Jenna.

Then suddenly, his eyes lit up and he ran up to the door.

Ryan and the rest, attracted by this, came closer.

“What is it, Balto?” Ben asked.

“The hinges,” he replied, “The hinges! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?”

Ben watched in confusion as Balto lifted the new hinges out of their holders, one by one. The door leaned awkwardly inward without its support, and Balto pushed it away to peer inside.

By the far wall stood a tan husky with a black muzzle, whom Balto could only assume was Jenna’s father. And there beside him on the floor lay Jenna, quite motionless.

Balto snarled and bared his teeth in rage.

“What have you done to her?” he demanded, charging forward.

The tan husky also bared his teeth, and leapt to meet his new threat.

Balto struck first, leaving a deep, bleeding gash where his teeth had found purchase in Mike’s chest.

Mike clawed Balto across the face, causing him to jump back and shack his head to rid himself of the sharp pain.

The two fought brutally, clashing together and drifting apart in a never-ending struggle for dominance. Before long, though, Balto’s endurance began to give him the upper hand over the tan husky’s strength. Finally, Mike tried for Balto’s throat, but in vain. Balto anticipated the tan husky’s ill-fated jump and side-stepped it easily. As Mike’s teeth snapped on empty space, Balto toppled him and brought his own teeth around his throat. Mike tensed up, but quickly realized it would do no good to struggle any further.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Balto; I’m Jenna’s mate, and you’ll not touch a single hair on her head again so long as I’m living.”

Balto released his hold and backed away as Ryan and Ben moved forward to apprehend Mike. Yet as he turned away, Balto’s eyes fell on Jenna’s motionless form and he felt tears well up and fill his heart with a sorrow that quickly turned to rage. He spun around and delivered one last blow right across her father’s face; Mike cried out in pain, but did nothing, lest he incur the growing anger of the four others in the shed. Satisfied, Balto turned again to Jenna and padded up beside her.

She still hadn’t moved.

He nuzzled her, and whimpered when she gave no response.

Behind him, Ben gave Mike a warning.

“You better pray that she lives,” he growled, gesturing to Balto, “or he’ll be the one to execute you. And there’s no law saying how fast we have to kill you.”

Balto crouched down and nuzzled her again, lifting her muzzle with his.

Please, Mother, help me, he thought desperately. Don’t take her from me!

Chapter Three: If Tomorrow Never Comes

He tried not to; he didn’t want to, but somehow, Balto kept glancing at the hospital door. Though Ryan and Ben and all the rest of the town’s canine citizens did their best to assure him that the town doctor would come thru for them, he couldn’t help but pace back and forth just beyond the comforting glow cast from the hospital’s back windows.

Somewhere off in the night, a lone wolf howled.

Balto, usually eager to correspond with his wilder brothers and sisters, declined to answer.

His legs ached and his chest and back stung from the many scars from his fight with Jenna’s father. The trial was going on, but there was no real reason for him to be there. He’d already delivered his testimony and shown his wounds, and he would never give up on Jenna.

Still, he’d never prayed so long or so hard in his life.

Finally, weak and tired from going more than a day without sleep and emotional strain, he curled up by the door and fell asleep.

A haunting song echoed thru his mind as he slept:

If tomorrow never comes, will she know how much I loved her?

Did I try in every way, to show here every day, that she’s my only one?

And if her time on Earth were through, I must face this world without her,

Is the love I gave her in the past, gonna be enough to last,

If tomorrow never comes.

Silently, he wished that if Jenna had gone that he should die that very instant and follow her to eternity…

…but not an hour later, though it seemed like days to him, the door opened.

His ears perked up and his eyes shot open.

There stood Jenna.

Overcome with elation, he jumped up and nuzzled her tenderly.

“Oh Jen,” he whispered, “you don’t know how happy I am to see you.” She stepped back and met his gaze as hot tears flowed down his face. “I thought I’d lost you.”

Jenna swallowed hard as her own joy choked her.

“I’m really glad to see you, too,” she replied, nuzzling him again.

Balto glanced around. The rest of the town’s canine citizens were gone, probably to the trial.

“C’mon,” he said, “I think you ought to be there when they convict him.”

The two padded thru the empty streets to the boiler room, where Ryan’s commanding voice rang out.

“…and so, for your crimes of aggravated assault with intent to kill and fleeing the law, this court finds you…”

“Wait!” Jenna interrupted, stopping in the doorway. The room filled with whispers of ‘She’s alive!’ and ‘Look at those scars!’ Jenna ignored them. “I believe there is yet one charge that has yet to be leveled at my father.” She stepped boldly thru the crowd as it parted before her and marched right up to Mike to look him square in the eye. “I accuse my father with the abuse and murder of my mother, Angel.”

The room again filled with hushed talking, but Ryan held up his paw for silence.

“Miss Jenna, I see you are yet well. It’s so good to see you again.”

“Thank you,” she replied.

“Could you please relate to us your experiences while in your father’s care?”

Jenna winced at the word ‘care’ but turned and addressed the crowd.

“Most of you may not still remember me, but I lived here for nearly half my life; all of this time under my father’s…’care.’ For the first few weeks of my life, he was the best father I could have asked for, but then one day he bought into rumors of my mother running around with another dog, and he changed forever…”

As Jenna slowly and painfully imparted her past to the crowd, there were few if none among them that did not shed a tear of sympathy for this mistreated cream and red husky. When she finished, no one said a word for several minutes.

Finally, Ryan stepped forward.

“Due to this new information in addition to Ben's previous tesitmony, I find the accused guilty on all accounts: aggravated assault with intent to kill, abuse of child and mate, and murder.” He turned to face Mike. “Your punishment, due to the number and severity of your crimes and as mandated by the laws of this town, is death. The sentence is to be enacted immediately.” He paused, letting the weight of what he’d said sink in. “Do you have any last words?”

Mike only stood where he was. Throughout the whole trial, he had fixed his gaze on the opposite wall. He didn’t even look at Ryan.

“Then may Aniu have mercy on your soul,” Ryan said.

Jenna gave a start. Aniu? She looked around quickly. Had anyone else heard it? The crowd seemed untouched by the mention of the wolf goddess, and even appeared as though they had fallen deaf. Jenna turned toward Ryan and sought his eyes, but he nodded to two strong huskies that stepped up beside him and led him out of the boiler room as three more of their comrades followed them out toward the edge of town. Jenna bowed her head and sighed.

Balto stepped up beside her.

“Jenna?”

“He was a b******, but he was still my father,” she said softly.

Balto nodded and let her rest her head on his shoulder.

“It’s over Jenna,” he whispered.

Just then, a low, loud clanging filled the air.

“That’s our town bell,” Ryan commented, stopping to address the two on his way out of the boiler room.

Suddenly, the sky lit up as tens of fireworks ignited in the midnight air, flashing brilliant displays of red, white and blue. Jenna padded out and fixed her gaze on the display, and tears filled her eyes as she began to sing the words that flowed from her heart:

Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing,

Let the whole world know that today, is a day of reckoning,

Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong,

Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay,

It’s Independence Day.

She raised her muzzle to the heavens and let out a howl. Balto stood there beside her for a moment in shock, and then joined in. Throughout the town and indeed well out into the forest beyond, their call echoed and caught the attention of all near enough to hear it. Finally, the two let their call die down to nothing. When their eyes met, they both began to smile.

“Balto,” Jenna said, “let’s go home.”

Though the morning sun would find them curled up on Rosie’s porch, that night, Balto and Jenna were glad to have each other’s company as they started homeward.

Yet even as the two mates took leave of Applegate under a star-choked, color-filled sky, among the sparkling lights of the stars and fireworks, a cream and white husky appeared. She cast her eyes downward and, upon seeing the two, she smiled.

“You’ve certainly found a life of your own,” she said. “Farewell, my dearest Jenna. I love you.”

As the last toll of the bell rang out, she faded away into the night sky.

The End