my litter of puppies.

“They’re so, “The brown puppy said, “small.”

           I chuckled to myself and Emerella turned toward her puppy.

“Apollo!?” she growled, “Mind your manners.”

“But it’s true they are…” Apollo went on.

“It’s perfectly alright, Emma.” I reassured her, “You were once that size, little one.” I said sweetly to the puppy.

“I was!?” Apollo gasped, “What about Kayak?” I nodded and she went to go tell her brother the strange news.

          Chinook stirred in his sleep and licked his chops. He was probably dreaming of eating a rabbit. He looked a lot healthier from when I met him. He was more confident and everyone in the pack trusted him. He was peaceful and less stressed about talking to people and I was proud to be his mate.

***

          I woke up on a hot summer night in July. Chinook was moved in with me in the senior den and I was more thrilled than he was. My puppies were walking and were almost ready to train to be hunters. Chinook took his only son, Niche to work on fighting skills before he was trained while I took Holly, Haelow, and Miya around the borders to get them use to their environment. They loved it but it was just an irritating walk for me.

        News spread around the pack that they were only a half mile away from Nome. To think that this whole time, I was closer to home than I really was, but that isn’t my home now, this was. We had to move to a different habitat so that we are not hunted, since we were near a city that’s known to hunt.  It was scheduled at the end of summer, when we were most vulnerable to hunters.

       The murderer of Junt’s mate, Lucia, was still unknown and they almost given up on whom it was, but they stopped thinking it was Chinook though.

      I sat up and walked outside my den. It was a warm night but a slight breeze flew by me. The pine needles on the ground went into my toes and stuck a bit but I was used to it now, I was used to this environment. Now we had to leave it. This is where I met Emmerella- my best friend, Kolle, and Chinook. It was where I had my puppies and where Evangeline was buried. How was I supposed to leave it? Better question, how was I going to get Jack to leave? He had barely gotten used to this place and now he had to leave soon. He can’t just leave with us, without getting more confused about me being a part of a pack. Then I wondered if Junt would make it through the journey. His black fur was getting over ruled by strands of grey and he was starting to get weaker. He couldn’t make the journey even if he wanted to. Would I be made pack leader? The thought struck me like lightning. If he died I would be the one to replace him. But that was too cruel to think about, me wanting to be his successor, but of course that would be like me wanting Junt to die. I could never want that. I would rather die than have an urge for him to die. I wandered down to a puddle and washed my paws. The water soaked in to my paws causing them to sodden. I saw my reflection after the water stopped moving. I was no longer afraid of my scar across my eye, now it was just my first battle scar. I remembered when I was only a yearling when I got this scar but I was a house-pet then, nothing special but a spoiled dog, but actually I wasn’t spoiled, I was abused. The sun started to rise and the pack camp lit up. Junt was first to wake up and he weakly walked up to me and sat next to me. His tail rapped around my shoulder and I looked at him. He had grey hairs around his eyes and muzzle but his back and legs were still the night black fur I remembered.

“You have been through a lot, my friend.” He wisely said. His eyes were not at me but at my reflection.

“You were nothing but a lost house pet when you arrived and now your one of the most respected hunters in the pack.” He complimented. I just stared at him with modesty.

“I just wanted to apologize for doubting you all that time ago.” He said now looking at me. His yellow eyes were now on me. He licked the top of my head and without a warning he left back for his den and watched his clan come to life.

***

                 It was near August now and the heat was going down. I woke up with Chinook next to me as usual. I lightly nudged his head off me and got up to go into the nursery. I was going to take the puppies to the border that was closest to Nome. I had taken them to every other border but not this one.

          Holly and Miya were already ready to go, but I had to shove Haelow to wake up. She woke up excitedly and they followed me across the camp. Chinook came up to me and nuzzled my face (Holly, Haelow, and Miya were gagging as we nuzzled.) He looked at them and licked their heads and turned to me again,

“I’m going to show Niche our secret place.” He was referring to a meadow with a misty pool. That was where me and Chinook became mates.

“Aww,” Haelow whined, “How come he gets to go?”

“It’s because he’s the only boy.” Holly said.

“So?” Miya asked

“That makes him the special one out of us four.” Holly explained.

Chinook lied down at their level and reassured them, “I promise you that is not true. Tell you what, next time I’ll take you and Niche can spend the day with Riley.” They cheered quietly and remained happy. Chinook winked at me before leaving and left to the nursery to get Niche.

           I then turned in the direction of the border and started there. Holly and Miya were play fighting on the way while Haelow stuck close to me. Her head was leaning on my arm and she looked up at me.

“Mommy?” she asked, “Does dad really love us?”

“Of course he does!” I exclaimed, “Why would ask such a thing.”

“Well, he only tells you and Niche that he does, but he hasn’t told us, yet.” She explained to me.

“Well that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.” I explained, “I’m sure he will tell you that he loves when he takes you to our special place.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Of course.” I reassured her; she then playfully pounced on her sisters as we moved toward the border.

***

          I had only been here once and that was when I was training with Emmerella, yet I remembered the path as if I had been across it yesterday! At the border, I could smell humans but I could barely see a town, but in the distance I saw a wrecked boat that looked older than my parent’s grandparents! The border was the tree line to the ocean, because there was no use to try to hunt there because it was just sand and foothills till the city. The puppies were playing at the shore line and getting their paws wet.  I smiled as they were having fun and then Miya splashed me with her paw. I laughed and lightly splashed back.

         Then I heard a crack in the woods, and I turned my head to sudden death. There a man in camouflage and with what we call a deathtwig. We called it that because no wolves have survived what it has done to you. He pointed the deathtwig at me and I felt adrenaline all over. I turned to the puppies and howled, “Run!” and I pushed them with me. They got the idea but didn’t know if it was real or not. I heard a loud noise and I felt pain in my arm. Whatever hit me only grazed off a bit of fur but that wasn’t the worse thing it can do. I urged the puppies to keep running and then I noticed that we were heading right into the town. I remembered the town well and then I smelled a familiar scent. It was my mother.

       Her fur wasn’t grey from age and she still looked young.

“Riley?” She gasped. She then saw the hunter and shove us into an alley way. The hunter was about a quarter of a mile away and was running as fast as he could.

“Oh. Riley!” she said nuzzling me, her accent was familiar, “I missed you so much.”

“Mom, I don’t have time to explain, but I can’t…” I couldn’t get out of this without risking the puppies, then I had to make a very horrible decision, “You need to take them in, they’ll be killed if you don’t.” Holly looked up at me and asked

“Mommy?”

I nuzzled their faces and said, “I’m so sorry, but you’ll be safe here. I love all of you so much.”

“But you can’t leave us with house-pets!” Haelow said.

“I will of course.” My mother, Olly said, “I’ll take care of them.” I nuzzled my mother and licked my puppies. My heart was broken; I had just lost three of my kids. They cried as I left and I ran as fast as I could passed the hunter. He shot at me again and I had dodged death by an inch. When I got into the forest, he gave up and left. I kept running though, and I felt emptiness in me.

      I ran through the camp and Chinook and Niche came up to me. I looked Niche and I collapsed. I was on the ground and I twitched a bit. My puppies were