more than an hour or so, alright?”

Angel nodded. “Okay,” she said, and took off.

“I wanna go too!” complained Star.

Luna shook her head. “No, why don't we let Angel do this herself?” she suggested. “She was the one Lily invited. Maybe you can go along next time.”

Star hung her head dejectedly. “Okay.” Then, changing the subject, she looked back up at her mother and asked, “So, how do I get behind my ears again?”

Lily wasted no time once they were clear of the house. “Sure the rest ain't comin'? She asked.

Angel nodded, though the motion was lost in her head bobbing as she ran to keep up with Lily's fast, easy gait. “They won't be. Caspar and Mel were bothering Zar, and Mommy was teaching Star how to wash herself.” The last part she uttered with some contempt.

“Yeah, gotta keep the fur slick,” agreed Lily, equally dismissive. “Not that it'll do that muddy look any good.”

Angel didn't like to hear her sister being insulted, but she laughed like she did. If Lily started to think she was a stick-in-the-mud too, she might also get picked on.

She forgot about it as they reached the butcher's shop and found the rest of the gang waiting. Just like last time, Max led them into the back entrance and up through the grate. “Cake,” he snickered as they settled down to their dining.

He took up a spot by Angel with some ham while she dug into an “old” T-bone. “So, how's it been, kid? Lily says you ain't had much going on lately.”

Angel swallowed a bite and shrugged. “It's been kind of boring,” she admitted.

Max tore a chunk off the ham and dropped it, licking his chops. “She said your folks don't pay much attention to you?” he ventured.

“No, they do...” Angel started to protest, but then she thought of the events that had brought her here. “Well, maybe not so much,” she admitted. Her appetite dropped a little. “Daddy always takes the boys, pretty much, and Mommy likes Star better than me.”

Max swallowed a piece of meat he'd been gnawing on while Angel talked, then nodded sympathetically. “I feel for ya, kid. My pa and ma didn't listen to me much either.”

“They didn't?”

“Nah.” He shook his head in disgust. “Family. Who needs 'em anyway, right guys?”

“Yeah, they're such a drag,” agreed Buck.

“Totally slow you down,” added Lily.

“And they're always bossing you around, too,” added Sammy.

Angel nodded, not just to avoid disagreeing with them, but because some of what they said made sense. Her parents were always bossing her around. Telling her when to get up, when to go to bed, what to eat and when, what not to eat and when not to eat anything, where to go... why shouldn't she be allowed to do what she wanted once in a while?

“Well, cheer up, pup,” said Max. “You can hang with us any time you want.”

Angel smiled. “Thanks, Max.”

Max grinned to himself as Angel took another bite. No, Angel, he thought. Thank you.

Meanwhile, Toby was just dropping by Luna's house. The first thing he saw upon entering the pet flap was two of the boys tumbling over one another in one of their usual scuffles, with the obligatory wild yips as ears were tugged and noses were clamped. “Careful,” he laughed, knowing that the pups never did each other any serious damage. “Or you'll leave teethmarks.”

“Daddy!” the pups hollered. “Caribou!” And before he knew it, they had begun swarming over him like ants over a trapped cowboy. The game had ended, or so he thought, when he had been called home to his lunch. The pups, however, seemed determined to make him the dessert to theirs.

“Ow, ow!” he cried as Melchior pulled on his ear.

Caspar quickly followed, going after his stricken father's tail. And Balthasar, not to be left out, went for the nose.

Luna watched them and laughed. “Careful, Mel,” she chided. “I'll want that ear in one piece when I need to get his attention later.”

Star, who was engaged in a rather lopsided game of rip-the-rag with Arrow, laughed at Luna's remark. Arrow whipped the cloth away and bounced off, waving it like a cape and drawing Star after her like a bull.

“Very funny,” Toby retorted with a grunt of discomfort. “Okay guys, ten-shun!”

At once the pups dropped off of him and scrambled to get in line, poised in sitting position with ears erect and eyes alert, as rigid as if they had become statues. Toby smiled. It was a little trick he had taught them under the guise of playing at being police dogs. The real game had yet to catch on, but he had found the call to attention to be useful in literally getting them off his back. “At ease,” he commanded, and they relaxed their posture. Then he looked at Luna. “Where's Angel?” he queried.

She smiled. “She went to play with Lily.”

“Oh, how long ago?” asked Toby.

Luna glanced out the window, noting the moon's position. “Actually,” she said, “She should be back by now.” She frowned slightly at Toby's worried look, but then her expression lightened. “She probably just forgot to come home,” she reasoned.

“Maybe,” Toby agreed, although his ears leaned back in concern.

Luna sighed. “Honey, you don't think...?” she stopped, aware that the pups were watching the two of them. “Arrow, could you hold down the fort for a minute?”

Arrow nodded. As the oldest pup, she often landed in the job of puppysitter, a role she took great pride in. “Sure Mom,” she agreed.

Toby and Luna walked outside and sat on the porch in the moonlight, a slight breeze playing with their fur. “So,” Luna commented, “What's on your mind?”

He clicked his tongue. “I don't know,” he admitted. “I just have a feeling, like something isn't right, you know?”

She raised her eyebrows questioningly. “Toby, you know the whole intuition thing is my territory, right?”

He shrugged. “I don't know why I'm worried, I just am.”

Now it was her turn to shrug. “Well what are you going to do about it?” she asked, knowing that Toby was all but incapable of leaving a problem unresolved once he knew of it.

He shook his head. “Part of my brain is saying I should tell her to stop hanging around with her,” he replied. “But I don't want to do that, not when it's only a nagging suspicion. What would it be like for her if we always told her no when we had no real reason?” He stirred a paw in the snow, thinking. “Still, Dad always said that firm discipline is the best way to teach a dog to behave,” he reasoned.

She smirked. “Yeah, and that worked so well on you,” she pointed out.

“Touche,” he admitted. The humor seemed to have brightened his mood a little. “I guess you're right. Maybe I am worrying too much.”

Luna tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “I don't see this side of you much,” she observed.

He gave her a puzzled look. “What side?” he asked.

“The worrywort, the paranoid one. You hardly ever worry. So how come all of the sudden you're the one worrying and not me?”

“I do worry,” he countered, “When I think it's necessary.” He smiled then, adding, “But what do we have to worry about? This is such a small town that she can't get into really serious trouble.”

She raised an eyebrow. Now it was her turn to be the skeptic. “Unless you count getting kidnapped twice in less than a week, taking on an almost-mass-murderer and Alaska's most-wanted dog fight organizer in the space of two days...”

“We didn't have someone older keeping an eye on us during the times when we did most of those things,” he reasoned, interrupting lest she decide to forgo the Top 10 list and go for the whole package. “Honestly, I think she's just growing up and we need to give her room to do that.”

She paused to mull this over. “You really think so?”

He nodded. “As I recall,” he pointed out, “A certain fine lady had a lot of the same tendencies when she was a pup.”

Luna didn't know what to think at this point, but she trusted her mate. And as serious as the matter was, flattery from a spouse is hard to ignore. “Well, I guess it can't hurt to let her roam a little. But if she gets into any trouble, I'm not waiting for it to get worse.”

He nodded. “Agreed.”

It was some time before Angel suddenly realized she needed to get back home. But the T-bone was so good, she lingered a little longer to polish it off. Then she opened her mouth to excuse herself, but a small burp came out instead.

Lily started laughing. “Kid, have you got a lot to learn,” she chided. “Show her, Buck.”

Buck opened his mouth and let out a thunderous “BRAAAPPP!”

The laughter of the other dogs was cut short by approaching footsteps. “Hey, the butcher's coming!” hissed Max. “Everybody bail!”

The dogs snatched up their prizes and dove for the hole in the floor, and once all of them were out, Sammy grabbed the grate with his teeth and pulled it quickly