want Steele?!?”

                He stopped and smirked, “I heard all about you…Brooke. And any friend of Balto’s is an enemy of mine!”

                “I’m not scared of you.”

                “No? Hmm? Well, maybe your pups are! You’re just a low life wolf, just a piece of trash! You and your mutts you call pups!”

                “If you like living, I suggest you shut your mouth and leave, before I rip you to shreds and leave you for the cats to play with!”

                Steele growled and lunged, and bite his neck and slammed him to the rock hard ground and pushed him back out of the den and away from the puppies. I tore his ear and lunged at him again. Steele bit me by the scruff of my neck and dangled me over the nearest cliffs. I looked down and took a deep breath. But I refused to give up so easily. I grabbed his neck and swung myself so I was on top of him and I leaped in the air and landed on his neck, and when I heard a snap I took a few steps back to see if he would give up. But he just kept lunging at me. Steele bit my right paw and bit down extremely hard, and I knew for sure it must have broken. I held back my tears for now and limped over to him. I head butted him to the edge of the cliffs and held down his left paw with my teeth, and then I heard it break and I released my grip. He lost his balance and fell to the rocky bottom of the cliffs, and I heard a thud as he landed, and I knew he couldn’t have survived that, I was positive that he died. Or at least wouldn’t be back again anytime soon.

                I bolted back to the den, and I saw that Bailey, Sam, Sage, and Yukon were all safe. I nuzzled them all. And let them feed again. They were growing faster than I would have thought, and soon they would be old enough to leave the den and explore the world.

                Only a day had passed when I saw Aerik entering the den dragging a bull elk behind him. I welcomed him home and gave him a lick on his noise, and then I told him of what happened with Steele. He was extremely furious at him. I than told him of what happened to my right paw, and he freaked. Because in the wild a wolf with any broken bones is likely to die. But I told him it was nothing to worry about, I’m a fighter, and I wouldn’t give up living so easily now that I have something worth living for, I said nodding to Aerik and the puppies.
                Aerik smiled and licked my check. I limped to the pups and stood over them, as everyone settled in for sleep. The moon was rising, I couldn’t lie down as easily as the others so I kid of collapsed on my left side and then scooted closer to my family as we all fell into a deep, peaceful slumber…

*A MONTH LATER*

“Bailey stop biting Sages ear! Sam stay near the den dear. Alex please eat your dinner everyone else has already finished.” I hounded the pups

                “But mom, I’m full!” Alex groaned

                “What else did you eat?”

                “Well me and Bailey were down by the lake and ate some beached fish.”

                I moaned, “Who told you that you were allowed to go to the lake?”

                “Bailey said you said it was okay.”

                I rolled my eyes, “Bailey you’re such a trouble maker,” I picked him up by the scruff of his neck and trotted inside the den, “Now face the wall, because of what you did you just earned yourself a time out mister.”

                I walked outside the den, “Yukon! Where are you?” I looked around the den site but didn’t see him, “Sage honey, where’s your brother?”  

                “He’s in the bushes over there.” Sage said as she nodded to the shrubs

                Yukon burst out of the bush and growled, “Nice going Sage! You gave away my position!”

                I laughed, “Yukon you can play hide and seek later.”

                “Mom it’s not called hide and seek, that’s a baby game, it’s called hide and be found.” Yukon said sarcastically

                “Sure it is honey.”

                The pups were about seven months old and were finally old enough to leave the den and explore. Aerik was away on another hunting trip to bring back food. And the pups were quite a handful.

                Sage and Sam were playing with some cat tail plants that surrounded a small pond near the den, Baileys was now out of time out and wrestling with Alex, and Yukon was sneaking up on Sam and Sage again. Yukon burst out of the bush and pounced on his sisters. The girls fell in the pond, I rushed over and pulled them both out, and then Sam said, “Mommy! Tell Yukon to stop scaring us!”

                I put them down and shook my head at Yukon and said, “Say sorry Yukon.”

                He dragged his paw across the gravel and slowly muttered, “Sorry for scaring you.”

                “Good now go play.” I then nudged him in the direction of Alex and Bailey.

                He trotted over to them and they all started wrestling together. Sage and Sam the shook dry and continued to play with the cat tail plants. I walked into the den and sat down in a position where I can keep my eyes on all the puppies.

                My paw had healed perfectly and I can still run as fast as before, it’s just a tad bit weaker than the rest, but just as strong.

                I saw Aerik stride into the den site dragging a bull elk behind him. The pups tackled him and all started saying, “Daddy, daddy, daddy!”

                Aerik laughed and nuzzled them all, I trotted over to him and licked his check. The puppies then said, “Ewe! Gross!”

                “How is that gross? You think this is gross?” I started kissing the pups and blowing on their tiny stomachs till they were rolling around in a fit of laughter.

                I brought the elk into the food storage section of our den then jogged back outside to watch as Aerik and the pups ran around the den site together. I smirked to myself. Then as the set started to set I let out a howl, and the pups soon joined in, as did Aerik. We howled till we could no longer see the sun, then we gathered round the resting area in the den to tell stories of our ancestor wolves, some scary and others not, but the pups sure seemed to get a kick out of them.

                I looked around the circle. We were one, a family…I hated that word. Family. I hated the thought that I’d been broken, that Aerik had been right, that I loved my pups. I was defiantly just like my dad. Stubborn. Extremely stubborn. I smirked. But I was defiantly not the family type, it felt award to me. And I shifted nervously in place. But I loved them, every single one of them. We were…..a family. I let out a gleaming proud smile at the thought, yeah…our family.