wasn’t in his nature.

“It’ll only be from mid-morning to early afternoon,” he persisted, “I won’t be gone long. If I hear any news of you going into labor, I’ll be running back here as fast as I can. I promise.”

I nudged his chin with my nose and nuzzled him quickly. “Go. I’ll be fine. If anything should happen, I’ll get someone to howl so you’ll know something’s up.” The grin that split his face made me want to smile, too.

Suddenly he coughed, and a flicker of fear scratched across his face as he struggled to breathe through the hacking fit. I stepped back worriedly as he continued fighting for breath, and when he finally stopped coughing I looked up at him with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Sure,” he replied, “I’m fine. You worry too much, Aniu. I’m fine.”

Seminole stood at the front of the cave gathering up all the males. He called something out to Scout, and my mate nodded and turned to me. “We’re going now. I love you.” He kissed me gently on the forehead and then very briefly on the mouth, since undoubtedly every pack member was watching us.

I burrowed into him and whispered into his thick fur, “I love you, too.”

He backed up and grinned at me, then scampered away to join the other males. As he ran away from me, I thought I saw his leg twitch and spasm, and I heard him cough again when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.

The last I saw of him was his brown and white coat on his husky build among the wolves’ bigger, more camouflaged hides, his fur and size shouting out his heritage as they raced away from the rest of the pack.

The morning passed slowly. I talked with Snow Paws, rested, ate, and watched the sun make its great arc across the sky. At the day’s highest point I lay bathing in the sun’s rays, letting the wind caress my back and shoulders.

A fluttering kick inside my belly made me wince, then smile wanly. I remembered Wildfire’s remarks about my physical weakness when I was a pup; now I hoped I was strong enough to deliver a litter that would make Scout proud.

A gunshot rocketed through the silence of the day. At the same time I felt shock ripple through my body, and my muscles turned against me as they pushed and stretched. I gasped for air and looked around in a panic, but no one had thought to check on me yet. I was alone, but I knew my pups didn’t care. There would be no safe whelping den for them to be born into. I was defenseless against predators or my own unique enemies as I gave birth.

I sprawled out on the hillside and heaved with all my might.

Nothing came.

I pulled my muscles hard and tried to remember to breathe as I strained my back end. My insides felt burned, ripped and slashed.

Still no pup.

What was wrong? I groaned as I pushed, and then with a sloppy burst a pup slid out. It was about the ugliest thing I had seen on Earth. But it was part of me.

I cleaned it, watched it take its first breath, felt sun and moonbeams shoot through me as I discovered it was a girl. “Welcome, little one,” I breathed. She squirmed and whimpered, and I smiled at my first baby even as I felt sparks inside me that signaled the coming of another pup.

“Well, look at that.”

I turned my head slightly to see two wolves standing over me with sneers plastered all over their faces. I snarled, but knew I was helpless. These two were named Soran and Roan, and the two enjoyed making fun of my being a bastard and my love for a dog. By the devilish gleam in both their eyes, I could tell this next insult would go beyond snide comments, beyond any trick they had ever performed.

Roan, the reddish wolf, ran his thick tongue over his chipped fang. “Aniu’s had a pup.” He sniffed. “A wolf-dog pup, seems like. We can’t have wolf-dogs dishonoring the pack, can we, Soran?”

“Let’s do Aniu a favor,” Soran, the gray wolf, replied. He snatched up my newborn daughter and ran off with her, laughing through the puppy skin and fur in his mouth.

Roan chuckled and looked down at my seething form. “We want to save you from embarrassment, Aniu. Who ever heard of wolf-dogs in a wolf pack? No, your pups would just shame the pack. You’ll want to thank us in the end. You’ll see.”

“The only thing I’ll want to do to either of you is rip you apart and watch you die in a pool of your own blood,” I spat, feeling the second pup slip out of my rear end. Roan stepped forward to grab the pup, but I clamped down on his paw and felt my teeth tear down through skin and muscle and blood, and finally -crack!- bone. He whined at first, but as I cut deeper into him his cries crescendoed into an anguished howl.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Snow Paws, at the sound of Roan’s howl, hurtle towards us with the rest of the pack behind her. In my moment of distraction Roan ripped his paw away and hobbled after Soran.

“I’ll kill you!” I shouted deliriously, “Unless you bring back my daughter, I’ll kill you!”

He disappeared out of sight.

I twisted around and rescued my pup from drowning in his own birth fluids. As soon as he was clean I tugged him close to me and fought the desire to unleash my own howl of outrage.

I heard Snow Paws send wolves after Roan and Soran, and snatches of words floated my way: “Seminole was shot…Scout-lying in his own blood and vomit…Silver Snow died from old age…just now…All of them, dead?…Too many deaths…”

I fell unconscious clutching my son to my chest.

I awoke to soft-spoken words filled with anxiety. “Maybe it’s better if Aniu never wakes up. How could she stand all the grief?...Oh, no…”

I opened my eyes and instantly felt a pulling on my stomach. I turned and saw my son sucking determinedly on one of my teats.

Snow Paws peered down into my face. “Aniu?”

Realization crashed over me like a tidal wave. I stood up with a jerk, sending my son swinging in the air hanging just by his little mouth firmly stoppered onto my teat. Images flickered through my head at light speed: Scout, daughter, Soran, Roan, Snow Paws, son, whispered words…I could feel my golden eyes flaming. “Where are Roan and Soran?”

Snow Paws hung her head. “They disappeared. With your daughter. I’m so sorry, Aniu. I-I’m sorry…”

I swore silently. “They have one of my babies! We have to find them!”

“We’ve been searching for three hours. They’ve both escaped.”

I clenched my paws into fists, imagining those fists around both of the kidnappers’ throats. “What about Scout? And Seminole? And my mother?”

“All dead.” Snow Paws said it in a grief-stricken tone. “Your mother died of old age a few minutes before we heard Roan’s howl. Her mind seemed to be going at the end, because she would go limp and we’d think she’d passed on, and then she would get up and start staggering around again. We didn’t come get you because we were too busy making sure she didn’t hurt anybody or hurt herself.”

“Seminole?”

A shudder skittered down Snow Paws’ spine. “He was shot by a hunter.”

I swallowed. “…And Scout?”

Snow Paws was silent.

I felt anger bubble up from my stomach to the back of my throat. I didn’t want to know what had happened to Scout, but in another way I did want to know. I needed to know. “AND SCOUT??” I almost screamed.

Snow Paws sighed regretfully. “After we heard the gunshot, I sent three wolves down to investigate. Hunters were exclaiming over Seminole’s…dead body, and a few feet away Scout had collapsed in the shadows of the forest while trying to run from the hunters. His body was twitching and spasming so much he couldn’t move. When the hunters left he started vomiting blood and everything else, and his expression was fevered and delirious. The hunting party dragged him back to the cave, and…he’s dead, Aniu.”

I glanced around the cave in a frenzy and easily spotted an exhausted brown and white form in one of the back corners. Before I dashed forward, Snow Paws took my pup and curled around him to keep him warm, and then I charged across the cave and fell at Scout’s feet.

“Scout! Scout! Please don’t be dead,” I whimpered like a lost pup. He lay limp.

Drips of white discharge crept out of his nose and eyes, and blood and vomit clung to his chin and mouth. I didn’t care, though. I licked his face and nestled into his side, but he lay as lifeless as ever.

Something inside my chest was slowly tearing apart.

“Someone stole your baby girl, Scout,” I murmured, “But you still have a son. I know it wasn’t the litter we expected. I know you wanted at least 5 or 6 kids. But that’s all I have. I promise your son will know about you, and he’ll know our story. I won’t let him forget his father, Scout. I promise…and when I die, I hope wolves go to the same heaven as dogs, because all I want is to be with you.”

I didn’t expect an answer, but I hoped somehow, some way, Scout had heard me.

I got up and stumbled back to Snow Paws. She unwound herself from around my son and I took her place, nuzzling my little pup and barely nibbling his tiny ears. “What should I call you?” I purred.

Four week old Nanuq pranced over and examined my son over my back. “Was I that little when I was born, Mama?”

Snow Paws nodded wordlessly with a weak smile.

Suddenly the perfect name popped into my head. I half-expected to see