Luna.

“Cheaters!” Loki howled.

Toby gritted his teeth.  “I didn’t train all week to lose!” he yelled, throwing off three of his attackers.  He kicked another one in the face, forcing it to let go, but by then two of the first three were on him again.

“We gotta help him!” yelled Loki, but Luna stopped him.

“We can’t,” she said, “Or we’ll sink to their level.  Toby has to win this one on his own, or he’ll lose.  All three of us will.”

In the massive pileup, Toby was quickly losing strength.  He couldn’t hold under the weight of six dogs.  There was only one chance.  With a groan, he slumped to the ground.

Laughing, the dogs got off of Toby.  Released from their weight, Toby sprang up and dashed to the corner.  Pete was strutting haughtily as Toby grabbed the last flag and headed for the finish line.

“Go, Toby!” yelled Loki.

Startled, Pete turned to see Toby coming up behind him.  With a grunt of surprise, he shot to top speed and headed for the line.  Toby ran as hard as he could, but Pete made it across a full two lengths ahead as his gang gathered around to cheer.

“Well, Toby, it looks like you lose.”

“I did not!” protested Toby.  “You cheated!”

Pete scoffed.  “Prove it.  Nobody saw, stupid.”

“I did,” said Luna, coming up behind them.  “I was watching the whole race, and I saw every one of those stunts you pulled!”

Pete and his gang chuckled.  “Like anyone’s going to believe you.  It’s your word against ours.  That’s one to thirteen.”

“Oh, I beg to differ,” Toby grinned.  Time to pull the ace out of his fur.  “I had witnesses posted all along the racetrack.  I’d say there were, oh, at least fifteen of them.  Since I know how terrible you guys are at math, I’ll clear that up for you: fifteen witnesses plus myself, Luna, and Loki makes eighteen to thirteen, our favor.  You lose.”

Pete growled.  “Since when do you even have that many friends?”

“It’s called being sociable, Pete.  Try it some time.”

“Also,” added Luna, “Toby tells us you made him promise not to tell about what you guys did to Loki.  But you never made me or Loki promise anything, so we’re free to tell all we want.  And we will unless you forfeit right now.”  Pete growled, and Luna added cooly, “My sisters live just a block away.  You remember Phoebe, don’t you, Pete?  The girl with a 'mouth the size of North America?'” she asked, quoting the very words Pete had once used to describe Phoebe.

Pete hissed through his teeth.  “Ah, I’ve got better stuff to do anyway, ya wimps.  C’mon, guys, let’s go.”

Loki was all smiles as he ran in circles around Toby, jumping and yipping.  “You did it, Toby!  You did it!”

“We did it,” corrected Toby.  “Come on, guys.  Our work here is done.”

With Loki behaving himself and Pete’s gang no longer a problem, Toby finally felt at peace.  Luna occasionally babysat the wolf cub when Toby wanted to spend some alone time with Charlie, but that was just fine as far as she was concerned.  Partly this was because she loved pups, and partly it was because Loki gave her an inside peek at what Toby was like behind her back.  Loki, too, seemed to enjoy the change of pace, especially since Luna knew a lot of games he’d never heard of.  But it was rare now for Toby to actually want time away from Loki, so Luna’s services were rarely needed.  More often the three of them would all just get together for no particular reason at all.

The only thing that bothered any of them was the fact that they had heard nothing about any nearby wolf packs.  Luna went to visit the Northern Lights pack, which lived very close to Nome, to ask if they knew anything.  She came back saying they did not, although her aunt and uncle had offered to take Loki in for the time being.  Loki quickly declined.  “I like hanging out with Toby better,” he asserted. 

About a week later, the trio were sitting on Toby’s front porch one evening when suddenly Loki’s ears stood straight up.  “Did you hear that?”

 Toby was confused.  “Hear what?”

 Loki sat up and listened.  “There it is again.”

 Now Luna was acting strangely.  “I hear it too.”

 Then, ever so faintly, Toby heard a distant sound.  “What is that?” he asked.

 “It sounds like a wolf,” answered Luna.

 “It’s not just any wolf!” Loki burst out excitedly.  “It’s my mom!”

 “Are you sure?” asked Luna.

 “Of course I’m sure!”  Loki’s tail was wagging like mad.  “I’d know that howl anywhere!”

 “Well, there’s no point wasting time,” said Toby.  “Let’s get you back to your pack.”

 Loki lifted his head and started to howl, but Toby stopped him.  “Not yet.  We can’t just start howling right in the middle of town.  Come on.”  He grabbed Loki and flipped him onto his back.  “Hold on to my collar,” he instructed.  Loki did as he was told, and together the two dogs and one wolf raced down the street in the direction of the howling.

 “I can’t believe I’m going home!” Loki yipped excitedly.

 To Toby’s surprise, neither could he.  The wolf cub had really started to grow on him, warts and all.  “Believe it,” he said to himself and his passenger.

 As soon as they were well clear of the houses, Toby stopped.  The howling was much closer now.  He lifted his head and answered, his deep-throated howl echoing through the night and making Luna and Loki flinch from the sheer force of it.  But when he stopped and listened, there was no reply from the wolves.  Just the same howls as before, calling, “Loki!  Lokiiiii!”

 Toby howled again, with Luna joining in this time.  But still the wolves did not acknowledge their presence.

 “It’s because you’re dogs,” explained Loki.  “They won’t answer a call from dogs.”

 “Any ideas?” asked Luna.

 “Just one,” replied Loki.  Tilting his head back, he let out a tiny howl of his own.  It was high pitched, scrappy, and decidedly off-tune, but when he stopped to listen, the howls from the pack had changed.  “They’re coming!” he yipped.

 “It’s a wonder they could hear you,” remarked Toby affectionately.

 Moments later, a wolf pack appeared over the crest of a hill in front of the trio.  As soon as he saw them, Loki ran to meet them.  He jumped onto one of the females, laughing gleefully.

 “Loki!” the she-wolf cried in delight.  “You’re alright!”

 Loki nodded, burying his face in his mom’s fur.  “I missed you so much, mom.”

 She licked his ear and nuzzled him lovingly.  “There now.  It’s okay.”

 A male wolf joined them, and for the next few moments the rest of the world seemed to disappear.  “It’s so good to have you back, son.”

Loki smiled.  “Meet my friends,” he said, gesturing with a paw towards Toby and Luna.

His father looked at them skeptically.  “You made friends with a couple of dogs?” he asked.

Loki nodded.  “But they’re totally different from what we thought.  Toby seemed mean at first, but he’s not like that at all.  He saved me from a bunch of bullies and gave me a warm place to stay,” he proceeded to give a rapid-fire account of everything that had happened, skipping the parts about Toby getting mad at him for wrecking the house.  His parents’ eyes grew wide as they listened, and by the end of the story their mouths were hanging open in surprise.

After a moment of stunned silence, Loki’s father looked at Toby and Luna.  “Is this true?”

Toby’s conscience bothered him about skipping the bad parts of the story.  “Well, actually…”

“You bet it is!” Luna cut in.  “Toby was amazing!”

“A real hero!” added Loki.

The wolves stared at Toby.  Finally Loki’s father said, “Then I can’t thank you enough.  If there’s anything we can do to repay you…”

Toby laughed.  “Oh, that’s all right.  I’m just glad he’s back safe and sound.”

Loki got that scheming look in his eye that Toby had come to know all too well.  “Actually,” he said, “I think there is something we could do…”

“You realize this plan is completely insane, right?” Toby whispered.

Loki nodded eagerly.  “Yep.”

“And you realize that you could get sent to the zoo, right?”

“Yep.”

“And you are aware that the whole thing would blow over if we decided not to do this?”

“Yep.”

“Are you going to keep saying that all night?”

Loki flashed a mischievous grin.  “Yep.”

Toby grinned back.  “You really are just like me.”

“Are we going to sit here talking all night, or are we going to stir up some chaos?”

Toby shook his head, trying not to dwell on what they were about to do.  “It just seems so wrong, faking something like this.  Besides, it’ll make people in Nome more afraid of wolves than ever.”

Loki nodded.  “I know what you mean, but humans already hate wolves.  One more incident won’t change much, and if it does, we can figure out a way to fix it.  Anyway, do you know any other way to make them not be mad at you?”

Toby shrugged.  “No.”

“Then let’s mix it up.”

Toby grabbed Loki by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up onto Charlie’s bed.  Then he headed for Mr. and Mrs. Winters’ room.

While Toby was out of the room, Loki crawled up to Charlie’s face and gave him the cold-nose treatment.  There was no response.  He tried again without success, and finally decided that there was only one way to wake the kid up.  He crawled up on top of Charlie’s face and planted his front paws on top of the boy's nose.

“Huh?  What?” Charlie asked as he awoke in a daze.  Upon seeing Loki, his face lit up.  “Now where’d you come from, little guy?”

Loki took