replied.

She walked away into the snow and I pulled myself to my feet to catch up with her.

“I really miss you” I said trying to nuzzle her chest. It was freezing cold.

“You can’t carry on like this, Buck” she replied. “You need to be strong for your pack”

“Ataneq said he doesn’t need me! And it’s not my pack”

            “The pack and Ataneq still love you and always will. And you it will be your pack”

“How do you know?”

            “It’s my job to know. And if you need to sort things out here, that’s fine. But there are others that need you more then you need me. Some a bit closer then you expected” she smiled.

I took a few seconds to ponder it and Aniu stopped and licked my forehead.

            “You’re destined for great things Buck” she said lovingly. She backed away and in two steps, she was whipped away by a quick burst of snow.

“Wait! Mom!” I called desperately, standing and searching for any sign of her.

She hadn’t leave any smell but a trail of well- defined paw prints led me to an abandoned hole, belonging to some small animal. I crawled in but kept my head out just in case Aniu came back before I fell asleep.

            By the time I had woken up, the snow had let up a little so that I could actually see where I was. As soon as I stood up, my head started to pound and I remembered what had happened the day before. I had to get back to the pack. My pack. I carefully stepped out of the hole and peered around. The three from yesterday were long gone. I shook the snow and dirt from my coat and started to head home. As the now gentle flakes floated down, I noticed something move from under the sweeping branched of an evergreen. It looked like a rabbit and my stomach grumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten in a few days. I dropped to my stomach, crawled and pounced, surprisingly catching it’s big tail…. surprisingly shaped like mine…

            “Oww!”

I dropped the tail immediately and sprang back into the soft snow.

            “Get away! I’ll… fight you!” a female’s voice rang out.

“I don’t think I could fight a rabbit and win if I had wanted too right now” I said, trying to convince her to come out.

The puppy poked her head through the snow covering her and glanced around, stopping to take me in. She jumped out from under the tree and shook off. She looked at me again, noticing the left side of my face, still a little swollen.

            “Geez what does the other guy look like?” she smirked.

“They ran away and I’m sure they look better then I do. But I got the grey one’s foot”

            “You mean the three wolves? A big black one and two grey ones?”

I nodded.

“You’ve seen them before?” I asked curiously.

           “Yeah, we’re good pals, the four of us”, she answered sarcastically. “So who are you?”

“Buck”

            “I’m Kaya”, she answered before I had even finished my name.

“Where’d you come from? I’ve never seen you before…”

            “I don’t want to talk about it” she mumbled, being quiet for the first time since I met her.

“Are you alone?”

            “What’s it to you?!” Kaya snapped.

“I was going to offer that you could stay with us, but like you said, what’s it to me?”

I turned and tried to find where I had run by yesterday. I could tell Kaya was trying to decide where to go and thankfully she ran to catch up to me.

            “I guess that wouldn’t be that bad” she mumbled.

We were quiet the rest of the way home. The snow almost completely stopped falling. The river had started to freeze over, but the ice was thin, so it was even harder to get across. But it did make it easier to catch the sluggish fish just below the surface, giving me a little energy. As soon as we reached the bank, I knew how to get home. I broke into a run, Kaya close behind. My wagging tail shook my whole body as I ran when I spotted the den.

“We’re home now”

            “Wow you have a big territory”, Kaya said looking over the valley as we dashed past it.

We reached the den and slid to a stop. I peeked my head in, hoping that my grandmother, Sage, was in there at least.

“Hello?! I’m home!” I shouted, voice vibrating off of the walls.

The cave was completely empty. It could only fit so many wolves, but usually someone was guarding it. With a sickening thought, my insides twisted with panic.

“We gotta go, fast”

            “Why? What’s the rush?” Kaya called after me. “We just got here!”

“No one’s here”

            “I can see that”

“The only reasons they wouldn’t be here are if someone took over our territory or if we were fighting another pack. But we usually have someone here. It’s gotta be a really big fight then”

I flew down the trail and followed my pack’s strong scent, making the cramp sting in my side again. The cold snow flew and we reached the packs in no time. It looked we had arrived just in time: the pack’s hadn’t fought yet, but it looked like they were about to. Ataneq had Boss pinned and their noses were touching. The two packs were glaring at each other, waiting for one excuse to tear each other apart.

                        “I’m telling the truth! I let him go! Aniu was scared us away before we even touched him!”

            “Aniu has been dead for a week you good for nothing pile of-”

“Grandpa! He is telling the truth” I panted.

                        “See”, said Boss, slipping away.

Ataneq’s head snapped up and he rushed over to me. He looked relieved until he saw my face, then his face was filled with anger.

            “Where have you been? And what on earth happened to you?!” he demanded.

“Him”, I said nodding to Boss. Boss ducked behind his alpha.

“Grandpa! Mom came back! She saved me from them! Balto’s alive too!”

Ataneq studied me unsure whether to believe me or not.

“She said she and dad are okay!”

            “I believe you” he smiled, nuzzling me.

Kaya trotted into the clearing.               “What’d I miss?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot. This is Kaya. I found her”

            Boss thundered back out and dived for Kaya. I jumped in front of her and the two packs scuffled for a few brief seconds until Boss was securely pinned by Talon, Kanut and Cikuq, three wolves from our pack. Boss stammered to explain.

                        “I have a reason for going after her! She stole our food and its winter! You can understand how hard food is to get!”

Ataneq nodded and turned, smiling at me.

            “Let’s go home. This pup isn’t ours and isn’t our business”

Kaya didn’t look surprised and neither did the pack: half had already started to go back to the den. But that sounded horrible to me! Maybe it was only because of the dog part of me, but it wasn’t right. Boss dived for Kaya, who was huddled on the ground. I jumped in front of Kaya again and snarled at Boss. The two packs clashed again, but Ataneq broke it up.

            “Buck! This isn’t our problem” he thundered.

“Well if they’re taking her they have to take me too. She doesn’t deserve them” I shot back.

Boss made a move toward Kaya. I growled and bared my teeth at him.

                        “He’s asking for it!” Boss snarled, looking at his alpha for permission to attack.

“She’s not part of their pack and she was probably starving” I said, pleading to Ataneq.

I watched the wolf Kaya called Two as he tried to sneak by my half closed, swollen left