Steele why Aska's musher hadn't bought abother dog to replace his sister.

Overcome with anger and fury, he stormed out of the boiler room and into town. A crowd of humans, as well as dogs was gathered around the hospital. And that Balto had stolen Jenna from him!

"They should make a statue of him!"

That was it. Steele ran to the desserted part of town. He couldn't take hearing about the so called "hero". If Aska knew, she'd never let him live it down.

Sighing, he stared up at the Aurora overhead. "Where are you?"

A familiar scent caught his attention and he swung his head to the top of a ridge. A pack of wolves was staring down at him and right at the front with whom he could only assume was the alpha, was Aska.

************

Aska stared down from the ridge at her brother for a while before turning her attention to Mifune. "You sure you'll be okay living so close to town?"

Mifune nuzzled her. "Only if you promise to visit as often as you can."

Aska licked the side of his face. "Promise. Now you be careful."

Mifune chuckled. "You need to be careful. I'm not the one with pups."

"You know I will."

"Okay...Just remember that I love you and I don't know what I'd do without you, so don't get hurt. For me?"

"I already told you, it's nothing to worry about. I love you."

The white wolf gave a nod. "You'd better get going. I'm sure your master will be looking for you and you probably want to go see your brother."

"Mhmm."

"Take care Aska." He said lovingly. "You'll know where to find me."

***********

Steele was compltely outraged. All this time spent looking for her, she'd been with wolves.  Now that she was descending the steep drop, he'd give her a piece of his mind. But there was something different about her. She wasn't bounding down the slope like she normally would. She was actually being...careful.

Fifteen minutes and two slides later, she was at the bottom, plodding towards her brother. He held his head up defiantly and stared coldly at her.

"What did you think you were doing?" He growled.

Aska looked quite taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" The male roared. "We're sitting here worried sick while you're off gallavanting int he woods with a bunch of mangy wolves!"

Aska's fur bristled and her lip curled over her teeth. "My pups are not mangy!"

"W...What!?"

The smaller dog began back-tracking. She opened her mouth too quickly and just said somethign that could have jeopardized not only her life, but that of her unborn litter. Suddenly, her maternal instincts kicked in.

"Don't you dare come any closer to me!"

Steele stepped forward. Aska began to circle him until she had a clear escape route. Even while she was carrying pups, she could still easily leap over her brother. She had her parents to thank for her strong legs.

As Aska disappeared into Nome, Steele was left alone again. Only this time, even his sister didn't want to be near him. He thought maybe there was just smething about him that made him unlovable but quickly shook the feeling off.

"They're crazy not to like me."

*********

Within the weeks to come, Aska was sidelined from racing while she took care of her pups. A boy and two girls whom their owner named Shakespeare, Marie and Mozart. Both Mozart and her brother had black fur like Aska, but Marie was pure white with black socks.

Marie was going to be kept and raised to race on her team early on, but as she got older, her spirit and strength only made the decision more finalized. The other two pups would be sold as pets to people in Nome since Balto had raised awareness of how good tempered a hybrid could be. The potential buyers seemed nice and so the malamute was content. Now all Aska could only hope now that her brother wouldn't hurt them.