*          *

            It didn’t take as long as I thought it would to get used to wolf life. We stayed for the rest of the short summer and when the fall frosts arrived, the deer I had learned to hunt started to move. Ataneq announced to the pack that we’d be following them, mostly for me since the rest of the pack looked like they had heard this before. Aniu told my pups and I to get a good night’s sleep and I curled up with all three. Aniu and the pups fell asleep quickly, but I stayed awake longer. The wind blew colder and Aniu shivered beside me. I nudged her closer to me and laid my head over hers. In her sleep, she smiled and sighed. I was glad she was this happy.

            The next morning came way too quickly and with the pups already strong enough to travel, the pack moved quickly, covering almost fifty miles a day, nothing I couldn’t handle. But the trip crossed plains and dangerous territories occupied by vicious packs that Aniu said were always fighting. So by the end of the trip on the fourth day, I was exhausted. As soon as Ataneq found our place, I plopped right down on the ground and fell asleep. Aniu put a paw on my head and licked my forehead. My sons burrowed into my and fell asleep as fast as I did.

The next morning, we caught a deer early before the frost had thawed. By the time it did, the pack was energized and excited. They even let me join in a little game of tag. Up until now, the whole pack besides Ataneq, Sage and my family, hadn’t really liked me. But before I could really join in, a little black blur fired into my side. Balto followed his brother not a step behind and tried to tackle me too. I laughed and let them knock me onto my back. Then something caught my eye. I stood up and squinted. There was a city in the distance! I hadn’t seen people for almost four months. I wanted Aniu to see what a town looked like. Meanwhile, Balto chomped on my leg with his puppy teeth while Buck had an ear in his mouth and was determined to pull it off my head.

“Easy, easy! I still need that ear you know!” I laughed, gently shaking Buck off. “Same goes for that leg pup!” I said lifting my paw out of Balto’s reach.

“Go get your grandfather you guys!” I said, pointing a paw at Ataneq.

Balto and Buck charged forward and I went to find Aniu; I was going to show her a town tonight!    

“I don’t know…..what if someone sees us?” Aniu said nervously, shuffling her feet.

“I’m sure they see wolves all the time” I said. With Ataneq’s permission, we were now heading into the town, named Nome according to a little sign at the entrance road.

“What about hunters?” Aniu said, voice shaking.

“We’ll be to close to town to shoot” I answered, only half listening.

We walked down the main street and looked around. I wasn’t surprised that it was empty: it was night so everyone was asleep. Aniu stuck to my side and jumped at every little thing. I showed her the butcher’s, which I found by smell and we shared a slab of some kind of meat I had never tasted before. There wasn’t much more to look at, but I did find what looked like markings for a dogsled race. We exited the town without an excitement and made our way back to our claim.  

“Now was that so bad”

“No, I guess not” Aniu admitted.

As we walked, I looked out over what I thought was another frozen plain, and realized it was a giant mass of water. I had never seen so much water in one place! And some huge human thing loomed as if frozen in place right before the water began! I wanted to investigate but I could tell Aniu wanted to be back with the pups. Aniu started to pick up the pace and I followed; paws hurting at the hardness of the frozen dirt. Like a flash, the human’s town disappeared as we entered the woods. We traveled in silence for a while but being herself, Aniu just couldn’t be content keeping calm. Suddenly she stopped and sprang on me, plowing me into the dirt. With a puppyish giggle, she bounded away. I grinned and chased after her. Two breaths of frigid air and I caught up to Aniu and tripped her. In a tangle of legs, we tumbled onto the ground and collapsed in a heap with her on top of me. We laughed together then a feeling came over me. A bad one.

I scrambled to my feet and strained my ears, searching the tree line. The smell I smelt right now was one I had never smelt before and I didn’t like it one bit.    

“What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer. It was another wolf I was sure, and I didn’t know this one.

“We should get moving” I started but a cold voice cut me off.

“Hey girlie! Remember us?”

Three familiar wolves came out from behind pine trunks and started to circle. They ignored Tundra as if he was just another tree. The two grays went behind me but I kept my eyes on the big black one his siblings had called “boss”.

“Who are they?” Tundra growled.

“You don’t want to know. They tried to kill me” I mumbled.

                        “We told you not to run away. Where’s your daddy now?” Boss sneered.

Tundra growled louder and ran over to stand next to me.

                        “Who are you? Some dog?” the skimpy grey cackled.

The wolves turned their attention to Tundra and momentarily forgot about me.

                        “Dogs don’t win fights against wolves you know” Boss said, tightening his circle so that they almost touched and Tundra had to spin to keep his eye on him. My heart sank and fear gripped me. Dogs never won fights against wolves even if Tundra had gotten lucky in his first fight. It wasn’t hard to tell he wasn’t confident in himself either. Boss’s ugly face split into a crooked sneer. I tilted back my head and howled for all I was worth, calling for help. Boss frowned for a second then rushed his two younger brothers.

Poor Tundra never saw the big grey wolf jump from behind him. With a yelp, he tumbled to the ground and hit it hard. But he scrambled back to his feet almost instantly. The two grays started to corner him into a tree, separating him from me. Boss watched happily, then turned to me and strutted over.

                        “Last chance” he crooned. “Wanna be my mate?”

“Tundra!”

                        “Oh well” Boss sighed, broad siding me and pinning me. “See you in the afterlife”

Boss almost had his teeth on my throat when we heard a the sound of body hitting a tree and a loud yelp. But it didn’t sound like Tundra. Suddenly, Boss was ripped right off of me and Tundra nudged me up, licking my face. Then he whipped around, snarling. The big grey wolf was rubbing his head, wimpering and the little one was knocked out cold. Boss looked furious. He snarled and ran at Tundra, teeth aiming for Tundra’s head. Tundra ran forward too, snarling just ass fierce. It was silent until the two hit each other, snapping and slashing. I watched, frightened for my mate’s life. Grey mixed with black and for a second I thought Tundra had lost. Then Boss made a move toward me. Summoning the last of his strength, Tundra threw himself at Boss, knocking him over and had his jaws on Boss’s neck. He still growled softly. Boss’s pleading voice almost made me laugh.

                        “Please- please don’t hurt me”

His tail curled between his legs. Tundra didn’t look like he wanted to let go.

            “Let him go Tundra” my father commanded.

“Dad!” I cried, never so happy to see him.

Tundra let Boss go and Boss slunk away, very low to the ground. But Tundra just wanted to make his point. He knocked Boss on his back one more time and growled something into his ear. It was too low for me to hear but it must have scared him. Boss took off, tail still between his legs. His brothers stared at Tundra in shook. Tundra took one step toward them and they ran off after their brother.

Tundra made sure they were gone before he turned back to us, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. I flew over to him and nuzzled under his chin. I had never been so happy to see him! He nuzzled me back. Ataneq came down the hill to us. Tundra looked at Ataneq, respect filling his eyes.

                        “Taking on three wolves that could have killed you was foolish” he started. “But brave. Tundra, I want you and Aniu to be the new leaders. You’re braver then me and just as