as every wolf turned to face her.

“Everyone get over here!” Aleu cried, “I’ve got some news I think you should hear.”

Muttering comments and questions, her pack gathered around her and waited. She looked around until all burning yellow eyes were on her.

“The Golden River pack’s declared war on us,” she announced bitterly. There were gasps, exclamations, complaints among the wolves, but none other than Senna asked the one question that every Ravens Wing wolf except Aleu was wondering.

“And why do they want to wage war?” she asked, stepping forward with a serious expression on her face, but a smug look in her eyes. Aleu made a valiant attempt to keep her head up and her eyes focused, but she found herself dropping her head slightly and lowering her eyes.

“I’m the reason. My dog side. It seems almost every wolf thinks I don’t deserve to lead a pack!” she spat. The angry murmuring began, but Aleu shouted above the noise. “I’ve sent a message to the leader of the Golden River clan asking why he thinks this is a good enough reason to start a war. I’ve also sent Blake to ask for help from Gray Spirit if we do end up in a war. All we can do now…is wait.”

“Didn’t I say this would happen?” Senna said haughtily, “Didn’t I tell everyone? We’ve let a hybrid lead us into a war, and with so many of our wolf soldiers gone, we’re going to lose. How could we trust her? Because of her this pack is falling apart.”

“I’m doing the best I can, Senna,” Aleu said through a tight jaw, “Now back down.”

“Back down, back down,” Senna mimicked her in a high voice, “Is that all you can say? Let me teach you something that really speaks a message loud and clear.” The light brown wolf sauntered up to Aleu and sliced her across the face.

Aleu looked down at the four stinging red claw marks slashed across her cheek. She looked up at Senna with such hatred she thought her eyes would burn out of her sockets.

“What are you going to do now?” Senna taunted.

Aleu really, really wanted to reach out and tear the former alpha apart. She could just imagine how good it would feel to get all her anger out. The thought was very tempting. But if Senna was going to lose her head, how could Aleu? Though she had lost all her respect for wolves because of how they treated her, she couldn’t give in and let her pack down…Yet she couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

“Senna, if you want a fight, you’re not going to get one,” Aleu said quietly, “From me. Save your energy for something more useful, like maybe a battle?”

“Are you so ignorant that you can’t see that there’s a war going on inside this pack?” Senna said, “And you have to admit you’re losing. Give up before it gets too humiliating for you.” Aleu bared her teeth and growled, but someone else came to her defense.

“Oh, go choke on a caribou bone, Senna,” Linder drawled, “All you’ve done since Aleu got here is show off and be a stuck-up old carcass. You’re the reason all those wolves left to join the other packs.” Senna shot the gray and white wolf a glare. “And yes, I know I just blew your cover. Aleu probably already knew you were up to something. She’s not as stupid as you give her credit for. You should know the only things that are stopping you from getting Rejected are the old laws and Aleu’s wanting to be a good leader.” Aleu remembered the passage in the Code of the Wolf very well: any wolf who has betrayed his pack in any way must be Rejected, unless that wolf is a former alpha, and then his or her decision must be respected because of the supposed ‘wisdom’ of their years.

“That may be so,” Senna muttered, slowly starting to circle closer and closer to Aleu, “But I knew what was right for this pack when Nava was here, and that shouldn’t change now. I say Aleu has got to go!” She leaped onto Aleu, catching her by surprise, and Aleu had to struggle to defend herself as Senna’s claws flew through the air and cut the space just above Aleu’s neck. Aleu knew she was in a vulnerable position on her back, and an inferior stance besides, so as quickly as she could she flipped over and stood up, butting Senna in the stomach and knocking the wolf back a few feet. It wasn’t a particularly powerful or graceful move, but it was all Aleu had before she recovered from shock.

Senna shook herself and grinned. “So you do have some fight in you. All the better, so it’ll be more humiliating when you lose.”

No one stepped out to help Senna or Aleu. She guessed they thought of this as a battle between the alphas, and whoever won would be proclaimed the pack leader. She had to win this.

Senna flung herself back at Aleu, but Aleu stepped aside so Senna crashed into the ground. The female wolf came up with dirt crusting her muzzle and scarlet blood dripping from her mouth. She narrowed her eyes determinedly and charged again, and this time caught Aleu by the leg and pulled her down. Nails and teeth crisscrossed Aleu’s vision as she scrambled up and tried to block them using anything she had: paws, tail, side. She had a vague sense of moving backward, and then her tail brushed the trunk of an old evergreen tree. Senna had been making her back up, and now she was trapped.

Senna advanced forward and raised a paw with nails gleaming. “For the Ravens Wing pack. For all wolves.” She grinned wickedly, beginning to slash her paw down. “For me.”

Aleu closed her eyes and unconsciously stepped back, remembering Nava and the way he seemed to melt mysteriously into the trunks of trees. Her foot raised into nothingness, and fear caught in her chest as she seemed to fall backwards with nothing above or below her, down, down, down…

She landed with a jolt, but she didn’t fall. Her body seemed strangely stiff and sturdy. She looked up to see Senna staring at her as if slightly in shock, and suddenly Aleu realized what must’ve happened. She instantly felt kind of giddy with glee, and she would have laughed crazily if she hadn’t been so stupefied. She almost couldn’t believe it. She had ‘become one’ with the tree.

Blake dashed up to the pack and stopped, his chest shaking with breathlessness. “Aleu!” he cried, and looked around. He first noticed Senna staring at the trunk of an evergreen tree, and he trotted over, looking at Senna with a bemused expression on his face. He halted and looked questioningly around again. “…Aleu?”

“We’re not finished,” the former alpha muttered to the tree, and she swaggered away.

With regal calm, Aleu slid out of the trunk and shook out her brown-gray fur as the stiffness left her. “Yes, Blake?” She laughed inwardly as his jaw dropped and Blake gaped at her, the stance complete with bulging eyes and a mouth open wide enough to be mistaken for a cave. Aleu glanced at her pack and noticed they all had on more or less the same expression. She couldn’t help it; a tiny smile crept up on her face, and she could feel her eyes twinkling, laughing. This was the most fun she had had since she had joined the pack.

Finally Blake got a grip on himself and closed his mouth, clearing his throat. “Gray Spirit wanted to help, but there are so many wolves in his pack now that came from ours, that he feared a rebellion if he came to assist you. He’s sorry, but there’s nothing he can do.” Blake stopped and gazed around at his audience. “We’re on our own.”

Questions and exclamations filled the plain: “That’s it; we’re dead!” “It’ll be a war with twelve against forty!” “Whoever says it’s safer to surrender now and save ourselves the misery after battle, say aye. Aye!”

Quicksilver looked over at Aleu. “I’m with you till the end.”

She nodded to him gratefully, then yelled over the clamor, “STOP! Everybody…” The pack went silent. “…stop.”

All eyes burned into Aleu’s skull, and she faced them with fierce impatience. “You’re all acting like a bunch of stupid, weak pups! Don’t get all excited just yet! Remember, I’ve sent Rufus with a message to Lupus to see if he’ll reason. Maybe there won’t be a war.”

“Yeah, and maybe caribou can fly,” someone muttered sarcastically. Aleu ignored him and stood proud.

“We’ll just have to wait.”

The next morning Aleu and Linder sat outside the pack cave as fat, wet snowflakes danced down from the blue-black sky. One landed on Aleu’s nose, and she licked it off and shivered as her pink tongue froze for a moment. “Before we start, I’ve got a question.”

“Alright,” Linder said patiently, nibbling an itch on her leg, “Ask away.”

“…Why are wolves so prejudiced against different breeds?” Aleu asked, “I mean, I know a wolf-dog leading a wolf pack is kind of strange-”

“Hm!”

“-but what’s the big deal? It’s only breeding. What matters is the individual; what matters is who they are, not what they are.”

“It’s strange hearing you say that,” Linder commented, “Because many wolves (and dogs) older than you, including me, have taken years and years to discover that. Many more still haven’t