surrounded by white, lost in the snowstorm. Aniu howled again, and Kaila followed, ever trusting of her grandmother to lead her to safety.

The only things that were left of them on the slope were their huge pawprints and the Northern Lights, which faltered and faded as the snow blocked the light from the town, and the Aurora fell back to Earth to become just broken bottles again.

In Jenna’s house, Balto watched as two dark figures descended the slope and the Northern Lights faded. Soon he lost sight of almost everything in the blur of white snow flying past the window. Jenna watched Balto as he turned away from the frosty glass. She went up and nuzzled him, but she knew he was worried when he didn’t nuzzle back. He just stared off into space.

“Balto, I’m sure she’s fine,” Jenna said, trying to be reassuring. “If she runs off like Aleu, at least we’ll have been through it before.”

“But Jenna, there were two dogs up there,” Balto said, shaking himself from his reverie. “And it looked like one of them was leading the other away. What if Kaila’s being led away by some monster of a dog that will kidnap her and kill her just for sport? Sometimes Kaila doesn’t know any better.”

“But she does,” Jenna insisted. “Balto, have you forgotten the fight she got into today? If she knows someone’s going to hurt her, she’ll fight.”

“Yeah, you’re right Jenna,” Balto conceded. “But she’s still our daughter.”

“ Don’t make it sound like I don’t care about our puppies!” Jenna exclaimed. She took a deep breath. “If you think Kaila’s in that much danger, go after her. I won’t be much help. But you’re part wolf and so is she. You’ll make it out there.”

Balto sighed. “I’m sorry, Jenna. When this storm lets up I’ll go after her,” he said defeatedly. He went back to the window and pressed his nose against the icy glass. The snow still flew past the window in sudden gusts, and he could not see anything. “Kaila,” Balto murmured, “What have you gotten yourself into?”

Aniu led Kaila through the blinding snow, and by exchanging howls they stayed together through the blizzard. Once Kaila thought she had lost Aniu, and she panicked, running in desperate circles. Then she felt a tiny valley in the snow, and realized she had stepped into one of Aniu’s pawprints. She followed them, and, sure enough, caught up to Aniu.

Grandmother and granddaughter, white wolf and wolf-dog, tunneled through the cold walls of snow that were thrown at them and stung their faces. It was easy at first, stepping into the storm and pushing on, but soon Kaila’s paws ached, her face stung, and she was cold and wet. How much farther?

On and on they went, and Kaila became more tired and weary. She was just about to give up and collapse in the snow when they entered a small cave. It was carved out in the side of a rocky slope and was warm and dry inside. Kaila just wanted to lie down and fall into an endless sleep, but just in time she noticed a pack of wolves standing at the back of the cave. She and Aniu walked up to them, and Aniu went over to lick the biggest, strongest wolf on the muzzle. He was definitely the alpha male of the pack, a black wolf with a pure white spot on his forehead. He and Aniu were almost complete opposites in fur color. They nuzzled each other, and the black wolf raised a questioning eyebrow at Kaila. Aniu whispered something in his ear.

While she was doing that, Kaila eyed the other wolves. There were four more of them, and Kaila carefully studied them one by one.

Kaila guessed the dark brown wolf with those startling green eyes was the alpha’s son. He walked with a proud and superior gait. He stared back at her through slitted eyes, and Kaila could tell he didn’t trust her.

The older light brown wolf had eyes that looked surprisingly like Hawk’s, blue, and cold as ice, though this wolf’s eyes had a kind look to them. Kaila shuddered as she remembered the fight with Hawk she had gotten into just that morning, and turned to the next wolf.

This wolf was lying down as if exhausted, and was white like Aniu, but with black spots encircling her bright blue eyes and a black spot on her right hip. She was fat, and Kaila was surprised to find this wolf was pregnant! Kaila smiled as she thought of puppies, then turned to the last wolf.

This one was light brown with a dark brown saddle of fur on her back, and one eye was yellow, the other blue. She looked to be about Kaila’s age, which was to say, about a year old. This wolf flashed a grin at Kaila and winked, and Kaila couldn’t help smiling back. At least she knew she had one friend here. What was she doing here anyway?

Aniu and the black wolf finished talking, and the black wolf turned towards Kaila.

“Welcome, Kaila. I am Sirius, leader of the Anvil Creek pack. My mate, Aniu, your grandmother, informs me that you wish to test yourself in surviving as a wolf does.”

Kaila’s jaw dropped. Inside her head she screamed ‘WHAT?!’ This wasn’t what she had expected at all, if anything! She had just followed Aniu here!

Kaila turned to her grandmother and saw the wolf’s eyes were twinkling. The old wolf made a nudging motion with her head towards Sirius.

At first Kaila fumed at her grandmother. How could she get her into this mess?! Anger threatened to flare up again, but suddenly something clicked inside Kaila’s head. By sort of joining the pack for a few days, she could see if she belonged out here. Kaila glanced back at Aniu, and the white wolf smiled and nodded. Kaila grinned and turned back towards Sirius.

“Yes,” she replied. “I was wondering if I could join this pack for…” Kaila faltered. How long did she want to be put to the test? “Um…three days. Yes, three days,” Kaila said decisively. “And at the end of those three days, you can decide if I can join the pack for life, and if you do, I can choose to join the pack, or go back to Nome.”

Sirius listened carefully, and thought for a long time. The silence was unbearable, so the dark brown, green-eyed wolf spoke up.

“Dad, I don’t trust her! Who is she to intrude on our pack? She might be after Kiowa to get revenge for the other packs! She could be a spy! If you’re gonna…”

“Silence, Lakota!” Sirius shouted, and his son fell into a sulk. “This is one of your cousins we’re talking about! I think your mother knows enough to make sure this stranger means us no harm. And I say Kaila’s wish will be granted!”

He slammed his paw down on the ground to say the matter was settled. Lakota began to protest, but the light brown wolf that looked to be around Kaila’s age interrupted.

“Be quiet, Lakota! Kaila’s just a wolf-dog! Can’t you see that? She’s never been out in the wild before, you can see it! Stop being such a grumpy, untrusting jerk!”

“Shut it, Sarai,” Lakota muttered under his breath.

“Both of you ‘shut it’,” the older light brown wolf said good-naturedly, stepping between the two quarreling yearlings. “We’ve got work to do, and we can’t stand around all day doing nothing. Lakota, Sarai, you come with me. We need to hunt to get something to eat. Aniu-” she turned to the white wolf, “The Eagle Pass pack has been coming over the border of our territory. Can you go down there and re-mark the boundary?” Aniu loped out of the cave and dashed off for an answer. “And Kiowa, you just stay and rest, ok?” the wolf said, turning to the soon-to-be mother. A nod consented superior trust.

“Thank you, Sage,” Sirius said as his light brown mate nudged Lakota and Sarai off into the snow-covered tundra. Sirius and Sage rubbed flanks, then Sage bounded off to join the ‘kids’.

Kaila stood stock still in the middle of the cave. She was glad Sage had taken charge, she hated to be the topic of an argument, but what was she supposed to do now?

Sirius sauntered up to Kaila and placed a reassuring paw on top of her own. “I hope you don’t take Lakota’s accusations to heart,” he said apologetically. “He’s an untrusting fellow. He’s never learned how to trust anyone except his pack. If only…”

Sirius stopped, and Kaila waited for him to continue. But he didn’t. “Yes?” she said, hoping she didn’t sound too pushy.

The old alpha sighed. “Lakota used to be very kind-hearted, and he couldn’t take one step past a hurt animal without having an incredible urge to help. One day, about a year ago, Lakota ventured out from the cave by himself, the sly one, and found a wolf lying half frozen in the snow. He came to get us and we all dragged the iced wolf back to this same cave.” Sirius shook his great black head at the memory. “We got him all warmed up and thawed out, and it seemed like he was very grateful to us when he came to. He said his name was Silver Arrow, and his pack had deserted him because of some reason we couldn’t get out of him. Anyway, we let it drop and he joined this pack. He hunted with us, watched our puppies, knew all our plans, all our secrets. One day he overheard me tell Sage we would take over one part of the Northern Hills pack’s territory because they didn’t use that part anymore. Well, Silver Arrow ran as fast as you like to that pack’s den and told them our plan. Turns out he was really part of that pack, they hadn’t rejected him at all, and he had been sent in to spy on us. Just think, we had trusted him with our lives