out to the sides of the group to see, Changkuk and Julire walking out to the sides.

“We have to be very careful,” Aleu thought, “we don’t want to run into…”

Her thoughts stopped.

“Aniak’s pack?” She said aloud.

She smelled something different, yet familiar.

Then a wolf slammed into her shoulder.

The group was similarly attacked from all sides.

Tiru growled at her attacker, and leapt up to find herself facing….

“Kacto?” She said.

Her former mate glared back at her.

Time seemed to stand still for the pack.

Then everything exploded.

Aleu found herself facing Lightning, and there was a reason he had that name.

She could hardly see him move, much less dodge his attacks.

She was losing and losing badly.

Shadow already had his opponent on the ground, and was about to deliver the killing blow, when he stopped.

“Taurus?”

“The young one that wanted to be on my team so badly…”

He let the young wolf up, and Taurus scampered away into the woods.

Shadow looked over and saw Aleu was getting beat horribly by Lightning. He ran over, but Lightning sensed him, and sidestepped just as Shadow would have crashed into him.

Shadow recovered, and faced his former best friend.

He looked at Aleu and she nodded her head.

The two of them jumped at Lightning.

Lightning still held them back, a testament to how well he’d learned the lessons that Shadow had taught him.

Meanwhile to the front, Tiru was holding her own against Kacto.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She thought, as she dodged another of his attacks.

“I can’t believe he’d attack me.”

Kacto swung his paw down, and Tiru responded by raising her leg to block it.

Kacto switched his weight onto his back legs, and brought his other front leg up. His paw slammed into Tiru’s chin.

She was picked up by the hit and thrown onto the ground.

She looked at him and stretched her now sore jaw.

“Did that really just happen?” She thought.

Kacto was on her almost immediately.

She was hit more times than she could count, as she squirmed on the ground, trying to get him off her.

Then as suddenly as it started the fight ended.

The other wolves just quit and retreated into the woods.

All was silent.

“What now?” Aleu thought, as she looked around the clearing.

All of them were breathing hard, their breath clouding up in front of them.

Aniak stepped out of the tree line then.

“So sorry about that Aleu,” she said. “That was just a taste of what will happen if we see you here again, don’t try me Aleu, please?”

Then she turned and walked away,

Aleu looked at her nearly exhausted band.

“We need to learn to fight,” Aleu thought, as she looked at Shadow.

“Let’s go,” She said.

The wolves resumed their walking through the forest.

It had been a week and the pack still hadn't found food.

Siear made her way through the woods on the outskirts of Nome.

"The little ones have got to have food," she thought, "and we adults could use it too."

Aleu had warned the young female wolf about the consequences of doing what she was planning on doing, but Siear had to do what was necessary.

She crept up to the small wooden shack that she had found a few days ago.

Siear snuck by the windows, careful not to be seen, and headed for the small shed attached to the house.

She pushed on the door.

"Locked."

Then she saw an open window, and jumped through it.

Siear stood up and looked around her.

"You've got plenty I just need a little bit.

Hanging in the shed was about a hundred pounds of bacon and sausages.

She grabbed some and started to make her way out the door, when she heard glass breaking and suddenly a dog slid in front of her.

He was gray he was big, and he was mad.

He didn't look very surprised.

"Wolf." he said.

Siear growled at him, and layed her ears back.

"Leave them here and I'll let you go wolf," the dog said.

Siear bared her teeth at him.

He nodded his head, and jumped at her.

"I don't have time for this!" She thought, as she dodged his strikes.

She heard a bang, of a door slamming, and looked toward the house.

Bad idea.

The dog caught her right on the nose, and she stumbled back.

Siear could hear voices then and barks.

She suddenly kicked into full overdrive, as adrenaline flooded her system. She realized that if the humans came in here and saw her, she was as good as dead.

She fought faster than she'd ever thought possible. She lost herself in this dangerous dance.

*....................*

Suddenly it was over.

Siear dropped the dog's head on the ground. She stared at him, horrified at what she'd done.

The voices came nearer to her, and the barking got louder.

"I'm really gonna get it now." She thought.

She looked again over at the dog, who had ceased breathing. His blood covered her muzzle.

"I didn't want to..." She thought, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't get the slaughtered husky out of her mind.

She heard a gunshot then and this startled her out of her reverie.

She grabbed a mouthful of the meat and turned around.

There was a window at the far end of the shed. Siear took off running down the small room and jumped, smashing through the window, just as the door burst open and a man armed with a shotgun ran in.

Siear ran as fast as she could. She heard a shot, and a plume of snow kicked up ahead of her and to the left.

She ran as never before, trying to get away from that place, from what she had done there...

The man cursed, as he saw the wolf running away.

"She got away Elmer," he yelled.

"Elmer?"

The man turned around.

His brother was kneeling beside something in the corner.

He walked over and stood beside his brother.

"Durn wolf," his brother said, as he stroked the fur of his lead dog...

Chapter IV

"Awoooo,."

A howl sounded through the trees, as Siear ran through the woods. She was letting the other wolves know that it was she who was crashing through the underbrush, and not some enemy.

She emerged from the forest, and took off across the plain, running by Shadow and Tiru, who were on guard, and into the cave.

She set the meat in the corner, and walked over to Aleu, the rest of the pack was gone.

"There you are," Aleu said, "I got worried about you, the whole pack's out looking for you, where'd you go?"

Siear smiled.

"Aleu I've got something."

"What?" Aleu asked.

"Come here." Siear said.

"Hang on a second," Aleu replied, as she ran up the slope, and out of the cave.

"Is she going to be mad?" Siear thought.

"Shadow?" Aleu said, when she reached the top.

"What is it Aleu?" Shadow said.

"Call off the search, Siear is back."

"Okay," Shadow said.

Aleu turned to walk back down in the cave, as she did, she heard Shadow's deep howl echo through the woods, beckoning the rest of the pack to cease the search and come home.

"I wonder what she wants to show me?" Aleu thought.

"Are you freaking INSANE!" Aleu yelled.

"Yep," Siear thought, "she's mad."

"I had to do what I thought was right," Siear said, "the pups were going to starve if we didn't kill something quickly... there was no other choice."

"So," Aleu yelled, "you disobeyed several direct orders, You chose me to be your leader, your alpha, now if you don't listen to me that will get you, or more importantly someone else killed out here!"

"One, I told you not to steal, not unless we ARE dying, two, I told every one of you that no one was to go near the town or humans for that matter, three..."

Aleu stopped.

Siear hung her head.

Aleu sighed.

"You... You were only doing what you thought was right," she said slowly, "sounds familiar huh?"

"Siear," Aleu said in a much quieter voice, "what were you thinking?"

Siear looked back up at Aleu.

"At the very least," Aleu continued, "you should have said something, not gone alone, that was stupid. You could've been killed."

"I know Siear said.

"Siear, you've got to trust me...

on a different note... thanks. You are right without something, they... they wouldn't have made it much longer."

She stopped.

"Come on," Aleu said, "you can help me give it to them."

Since Aleu had calmed down, she could see that Siear was shaking.

"Siear are you okay?"

"Ah..Aleu," Siear started.

"What happened?" Aleu asked. "What didn't you tell me?"

"I..I didn't want to do it... he attacked me and and... Aleu I.. I... I killed someone."

"Oh great!" Aleu almost yelled, "it was a dog right?"

Siear nodded.

"That's fantastic," Aleu said.

She looked outside at the blowing snow.

"You know they'll track you here?"

Siear nodded.

"Well we can't move out of here, we don't have anywhere to go. We'd be okay, but... but the pups wouldn't make it."

""Get down there with the pups," Aleu said, anger showing through her voice again.

"I'm sorry Aleu," Siear began.

"I don't have time to listen to this," Aleu