straight face when I wanted to keep something from Boris, it was almost impossible when I was talking about the gorgeous red husky. At least with thoughts of Jenna now consuming my brain, all worries about the mystery wolf had vanished.

I usually confided everything to Boris, but quickly found that I couldn’t do that when it came to Jenna. Boris was convinced we weren’t moving fast enough because we had not yet had pups and named them all after him. Far from having pups, I don’t think Jenna and I could be defined as any sort of couple whatsoever. We were good friends, and even that was a great leap from what our relationship had been a few months ago, which was practically nonexistent. 

Until recently, I don’t think I had even spoken a full sentence to Jenna. Of course by the time I’d psyched myself up enough to start a conversation with her, Rosy, Jenna’s human, had come down with this horrible disease. She wasn’t the only human either. In fact, most of the children of the town became infected. Despite my precarious relationship with adult humans, I couldn’t help but feel horrible for the little ones. They were more understanding then their older counterparts and much less likely to see me as the “dangerous wild animal” and more likely to see me as another dog.

So for the sake of the children, I decided to help the cure get back to Nome. I’d been left behind at first, but when I heard the dog team assigned to retrieve the medicine had gotten lost, I set out to find them. Only by embracing my wild roots did I manage to lead the team back to Nome in time to save Rosy and the other kids. The humans became more accepting of me after that, and best of all, Jenna and I had grown a lot closer.

Before the storm had started a couple weeks ago, we had been spending almost every other day together. I smiled to find that I was anxious to see her again.

“Vhat are you smiling at?” Boris asked, snapping me from my thoughts. “Is Jenna, yes?”

“Oh no, it’s just that I’m heading for the butchers and you haven’t turned around yet.” I said brightly. By the time I looked over, Boris was ten feet behind me and unmoving.

“I think I will go find my own breakfast. Do svidaniya.” He immediately took off in the other direction.

I grinned as I lapped up some of the fresh snow in my mouth and continued on.

It was still early and the town was just waking up, leaving only a few people to walk the snowy streets. Since the medicine run, people were much less wary of my presence in the town and some even gave me a friendly greeting. I was ignored for now, which was fine with me. Anything was better than the ridicule and sometimes violent rejection I’d been subjected to before.

I found the butcher to be the most forgiving human in all of Nome. For as many times as I’d been accused of stealing his meat, he was now quick to offer me all the scraps he had on hand. This was probably because his young son had been very near death when the medicine arrived.

His shop was where I was headed now. While not the best hunter, I was capable of finding my own food most of the time. However the storm had sent most of the game running for cover and I hadn’t eaten for nearly a week. Instead of waiting for their return which could take a few more days, I decided to accept the butcher’s gift and stave off starvation until then.

“Look who it is.” A friendly voice called as I approached the shop. I looked up to see the butcher just arriving. He waited at the door for me and crouched down, holding his hand out in greeting. I trotted over and allowed him to scratch behind my ears. “Hey, Buddy. It’s been a while.” I wagged my tail in response and licked his chin once. “Wait here.” He went inside the store and soon returned with a string of sausages. “These are going to go bad soon if someone doesn’t eat them. Might as well be you.” I waited patiently for him to throw them to me. While not formally trained like all the other dogs in town, I knew from watching what was expected of dogs before they were given food. Besides, the wolf side of me that wanted to rip the meat out of his hands and threaten him if he tried to take it back wasn’t the side that made me very many friends or granted me future meals.

I dragged the food into another alley, away from prying eyes, so I could eat in peace. While the dogs who roamed the town had been just as quick to ridicule me as their humans, they rarely ever challenged me for food. Being half wolf had its advantages there. I was twice the size of most of the dogs in town height-wise. I was definitely leaner, but my teeth were still bigger, so my scraps of meat were hardly worth fighting for to them. But also like their humans, the dogs’ attitudes toward me had softened since the serum run. Still, habits die hard and instinct dies even harder.

I spent the rest of the morning taking in the sun from a roof on the edge of town. That was another habit I had yet to break- traveling by rooftop. I’d learned it out of necessity, to avoid humans and their judgmental canines. I hardly needed to do it now, but couldn’t help it. For one, it was pretty fun, and for another, I didn’t really like attention. I’d heard some of the town dogs speculate that wolves were much more aloof than their canine cousins, and I guess that could be partly to blame. My bad history with humans didn’t help either.

It was a little past noon when I’d had enough of sitting around and got to my feet, surveying the town from my perch. The town was busier now as people went about their business. Dogs generally followed their masters when they went out, but some had free reign over the entire town due to owners that either didn’t care or didn’t know. I kept an eye out specifically for two of those dogs; One of them I actually wanted to see, while the other one I hoped to avoid at all costs.

Obviously, one was Jenna. The other was Steele. Although I had seen neither hide nor hair of the large black and white husky for over a month, I still kept an eye out for him. It was odd for him to be silent for so long, even after his fall from grace after the serum run. Some of his teammates reported that their musher had retired the husky and kept him inside, while others insisted he was playing injured and that’s the reason he hadn’t been outside. Either way, I knew I could only expect hostility from the husky and the prolonged silence only managed to heighten my wariness of the dog. At this point, I’d rather face that lone wolf than a vengeful Steele, as misplaced as his vengeance was.

It was Steele’s own actions that had revealed his true character to his teammates and the town dogs. I just happened to be the one being acted upon. Of course Steele had always hated me, so there was no reason for him to direct his frustrations elsewhere. Who better to blame for his fallen status than the half-breed he devoted his life to tormenting?

Luckily the husky I spotted was not the oversized glory-hound, but the petite and gorgeous Jenna. The red and white husky was padding down the street with her “friends”. I didn’t know their names, but to Boris and me they were the stuck-up Afghan and the yappy Pomeranian. If I had learned anything about dogs and people, it was that dogs usually took after their humans, and because of this, I hoped I never ran into the owners of those two designer hair balls. Something told me they would be just as unaccepting of me as their snobby pets.

Jenna seemed to be just as annoyed at their presence as I was. I think the two females gravitated toward Jenna because they believed their pure-bred looks ensured that they were cut from the same mold. I could also tell from the look on Jenna’s face that she had about had enough of them. I smiled to myself. This was why I liked her so much. She didn’t take crap from anybody and couldn’t care less what your pedigree was.

She crossed by the house I had taken refuge on and I lost sight of her. While moving to try and spot her again, a large, heavy section of snow gave way under my feet, dragging me over the edge as it slid off in one giant slab. I was lucky the snow was so soft as it cushioned my landing. I untangled my feet and crawled my way to the surface only to come nose to nose with the rust-colored husky.

“Jenna!” I cried in surprise. “Um…hey.”

She looked at me, then up at the bare roof. “Were you just-?”

“No.” I answered quickly, still struggling to extricate the rest of my body from the pile of snow.

She stepped back to give me room, all the while smiling in amusement. “Really? Because it sure looks like you were.”

I shook snow off my coat for the second time that day and smiled back at her. “I’m fine, by the way.”

Jenna laughed. “That was my next question.”

“Ah, so finding out if I was on the roof is more important than my well-being? I’m hurt.” I grinned.

She started walking down the street and I trotted after her. “Well I wanted to find out if you deserved it. That’ll teach you to stalk people.” She teased.

I scoffed. “Stalk? Please. Have you ever been up there? It’s the perfect view. If I wanted to stalk you, you would never find out.”

Jenna raised an eyebrow. “Well maybe next time you’re enjoying the view, you should pretend you’re stalking somebody. That way you don’t end up in a snow drift.”

I laughed. “That’s fair. So what are you up to? I haven’t seen you in a