throwing her to the ground.

Aleu stood up and looked at her friend, her head throbbing.

She nodded.

“If that’s the way you want it Aniak.”

Then, simultaneously they both leapt at one another.

The two friends met in mid-air, and fell to the ground.

The fight looked to any observer like a blur of paws and flashing teeth.

Before she knew it, Aleu was staring back at her opponent. Quite a number of wounds, small and not so, covered her body.

“When did I get hit?” She thought.

She noticed with muted satisfaction, that Aniak hadn’t made it out unscathed, she too was hurting.

Aniak leapt at her again, and Aleu dodged the attack, swinging her paw down at Aniak. Aniak stuck her leg out, blocking the strike and kicked Aleu in the chest with her back legs. The blow sent Aleu flying backwards, and as she landed on the ground, she could feel the breath woosh out of her lungs.

She tried to stand, but fell.

She looked up, Aniak stood over her.

“I’m sorry my friend,” she said, as she hit her friend’s paws, exposing her neck.

“Is it over?” Aleu thought.

Then she heard a battle cry, and Shadow slammed into Aniak, the two of them rolling toward the edge of the rock.

Both of them stood up.

“Shadow,” Aniak said, “this is a personal matter between she and I, back off.”

Shadow just stood there.

“You know the rules,” Aniak said.

“Your rules, the old way,” Shadow said.

“If you oppose me, you will be banished from this pack.”

“So be it,” Shadow said.

“You’ll be a loner!” Aniak yelled, “a drifter! You’ll have no home!”

Shadow just stared at Aniak.

Aniak knew that Shadow would beat her, probably kill her, in a fight.

“Alright,” Aniak said, “you’ve got one chance.”

She turned to Aleu, who stood up slowly.

“It seems the spirits favor you,” she said, “I have beaten you, Shadow here just interrupted before the challenge could be finished. So I offer you both life, outside of this pack.

Aleu get out,”

Aleu stared at her friend, then walked slowly toward the shelves.

“Aleu,” Aniak said. “I didn’t say go get them, I said get out.”

Aleu kept walking, and spit on Aniak’s paw and walked on by.

Lightning growled and stepped forward.

“Is that anyway to treat an alpha?” he said, as he smacked Aleu across the face with his paw.

She fell to the ground.

Shadow was on top of him in seconds.

“Enough!” Aniak yelled.

The two stopped.

“Let them go,” Aniak said, “Lightning?”

Lightning stood up and walked to Aniak’s side.

Shadow growled as his former friend as he walked by and helped up Aleu.

It didn’t take them long to make the climb to Aleu’s Chambers.

She nudged the kids awake, while Shadow went to get Raye.

“They’ll kill her for sure, if I don’t take her.” She thought.

“Come on kids, “ she said, tears coming to her eyes, “we’ve got to take a little trip.”

“Where’re we going in the middle of the night?” Thunder asked.

“Yeah mom,” Sheik said as he yawned, “can’t it wake till morning?”

“No,” Aleu said, “we must leave now… it has gotten dangerous for you here.”

Shadow came in then, carrying Raye.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Aleu stood at the entrance to the cave. Her family walked out into the cold, but she stayed back.

She turned and spoke.

“Is there none of you out there, who think I was right?”

No one said anything.

Aleu hung her head, and walked slowly out.

“Wait!”

Aleu turned to see Dash and Shasta, kids in tow, walking up to her.

“Sorry we were late,” Dash said.

“We had to get the pups.” Shasta finished.

“Dash are you sure?” She asked. “Your kids…. I don’t know where we’re going to stay.”

“You’re family,” Dash said.

“Yeah and I don’t abandon family,” Shasta added.

Aleu smiled.
“Thank you guys.”

Slowly about twenty wolves, Melody and Timbre among them, walked over beside Aleu.

She looked at the rest of the pack, sighed and walked out.

Tiru, one of the wolves that remained loyal to Aleu, knew where there was a cave not too far away, where they could stay.

She led the group to it. Movement through the storm was difficult, and slow, especially for the pups.

Soon however, they reached the cave.

The entrance was set into a small rise in the ground, and it sloped downward at a fairly steep angle; the group had to be careful not to fall, as they made their way inside.

“It will allow for a speedy entry, and not so quick an exit,” Aleu thought, her thoughts already turning to tactics, and ways that she could protect her little band of rouges.

“That’s what we are now, rouges.”

The first order of business was to get the kids to bed. They found a small chamber, attached to the main one, which would serve as a good bedding place.

There were nine pups with them: Light, Yukon, Talkeet, Seward, Chandalar and Kalia, Dash and Shasta’s kid; Sheik, Lima and Thunder, Aleu’s; and Kiluane and Baranof, Tiru’s pups.

Aleu was kind of worried about the large number of pups.

“I just hope we can provide for them all,” she thought.

Sheik, Lima and Thunder actually shouldn’t be considered pups, they could bear their own weight in the pack now.

“After all,” she thought, “they’re almost a year and a half old. Wow a year and a half…”

She checked one more time to make sure that they were safe and sleeping. Then she joined the other adults in the main chamber.

All of the other wolves stood when she entered the room.

“Guys you, you don’t need to do that anymore,” she said. “I’m just one of you now.”

“You’re our leader,” an orange wolf named Chatan said.

“You’ll always be our leader,” Dash added.

Aleu smiled.

“I want to thank all of you, you.. you have made a difficult decision, to remain loyal to me, and leaving the pack.”

“Besides,” Tiru said, “your way, the peaceful way is the right way. I mean there are times when the needs of the pack, do outweigh our safety, but like you said… I’ve got a family to think of too.”

“And after all,” Kanak said, “our family is the pack. Without our family’s, what is the pack? What’s best for them, what preserves their lives is best for the pack.”

Aleu nodded her head.

“That’s exactly my reasoning.”

She sighed.

“On a different topic, I think that we should be extremely careful about… bumping into Aniak, or any of the pack for that matter.”

“I…. I am an outcast, and by joining me, you have made yourselves outcasts… they will probably attack us on sight.”

“Agreed,” the wolves all answered together.

“Aleu may I speak?” Nagik asked.

“Yes,” Aleu said, “Nagik what is it?”

“I’ve noticed that we may have a problem.”

“What’s that?” Aleu questioned.

“I’ve done some counting, and a good third of us can’t hunt.” Nagik said.

Aleu nodded.

“I too have realized this, I can only hope we can find enough food for them all.”

All of the wolves nodded.

“Look,” Aleu said, “we should all get to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

The wolves dispersed, walking over and into the bedding chamber.

“Hey Tiru,” Aleu said. “Can you stay back for a moment?”

Shadow stopped walking and looked at Aleu.

She nodded and he kept walking into the other chamber.

“What is it Aleu?” Tiru said, when they were alone.

“I noticed that Kacto wasn’t with you.”

Tiru looked at the ground and nodded.

“Tiru,” Aleu said, “why’d you leave him back there, after all of that talk of family. I know you two were together before I even showed up.”

“Kacto just…. He didn’t share my opinion of you or your ideals,” Tiru answered. “I had to do what was best for my children.”

Aleu nodded.

“I understand that.”

Nothing was said between the two for a little while.

“Well,” Aleu said, breaking the silence, “we should get to bed, like I said earlier, we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Tiru said quietly.

She and Aleu walked into the bedding chamber.

Tiru walked over and laid down beside her kids.

“What a hard choice to have to make,” Aleu thought. She looked at Shadow, who was already asleep next to the pups.

“I’m glad I don’t have to worry about you.”

Then Aleu curled up beside him, and drifted to sleep.

Chapter III

“Hunting all day, and still haven’t found anything.” Aleu thought.

The pack was stalking the forest in a spread out formation, so as to cover more ground. Aleu was walking in the back, so as to provide security to the rear, while Tiru was up front.

Aleu looked out to the sides of