proficiency began to go downhill.

Willow began thinking about the legacy of her pack, and who would take over after she died. Willow hoped to live many more years, but the inevitability of death made her feel the need to begin training a successor.

Willow and Shadow gave in and adopted Mimus, they had missed their pups being little and wanted to give him a good home.

Zorro contracted distemper, Willow made sure her younger pups and especially her youngest, Mimus, stayed a good distance from him. She did worry for her eldest son Alder who had to be around Zorro to cure him.

Willow put up a law of sorts relating to her recent revaluation; The alpha of the Western Crow's Haven Pack chooses their successor, and they don't necessarily have to be blood-related or related at all, as long as the rest of the pack respects and supports the new leader. A leader must choose their successor by the age of five years and the chosen may be any age. If they have a job in the pack they must lose it so they may pay full attention to the leader as they are trained. The current alpha continues until their death, and then the new leader will take over afterward. If the leader dies somehow before choosing or fully training a successor, then the beta becomes alpha.

Zalia left the pack. She and Willow had been good friends at one point and Zalia even helped raise her first litter of pups and a couple of others too.

The only current scout in the pack, Snapdragon could barely contain her amusement whilst giving their daily report to Willow. Zorro got a little too cocky and thought he was "leader of the bees". He ended up getting coated in bee stings after trying to steal some honey from his "loyal subjects". Willow got a good laugh from the ordeal but felt bad for the poor pup. He had no one in the pack and as far as she knew the other two pups, Mimus and Red didn't play with him.

Willow began spending some of her free time making random small talk with Zorro.

Willow knew she had a habit of taking in any pup she could, but vowed, truly this time, that she wouldn't take any or even have any more of her own after she turned four. Willow just wanted one more biological litter with her mate, Shadow.

Went into heat and brought her want for one more litter up to Shadow, he reluctantly agreed. Willow became pregnant with their third and final litter.

Got nested.

Gave birth not long after dawn to three pups. She and Shadow hadn't even gotten to naming them yet when the middle pup died inexplicably. Willow grieved for the newborn for the whole day and part of the next night before letting anyone other than Shadow meet the surviving pups, Spider and Brook. This pup was her first loss since Night, and it brought back a lot of feelings she had forgotten.

Her fourth birthday was coming up, and Willow decided it was time to pick her heir. She originally wanted to wait for her new litter to be older before deciding the next leader of the pack, but when her unnamed pup died she realized death could strike at any moment and her pack would need an alpha. Willow would consult her mate and beta first, but knew she wanted her heir to be one of her pups.

Took her pup Brook to the enclave to trade after she weaned her and Spider. Willow knew her pack was too full and it would be best for one of the pups to find a new and more loving home so that the other could live a full life in their current home.

Willow waited a day after she asked Shadow who he thought would best carry on the legacy to the Western Crow's Haven Pack, he suggested Rowan, but said Wiley would also probably make a good fit despite being a bit scatterbrained at times. Willow found a hard choice between the two, and decided she would ask them both separately to hear their thoughts on the topic.

Both Rowan and Wiley were avoiding her, Willow suspected that they needed more time to make such an important decision, and she was willing to give that to them.

Spider left the pack the day he came of adolescent age. Willow felt her heart ache, this was a true loss, bigger than losing both of his littermates. The whole litter had now left her life and she would never see any of them again.

Oak died in his sleep. He was the last of the wolves still in her pack from the very start and it made her feel old despite him always being higher up in age. Snapdragon began acting weird.

Pebble came to her and Shadow with the great news that she was expecting. Willow felt proud of her pup, she also felt a bit old.

Rowan agreed to be her heir, and Wiley didn't want the title so it immediately went to Rowan. He didn't want to give up his job just yet, and Willow didn't want him to either as the two still had plenty of time to prepare.

For the first time in almost a year, the pack had no food. Both hunting parties went out at least once a day, but resources were being used faster than replenished. Willow worried for her pack. Three wolves were also diagnosed in the same day to have a heatstroke, distemper, and a cough. Mimus being the heatstroke, she also worried for her pup.

Pebble gave birth to three pups, Flick, Viento, and only girl Zephyr.

Willow was getting ready to show her new grandpups the ropes when she met Zephyr's eyes. She was surprised to find it took her so long to notice Zephyr had Night's eyes.

August left.

Snapdragon began acting strange, she was more distant than usual and began taking more scouting missions.

Snapdragon was still nowhere to be found when Alder and his mate brought back four pups. Apparently she had given birth in the woods because the pups were early. Willow found it odd.