some tears of her own, and Flint had gratefully kissed her forehead and continued on with the tale.

Once they got into an argument over how successful the escape plan had been, and Dusty waited for Flint to yell and hit Aleu, like she had seen her mother’s many boyfriends treat her mother. But Flint didn’t. He waited until Aleu was done with her side, and then he contradicted her so many times that she just laughed and conceded that he was right. It was nothing like Dusty had ever seen before, not in her family.

It was very late before the conversation began winding down and the pups started yawning. Remus, Shade, and Ruska fell asleep where they were, but Shaila waited until Quicksilver curled up, and then she wiggled in underneath his chin and rested in his paws. Quicksilver smiled gently and placed his muzzle to the side, and went to sleep, content.

Aleu suggested that everyone go to sleep, and Dusty lay down, watching.

She watched as Flint padded up to Aleu, saying something, and they both laughed quietly.

She watched as they lay down next to each other, Aleu snuggling into Flint’s side. They fell asleep peacefully.

Dusty felt that ache again, and this time it was so overpowering she had to talk to someone. She picked Shaila, who had shown so much wisdom earlier. “Hey, Shaila?” she murmured.

Shaila opened one eye. “Yeah?”

“How do you know Kodi and I would be good together?” Dusty asked earnestly. Inside she thought, ‘Can you tell me if it’s the right time to tell him that I want what his sister has: a mate, a family?’

Shaila opened the other eye. “That’s easy. You two match up. He’s stubborn, you’re stubborn. He’s a leader, you’re a leader. He just has a good family to go back to. And you don’t.”

Dusty stiffened. “How do you know so much?” she demanded.

Shaila smiled mysteriously. “I look. I listen.” She giggled suddenly, and closed her eyes.

Dusty shivered, and watched as the silvery moonlight filled the cave. Part of her wanted the moonlight to slip down her throat like silver mercury and wash away the confusion she felt at that moment in time, and another part wanted to get up, sneak out, and gallop all over town, all over Alaska if she had to, to find Kodi.

But her eyelids drooped closed before she could stop them, and sleep fogged her mind. Dusty vowed she would be up before sunrise to continue her search, and then she was out.

Kodi squirmed around restlessly, wondering why he was so cramped and stiff. Why did he feel like he’d been sleeping on boards?

His eyes half-opened, then he blinked and looked around as he tried to remember why he was on his father’s boat. The memories came back slowly, then in a sudden rush. ‘Dusty.’

Something brushed his face, and Kodi looked down to see he was covered in Balto’s old brown blanket. Kodi vaguely remembered shivering (he was used to a heated house, not a creaky old boat) and then warmth as something dropped over him and footsteps padded away. He looked over to see Balto lying asleep in an alcove across the way.

Kodi grinned. His father must have put the blanket over him. ‘Good old Dad. As in old, but still some good use,’ Kodi joked to himself. He dragged the blanket across the floor and covered his father with it. Balto stirred, but didn’t wake up.

“Sweet dreams, Dad,” Kodi chuckled, and bounded up the steps to the deck.

The sunrise was as glorious as the sunset he had viewed with Dusty a few days before. Lemon streaks licked the horizon, and scarlet and purple flung themselves across the sky as the deep orange sun rose.

A cold breeze ruffled Kodi’s fur, and a shiver ran through him as he began wondering about the answers he had received the night before. All things considered, the only thing to do was to go to Dusty and say…and say…What would he say? ‘I love you, Dusty’? ‘Who was that guy with you last night?’? Kodi couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t sound forward or nosy or awkward.

He shook his head, and set his jaw with a fierce frown. The first thing to do would be to find Dusty. After that, he had no idea what he was going to do, but he couldn’t sit around here, worrying.

Kodi jumped off the boat, ignoring the ramp, and landed with a painful pang in his legs. “…Ow,” he said through gritted teeth, and he would have laughed if his legs hadn’t felt so strange. He was turning into his father!

Kodi shook out one leg to make the jittering go away, when he heard a shout. He looked up to see a gray dog running full throttle towards him, and he squinted to see past the light streaming from the sun behind the running dog. Recognition hit him like a steam engine.

“Dusty?” His brown eyes widened. “Dus-!”

She slammed into him and knocked him over, so he lay flat on his back with her sprawled on top of him.

“Kodiak!” she yelled, “Why did you just run away? Why didn’t you just ask me? I know what it looked like, but don’t just assume you know everything!”

“Dusty,” Kodi said breathlessly, “Who was that guy with you?”

“That was my brother!” Dusty cried.

Silence.

Kodi lay there, dumbstruck. His brain seemed to have been stunned into shock. “Your…brother?” he said slowly.

Dusty nodded vigorously. “We were only horsing around, Kodi,” she told him.

Kodi didn’t know what to think. So he had misjudged the whole situation. Balto had been right.

Embarrassment leapt up inside him, but then another feeling took over. He started laughing, quietly at first, but then the sound grew louder and harder until he was laughing uncontrollably. Dusty gave him an uncertain look, but then she seemed to give in to something and began giggling, too. Kodi scrambled upwards, but he sank down several times as his sides went weak from laughing. Finally he made it to a sitting position, and Dusty sat beside him. They looked at each other and tried to calm themselves as their chuckling continued, and after a few minutes the humor had subsided.

They sat there, grinning at each other.

“Gee, I’m sorry, Dusty,” Kodi said apologetically, “I guess I really messed up. I should have thought.”

“It’s all right,” Dusty said, “Just remember: Danni is my brother, not my boyfriend!”

“Right,” Kodi said, “Too bad I can’t write these things down.” Dusty shoved him playfully, and he looked at her with innocent eyes. “What?”

She rolled her eyes, and then her face became serious. “I lost you when I was chasing you. Your sister found me when I was trying to find you again.”

“Which sister?” Kodi asked, though he thought he already knew.

“Aleu. Who else?” Dusty said with a small grin. “She…tried to help me find you…”

“But?”

“Frankly, she slowed me down every other step.”

Kodi laughed in surprise. “That’s weird. Usually-”

Dusty cut him off. She was worried if she stayed silent for too long that she would lose track of her words, and just sit there staring at Kodi. What would he think of her then? “It was dark before we got anything done, so Aleu took me to her cave and I met her mate, her pups, her friends. I fell asleep there, actually.”

“What’d you think of the pups?” Kodi said, “Pretty cute, huh? Ruska and Shade are nuts. And Remus is nice, but she’s too serious for a pup. Shaila can be really creepy. She’s so quiet, and then she tells you all this stuff about you that you didn’t think was so obvious.”

“Yeah, I got Shaila’s treatment already,” Dusty told him, hiding a shiver, “Guess what she said.”

“What?” Kodi asked. He didn’t know why, but his heart had started to pound.

Dusty gazed up at him, her skin tingling and her heart hitting hard against the inside of her chest. Was this the right time? “She said that I like you. A lot.”

Kodi had been waiting for this, but he still felt as if an ice-cold ocean wave had washed over him. Surprised was only one word to describe how he felt. He struggled to sound casual. “Oh. Well, what kind of ‘like’ is this? I mean, there’s ‘just friends’ like, and then there’s…” He cleared his throat nervously.

Dusty couldn’t hold on to her reality any longer. She let go, and ran her head along Kodi’s chest, nuzzling his neck. “This isn’t just a ‘like’. I know this is going to sound weird, but…I love you, Kodi!”

Kodi looked down and blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing right: Dusty nuzzling him.

A bubble welled up inside to make him want to laugh, and cry, and yell, and kiss her, but the bubble was popped by a single thought. “But I thought…What about your mom?”

“Forget my mom!” Dusty cried, “Forget her boyfriends, forget her partying, forget her past! Those were her choices, and I’m not going to make them mine! I’ve got my own life; I don’t need hers messing mine up!”

Dusty stared at him with defiance in her eyes, and felt her barriers break down as passion washed into her, leaving her glowing and warm. The sunrise was long gone, but Kodi was a piece of it left just for her. His red and white coat was snow set on fire, and she felt warmth from his body as she leaned against him. He was the passionate fire that consumed her, and even his scent, like hot cinnamon, burned down her throat and nose to heighten her senses and