circle Balto, but he slowed when Balto settled himself down low, crouching. “But this is now, and this time you’ve gone too far. I still won’t fight for myself…but for Jenna and Chase, I will!” Balto lunged at Steele, and the two jerked back and forth as either bit and scratched, chewed and clawed on the other.

“Balto!” Jenna cried, shock replacing her anger at Balto’s sudden action. Her legs started to tremble, and Chase caught her before she collapsed. “Thank you, Chase,” Jenna panted, and Chase slowly lowered her to the ground. But Jenna’s attention was soon turned back to the fight, and even though she was sick and weak she shouted encouragement to Balto every time he fell or slowed in his attack. “C’mon, Balto! Hurry, get up! Steele’s right behind you! Get up!...Go Balto!”

Chase stood near her mother, watching the battle and letting the guilt weigh her down until she was visibly sagging. It was all her fault. She had betrayed her parents and helped strengthen Steele’s gang of street dogs. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known who Steele was at first. She had gone against her own blood, and she couldn’t let that go without a struggle. Almost mindlessly, she took a few steps toward the fighting pair in the middle of the street. Balto saw her from his position underneath Steele while the malamute was trying to squash his windpipe.

“No, Chase, don’t! You’re not strong enough!”

“Strong enough?” Steele cackled, “That girl helped me control five battalions of homeless mutts with hardly a scratch to her hide…Battalions that will be the death of you.”

Chase could tell Balto still couldn’t believe it, and a rage like lava bubbled into her as she thought of how far she had come in the past week. She was strong in spirit, if sometimes not entirely strong in body. She had kept running and fighting back even when other dogs and people had knocked her down with their thoughtless comments. She had commandeered an army, she had saved a dog’s life, she had even strengthened her crippled leg a little with some help from Ketch! And didn’t she have wolf blood running through her veins? She had the pride of a wolf, the part of her that would keep on fighting back when life attacked her too hard, the spirit that would keep going until the end. Her rage melded into one hot bar inside her and cooled a little. She took a deep breath, and plunged in between the two enemy dogs, pushing them apart and knocking Balto to the side, rolling in the dirt with Steele as she took Balto’s place in the fight.

“Chase!” Balto cried. He began to scramble up to go protect Chase, but a wound in his shoulder forced him back down, wincing.

“Balto.” He turned to find Jenna had managed to drag herself near to him. “Don’t go after her just yet. I just have a feeling…She needs to do this on her own.”

He looked at her questioningly, but when Jenna only gazed back he heaved himself closer to her and nuzzled her while she licked his wounds.

Steele’s face had become surprised when Chase had pushed in to join the fun, but after a few seconds the only thing left in him was cruel amusement.

“So, daddy’s little girl has jumped in to defeat the big, bad dog,” Steele sneered, throwing Chase against the pavement and patiently stalking towards her as she slowly got up. “Too bad time is running out.”

“I’m not doing this because I’m my dad’s favorite,” Chase seethed, “I’m doing this to get my own back. You lied to me, Steele!”

“Oh, now I feel really bad. Bad doggie!” Steele said sarcastically.

“Didn’t you say you waited for years before getting your revenge, just so you could make sure there weren’t other dogs around all the time watching out for my dad? And even then, when you could’ve tracked down my dad and taken care of him yourself, you used me to get to him, and you’re going to use the other dogs to finish him off!”

“Genius, isn’t it?” Steele chuckled.

“Okay, so I’m stupid,” Chase continued, ignoring Steele, “I let you trick me into betraying my family. But I’m not a coward like you, Steele!” Steele froze. “Unlike a weakling like you, I can take care of things myself. I…I’m strong!”

“Strong, huh?” Steele snarled quietly, “Are you strong enough to handle this?” His nails tore into her crippled leg, and Chase let out a howl of pain as wildfire burned without mercy inside the twisted limb. Steele attacked her with vengeance, swiping and scrapping her until she could hardly see, but Chase fought back just as hard, though she could feel her energy running out of her in streams. Steele seemed intent on killing her, or at least wounding her enough so she would hardly be able to leave the doctor’s in the future, if there even was one for her. They both were fighting blindly, she and Steele, and Chase heard Balto’s voice ring through the street: “I can’t stand this anymore, Jenna! I’ve got to stop her!”

‘Oh, please, no,’ Chase groaned inside her head, ‘I’m doing this partly for you, Dad. Don’t mess it up and get yourself killed “saving” me.’

Steele suddenly spun around and pinned her to the ground. His dark form rose far above her, and she felt his heavy breathing against her face when he leaned down to whisper. “Time’s up, Chase. You’ve served me well for your time, but I think your dad will thank me for this.” Chase looked straight into Steele’s eyes, and what she saw reminded her of the spinning of Duke’s plane propeller turning faster and faster. Steele was driving himself nearly insane with thoughts of revenge.

Steele raised a claw high up in the air, and was about to bring it down when…barking and yapping echoed through the street as a stampede of street dogs washed into the road and over to where Chase lay. Chase thought she heard voices, her father yelling, “Let me through! I’m her father!”

“Father?” Ketch’s voice had a hollow sound to it. “But…you’re Balto! Everybody, Steele’s trying to kill Balto’s daughter, and that’s Chase! Are we gonna let that happen?”

There were several surprised exclamations at Ketch’s discovery. “Balto!” “Who the heck’s Balto?” “You know, the dog who brought the medicine in to save the kids a couple years back!” “CHASE is one of his pups?” “Not exactly like father, like daughter, is it?”

Chase felt as if her very being was draining down a long, dark tube. The noise around her became hollow and detached, and she heard, as if from very far away, paws slamming down near her head and the outraged cry of Steele as the dogs surrounded him and began to chase him down the street, or at least that’s what it sounded like.

A blurry brown-gray splotch appeared in her fuzzy vision, and she heard Balto’s voice smearing the air: “Chase?...Chase.”

A whimper escaped her throat, but she hardly cared. She fell into darkness, escaped from the aching pain to a soft, noiseless world where nothing could touch her. 

Chase awoke to the feel of a hard, flat surface under her small body and the murmurings of people vibrating in her ears. She didn’t open her eyes, but tried to guess where she was. What she wouldn’t give to be back at her mother’s house, sleeping on the soft carpet and letting worries fade into dreams…

Two familiar scents filled her nose, and she forced open her eyes to find herself laying down on a hard white hospital table with Balto and Jenna peering anxiously over the edge of the table at her.

“Oh, Chase! Thank goodness you’re alright!” Jenna exclaimed, craning forward, but suddenly pulling back. Chase could tell Jenna wanted to hug her, but she didn’t want to risk getting Chase sick. Instead, Chase looked past her mother to see the relieved expression on Balto’s face. There was also something else, she could tell it from the look in his eyes and how he gave her an awkward smile. He was hiding something from her.

Chase abruptly pulled herself up and looked Jenna straight in the eye. “What happened?”

“A huge crowd of dogs came around the corner and piled themselves on top of you and Steele,” Jenna explained with some heat in her voice, “Your dad was trying to go after you, and when the dogs heard you were a famous sled dog’s daughter, well…”

“They changed their intent and chased Steele out of town,” Balto finished, “Where he is now, no one knows except those dogs.”

“And good riddance!” Jenna proclaimed.

Chase looked from one parent to the other. She was glad Steele was gone, but she was still missing some information. “And…how did I get here? This is the doctor’s, right? And Mom, how did you get in here? You could make somebody else sick!”

“I needed to see that you were okay,” Jenna said softly.

“One visit shouldn’t hurt anybody,” Balto said, “We managed to sneak her in, and the worst exit we can make is getting kicked out the door by Rosy’s father. As for how you got here, some people thought it kind of strange that a whole bunch of dogs seemed to be running to the same place at once. They came over to investigate, and when they found you and your mother both unable to move and you all beat up, they took you here.”

“You’ve been