while.”

“Yeah, I was worried about you out there in the storm. I’m glad you’re okay.” I noticed the switch in her tone, and was that a glint of concern in her eye?

“Oh, I see, you wasted all your worry last week. That why I didn’t get any back there.” I teased. Sometimes I just couldn’t help myself. I bit my lip, trying to prevent anymore stupid things from coming out. We had almost had a moment and I ruined it.

Jenna gave me a sidelong glance and bumped my shoulder. “You just have me all figured out.” I was lucky that we had a similar sense of humor.

I gave her a genuine smile back. “You don’t have to worry about me. That old ship holds up better than you would think and this pelt wasn’t designed for sunny beaches.”

Her beaming smile made me feel like I was floating as we walked side-by-side down the street. I hardly even noticed that I was walking in public among dogs and humans without feeling apprehensive about it.

“Actually,” She said suddenly, breaking the spell I had been in, “Rosy wanted to play outside today. You should come.”

“Her parents are finally letting her out, huh?”

Jenna let out a soft laugh. “Yes, finally. They’ve been a little overprotective lately, but Rosy’s far too hyperactive to keep down for long. Honestly, I think her parents will welcome the break.”

“So they’re not going to be there?” I asked a little too quickly.

She cocked her head and gave me a look. “Balto, you know they’re okay with you now, right?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but hesitated. There was no reason for Jenna to understand. All she had ever known was a loving home. I shut my mouth again and looked around, suddenly feeling claustrophobic among all the buildings and people.

“Balto?”

I almost jumped at the sound of Jenna’s voice and was surprised to see her standing in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed I had stopped walking. “What?”

“Are you okay?”

I scoffed, “Yeah. I just got distracted.”

“Okay…” She said slowly, studying me with her amber eyes. “So are you coming?”

“To what? Oh yeah, Rosy. Definitely.” I mustered up a grin which she gratefully accepted.

“Alright,” Jenna smiled in return. “She’ll be so happy to see you again, Balto, really.”

My apprehensions immediately seemed to melt away. “So when’s the big outing going to happen?”

“As soon as she’s done with lunch and her parents finish fussing over her, which will take much longer than usual.” Jenna said, rolling her eyes.

I laughed, “Well I’ll meet up with you, okay? I have to check in with Boris.”

“See you soon.”

Her smile sure hit me hard. I don’t even remember leaving the town. It was stepping through a patch of soft snow and getting a face-full of slush that finally forced me back into reality. I was selfish to think it, but I sometimes wondered what it would be like if Jenna was like me. Not in the half-wolf sense, but in the no human sense, because no matter what, Jenna would never leave Rosy, nor should she. Jenna belonged with people…

I however, did not, and that wasn’t for lack of trying. The epidemic had brought me closer than ever before to finally having a place in Nome, but in actuality, I would never belong there. I’d known it since I was a shy, four-month-old pup that couldn’t get even the most dog-friendly humans to take me in. It was a combination of personality and genetics that I would never overcome.

It used to drive me crazy. I wanted so badly to fit in somewhere, anywhere. I cursed the wolf side of me for making me an undomesticated animal that would never have a human home and I cursed the dog side of me for making me long for that same home. Torn between two worlds, I was afraid to accept either one. It wasn’t until the medicine run that I’d learned to embrace both sides. Without the endurance and senses of my wolf heritage and the sledding skills of my domesticated ancestors, I never would have made it.

Despite all that, it still didn’t change my situation. The difference was it didn’t upset me as much as it used to. I was still torn between my love of being free and desire to be accepted, but I was learning to live with it, even to enjoy the life I had. Jenna was playing a huge part in that last bit, but I was also realizing that being accepted didn’t necessarily mean that I had a human home. I wasn’t even sure I wanted one anymore. I’d more than likely drive that person and myself crazy. No, it was good enough to not be kicked and ridiculed by every passing creature.

I stopped in my tracks as a familiar scent came to me on the wind. An unsuspecting Russian goose was nearby. I smiled to myself and crept over the next snow bank to see him staring intently into a hole in the ice as he waited for his lunch to swim by. Staying low, I quietly but quickly stalked toward him across the ice. When I was only a few feet away, I threw my head back and let out a howl.

Boris leaped into the air, letting out a cry of surprise. He only grew more agitated when he saw it was me and that I could barely contain my laughter. “Balto! You give me heart attack!” He flapped over to me and started beating me about the head with his wings. I rolled onto my back in surrender and tried to swat him away with my paws, still laughing. Boris finally backed off and landed beside me. “You should not play such games with lone wolf around. My whole life flashed before my eyes!”

“I’m surprised you didn’t fall asleep.” I teased, rolling over onto my side to see him better. He puffed up his feathers in annoyance. “Oh come on, Boris. If anything, I should be doing this to you all the time. Imagine if that lone wolf had found you just like I just did. I don’t think you’ll be lucky enough to find he plays with his food like I do.”

Boris narrowed his eyes at me, “Fair enough…” He waddled back over to his fishing hole, finally relaxing. “What has you in such good mood anyways?” He asked, looking back at me.

I sat up, still smiling. “Oh, nothing.”

“She would be insulted to hear you talk about her like that.” Boris said slyly with a knowing grin.

“Okay, you got me.” I sighed.

“So why are you not chasing tails together or whatever it is you pups do for fun?” Boris asked, not taking his eyes off the water.

“Well she invited me to come over when Rosy heads out later today.”

“You want permission to go out on date?” He chuckled at his own joke.

I rolled my eyes. “No, I just wanted you to know in case it got late or something…” I trailed off, suddenly realizing how that sounded. I saw Boris’s grin grow. “Not like that! I also wanted to warn you. I’m serious about that lone wolf. Don’t get caught off guard again.”

“Ah, don’t worry about me, Balto. Big, strong goose was fending for himself before you were born, and for you after you were.” He added.

I climbed to my feet. “Alright, then. Don’t have too much fun without me. I think I smelled Muk and Luk on the way over.”

Boris froze as I started walking away. “Vait, really? Balto? Balto!”

I grinned to myself as I trotted over the hill and out of sight. Again, my smile was short lived.

Halfway to town, I heard the cries of a musher as he urged his team to sprint the last mile home. As I climbed over the next rise, I could see them approaching. Their current path would lead them to pass right below me. I could make out a few dogs that I recognized, but I didn’t know the musher. Still, I was going to hold my ground and maybe greet the few I did know. Dog friends were a perk I did enjoy in the aftermath of the outbreak.

Then I saw their cargo.

Most of it was typical for sled teams this time of year, a couple small caribou and maybe a few birds. It was what topped the pile of carcasses that made me slink back over the ridge and out of sight. Draped over the caribou were the bodies of two wolves.

It was a cruel picture that perfectly represented the reality of my precarious existence. I could either be a sled dog that was forced to haul around the bodies of my own kind, or dead, hunted by my other side, and destined to become somebody’s expensive rug.

Seeing those who I considered friends, who had accepted me, wolf and all, assisting in the killing of wolves was, to say the least, confusing. Where did I draw the line? My only interaction with an actual wolf had been with the white one I’d encountered a month ago. Dogs, on the other paw, I saw all the time. That, however, didn’t make my wolf side any less important. I’d learned that the hard way. Dogs and wolves were hardly natural enemies, at least no more than two neighboring packs of wolves, I suspect. What made them wary of one another were humans, plain and simple. Dogs hunted and feared wolves because the human told them to. Wolves saw the dogs with the humans and associated them with the hunter. In the end, it was the humans who decided everything.

I guess that’s why, despite their change in behavior, I was still nervous around people.

There I go, being morbid again. I really needed to see Jenna. She had a way of making me forget all that.

I neared the western edge of town where Rosy’s house sat. Her backyard blended with the tundra that stretched out around