head on her paws. “Oh, nothing. Just a guess.”

          “Poor devil. He ran off a few weeks ago,” Bullet said, shaking his head, “I guess the hunting life just wasn’t for him.” Then he grinned, and his tail thrashed the air. “Boy, do I have some wild stories about him. Want to hear some?”

          Shaila gave a half-hearted tug at the rope, and sighed and looked back up at him. “Well, it doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere.”

          Red auroras chased each other through the black night sky. Shaila watched them through the peephole the top branches created with their falling leaves. Fear and weariness rubbed her heart raw, and with the world’s weight on it she remembered her home near Nome, and her sister Ruska who had bolted at the sound of a gunshot, and the grandmother who loved the Northern Lights.

          Footsteps behind her made her turn her head. It was Bullet, and he sat down next to her and stared oddly at her face. She gazed back without blinking, and after awhile he said, “You know, it’s kind of hard to get past those glowing eyes of yours.”

          Shaila looked up at the dancing auroras again. “Is that all you came over here for? To comment on my freakish wolf eyes?”

          He rubbed one paw around in the dirt. “No.” He seemed more subdued and calmer now than when she had first met him, she noticed. She could also tell something was bothering him. He appealed to her while following her gaze to the flowing red ribbons in the sky. “Listen, uh…what’s your name?”

          Shaila’s eyebrows lifted. But what did it matter if he knew her name? “Shaila,” she said softly.

          Bullet nodded. “Look, Shaila, I’m sorry my owner’s keeping you like this. I want to help you, but even if I could, I…”

          “Wouldn’t?” Shaila said.

          Bullet shrugged helplessly. “He’s my owner. I owe him everything…I wish you could understand that.”

          Suddenly Shaila was tired of all the secrecy. She spun around and glared at Bullet. “What is your hunter going to do to me, Bullet? I know you know, so stop pretending and just tell me!”

          Bullet looked stunned. Shaila was surprised, too. She couldn’t remember the last time she had openly gotten mad at someone. It felt…good.

          Bullet was stammering and stuttering up a storm. “Well, uh…well, I…I…He–”

          “Bullet!” Angel’s sharp voice cut through their conversation. Shaila saw her standing near the fire, her white fur backed by red-gold flames.

          Bullet looked at her, and then at Shaila, and quietly padded back over to the fire, his head and tail down.

          Shaila sighed in frustration, and tried one last time to slip out of the rope. It choked her and scraped her neck red, and so she lay down in angry defeat.

          In the distance she swore she heard a wolf howl, but she must have imagined it because none of the others stirred. She closed her suddenly misty eyes and willed herself to dream away this nightmare. The last thing she felt was the hunter’s heavy gaze on her as she gave herself up to sleep.

          In the earliest hour of morning Shaila’s eyes snapped open at a gentle shake from the hunter.

          “Easy now, girl,” Jake said softly, “You’re all right.”

          Shaila begged to differ. Her mind was fogged with sleep, her stomach groaned, and her bandaged paw throbbed beneath the white cloth. Then she noticed something that made her head jerk up and her eyes widen.

          There was no tugging on her neck, no scraping of rope against skin. There was still a weight around her neck, but the rope lay next to her in a frayed, straw-colored heap. The dying ray of hope inside her suddenly burst into a triumphant, shining sun. He had cut the rope! She was free!

          Shaila shot to her feet and bolted out of the clearing before her astounding fate could change. She ran faster than thought, faster than her heart, which was beating furiously as she dodged trees and sailed over bushes. Free, she was free at last!

          She crashed out of the forest, stopping only for a few heartbeats to get her bearings, and then charged across the snow and ran alongside the mountain until she reached Eagle Pass.

          Panting, she slowed her pace and trotted into the pack cave. “Mom?” she called, “Remus?” Her words echoed hollowly around the damp stone chamber, and she froze at an unfamiliar sound.

          Beep, beep echoed around the cave long after her words had died away. She carefully followed the sound with her ears, and then looked down.

          Around her neck, where she had thought the rest of the rope had been, was a thin black collar. On one side was a small, black plastic box, and on this box was a red light that blinked on and off in time with its beeping. In her rush to freedom she hadn’t noticed the noise until now.

          Shaila bit her lip as a wave of dizziness spun through her head. She had never seen a tracking collar before, but she knew this was a man-made device, and that humans were after wolves. Especially Jake.

          The awful realization nearly made her heart stop. She had led the humans right to the wolves!

To Be Continued in

The Last Lone Wolf: Ruska’s Story

          Aleu © Universal Studios

          Remus, Shade, Shaila, Ruska, Swift, Everest, Silver Arrow,     Jaydor, Cyan, Destiny, Flint, Iceberg, Crystal, Kestra, Quicksilver,        Linder, Bullet, Angel, Moody Blue, Teke, and Jake © redwolf03