kept asking questions about me, like where I came from and where I live... I couldn't lie to her, Boris. I could never lie to her."

"And you should not have to. You should be proud of who you are, just as I am proud of you."

Balto sighed and lay his head back down on his paws. "It's hard to be proud of something that makes everybody hate me. It's just not fair. I wish I were just a regular dog."

"Balto...?" said a voice from the ground outside the boat.

Balto's ears whipped forward and he scrambled to his feet in surprise. "J...Jenna?"

"Yes, it's me, Balto. I'm sorry, am I bothering you?"

Balto stared at Boris in disbelief. "I... bothering? No, I... no," he stumbled. "Um, wait, I'll come down there." He looked over the side of the boat and saw Jenna standing just below. His heart began to beat faster and his stomach began tingling again as he jumped down to stand next to her.

"Uh... hi," Balto said sheepishly. "Oh, uh, Jenna, this is Boris, my dad." He indicated Boris standing at the edge of the boat, and Boris waved a wing at Jenna.

"Hello Boris," Jenna said in response. "Balto was telling me about you earlier today. Did you really raise him from a pup?"

"It is nice to meet you, Jenna. I found Balto outside of town when he was a small pup, and I have been taking care of him since then. He is not bad for being raised by goose, no?" Boris chuckled.

Jenna smiled and looked at Balto. "He's very nice."

Boris watched with great satisfaction as he saw Balto's mouth drop open in surprise. "Well, I will leave you two alone," he said as he waddled back to the wheel house and out of sight.

Balto had regained some of his composure and was just happy that he was able to talk to Jenna again. "Jenna... what are you doing out here? I mean I'm happy to see you but why did you come all the way out here?"

"I felt bad about having to leave you like that today, but I had to go. You know us domestic dogs, we have to do what our owners tell us," she grinned. "But I had some free time this afternoon, and I remembered what you told me about living in a boat out here, so I came to look for you. I hope you don't mind."

"Mind? No... no, I'm really glad you came to find me. I... I thought you hated me."

Jenna frowned. "Hated you? Why?"

"W-well because... I told you I was half wolf, and then you left. I thought..." He sighed and lowered his head.

"Balto, I promised you I wouldn't hate you. I don't mind that you're half wolf, in fact I think it makes you a lot more interesting than the dogs in town. I was about to tell you that when Rosy called for me."

"I... I'm sorry," Balto said. "I guess I'm just used to all the dogs not liking me because of it. I'm sorry I just assumed you were the same."

Jenna smiled gently at him. "It's all right, Balto. I can understand why, some of those dogs are just mean spirited. Especially Steele and his lapdogs," she said, and she made a face like something tasted bad. She smiled again and looked into his eyes. "But you're not anything like them."

Suddenly Balto felt his face heating up again as he tried to think of what to say. "I, uh... thanks," he said, blushing. "Hey, um... do you think you might like to go for a walk down the beach? It's a nice day, and..."

"Sure," Jenna said with a smile. The two of them began to walk down the beach away from the boat, and Balto was happy to answer all her questions about him, now that he wasn't afraid she would turn him away for being a half breed.

Boris watched them leave from where he was hiding just under the railing on the deck of the boat, and he smiled.

"That's my boy."

###

"I remember that day," Jenna said as she snuggled closer to Balto. "That was the first day I really got to know you. Did you love me even back then?"

Balto smiled and looked into her eyes. "I loved you from the first time I saw you, Jenna. So yes, even just walking down the beach with you that day I was head over tail in love with you. I just couldn't tell you because I didn't want to scare you off."

Jenna kissed his greying muzzle and nuzzled his neck softly. After so many years together, she knew his scent like it was her own, and she couldn't imagine a life without him. Reminiscing about the old days only served to remind her how lucky she was to have him. When she thought back to the other dogs in Nome before she met Balto, she shuddered to think how much worse her life could have been.

Even back then, she knew many of the male dogs in town wanted her as a mate. She didn't really find any of them attractive because of how arrogant they were and how much they thought of themselves. Steele in particular was sure he was going to be Jenna's mate, because he thought he was just that great. "Yuck," Jenna thought as she remembered how Steele used to act around her.

Dixie had always liked Steele, but then Dixie wasn't the best judge of character. She couldn't understand why Jenna didn't like Steele like all the other girls did, even after Jenna had tried to explain it to her. Of course, neither Steele nor Dixie were big on personality, so maybe they were suited for each other after all.

Balto, by contrast, was intelligent, modest and polite. She thought he was attractive as well, even though he always downplayed his rugged half wolf frame. She had always liked how he looked, with his unassuming scruffy coat and his sleek wolfish build. After he brought the anti-toxin back to Nome, she also knew that he was brave, selfless and noble. By then she had fallen deeply in love with him, and she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life with him.

When she was younger, she had always assumed her mate would be one of the local dogs, probably one of the dogs she had grown up with. But she had never been attracted to any of them, so the prospect of becoming a mate had never appealed to her. She had often thought she would be better off by herself, if it weren't for her desire to one day have a litter of puppies of her own. She knew she would need a mate for that, so she had resigned herself to the reality that one day she would have to choose one and hopefully she would be able to tolerate him.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that she would find a mate like Balto. She gazed up at him and admired his aging face, ignoring the grey that had begun to appear over the last few years. When she looked at him, she saw him as he was when they fell in love; young and strong, and so handsome. He would always appear that way in her eyes, no matter how grey he was.

"Remember when our pups were born?" Jenna asked.

"Another one of the happiest and scariest moments of my life," Balto laughed.

"I remember how happy you were to see them for the first time," Jenna said with a smile. "You were a wonderful father."

"Yeah, but you remember how scared I was before that? I thought it could go so wrong because of my wolf side, or that I would be a terrible father. It really scared me, Jenna."

"I remember. It did take some convincing, didn't it?"

Balto chuckled. "All I wanted was for us to be happy. I wish I had known then what I know now, it would have been a lot easier for both of us."

###

Chapter Two: New Life

"Put your trust in me
Because I love you"

It was spring of 1925, and it was getting warmer every day. The snow had begun to melt, and grass was starting to appear in small patches across the tundra. Balto had finally become accepted in Nome, following his miraculous recovery of the diphtheria anti-toxin only three months earlier, after Steele's team got lost trying to return home.

Balto and Jenna were inseparable. Every morning he went to her house and stayed with her all day. They would go for walks or run on the beach, or play with Rosy. Balto was there so often, Rosy's father often joked that he didn't remember adopting two dogs.

Rosy would always get annoyed at her father when he said that. "Dad! Can't you see they're in love?" She would fold her arms and stare at him.

"Okay Rosy, whatever you say," he would laugh. She would sulk and go outside to play with Balto and Jenna when he got like that, because he didn't understand. She did though. She could see it in the way Balto and Jenna acted towards each other, always nuzzling and licking each other's faces. She was so happy she had introduced Jenna to Balto, because these were her two favorite dogs in the whole world.

She still wanted Balto to live with them, but her father wouldn't allow it. She wanted it so badly that one time she threw a screaming tantrum, and got sent to her room. But at least Balto still came over every day, so she was still able to see him all the time. She was happy for that, and she knew Jenna was too.

For his part, Balto was just as happy to see Jenna every day. He was living his dream, and he was able to be with the one he loved every day. Life really couldn't get any better for him as far as he was concerned, and today he planned to show Jenna the one thing he hadn't shown her yet. He was waiting until the time was right, and it seemed to him like today was the day.

So just like every other day he ran off to Jenna's house after the sun came up, and he scratched at the door to