asked.

"Sadly, yes, and they use that as an excuse to pick on her relentlessly," Amak replied. "It's so hard for her, but she's such a good dog. Ever since I took her in, I've always thought of her as my little baby. In fact, she's on my team as well, in the same position her mother was in. Granted, the others don't like the idea of having a half-wolf on the team, but I'm sure that they'll come around eventually."

"It must be rough for her, to lose her parents and then to be the target of so much hate," Aniu said. 

"It is, and I've done what I can to try to change their minds, but they're so set in their views," he said, "I don't get it. Why do they have to hate wolves so much? They're so much like us. We share the same world, the same air, and the same sky. They, like us, have friends and families that they talk and joke with. They're only trying to live out their own lives, just like we are. Wolves aren't monsters; in fact, they're quite beautiful," he finished as he looked over at her.

Aniu noticed him look over at her, but he quickly turned his head back to the sky, "I wonder what he meant by that. Was he talking about wolves in general, or was he talking about me? Does he think I'm… beautiful?" 

They continued to watch the stars late into the night, and soon, Aniu started to drift off to sleep. Beside her, Amak continued to watch the sky and tried to sort out what was going on in his head. Like her, Amak was grappling with his own feelings, and he had also noticed the affection from Aniu, along with how he had started to admire her, "I don't know what to think anymore. I know I like her as a friend, but could there be more? I mean, she is beautiful, but I can't have fallen for her so quickly," he thought, "Oh, I'd really like some sort of sign to show me the way. What should I do now? How should I feel?" 

While he wished for something to show him the way, Aniu's head rolled over in her doze, coming to rest right on his shoulder. He looked down at her, resting at his side, and took it as the sign he wanted. Satisfied, he laid his head down on hers, and soon, they were both fast asleep with each other, while the lights danced above them.

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Chapter 3: Feelings Revealed 

More days would pass as Amak and his team continued their search for the caribou. Eventually, Aniu recovered fully from her injuries, so she would sometimes go out and look around the area herself. Trying to follow the team during the day would be too risky, as there was the chance that she would be spotted, so she would go off in a different direction. However, her searches yielded nothing as well, and in the evenings, she would meet up with Amak at the cave.

Ever since the night that they first went stargazing, they continued to meet and go out together in the night. Sometimes they watched the stars, and other times they took walks in the woods. As the days went by, she noticed that Amak was growing more open and affectionate with her. He would always greet her with a kind smile, and a few times, he had given her a quick nuzzle. Their conversations started to change over time as well. It progressed from how wolves and dogs were similar and different, to more personal topics, like friends and family. They grew closer to each other and every day and Aniu started to feel less of a desire to rejoin her pack, replaced by the desire to stay with Amak. 

"Wait, what am I thinking? Of course I want to rejoin my pack, that's the whole reason I asked for Amak's help. Besides, I kind of miss Faro, Atka and Salin too; they are such great friends. I met Amak no more than a week ago, but now, I don't like the idea of being away from him. What is going on with me? Part of me wants him, but another part wants to be with my pack. How could I be so conflicted? Could I have been right before; could I have fallen in love with him?"

She tried to push those thoughts away from her, but they remained, and they weren't helped much by Amak either. He had come to enjoy her company too, and many times since their first night stargazing, he would tell her that he would miss her when she was gone. More than once, she had thought about simply following Amak to where he lived in order to stay with him. She knew that she belonged with her pack, but she wanted him so much that she was willing to follow him into uncharted territory to be with him. These wild thoughts reminded her of Amak's story.

"The strange thing is that she left without very much fuss. I guess she loved him so much that she was willing to start over with him," Sierra had left to live with her wolf mate because she loved him. She wanted to stay with him, even though she would be entering a world she didn't know much about. She loved him and that was enough for her to want to start over with him.

"There's no other way to explain it; everything is pointing to the same thing. I love Amak. I love him, but now the question is… does he love me back?" she thought, "He has been very affectionate with me lately, but is that love, or is that just a dog's way of being nice?"

No sooner had she finished that thought, than when Amak entered the cave, panting and grinning wildly, "Aniu, I found them! I found the caribou! You can go back home tomorrow!"

"You found them? Oh thank you so much Amak," she replied, and she dove for him, nuzzling his chest.

"Oh, uh, you're very welcome," he said, a little off guard by her sudden action. However, he didn't pull away from her. The feeling of her head running through his fur was actually quite pleasant...

"Will you still be able to come with me to look for them?" she asked, snapping him out of his daze. 

"Oh, of course I will. I said I would didn't I?" he replied. Aniu smiled, and even though she was glad that he had succeeded, there was also a part of her that had wanted to stay with him, and that part was crying at the thought of leaving him behind.

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The caribou herd had settled themselves several miles away from where Aniu was now. The best way for her to reach them would be if Amak and the team went first, while Aniu followed a few minutes behind them. Once the team had reached their destination, the dogs would be allowed to roam while their owner hunted the caribou with his friend. Amak would then slip away and meet up with Aniu so that he could help her in her search.

The night before, Aniu was restless, grappling with what she had realized. She had fallen in love with Amak, but she would have to leave him very soon. She wished that there was some way, any way for her to continue seeing Amak, but she didn't want to leave the friends she had made in her pack either. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, she finally decided to try something. She prayed to the spirits. She prayed that they would give her some way of seeing Amak, without having to abandon her pack. Once she finished her prayer, she put her head back down, hoping that her words would be answered. 

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Bright and early the next morning, Amak's team prepared to leave while Aniu watched from the nearby bushes. She waited for a few minutes after they had left before going out to follow them. The tracks left in the snow, combined with the scent of the dogs left an easy trail to follow. She knew that she had to be careful and keep her distance, or else the human and his dogs would think that she was coming for them. The trail cut through the woods and she followed alongside it, using the tress to cover her approach. An hour later, she found where they had stopped. The caribou herd had settled themselves in a large open field. The human had started to unload his gear after unhooking the dogs, and she found Amak waiting a short distance away.

"Psst," she whispered, "Amak, it's me."

He turned around and saw her peeking through the trees before coming up to join her, "There you are. So, where should we start?" he asked, "Where would a wolf pack hide themselves?"

"Near the caribou, but not too close to be seen by them," she replied, "They would be probably be somewhere in the forest, around the edge of the field."

"The field is huge. You're saying that they could be anywhere around it?" he asked.

"Yes, but it shouldn't be too hard to find them," she said, "Wolves leave scent signs to mark their territory and navigate around it. We just have to find a trace of them and follow it."

Amak nodded and soon they were off on their search. They walked around the field, sniffing trees and other objects to see if they carried her pack's scent. As they walked, they were both very quiet. Occasionally, she would hear Amak mutter something to himself, but she could never quite make it out. It seemed like he was thinking something over. However, he was not the only one who was facing a bit of a dilemma. Aniu herself wanted to tell him how she felt, but she couldn't find the right way to approach it. She didn't want to just blurt it out, but she couldn't keep it hidden forever, "Should I tell him? We might not see each other again, but I can't keep it locked up forever. Even if I do tell him, what if he doesn't feel the same way? I wouldn't want to leave him with a parting thought like that. If only I had a little more time with him; if only I could see him again after this..." 

Soon their search led into a riverbed,