to.” “Yes mother.” Hans said meekly. “Now apologize.” Dusty said. Hans sighed and turned to Shanaea. “I’m sorry sis.” He said, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” “Hans.” Kodi said calmly. “Don’t say it unless you mean it son.” Hans sighed again. “Okay, I’m sorry sis.” He said. “It’s alright.” Shanaea said. “No it’s not.” Kodi said. “It’s not alright, it’s wrong and very, very mean… this isn’t done mister, when we get back and have some time, you and I are going to have a long talk.” “Okay.” Hans said “Hans?” Dusty said. Hans sighed again. “Yes sir.” He said. “Well now that we’ve probably managed to wake up the entire town with that little spat how about we get ready for the musher.” Kodi said. He turned around, and the family was soon talking again, the outburst forgotten. Kodi didn’t say anything, but he was disturbed by something that Hans had said, or rather what he hadn’t said. He thought back to the events of just a few moments ago. “Now apologize.” Dusty had said. “I’m sorry sis.” His son had responded “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” “Hans, don’t say it unless you mean it son.” He’d said. Now this was the part that bothered him. When his son had responded, he sighed and then said…“Okay, I’m sorry sis.” When Hans had been instructed not to say it unless he meant it, he’d left out the “I didn’t mean to hurt you” part. Did that mean that Hans really had meant to hurt his sister with his words. Was it possible that his son might harbor some sort of malicious feelings toward his sister? “It certainly would explain a few things.” Kodi thought. “…but if that’s true the problem is much worse than I thought. I’d been hoping that maybe this was something that he would grow out of soon, the leftovers of childhood or something, but if he’s harboring some kind of anger toward his sister it could be that he’s more grown up than I thought. He could get dangerous if he’s not corrected. Mature anger or hatred is much worse than that of a child.” Kodi sighed. “Yes we’ll have to nip whatever it is in the bud, and soon. We’ve got to make sure to tear this out by the roots before it blossoms into something uglier than it already is…” The only question in Kodi’s mind was how to do this. Dusty shrugged off her harness and walked up to stand at her mate’s side. She could tell there was something wrong by the way Kodi was carrying himself. “Are you okay dear?” She asked. “No sense in scaring her with unfounded accusations.” Kodi thought. “Yeah,” Kodi said. “Yeah I’m fine.” Dusty frowned and leaned her head against his shoulder, nuzzling his neck. “No you’re not.” She said softly. “What’s wrong?” “…should’ve known that one wouldn’t work.” He thought. Kodi sighed. “It’s just Hans is all.” Kodi said. “I thought it might be.” Dusty said, nuzzling him again. “He’ll be fine, don’t worry. He’ll come around, he’s just not mature yet, that’s all, and he loves the rise he gets out of his sister, the attention it gets him.” “You ever get the feeling that he might love it too much?” Kodi asked. “What do you mean?” Dusty asked. ”I mean did you ever think that he actually was trying to hurt his sister, that he wasn’t trying to anger Shanaea, get a rise out of her or anything, but actually to hurt her?” Dusty frowned and shook her head. “No, I’ve never seen anything like that.” “Well…” Kodi started to say, but he looked around and stopped, realizing how close in proximity he was to the rest of the family. “Well what?” Dusty asked. “We’ll talk about it later Dusty.” Kodi said. “When our conversation can be more private.” Dusty nodded. “Okay, but we will talk about it. Something is really troubling you.” Kodi nodded. “I’m just scared for him is all. I love him, even if he is a little rascal.” Dusty smiled and nuzzled him again. “…of course you love him.” She said. “He’s your son.” Kodi nodded. “…and nothing he could ever do will ever change that.” Dusty said. “He’ll always be our son.” Kodi nodded. “Yes he will be.” Dusty smiled. “…feel better now?” Kodi grinned back at her. “Yeah, yeah a little, thanks Dusty.” “You’re welcome.” Dusty said. “That’s a mother’s job you know.” “…but you’re not my mother.” Kodi said. Dusty laughed softly. “I may as well be.” “…and what’s that supposed to mean?” Kodi asked. “…nothing dear, just messing with you.” Kodi laughed. “I’ll get you back you know. Dusty smiled. “I know.” Just then the musher came out of the house. “Hey team!” Mr. Harrme said. “Sorry I’m late, let’s get going shall we?” The dogs began barking as Mr. Harrme walked around the team, clipping the guidelines to the harnesses. Kodi felt the familiar weight of the sled settle on his shoulders. He looked back and a thrill of adrenaline ran through him, the feeling that always came over him when he led a team, but along with that, came a surge of pride, pride in his family, his team. Mr. Harrme climbed up on the sled and pulled the snow hook from the ground. He carefully coiled the line so that it wouldn’t get tangled and stuck it in the bag on the rear support of the sled. “Ready team?” Mr. Harrme said. The dogs all started barking, eager to get underway, even Shanaea was ready to go, straining at her harness, all fears of the dark unknown forgotten now, forgotten in the sheer ecstatic joy that was pulling a sled. “Hike! Hike! Hike!” Mr. Harrme yelled. Kodi leapt forward and the team surged ahead, quickly gaining speed as they raced through the darkened town toward the plains. Chapter 2 On the plains a brown dog stumbled over one of the many hills on the horizon. He rolled until he reached the bottom, and then he then he struggled to stand against the surging wind. The storm had come out of nowhere. When the sun had went down it was clear, then about a few hours later, the wind had begun to blow and the smallest snowflakes began to fall. The brown dog thought back to where he’d been when he’d felt the first snowflake on his nose… A brown dog walked quickly down the sidewalk. It had to be tonight. He’d messed up, already he could feel his self control draining away when he was with Julie. He’d let her get too close, gotten too complacent in the fact that the entrapment he usually felt when dealing with these females wasn’t present with her. It wasn’t that she was different like he’d first thought, it was that she was more crafty than the others. Even with his experience she’d managed to get by his emotional alarms… but finally one had triggered within his mind, he’d noticed the first changes a few days ago. He no longer felt that he could do without her companionship. He felt he had to be near her every moment of the day, and on the third day he’d come to a startling realization. He was no longer whole without her. Only one other time had such a thing happened to him, back when he didn’t know any better he almost lost himself to the first female he’d known. Her name was Samm and he had loved her dearly… and he’d almost paid for it with his soul. He’d come dangerously close to losing himself to her, and he’d promised himself it would never happen again, yet it almost had, and he didn’t even feel he loved Julie as much as he had Samm. …but it didn’t matter, though he’d let his guard down before, it was up again now, and no doubt the little terror thought he was still under her spell… “…this should be fairly simple.” He thought. As he neared the alley where he’d told her he would meet her, he started creeping. He reached the alley and looked around, seeing that the coast was clear he stepped into the alley, his veins flooded with adrenaline at the thought of what lay ahead. He saw her before she saw him. He walked up to her and she said his name, flashing the beautiful smile that had drawn him to her in the first place. Her smile disappeared real fast after he leapt at her, his open jaws catching only her leg as she spun around to try to get out of his way. The familiar salty taste of blood filled his mouth as he landed on the ground and rolled, taking Julie down with him. She started to scream, but he clamped his paw over her mouth and rolled on top of her. He looked down at her, at her widened scared brown eyes. She started to whimper and he took his paw off her mouth. Tears filled her eyes and she said his name again… “…why are you doing this?” She asked. “You hurt me.” Indeed he had hurt her, the bite to her leg had been sufficient to tear through to muscle, and the roll had almost torn the joint from its’ socket. “You’d have done the same to me...” He said. “What?” Julie asked, pain evident in her voice as she continued to struggle beneath him. “What are you talking about?” “You’d have taken my soul, it’s too bad it turned out this way, I really do love you.” “You’re insane.” Julie said. “What you’re saying makes no sense.” Then she did the last thing he wanted her to do. She screamed. “HELP ME!” She sobbed. “SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!” It took a moment for the fact of what she’d done to sink in to him. As she called out again, he viciously tore into her exposed throat. Her scream turned into a wet gurgle as he tore deeper into her throat, until he reached bone. He pulled his head up and got off of her, watching Julie twitch and squirm. He’d done far too much damage to her for her to be able to scream anymore, though she tried, not much sound came out. Her white fur had quickly turned a deep crimson as her blood gushed from the horrible wound, over her chest, shoulder’s and face to pool in the snow beneath her. Her blood covered him as well, and he stumbled back, horrified at what he’d done. ”…what I’ve been forced to do.” He corrected himself. He watched as Julie’s struggles slackened, then stopped completely. The only sign she was still alive was the rapid up and down heaving of her chest as she struggled to breathe through lungs filling with blood. Then there were her eyes. The eyes were always what got

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