territory, but…

He looked upward.

The dark clouds showed no sign of leaving anytime soon.

He sighed again.

“I hope that she remembers what I taught her about situations like this, that she seeks cover” He said.

He glanced behind him at June again.

“What should I do Shasta?” He said.

“What?” June asked.

Dash forced a smile.

“Nothing,” he said, “I’m just talking to myself.”

“You’re worried about her, huh?”

Dash nodded.

“I’m sure she’s safe.” June said, smiling, “she’s a smart girl.”

“I hope so.” Dash said, “I hope so….”

Duke and Jenna were waking back from their exodus into the woods.

Jenna was laughing at something that Duke had said.

They came to a road on the outskirts of Nome.

As they stepped out into the street, Jenna heard the squall of brakes.

She jumped back on the sidewalk.

The truck slid sideways on the slick road, and came to a stop beside them.

An angry looking man jumped out.

Jenna didn’t think anything about it, the humans were often mad at the dogs when they caused something like that to happen.

Jenna mentally chastised herself.

She’d been so wrapped up in talking to Duke that she failed to see the truck.

Mistakes like that could be deadly.

It was when the man’s friend leapt out of the back of the truck that her blood ran cold.

He had a gun.

The man leveled it at Duke, and fired.

The gun cracked, and Duke yelped.

He fell to the ground, but was back on his feet in seconds.

He tried to run, but only made it halfway across the street before he collapsed.

Jenna was so shocked that she froze.

The man walked over and kicked the unmoving German Shepard several times, drawing no response.

“NO!!!” Jenna’s mind screamed at her.

The human knelt over the unmoving dog, and Jenna knew what she had to do.

Kodi felt kind of bad for following his mother, but he was curious, curious if what Drake had told him was true.

He’d found it was.

Jenna, his mother was seeing another dog.

It looked a little strange to him, to see his mother with someone other than his dad, but he also knew that it was good for her to move on, and hoped his dad would do the same.

He saw the truck approaching, and started to yell at them, to warn them, but stopped when the truck did.

He saw the man in the back load a gun, and jump out.

Then the man shot the dog his mother was with.

Kodi had moved out of the human’s sight when the gun appeared, after all, he had kids to take care of.

He thought the dog must be dead, from the range the human had fired, he couldn’t have missed….

…but the dog got up, and limped his way about half way across the street before he collapsed.

This time, he didn’t get up.

Kodi watched, as the man kicked the dog again and again, and then watched in horror, as his mother ran across the street and leapt at the man, landing on his back, and tearing into his shoulder.

The man yelled and flipped her off of his back, over his head.

Jenna sprawled on the ground, and came up to find herself staring right down the barrel of his rifle.

Another shot split the night.

Jenna backpedaled, and fell to the ground.

She didn’t move.

Kodi watched as the men picked up the dog, and threw him into the bed of the truck.

They talked for a minute, and looked around.

Then the one that had shot her, grabbed Jenna’s back paws, swung her around, and tossed her in the truck as well.

The two men jumped into the truck and drove away, slowly.

Kodi followed.

Balto was sleeping soundly when he was awakened by a crash in

the next room.

He stood up and cautiously made his way into the room.

His son, Kodi, lay in the floor.

He groaned and stood up, as his father walked over to him.

“When did that table get there?” He asked.

Balto laughed.

“Luke moved it over there so it’d be easier for me to get in and out. What are you doing here so late?”

He yawned.

Then he noticed the distressed look in Kodi’s eyes.

“Kodi? Kodi, what’s wrong?”

“Some guy….”

Kodi started crying.

Balto was extremely alarmed.

Kodi was so tough, he never cried.

“Some guy shot mom.” Kodi said.

Balto felt his heart drop right through his

stomach, and splat on the floor.

“What?” He asked.

“Some guy… shot… mom.” Kodi said again. “She was with this other guy… and… and he got shot, and then she attacked the shooter….”

Balto took a few steps back, as Kodi finished.

“… and he shot her.”

“When?” Balto asked.

“About an hour ago.” Kodi said. “They loaded the two of them up, and drove away.”

Kodi sighed.

“I… I followed them to a small camper out in the out skirts, and they off loaded the two of them there.”

He sighed again.

“I… I couldn’t do anything, because… well Dusty, and the kids….”

“I understand.” Balto said

“I… I didn’t know who else to come to dad.” Kodi said, “I…I just thought maybe you… I… I don’t know if she’s alive or not. I didn’t see any blood, but he as so close.”

Balto nodded.

“I’m going out there.”

“I knew you would,” Kodi said, trying to smile, but not succeeding very well.

“You go home.” Balto said, “If they’ve got guns, then this is going to be dangerous, and you’re right, you’ve got a family to take care of.”

Kodi nodded.

“I hope she’s okay.” Balto said, knowing even as he said it that he was probably never going to see her again.

“Jenna…. dead?” Balto thought.

Kodi turned, and jumped up on the table, then out the window.

Balto followed.

He watched, as his son ran off down the street, and then Balto turned and ran toward the outskirts.

Chapter 11

Dash and June walked through the snow covered woods.

It had stopped snowing, or almost had. The snow now just drifted through the still gray sky.

A strange smell came to Dash, one that he wasn’t familiar with.

He stopped walking.

June stopped as well.

“Dash, why’d you…”

He cut her off.

“Shhh!”

Dash looked around.

They were in a small clearing, and one that offered little protection.

The river ran clean and clear beside them, filling the clearing with its bubbling noise.

It also kept Dash from being able to hear well.

On their right were stone cliffs, that rose ten, fifteen feet into the air.

Dash looked around the clearing again.

He saw nothing, but nothing moved either.

It was silent in the clearing, and June walked up beside him.

Suddenly, the silence was split by a multitude of yells, battle cries.

About nine wolves landed in front of him.

The one in front laughed.

“Well, lookie here, looks like a couple of trespassers.”

The others laughed along with him.

He walked over to June.

“We’re just looking for my daughter,” Dash said, “she’s young, and doesn’t know of the tensions between our clans.”

This last part was a lie. Kalia was quite aware of the situation, but these wolves, members of the Uniea clan, didn’t need to know that.

“That must be that young one we got last night,” the wolf said, eying June. “You’d best just turn around and go back where you came from.”

He bumped his shoulder into June, knocking her down.

“You know,” the leader said, “you’re kind of cute…”

He turned to Dash and laughed.

“How about this? We let you return… but she stays with us.”

He grinned at June, and she shivered.

“Over my dead body.” Dash said coolly.

The wolf shrugged.

“Suit yourself.”

He moved toward June, and Dash leapt at him.

Dash was intersected in mid-air, and landed on the ground, hard.

He felt the air whoosh out of his lungs, and found it hard to get up.

He saw June go down, and saw the leader tear into her.

“June!” Dash thought, suddenly overwhelmed with a variety of emotions he didn’t expect.

The leader turned away….

June didn’t move.

A thousand thoughts screamed through Dash’s head at breakneck speed, as he tried to stand up.

The leader walked over to him.

“Your girlfriend tasted pretty good,” he said.

Before Dash could retort, the wolf’s paw slammed into his face.

Dash fell beck to the ground, then…..

Blackness.

When Jenna opened her eyes, she had a pounding headache.

She felt something painful in her face, right between her eyes.

This wasn’t the headache, it was something stuck there.

She picked up her paw and rubbed it against her face.

An oblong silver tube fell off, a long needle sticking from it.

“A dart…” Jenna thought.

Then she looked beside her.

Her heart jumped into her throat.

Duke was laying there, a similar dart sticking from his shoulder.

She looked around.

They were in a wooden cage of some sort, and she saw no way out.

The cage was in a shed, and the door was closed.

She could hear two men talking outside.

Duke