tell my team.”

He walked out.

“Is.. is that blood?” Aniak asked.

Gia had forgotten about that.

She licked the majority of it off.

“Now about this Aleu,” one of the Black wolves said.

“Who are you?” Aniak asked.

Gia stepped forward, still cleaning her face.

“This is Raminou; he’s one of the most trusted of my team.”

Aniak looked at the wolf.

“You were saying?” Raminou asked.

“Yes,” Aniak said, somewhat uneasily, “you’re going to want help with this one.”

“Really.” Raminou said. “What makes this one so special?”

“She used to be leader of this pack.” Aniak said, “and you would do good to take my advice.”

“So she’s dangerous?” Gia asked intrigued.

“She isn’t, she used to be, then she became a mother, and her abilities slipped.”

Gia shrugged.

“Happens.”

“Yeah,” Aniak said, “but three of the wolves with her are extremely good.

Shadow, is her mate, and the best fighter around, he used to lead our security team. Dash is Aleu’s brother, and Timbre is a wolf, that defected from his old pack, betrayed them, killed his alpha, because of his love for Aleu and Dash’s sister, Melody, and she’s gotten to be fairly decent.

Aniak sighed.

“Aleu’s not stupid. She’ll have brushed up her own training, might even be back up to her old standard. If she is….”

“I’m sure we can take care of them.” Raminou said.

Gia smiled at him.

Then she looked back at Aniak.

“Point us in the right direction.”

“Alright Aniak said, nodding her head. “They’re living in a cave not too….”

Gia cut her off, and began walking away.

“Tomorrow, she said, My team and I are tired and hungry, we’ll talk more in the morning.”

Aniak watched her leave.

“I don’t really like her, or her attitude,” Aniak thought, “but what choice do I have?”

The next night Gia once again crept through the woods.

“What’s with all these night ops lately?” She thought.

They had been told where Aleu was living, and were approaching a small cave.

“One thing about that Aniak,” she thought, “she does seem to have good intel.”

She thought about this Shadow she’d heard so much about

“I’m looking forward to this one,” she thought.

It had been a long time since she’d had a challenge.

“A long time,” she thought sadly.

She shrugged that thought off.

“Can’t let emotions enter into battle,, especially not this time. If this Shadow is as good as she says he is, I’ll have to be sharp,”

The team was outside, and they saw a wolf standing guard outside.

“Only one?” Gia thought, “you must feel pretty secure here.”

She split off from the rest of the team, and went around the back of the cave, watching the sentry.

She circled around and crept up behind him.

She was on top of the hill that the cave was dug into, a good six feet above the wolf.

The wolf didn’t look to be very old, he was orange and white.

“Kinda cute,” She thought.

Then she jumped on him.

The two of them hit the ground.

He tried to yell, but Gia wrapped her jaws around his throat, and twisted her head sharply to the left.

She heard the bones in the young wolf’s neck pop, and she dropped him to the ground.

She signaled the rest of the team to move up and eight of the ten wolves walked carefully down into the cave. The other two took up watch outside.

One of them looked down at the unmoving body of the orange sentry.

He stared into its blank eyes

“Picked the wrong side huh buddy? The wolf said.

The two wolves laughed together.

Gia stopped the team, suddenly.

“Clever,” she thought, “very clever.”

Standing just inside the entry way from this main chamber, into the next one, was another two wolves.

One of them fit the description she’d been given of Dash.

“So you’re the one?” She thought. “You’re not even a wolf, you look like a dog, a husky.”

The other, Gia didn’t know , it was a gray female, but it looked older than the description she’d been given of Melody.

Raminou crept up slowly to Gia’s side.

“Can I take them out?” He whispered, looking at the female.

Gia shook her head.

“No,” she whispered, “Aleu is our target, we can’t afford to make the noise.”

Raminou nodded and went back to his position in the rear.

Gia and her team made their way across the chamber, using the shadows.

“Just like you taught me Jiurus,” Gia thought.

“Jiurus?” Why do you keep coming to mind tonight?”

For the second time that night, she tried to push that memory out of her mind.

The team snuck right by Dash and the other wolf.

As they did, they heard the two of them talking.

“So Tiru,” Dash said to the wolf, “what made you leave Kacto?”

Tiru sighed.

“I… I just did what I thought was right.”

She smiled.

“Seems to be the going excuse here lately doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Dash said, letting the subject drop, he could tell Tiru was a little uncomfortable about it.

“If it wasn’t for all that I’ve heard about your friend here, and the need to be quiet until we find his sister, I’d take you out,” Gia thought, “it would be so easy. He carries himself like a fighter, but you… you carry yourself like a weakling, a defenseless pup.”

She hated wolves like this one.

“It was because of one like you that Jiurus…”

She stopped.

“Jiurus again? I’ve got to get my thoughts under control.”

The team crept into the bedding chamber.

Gia was a little disappointed.

Shadow was down.

“Looks like a bullet got the best of him.” Gia thought. “Oh well, happens to the best of us.”

Gia had felt the touch of man’s favorite tool, several times before.

“I’m not going to attack him,” Gia realized, “not a fellow team leader, not while he’s down, oh I will, just not yet. We’ll let him recover.

She stared at him, at the hole in his side.

“He will recover; he’ll be just fine in a few days.”

She looked over at Aleu, who was lying beside Shadow, her head on his shoulder.

“Aww how cute,” Gia thought.

“I was like you once.”

She shook her head, and closed her eyes.

“Jiurus.”

She wiped one paw across her face.

“Geez, why do I keep thinking of him, why now?”

She walked into the chamber and nudged Aleu awake.

Aleu squinted up at her, trying to shrug off the effects of sleep.

“Wh…who are you?”

“Must not have been expecting much.”

Jeuke looked at Gia.

Gia shook her head.

“Hey,” Aleu said, standing, the sleep wearing off.

Jeuke hit her in the back of the head

Aleu was slammed into the ground, and was still.

Jeuke and the other’s looked up at Gia, questioningly.

“Gia tossed her head, and indicated for them to follow her.

One of the wolves named Niejus slung Aleu over his back and the team started to make their way silently out of the chamber.

“Time to test this Aniak… this leader ,.” Gia thought.

“What the heck are you doing?” Aniak asked.

She stared at Aleu, who was lying on the ground.

The group had done quite a number on her, but she was still breathing.

“The deal was for you to kill her,” Aniak said.

“I know,” Gia said, “but I changed the deal.”

“You changed it?” Aniak said, “Great, then maybe I should change ours.”

“I don’t think you want to do that?” Gia said.

She grinned at Aniak.

“Testing, testing, this is only test, I want to see what this pack is made of, see I kind of like it here, thinking of maybe settling down.

I hate running all the time, running from everyone, you do something for one side of a dispute and the other wants your head, I ‘m tired of the game. The game’s too dangerous. I’m getting older now, not old, but this game is for the youngsters. I just want to see if you can do it.”

“Can do what?” Aniak asked.

Gia nodded at her and smiled.

“There she is.”

“What?” Aniak asked.

Gia laughed at her.

“I know about your friendship with her. How you once saved her life, by almost getting killed.”

“Can you do it?”

“What?” Aniak asked, a tone of disgust showing through her voice.

“You ever killed before? I mean a wolf; you ever kill a wolf, a friend?”

“It ain’t like taking down no caribou.”

“You’re crazy,” Aniak said.

She paused, and looked at Aleu.

“You’re freakin crazy, get out of my pack now, just leave.”

“So you don’t, you can’t huh?” Gia said.

Aniak looked at her.

Gia shrugged.

“All right, that’s fine, not all can do it. You can do what you want with her.”

Gia started to walk away.

“What about the others?” Aniak called after her.

Gia stopped, turned and