going to happen!”

Aleu stood still, very still. Her shock raged through the blood that pounded in her ears.

“All of you are crazy!” Quicksilver protested, “We can’t just kill the pups because of some guesses of the consequences if we let them live!”

“Better safe than sorry,” the first wolf said.

Quicksilver glared around at them all. “Well, I’m not going to be a part of this.” He broke through the circle and ran towards the cave.

“He’s going to tell Aleu! Get ‘im!” one of the wolves shouted. The meeting broke up to chase Quicksilver, and as he ran past Aleu and Linder, Linder grabbed him and dragged him into the dark. In the commotion no one noticed, and the pack continued chasing after nothing as they turned into dull streaks against the horizon.

Linder lifted her paw away from Quicksilver’s mouth, and his eyes locked on Aleu. “You heard?”

Aleu nodded, tears sliding down her face. Quicksilver’s face took on a sympathetic expression, but he could only stand there helplessly as Aleu regained control of herself and swiped the saltwater streams fiercely from her face. “They want to kill my babies!”

“Flint needs to know about this,” Linder said lowly, “And when the birth comes you’ll need extra protection around the den.”

“Would speaking to the pack work?” Aleu asked doubtfully.

Quicksilver shrugged. “I don’t know…I can’t believe after all this time they still don’t accept you.”

“I guess I’ll never be accepted,” Aleu muttered bitterly, “And neither will my pups…What kind of future’s in store for them, even if they live?”

“Quit talking like that!” Linder exclaimed, “This isn’t the Aleu I know! Now we’re going to find a solution, but first we need to get back to the cave. Aleu, you and me will go into the cave first, with Quicksilver coming after us a few minutes later. Make up some excuse as to why we were out of the cave, and then when Quicksilver comes, stop the others from attacking or questioning him. When everything’s settled down, wake up Flint and tell him what’s going on. We clear?”

“Sure,” Aleu sighed, and they headed back.

The plan was carried out, and as soon as semi-calm was restored Aleu lay down beside Flint and oh-so-gently jabbed her muzzle into his side as hard as she could.

“Ow!” he cried, “What in the-”

“Get quiet and listen,” Aleu said urgently, “Linder led me to a place where more than half the pack was set up in council. They want to kill my pups because they’re scared other packs will start letting dogs join them when they hear of wolf-dog pups being born in this pack. They think after awhile wolf-dog pups will be common, and the wolf species will die out because there will be so many wolf-dogs! They want to kill our pups, Flint!”

Flint’s brown eyes burned hot with rage. “Kill our pups? The pack? Will they be reasoned with?” Aleu shook her head, knowing reason couldn’t help something like this. “Then we’ve got two choices: stay or leave. Staying would be dangerous. We have to leave the pack.” For some reason that statement stung Aleu, but she didn’t say anything. This was serious, and none of her useless comments would help. “We can trust Linder, Quicksilver, and Blake, hopefully…Do you still have to choose your whelping den?”

Aleu blinked. “My what?”

“The place you’ll have your pups,” Flint explained, “Don’t dogs do the same thing? Have their pups in a different place than where they normally live? Except they don’t call them whelping dens.”

“Yeah,” Aleu said, “Okay, what about my ‘whelping den’?”

“Make sure there’s a way to get in from the back,” he said, “We’ll need that.”

Aleu could almost see the wheels turn in Flint’s head as he continued thinking hard. She couldn’t ignore the needle of uncertainty pricking at her thoughts, though. She had to ask. “Flint, are you sure this is the only way?”

He swung around in disbelief. “Can you think of anything else where you or me or the pups don’t get killed? This is serious, Aleu. Most of our pack is out to KILL our pups. KILL. MURDER. They want them DEAD. And if they don’t want the pups alive, they won’t want you alive. You were fine as a virgin warrior leader, but now with pups…you’re a threat to them, and maybe the whole wolf species. I think they’re jumping to conclusions a little too quickly, but they might be right. They seem to think so. But I’m not going to let you be hurt or killed or exiled. You and the pups deserve more than you’re getting. I’m not going to stop until you get respect and acceptance.”

“You’ve set out on an impossible quest, Sir Flint,” Aleu joked, stroking her swollen belly and brushing flirtatiously against him, “But me and the pups thank you…So what’s your plan for this Great Escape?”

Flint bent close and murmured in her ear, “I’ll tell you…”

About a month later, Aleu stood outside her chosen whelping den: an old fox den dug into a small hillside not far from the pack cave. She trotted inside and noted the seemingly normal back wall. Really it was very thin, thin enough to be broken through by a single sharp thrust. She knew this because nearly every night for the past week she had snuck down here and scraped the wall, thinning it until she almost fell through. It would work well for Flint’s plan, providing everything else happened successfully.

She still felt a twang of uncertainty for the whole escape. She wanted to protect herself and her pups, but it was hard to leave a pack she had thought she would be leading to greatness until her death. She knew it wasn’t her fault the Ravens Wing wolves didn’t have their heads on straight. Still…

She pattered outside again and found Flint waiting for her. He slid his neck over hers and ran his chin over her shoulders. The effect was soothing, and she smiled faintly and leaned into him.

“Ready?” he murmured.

“Mmhm,” she answered, suddenly at a loss for words. Who could ever be ready for the stunt they were about to perform?

“Are you okay?” Flint asked, breaking away and studying her.

Aleu looked back at him, barely aware of a hot, gutting feeling spreading over her stomach. The pain prodded her for a searing second, but then it was gone. “I’m fi-” An explosion of heat and knifing pain stabbed her in the stomach, and she fell to the ground, groaning. “Hold that thought,” she gasped.

“Aleu!” Flint cried, panic-stricken. His howl for assistance blurred and whirled around in Aleu’s head, and she struggled to stand. The confusion of wolves running to help dizzied her, and someone tried to help her walk, but they were pushed away and Flint slipped into place beside her. “C’mon, Aleu,” he kept saying, “Just a couple more steps. You’re going to be okay.” She closed her eyes and shook her head from side to side to get away from the pain. Her paws were disconnected from her body and automatically padded forward. She kept going until the walls of the den closed around her, and then she collapsed.

Aleu could feel Flint’s concerned stare as she writhed on the ground, but then another wolf came in and led him away. She was alone now, and the pain was getting worse.

She panted crazily, and pain flashed vengefully up her body and burned it until she felt like she was glowing red. The burning singed her every few minutes for what seemed like eternity. She couldn’t think, except for one thought after a long time: ‘Isn’t something supposed to be happening?’

As soon as the thought passed through her brain, the contractions began. Her muscles pumped and stretched against her, and Aleu bit back a shriek and shook violently on the floor. She could feel it, it was coming, push, push, pushpushpushpush- Red pain, red fluid, red puppy exploded out of her rear end. Lightning bolts of pain stabbed and ripped apart her worn body. She held her breath, but ended up bursting out her air as a rip-roaring twinge announced the nearing departure of another pup. Aleu squeezed her eyes shut so as to at least have the cool darkness behind her eyelids as shelter. She let out a tormented cry as the second pup burst forth in a shower of scarlet fluid. Suddenly instinct kicked in. Aleu robotically licked her pups clean and nudged them to her teats.

Another pup squeezed its way out of her, and after Aleu had that one cleaned and settled she laid her head down, exhausted. When was this going to end?

Two more bloody bundles of joy emerged from her limp body, and her tongue and face did the work mechanically to wipe and nudge. She found herself staring at five newborn pups, the oldest a black and white female, the second-oldest a black and brown-gray male, the middle pup a white female with a reddish splotch on her forehead, the next a white male, and the youngest a black, white, brown-gray, and red-patched female. They all created the unfamiliar tug on Aleu’s stomach in hopes of food, but Aleu didn’t much care. As they sucked she sprawled out, closing her eyes and automatically falling into sleep. The last thing she wanted to think about was the plan that was waiting to be executed.

Several hours later, Aleu was woken up by the sound of crumbling dirt and a startling decrease in temperature. She