Sitka before he left. No! Not my little sister! I just knew that this would happen! Now I’m losing my best friend!

“Kodi?”

He gasped as Tovah turned and saw him in his hiding spot. Even the irritated look she gave Kodi didn’t drown out her look of happiness in her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“Uh…” He tried to think of a witty reply. “I was just wondering where you were.” He winced at the idiotic tone he used.

“Oh.” Tovah look of irritation disappeared and she grinned. “Guess what Sitka asked me?”

“I can only imagine.”

“He asked me to be his mate, and I said yes! Isn’t it wonderful? Now I can live close to home and yet be my own person!”

“Congratulations.” Kodi muttered, leaving behind a confused Tovah and turning back to his owners. The whole evening festered in his mind as he walked into his kennel and curled up. He wasn’t really worried about Sitka anymore; he just was so attached to his little sister that he didn’t want to let her go. He and Tovah were the ones who spent the most time, and now he wouldn’t get to do that. He was irritated with himself when he felt a little jealousy well up inside him as well. No one had ever wanted to ask him if he could be their mate. Dusty and Ralph were the ones who went out together on the mail team. It just wasn’t fair!

“Kodi?”

Kodi looked up to see Dusty. “Oh, hey.”

“You look like a deflated balloon. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh come on!” Dusty said as she studied him. “You have a problem that you won’t share with us.”

Kodi turned around in the kennel. “Leave me alone. I have problems I don’t want to discuss right now.”

“Oh come ON! It’s not like we’ll spread classified information across the whole territory!” Dusty crouched down in front of him, begging. Kodi finally sighed and gave in. “Fine. But this can’t get around to Silvie and Dixie. Then the whole town will be talking about something that’s blown way out of proportion.” He told her about Tovah and Sitka, and then complained about how he felt about the whole thing. “... And now Sitka asked her to be his mate, and she said yes! I knew she was going to do that. Now I’ll never get to see much of her I’m sure, and who knows whether or not Dad will even pay attention to all this.”

Dusty was quiet for a moment. “You know,” she finally said, “I think it’s you who has blown this all out of proportion. She isn’t a puppy anymore, and you can’t be her baby sitter anymore either. Besides, why do you think your Dad isn’t paying attention? He pays a whole lot of attention to all you guys! More then mine at anyrate...”

“Yeah, but it was like once Aleu came home and the others were born, it seemed like Dad and Mom were always trying to make sure that they weren’t trying to be too protective, so that they would never run off like Aleu did. I didn’t see the sense in that, and I still don’t see the sense in it now. Saba was almost hurt because of that thinking.”

“Saba was out at night, and she isn’t even living with your Dad. How was he supposed to stop something he didn’t know about?”

Kodi opened his mouth, and then shut it. Dusty was right in a way, but he really didn’t want to admit it. He had blamed his father inside for it, and now he wasn’t sure of what to think. He sighed irritably. “Well, I guess that I can’t stop Tovah from doing what she wants to anyway.” He turned and faced the back of the kennel again. “Thanks for listening.”

Dusty looked back at him in concern before she left. Kirby and Ralf walked up. “So what gives?” Kirby asksed.

“Kodi is acting weird about his sister. He’s worried that her wolf boyfriend is going to hurt her I think.” Dusty frowned as she tried to sort out what all Kodi had said. She began to get confused. “He doesn’t want us to talk about it, he just wants advice.”

Kirby got up. “Wolf boyfriend, huh? Well, I know a way to help them all out. Tell Kodi to leave everything to me.”

To be continued…