Silver Arrow’s. Four paws on the ground, she looked him in the eye. He gave her a small, weak smile, but his eyes were dancing with hope.

The screams and crack of teeth on teeth pounded Kaila’s ears. She gazed unblinkingly at Silver Arrow, and said, “If you really love me, stop this war.”

Silver Arrow turned and howled, a long, chilling call to end the fighting.

Copper had lost Taya amidst the fighting, but now he had found her sneaking up behind Steele, barreling through wolves as if they weren’t even there. Only a few feet separated him and Taya, but filling that distance were growling, biting, tearing, swiping dogs and wolves hungry for blood.

Copper steeled himself and crashed into the chaos, and immediately choked on the rage of battle. Dust flew up and coated the inside of his mouth and nose. He coughed and wheezed for air, and was suddenly smashed to the ground by a Northern Hills attacker.

Copper’s face ground into the dirt, and scratches and gashes cutting into his body flashed like white lightning through his mind. He gasped softly with pain, and raised his head to find himself face to face with a corpse.

The street dog’s dark eyes bored into Copper’s, locked into place and lifeless. The emptiness of the dog’s face made Copper’s stomach spin with acid. His mind swam, and suddenly he saw Storm’s face as the old husky died a worthless death in the ring of the Northern Fights. The sickening image faded, and was replaced by Hawk’s body slumped over, cruelness still etched into his face even as death stole him away.

Hawk.

Taya.

Copper scrambled up and kicked his attacker in the face. The wolf was stunned momentarily, but it was enough time for Copper to wrap his mouth around the wolf’s leg and bite hard. The wolf howled in pain as Copper felt the bone shatter under his teeth. The wolf snarled and knocked him to the side. Copper narrowed his eyes and charged the wolf, mashing him to the ground.

‘That was for Storm,’ Copper thought with an almost manic grin as the wolf whimpered under his paws.

A twinge of guilt started to stalk him, but he pushed it away. He shouldn’t feel guilty about what needed to be done.

From somewhere a commanding howl arose, ordering everyone to stop. The order puzzled Copper, but it didn’t seem to affect anyone else; they just kept fighting as if fueled by a sudden, contagious insanity.

Copper rolled one wolf into the middle of a fierce fight between four wolves, dug in his claws as hard as he could and dragged them down the side of another wolf, and kicked another wolf unconscious, all the while thinking, ‘For Taya. For Taya. For Taya.’

He looked up to see Taya lunged towards Steele with an unearthly shriek. That otherworldly yell was so strange, so chilling, that it seemed to split the sky.

All fighting stopped as every eye fixed on the sight of Taya hurling herself towards her father, blood and fury in her eyes. Copper’s heart stopped as he saw Chase catapult herself towards Steele from the other side.

The two avengers flew towards Steele, claws outstretched, and Steele looked up in surprise. Then his face twisted, and he rose up on his hind legs and boxed a well-aimed blow to each girl’s head. Taya and Chase were thrown to opposite sides, but not before Taya had dug her claws into her father’s shoulder as she was hit. Steele gritted his teeth and sucked in air fast with the pain.

Taya lay dazed for a minute, but then she heaved herself to her feet. A ring of wolves circled her, and more wolves surrounded Chase. Chase was struggling to get to her feet because she had landed with her stump in the air, but eventually she made it, and stood her ground proudly.

Copper’s mind screamed; his heart was being ripped apart. There stood the two dogs he loved the most. Which one would he save first?

“Copper!” Steele barked into the silence.

Copper jolted in surprise and fear. What did Steele want from him? He felt his feet creep forward of their own accord, and they slowly dragged him until he stood only a few feet from Steele, with Taya and Chase in front of him, Taya to his left, Chase to his right. Every eye stabbed with curiosity as he faced his father’s enemy.

Copper glared coldly at Steele, and he longed so badly to throttle him that his mind swam with angry reds and blacks and his heart threw itself against his chest like a battering ram.

“So, Copper,” Steele began, “This is your sister?” He nodded at Chase. “And this is your…mate of choice?” He sneered at Taya.

All of Copper’s muscles tightened until he felt rooted to the spot. He could almost feel Ketch’s knowing gaze. Steele knew Copper loved Taya.

“Well?” Steele thundered, “Answer!”

Copper jumped, and then gave the smallest of nods.

Steele grinned. “That’s what I thought. Well, that one is nothing but a traitor to me.” Chase held herself proudly. “And that one is nothing but the runt of a dirty street dog who died and left me with a bunch of milk-sucking, naked little maggots.” Taya’s blue eyes sharpened until she was glaring daggers at Steele.

Steele leaned back, feigning relaxation. “You can only save one, Copper,” he smirked, his dead blue eyes creasing into slits.

Copper suddenly realized what he meant. The agony of the situation roared through him and split him with a white-hot knife. His legs shook ever so slightly, and sweat stained his fur. He knew one day he would have to choose between Taya and Chase, but never like this; not which would die and which would live! His eyes scanned the battlefield frantically. Where were Ketch, Balto, Kaila, or Dusty when you needed them? Were they wounded? Dead? Held back by Steele’s allies?

Steele tossed his paw in a flippant manner. “Kill them.”

The wolves set upon them like flies to a rotting carcass. Chase’s screams and Taya’s breathless cursing swarmed through Copper’s mind. He took a deep breath, readied himself, and made his choice.

Copper shot through the air, screaming, “No!”

Chase was blind with blood and blackness. She struck out at her attackers, but her vision swirled like black mist and her mind was fogged with hopelessness. She knew her brother would save Taya; he loved Taya more than anything in the world, more than her.

Teeth sliced into her side, and she moaned as she swiped blindly, but that pain was nothing compared to the agony of knowing she came second in Copper’s mind. The smell of blood whisked around her brain, and for the first time Chase felt herself truly, completely giving up. A claw ripped open her back, and suddenly she was jolted by the memory of lying at the stone wall, a commandant cutting open her back, and Ketch lying beside her…Ketch! There was still hope…

Chase shook, shuddered, and then fell limp. She was beyond hope. She felt her eyes close, and she slowly slid into a sea of red…

“No!”

Chase’s eyes snapped open to see Copper barrel through the wolves in a fury, throwing them left and right and snarling like a wild animal. Red dots spattered his white chest and legs, and a cut like a bloody crescent shone above his right eye. Chase thought she must be seeing things. “Copper?” she mumbled.

“Chase!” He hoisted her up and swung her onto his back, and galloped away as the blows began to rain down. Chase held on for dear life, and was hit by another memory: Ketch blasting through the streets, her on his back as they raced towards Main Street…

Chase kicked out at any wolves who tried to wound her or her brother, but for the most part she just lay like a deadweight on her brother’s back. She could hardly believe it! Copper had saved her over Taya? What was the catch? “Copper!” she cried into his ear, “But…Taya!”

“Taya can handle herself for a few more seconds,” Copper shouted back, “What I’m worried about is you!”

Chase was silent for a moment to take all this in, and then a grin slowly grew on her face. “…Some things never change, huh?”

“Don’t ever think I care more about Taya than my own sister,” Copper cried, “It doesn’t work that way. It shouldn’t.”

“Yeah,” Chase murmured, “I get it…Thanks, Copper.”

The Anvil Creek pack cave loomed ahead of them. Copper started scrambling up the hillside the cave was set in, and Chase heard the labored breathing and pounding footsteps of the Northern Hills wolves that were pursuing them. She remembered the hidden cave, and the hole she had seen in its ceiling. If a whole bunch of heavy animals were to run over such a thin covering, it would…

Chase stared at Copper. “Oh, no. You’re not going to–”

“Oh, yeah.” His face was set with grim anticipation.

“Oh, great,” Chase said, rolling her eyes but grinning all the same. She hugged her brother’s neck as hard as she could and made her body as rigid as iron.

Copper swung up onto the crest of the hill. From behind them, Chase heard one of the wolves growl menacingly, “Say your prayers.”

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I hope I live another week,” Chase muttered.

“Hold on!” Copper yelled, and sprinted over the hill like a bullet shot from a rifle.

Chase felt it giving way even as Copper barely touched the ground with his paws; the ground began to cave in with a dusty cough at every step, forming cracks. The earth began to crumble, and as a piece fell in under his paws, Copper launched himself into the air, high and strong and hard. He whooped a triumphant war cry, and Chase looked back to see the ground collapse under the wolves’ running paws. They fell with yells of maddened surprise into the dark depths of the hidden cave.

The sight made Chase’s heart pump hard with pride. She grinned with abandon, and crowed, “WHOOOOO!” as her brother pounded down the hillside and skidded to a halt. Chase was almost thrown off his back with the suddenness of the halting. She hung limply from Copper’s neck, and then quietly slipped to the ground.

“Chase, are you okay?” Copper was bent over her. “Chase, we need to get back to Taya!”

Chase didn’t want to move. The freeing exultation had faded as suddenly as it had come, and right now she