thawing out alright?” I opened my golden eyes and saw a powerful black wolf with a white mark on his forehead standing over me. He leaned down and studied me with concern. “Good. You’re awake.”

A painful tingling in my ears and muzzle seared through my whole body, and I cringed and yelped as my body slowly unfroze. So this was what Scout had gone through when he had thawed out for the final time. As I lay in a crumpled position at the black wolf’s feet, two female wolves appeared to flank him, one light brown with ice blue eyes, the other white with black spots encircling her sky blue eyes and a black spot on one hip.

The light brown female looked down at me sympathetically. “Poor thing.” The white and black female nodded, though I could see something like respect in her eyes.

My resentment for the light brown wolf’s pity was enough to get me to my feet. I stood on quivering legs before the three wolves. “I am Aniu from the Blue Moon pack,” I said quietly, “To whom do I owe thanks for rescuing me?”

The black and white male chuckled. “No need to be so formal, Aniu. I’m Sirius, leader of our so-called ‘pack.’ This is Sage”-he nodded to the light brown wolf-“and this is Kiowa.” The white and black wolf dipped her head. “We’re just trying to form our own pack now, since our old pack broke apart. We’re still trying to find a place to stay and some land to call our territory. Anyway, we heard a wolf howl and were going to see if we could help, but then we found you. You’re now in a small cave we managed to find a short distance from Anvil Creek. You’ve been lying unconscious for a few hours.”

I shook my head slowly and began limping out of the cave. “Thank you for your kindness.” The storm had passed over. I needed to find Balto. I needed to see how many Blue Moon wolves had survived Nanuq’s attack. I had to hunt Nanuq down and kill him before he infected anyone else with rabies.

Suddenly Sirius blocked my way. “Wait, hold on a minute. You can’t just leave.” Oh yes, I could. “From what I could hear and smell in the woods, some wolf pack was having a lot of trouble with rabies. Was that your pack?” I nodded wordlessly. “No pack infected by rabies ever really survives, I’m sorry to say.” He sounded genuinely sympathetic. I started to like and trust him a little more, but only a little. “Would you care to join our pack now?”

I was about to refuse, when a sudden desire to leave behind my wretched past sprang into my throat. I found myself saying “Alright,” and saw Sirius smile. Kiowa smiled softly, too, and Sage stared hard at me before grinning.

“Welcome to the…Anvil Creek pack, Aniu,” Sage said.

I don’t know what came over me, but I stayed with the three wolves and kept on staying. I vowed to myself I would find my son, and every time I patrolled the pack’s border I howled for him and scanned the landscape, but to no avail. But except for Balto, I just wanted to forget my past. I had always been treated as an outcast. Now I was respected like an equal, and it was so new and wonderful I could hardly contain myself. Furthermore, I was never asked about my history. My new pack seemed to accept me for who I was.

The only time I talked about my past life was one night a few weeks after my rescue from the storm. Sirius and I were sitting just inside the cave, observing the chilly night. We had grown rather close, and I found my head slipping onto his shoulder as I quietly hummed ‘Reach for the Light.’ He didn’t move, but I felt his heart pound furiously.

He turned to me and asked, “What’s that you’re humming? I’ve never heard it before.”

“It’s a song my mother used to sing to me and my siblings when we were in hiding,” I replied, the words streaming out before I could stop them. I looked to see how he would react. Sirius had turned away, but only a few muscles in his neck had become tense and alert. Perhaps he was hiding his shock and displeasure.

He said nothing for a long time. I saw him open his mouth to change the subject, even though I could feel his curiosity burning into my skin. He didn’t want to pry.

But suddenly I had to tell my story to someone, anyone, who would listen but not judge me. I burst out with, “You see, my father, Wildfire, and my mother, Silver Snow, had an illegal affair…” I told Sirius everything, from my parents’ forbidden romance, to my wretched childhood, to my love affair with Scout, to having my daughter stolen, right up to Nanuq’s attack that had led me to almost freezing in the snow and being found by Sirius, Sage, and Kiowa.

When my long tale was finally done I was panting, and Sirius let me rest before saying his part. “You’ve been through a little too much, Aniu.”

I nodded slightly, knowing it was true but not wanting to show weakness.

“You’re strong physically and emotionally to have gone through so much and still be alive.”

No one had ever called me strong before. I glowed with pride.

Sirius looked me in the eye. “That settles it, then. Aniu”-he sighed-“To make this pack grow and thrive, we need an alpha female, and, well, I need a mate. Sage is a true leader and Kiowa is respectful and obedient, but you are the strongest of the three females inside and out. I love your spirit. I would like to know…would you want to be this pack’s alpha female and my mate?”

I was silent with shock. I was moving rather quickly from bastard to alpha!

“You can refuse if you want to,” Sirius said, “I know it would be hard being with me when you’ve already loved another.”

“But I’m a bastard, an accident!” I blurted out, “How can I become an alpha?”

“You’re in a new pack now, and your history with another pack doesn’t matter. From what I can see, you’re the best ‘accident’ this world has ever known!”

I was quiet again, but my mind and heart were whirling away. I felt like I was betraying Scout and my pups-NO! I had to move on. Besides, I had come to love Sirius. It wasn’t love-at-first-sight like with Scout, but Sirius was kind, accepting, firm, a great leader. I had slowly grown to love him, and I could tell from the softness in his golden eyes that he loved me, too.

I nuzzled into him while pushing thoughts of Scout from my head. “Yes, I would like to. And I promise you that I will be the best alpha female and mate you ever had.” Sirius smiled and licked me bashfully on the cheek.

Less than a year later, I birthed three pups, but only one survived. It seemed I was doomed to always raising one pup at a time. Sirius and I named our son Lakota, meaning High Wolf, for he would become the leader after his father passed away.

As I gazed down at my new baby, tears fell from my eyes. The others thought it was for pride and happiness at having Lakota, but only Sirius knew I was weeping in betrayal and sorrow. I could almost feel Scout’s breath on my shoulder and see him shaking his head up in the heavens at how easily I had forgotten him. “I’m sorry, Scout,” I whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Sirius licked my ears gently and nuzzled me. I didn’t feel it. I was devising a plan to get away from here and back to my old life. I had been selfish to try and forget my past, however bad it had been. I needed to escape.

But first, there was a pup to raise.

Over the next few weeks, I watched Lakota grow into a handsome young wolf with dark brown, almost black fur and piercing green eyes. My heart lurched as I realized what a mess I’d made of things. It would hurt my heart to leave Sirius and Lakota, since I loved them both. But it tore my spirit not to know where Balto and my unnamed daughter were, and to know I was a traitor to Scout. And what would Balto think if he ever found me again and found out he had a half-brother? I felt I was doomed to living a life tormented by my conscience.

When Lakota was six weeks old, we and the Eagle Pass pack were in conflict over a part of our territory. Eagle Pass wanted to take a piece of land from us that they thought should be theirs, because it was close to their boundaries and it was rich with game. The land was rightfully ours, yet the Anvil Creek pack found itself caught up in a war.

I poked my head through the leafy trees and saw the lush field that would soon become a battlefield. The Eagle Pass leader and his pack lined up on the other side, almost hidden by the tall grass. I pulled my head back in and felt Sirius cuddle up to me. I nudged his head with my nose and laughed, and he chuckled lowly and said, “I just wanted to say before we go out there, that I will always love you, Aniu.”

I rubbed my face into his neck in reply, and we both looked up to see Lakota standing before us with a disgusted look on his face. “Do you have to do all that nuzzling and stuff?”

“You’ll do it with your own mate someday, too,” I told him with a smile, and hugged him gently.

“Come out and fight for this land, Sirius!” thundered the enemy pack leader.

Lakota jumped away from me and started rushing around. “C’mon, everybody, let’s go! Move, move, move!”

“Lakota!” Sirius exclaimed sharply, “You’re not even fighting in the battle. You’re too young. Your mother would be staying with you if we weren’t so few numbered. Stop bouncing around!”

Our son settled down.

“Fellow Anvil Creek wolves, we are about to fight for our