The APAA man nodded with frank approval, and then turned to signal something to his pilot.

          A thundering roar filled the clearing like a beast freed from its cage. Ruska turned just in time to see Teke break through the trees with a full grown grizzly bear hot on his heels.

          Teke was wild-eyed and panting, running for his life, but his eyes found Ruska’s as he plunged into the crowd of hunters. “Something to take the bullets!” he yelled to her, and then he was lost in a sea of arms and legs and claws as the grizzly swiped and growled and the hunters scattered.

          The APAA man was going into a hysterical frenzy. “You want something to shoot at?” he screamed, “There it is! Shoot the poor beast, go on, shoot it! It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

          Ruska closed her eyes, building her resolve, and then shot blindly into the fray, clawing and thrashing and charging until she reached the Eagle Pass pack cave. She ducked inside, wheezing and watching black dots spin before her eyes. The chaos threatened to swallow her up.

          She leaned against the stone wall, feeling its coolness. Other gasping breaths covered her own. She slowly froze, and her ears swiveled towards the noise. Ruska turned and saw Teke sprawled on his side on the cave floor. His legs were splayed out beside him, and he lay like a limp tan rag that’s had everything wrung out of it.

          The word had to be forced up her dry throat. “Teke?” She dragged herself over to him. His eyes were closed, and his heaving sides were flecked with sweat and tiny beads of blood. Ruska saw with dismay that a thin jagged cut from his shoulder to his knee was trickling blood onto the floor, staining his fur dark brown.

          Tentatively she reached out a paw, and then pressed down on the wound. More blood spurted out, but she knew the pressure was good. She felt his pulse through her foot pads, and her heart immediately took up the same beat.

          Teke’s brown eyes snapped open, then shut, then fluttered open again. “Ruska?” He tried to sit up, but winced when he moved his shoulder. “Aaaah,” he groaned, and sank down again.

          For some reason Ruska felt tears spring to her eyes. ‘What’s the matter with me?’ she wondered. She shook herself, and forced a smile. Her face felt like it was cracking. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

          He grinned, his gaze distant. “Yeah. I know…but it was your idea.”

          “A grizzly bear?” she said, batting his leg softly. “C’mon!”

          His laugh was quiet and rough, but then his face folded into a grimace as he tried to get up. His front legs shook, and he clenched his jaw as they braced against the floor. His knees trembled, and he collapsed with a frustrated moan.

          “Here, let me help,” Ruska offered. To her befuddlement, he shook his head.

          “No.” He glared fixedly at the moss-covered stone walls as he once again shoved his paws against the cave floor and tried to bear his weight, focusing completely. He managed to pull himself up on his front legs, and they straightened, and shook only at random intervals.

          Ruska watched, holding her breath, when from outside came a short volley of shots and the deep, slow moans of a fallen grizzly. The shots sounded different from regular hunting rifles, though, and Ruska hoped this meant the APAA people had stepped in.

          With a splintered grunt Teke pushed himself to all four feet, and for a moment he stood straight and tall. But his eyes were still narrowed and distant, and soon his whole body was shaking.

          Ruska finally sighed in frustration. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered, and padded over and caught Teke against her before he fell. “C’mon, Hop-along, we have to find the others.” She leaned over him and licked the blood from his shoulder. She felt him tense and then relax against her, and their eyes met. Just for one moment, the air between them changed.

        Teke drew away from her and cleared his throat. “The others? As in other wolves?”

          Ruska rolled her eyes. “I promise they won’t eat you. Now come on.” She led him through the first tunnel, and he followed, walking gingerly. “Mom? Dad?” she called. Her words echoed in such a way that she got the strange feeling of being deserted. They walked through the next tunnel, and the next. The caverns were empty. She bit her lip in frustration, and tried the next one, but it was empty, too. How long did these caves go on?

          Panic was beginning to eat away at her, when a familiar voice rang through the tunnel and gave her hope.

          “Ruska?” A black and white wolf padded into the tunnel.

          Ruska’s heart swelled. “Dad!”

          Flint began running towards her.

          For the first time Ruska didn’t worry about looking weak and dependent. She let Flint catch her in an embrace that left her breathless but happy.

          He hugged her tightly, and then stepped back. “Ruska, where have you been? Why did you run away? You could have gotten killed!”

          She felt her heart grow cold towards him. She was home for five seconds and already she was being lectured? But she struggled to stop it. He was only concerned, she told herself. But there were more important things to think about now. “Dad, where’s Mom? And Shade? Did you hear what the APAA guy said? We’re protected! We’re free!”

          Flint looked at her in perplexity at not having answered his questions, but then he nodded. “Yes. We heard it all. It’s how the tunnels are set up; we could hear every word.”

          “Where is everyone?” Ruska asked.

          “Windsong Valley,” Flint said, “We all ran there when we heard the helicopters. It’s entirely surrounded by mountains, so it’s safe. We’ve been keeping the packs here, to protect them from hunters. A few of the braver ones went out the cave entrance to see if they could stop the hunters, but judging by what we heard…” He shook his head sorrowfully.

          Ruska suddenly was spinning into the vacant eyes of the dead wolves. Ravens pecked at their flesh, causing more wounds to spurt red blood, until everything was torn away except the glassy eyes. Their death stare seized her, and then she was spiraling back to the present, where she was choking on a sudden lump in her throat.

          “Ruska! Are you okay?” Teke said in alarm. Both he and Flint were staring at her.

          She coughed, and took a shaky breath. “I’m…fine.” What had just happened? She had remembered what she had seen, and then her imagination had done the rest. She shivered. The fight was over. Why was she freaking out now?

          Flint’s skeptical stare at the hunting dog brought her out of her thoughts. “Dad this is Teke. He’s my friend. He helped to get rid of the hunters.”

          Teke laughed a little. “Yeah. Nothing like an angry grizzly bear to get people moving.”

          Flint’s eyebrows went up. “You…?” He gaped at Teke for a few seconds, and then shook himself. “Well…the others are waiting in the valley for me to come back with whoever was in our tunnels. Are they in for a surprise!” He shot a wondering glance at Teke, and then turned. “C’mon.”

          They raced through the caverns, the mottled brown walls dragging into a blur in the corner of Ruska’s eyes. She followed Flint’s zigzag trail, and she heard the panting of Teke just behind her and the footfalls of his jerky run. Finally they reached the last, tight tunnel, and burst out into the freshness and openness of Windsong Valley.

          A huge cluster of wolves was huddled around something in the grass a few feet away, but when a few acknowledged Flint’s return, Ruska was suddenly thrown backward by the force of their greeting.