padded out after them.

For a long moment, Treffen stood speechless; amazed that his daughter had that much fire in her heart. He sighed with content as he remembered when he had first met Kikki. Then he glanced in the direction Krystal and the others had gone.

“Echo,” he said, “would you follow her? She’d be furious if she caught me stalking her like a caribou.”

“Of course, my friend,” Echo replied, turning to Gunther as he padded toward the den entrance, “Keep watch while I’m gone. I won’t be long.”

“As you say, Echo,” Gunther replied, straightening his posture. Echo nodded in acknowledgement and set off toward Nome.

Meanwhile, Kaltag caught up with Krystal as she padded quickly toward Nome, muttering angrily about her father.

“…he’s got no right to control my decisions,” she was saying, “Who does he think he-?”

“Hey,” he interrupted, “Are you alright? You got pretty mad back there.”

“I’m fine; I just don’t like it when he treats me like that.”

“I know how you feel,” Balto replied as he caught up to her, “I got the same thing from Boris.”

“The Russian goose? He’s worried about you?”

“Yep, but now that I’m settling down with Jenna, I think he’s gone home to Russia. I haven’t seen him around here for a while.” Balto looked up as they drew close to Nome. “Hey Kaltag, isn’t that your human?”

“Yeah,” Kaltag replied, turning his muzzle back toward Nome, where he spotted an old man hunched over a sled, putting the dogs in their traces.

“Why is he loading a sled?”

“I don’t know, maybe he’s going out of town or something?”

“When was the last time someone left Nome and came back?” Kaltag swallowed as the answer crossed his mind: Never. The foursome padded slowly up to the sled as the man looked over his shoulder turned around.

“Well now,” he said to Kaltag with a quick smile, “so this is where you’ve been. Out with your girlfriend, eh?” He patted Kaltag’s head and sighed. “Well, I think it’s time I got this over with.” Then, to everyone’s surprise, he leaned down and unclipped Kaltag’s collar. The former wearer looked up, quite confused. The old man sat on the sled and looked him right in the eye. “It won’t be long until I pass on to the next life, boy, and then what would happen to you?” He shook his head. “No, you can go where you want now, boy. Be good.” He patted Kaltag on the head one last time and went back inside his house. The four canines looked at each other with raised brows. Kaltag, bewildered, stared after his former owner.

“Well,” he said finally, “I guess I’ll really be spending the rest of my life with you.” He and Krystal nuzzled each other and began to laugh. As they did, Balto caught a familiar scent on the wind just as a faint howl reached his ears. He put the scent out of his mind and inclined his keen ears toward the direction of the howl, but before he could make out what the message was, the howl was abruptly cut off. A chill went up his spine as he turned toward the tree line, where the scent had come from.

“Echo?” Jenna overheard him and padded closer.

“Balto, what is it?”

“Something’s wrong, I can feel it.” He turned to face her. “C’mon, we need to get back to Echo’s den….now!”

Chapter Two

They had come without warning. Without sounding an angry howl to announce their presence as they usually did. And they came without mercy. Just moments after the attack had begun, it was over. Vella felt as though she would faint. Sprawled before her and covered in a crimson liquid that could only be his blood was Treffen. As he felt his life flowing swiftly out of him, he used his last ounce of strength to look up and say,

“Forgive…me…Vella…I couldn’t…stop them….I’m sor…” Before he could finish his dying gasp, the strong black wolf’s head fell as his body stiffened and went limp. Treffen was dead. Vella looked down at him and then at the wolves that stood before her. Their eyes glowed with malice and they began to advance toward her when a silver female stepped through their ranks. Vella prepared herself for the worst, but the silver female turned to the gathered wolves and said,

“Stand down, that’s an order.”

“As you say, Sena,” they replied, stepping back respectfully.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen…” Sena muttered, looking around the cave in horror. Everywhere she turned there was another mangled wolf, and not one of them was from their pack. They were all Echo’s wolves. She looked back at the wolves gathered behind her. “This wasn’t supposed to happen!” she shouted to them. Just then, a dark brown male came from behind Vella and saluted Sena.

“We have found your son,” he sneered.

“Bring him to me.” On cue, a young black male was pushed roughly to the cave floor at her paws. She dropped down beside him and helped him back to his paws. “Nemec, what is the meaning of this?” she demanded.

“He betrayed our pack, Sena,” the dark brown wolf continued coldly, “He is one of them.” Sena looked in shock at the black wolf that lay before her. Putting a paw on his shoulder, she led him out of the cave. Captain Nemec stifled a laugh and looked at Vella, who looked back at her with no expression on her face. “Your pack was much less of a challenge than I thought they would be. I’m very disappointed.” Vella remained silent until another silver female stepped through the ranks of her wolves, looking around with an odd expression on her face.

“Vella,” she began.

“You had no reason to attack us, Sadera,” Vella interrupted, as her eyes glowed with hate, “I am ashamed to even know you. Your actions disgrace Aniu herself, and I hope that you will be punished.”

“Your words wound me, Vella,” Sadera replied, feeling an odd emotion rising in her chest. Confused at this but not wanting to show it, she continued, “But you must admit that I’ve done much better than you. While you ran off with Echo, I rose through the ranks and gained more loyal soldiers than you whole pack put together.”

“At least I was happy,” Vella replied, “but now…” Sadera began to tear up, but turned and quickly left so as not to embarrass herself in front of everyone else. Captain Nemec watched her go and then looked back at Vella. “Well, since she left, that puts me in charge,” he said, “I seem to remember you having pups. Where are they?”

“I’ll never tell you,” Vella replied. Nemec gave an evil grin.

“We’ll see about that.”

Minutes earlier, Echo had watched quietly from the trees as Krystal and the others padded up to Kaltag’s human. As the old man leaned down toward Kaltag, a desperate howl had reached him. Gunther’s voice, though faint in the distance, had rung clearly in his attentive ears. There was no message, only a pleading cry for help. As Echo had been about to howl in reply, Gunther’s voice was suddenly and unnaturally cut off. Feeling a twinge of fear in his heart, he had leapt to his paws and ran as fast as his legs would carry him toward his den.

When he reached the waterfall, he paused briefly to catch his breath and look around. He expected to arrive to the sounds of battle, but what he heard frightened him much more.

Nothing. Complete silence.

“Gunther? Gunther, are you there?” Still no reply. Echo ignored his fear as best he could as he padded quickly up the stone pathway…

…and nearly screamed. Because he had found why no one had replied to his calls. Gunther lay dead and limp against the rock where he had last stood scanning the forest with his keen eyes. Now those same eyes stared blankly back at Echo, shocked to be dead. Echo felt a new panic take hold of him and he dashed into his den to be confronted by a scene of almost surreal drama and slaughter.

Both Milo and Kikki had been caught sleeping, and were killed outright, with no chance to defend themselves or even know what was happening. Rorek lay slumped against the cave wall, a sharp rock protruding awkwardly from his chest. Though nothing betrayed his last moments, his mouth hung open in pain and agony, an eternal scream frozen on his face. Echo felt himself going faint, but fought it off and forced his eyes to travel around the den. Sprawled in a pool of blood in the middle of the floor was Treffen, and behind him…

“Vella… No!” He ran up to her and collapsed by her side. To his great surprise, she lifted her head and managed a smile.

“Echo…” she whispered.

“Vella? Who did this? Who was it? I swear by Aniu’s breath that I’ll kill them.”

“There was a brown wolf. Captain, they called him. He, he killed Rorek, even though he surrendered. His wolves killed everyone.” Her eyes filled with tears, but Echo’s eyes filled with rage at this news. “But,” Vella continued, “They….didn’t find…the pups.” She reached out with her front paw and gestured. Echo followed her gaze and saw a small pile of rocks. He padded over and pulled a few away to find a tiny