laughing.”

Chase could see some of the dogs were practically drooling with eagerness to go back into their pasts and set things on their terms. But then Steele held up a paw. “But there is one thing you must do for me. I will find the enemy of mine I’ve told you about, and I’ll play my own game with him. When I’ve won, I’ll send out a signal that you’ll all hear, hopefully, and every one of you will have to find me. When you do, you’ll know who my enemy is.” Steele’s paw rolled into a fist. “Then do to him what you have been training to do for the past couple days: fight him. Weaken him any way you can, bite, scratch, claw, CRUSH HIM. And then-” Steele’s paw came down to smash into the frozen ground. “Chase him out of town and make sure he can never come back. Understood?”

Chase stared at Steele with her mouth hanging open. This dog must have made a huge mistake with Steele.

“Sir, yes, sir!” all the dogs except Chase yelled, and she looked over at Ketch again. He had yelled along with everyone else, but his eyes were glazed over, and he seemed to be in his own little world…his own bad memories of the world, probably.

Chase drew herself up and almost instantly felt a burning rage in her crippled leg. “What’s this signal going to be?”

Steele jerked around to face her. “What’s the signal? I’ll show you.” As Chase watched in expectance, Steele tilted his great head back and let loose a long, vengeful howl as a truly horrible grin spread across his face.

Balto stood at the bottom of the front steps of Jenna’s house trying to coax Jenna down. “C’mon, Jen,” he tried, “Only a couple steps and you’re home free.”

“Easy for you to say,” Jenna laughed shakily, setting one paw down on the top step. She edged her way down until the last step, then tripped and almost went flying. Balto caught her against his side and she struggled to stay upright. “That was graceful,” Jenna muttered sarcastically, but she still smiled and laughed at herself.

“You’re doing fine,” Balto reassured her, gently nuzzling her ear, “I know this might seem like an attempt to kill you or something, but-”

“I needed to get out of the house anyway,” Jenna said, limping unsteadily as she tried to walk down the street. Balto held her up against his side, and she gratefully nuzzled under his chin. “Staying inside any longer would’ve made my legs even weaker. The doctor gave me a shot of medicine to stop my dizzy spells and help my legs, but I don’t think he even knows what I have. I doubt he knows if the medicine he gave me was right.”

“I know the perfect remedy for your condition, Jen,” Balto grinned, “And no doctor would know enough to prescribe it.”

“Oh?” Jenna said, her eyes laughing, “And what’s that?”

Jenna’s steps had slowed, and Balto matched his pace as he playfully entwined his tail with hers, scruffy with silky. “A snowy hilltop, a clear night, the Northern Lights overhead…and us.”

Jenna’s face lit up. “Oh, Balto!” she cried, and stopped abruptly to nestle her muzzle into the fur along Balto’s neck. He nudged her gently with his nose, and Jenna looked up to smile at him. “I feel better already.”

“Well, well.” A low chuckle caused both Balto and Jenna to look around uneasily.

“Who’s there?” Balto called.

“Balto…” Jenna murmured.

“Balto,” the voice continued, “I haven’t seen you in a long time. Too long. And by the looks of things you seem to be doing alright.” From the darkness between Jenna’s house and the next stepped Steele, a menacing grin on his face. Balto and Jenna both froze, speechless. “Surprised to see me?” Steele continued, edging his way forward, “It has been awhile. My exile ran for longer than I thought.”

“You’re still in exile, Steele,” Balto forced through clenched teeth, “And you deserve it.”

Poised in the shadows, Chase perked up her ears. Was this yet another clue that Steele had lied to her? In any case, this didn’t sound like the friendship Steele had described between him and Balto at all!

“You went for glory in everything,” Balto was saying, “You got the team lost, the dogs almost frozen, and the musher injured. You wouldn’t give up the medicine even though all those kids were close to dying, and you got me and the rest of the team lost again, nearly killing all the sick kids. You lied to Jenna and the rest of the town dogs about my ‘death’…Believe me, Steele, you got what you deserve, and maybe could’ve used a little more.”

“Come, come, let’s not live in the past, wolf-dog,” Steele said sourly.

“Isn’t that what you’re here for?” Balto growled, shifting his weight as Jenna slid a little down his back. “To get your revenge?”

“Oh, thank you for reminding me,” Steele laughed, taking a few steps back, “But I believe my revenge has already begun.”

Chase’s heart banged hard against her ribcage as she realized.

“What do you mean?” Balto demanded in a low voice.

Steele turned his attention to Jenna, who grimaced under his gaze. “Tell us, Jenna, during the past few nights have you ever woken up and seen, oh, say…other dogs?”

Against his body Balto felt Jenna’s muscles grow so tight he thought she would fall to the ground. “I thought it was just a dream,” Jenna stammered, “But-there would be other dogs around me. I couldn’t ever see their faces, but they smelt strange, as if they were sick or something. As if…” She was shaking slightly, but she took a deep breath and went on in a stronger voice. “I forgot about them till now.”

Steele looked away from Jenna to smile smugly at Balto.

“Steele, what did you DO to her?!” Balto exclaimed, his own limbs shaking, but from anger, not fear.

“It seems after spending years in the alleyways I made some…acquaintances among the homeless dogs that lived there,” Steele explained, “By promising them extra food I convinced a few of the more sick dogs to sneak into Jenna’s house each night until they made her sick as well. They’ve done their work well, it seems.” Steele grinned pleasantly into Jenna’s hateful glare. “It seemed hardly worth it to take you as my mate after you had had puppies with…him.”

Jenna opened her mouth, but she closed it again after finding out she didn’t know any word bad enough to call Steele. Balto was having the same problem. His mouth was drawn up in a snarl, and a series of short growls were emitting from his throat.

“You…You…”

“Keep your fur on, lupus,” Steele said coolly, taking a few steps back until the shadows half-consumed him, “For now, I’d like to introduce you to my second-in-command, my newest and most loyal officer in the army of alleyway dogs I’ve managed to set up and control…” Steele leered into the dark, his eyes glittering. Chase knew this was her cue to step out and reveal herself, but the guilt and shame made her freeze. She couldn’t move as Steele extended a paw and grabbed her front leg, muttered, “C’mon, half-blood,” and threw her into the light to land at her parents’ feet.

Chase got up but kept her head bowed, hard tears beginning to cut at her eyes.

“Chase?” Balto gasped.

“…Chase?” Jenna whispered in constricted tones.

All Chase could do was hang her head and choke out, “I’m sorry I helped Steele, I didn’t know what happened, he lied to me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, the dogs are going to come and chase you away, you’ve got to get away, Steele’s going to call them, there’s a signal, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Balto stared at Chase as if he couldn’t believe she was his daughter. The moment passed, though, and as Jenna seemed to gain strength from her anger and was able to heave herself up, Balto stood shaking and glaring into the round black pits of Steele’s eyes.

“Sad how a pup can be turned against her own parents,” Steele lamented, while grinning so hard and wickedly his face looked like it might fall off any second, “Very sad. But kind of pathetic, really.”

“Look-” Balto swallowed the hot ball of rage lodged in his throat. “Look what you’ve done to me and my family!”

“Yeah?” Steele said nonchalantly, “And what are you going to do about it? Stand there like you did in 1925 and be the coward you are? ‘I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to fight.’ ” Steele mimicked him in a high, weak voice.

Balto pushed a protesting Chase behind him and stood in front of his mate and daughter as if to protect them. His golden eyes flashed, and a flicker of fire seemed to jolt his every word in the courageous statement he made next. “Back then, Steele, I wouldn’t fight, not for myself. Those kids needed the medicine, and fighting wasn’t going to get us anywhere. If I had fought, it would have been selfish. The team needed me to lead them back to Nome. You got in the way, but your…stupidity got its own reward. Falling off a cliff, remember?”

Balto’s and Steele’s eyes locked, pure gold and devilish blue spinning into each other. Steele had begun