her elegantly-shaped head pointed in the direction of the din.

“What was that?” Aleu asked curiously. 

The Alpha spoke not a word for a few moments, for she was trying to understand the reason she was being summoned. “It appears to be a situation with some of the teams we have in training for our hunters and fighters, but unfortunately, I must go when called.”

“I understand, ma’am,” the quarter-wolf bowed quickly, still trying to prove her worth to the white lupine and the lost father that wanted her to return home. “But what about the Thin Leaf for my Pa— I mean, for the prisoner’s wound?” For a second time, she caught herself nearly spilling the truth about who their prisoner really was to her, but thankfully, White Feather wasn’t even thinking about the words that came out of Aleu’s mouth. 

“I’ll probably send Geona with the Thin Leaf instead, since solving this situation may take an hour or two.” Aleu nodded with understanding as White Feather turned back to Balto. “I apologize for leaving so suddenly, but I’m sure we’ll find some time to chat before I decide my final judgment on you.” She nodded before continuing. “May we meet again, . . .”

“Balto,” the hybrid completed her sentence, reminding the Alpha on his birth name once more. “My name’s Balto.” 

“Balto . . .” the name whispered through the white wolf’s lips slowly, almost as if she was savoring it. “What a . . . different name for a wolf.” She told him with a voice of fascination.

“I’m only half-wolf, actually,” Balto clarified for the lupine. “My . . . my mother gave me that name, although I can’t seem to remember her ever calling me by it . . .” His head lowered with his ears and eyelids, for the sadness of remembering the matriarch he was so attached to as a cub made him get near to tears. 

“Oh,” White Feather gave him a nurturing nuzzle against his cheek. “My humblest apologies to you. I, too, lost my mother at a young age, . . . as well as my father.”

“I did too,” Balto’s eyes widened in slight shock on exactly how similar he was to the Alpha Female. “How strange . . . We really must be alike, huh?” 

“I suppose so indeed,” White Feather turned around slowly as she began to make her way back to the hall. “But we shall talk later. Take care, both of you. I shall return once my duties are completed.” She gave them a slight bob of her head before facing forward and trotting towards the main chamber.

Once the white she-wolf had left the scene and neither of them could sense her nearby, Aleu turned to her father with a sigh of relief. “Sorry about those rocks to your cut, Papa. I hope you understand.” 

“But why, Aleu?” Balto asked his daughter. “Why did you interrupt me by making me hurt more?”

“It’s a long story, Papa,” Aleu tried to explain. “but I can’t have you tell the Alpha about us being Father and Daughter . . .” Her ears and head lowered. “It’s for our own good for now, okay?” 

It took a couple of moments before Balto answered his child. “I guess it’ll be fine . . . for now. Once my wounds feel better to walk on, we must tell the Alpha the truth.”

“But . . . but . . .” the quarter-wolf female stammered. “But Papa, . . . you don’t understand . . .” 

“No, Aleu – you don’t understand,” the hybrid father spoke back. “We have to tell her the truth eventually. She deserves the truth of who we are, and when she returns, I will tell her myself.”

“No . . .” Aleu muttered out quietly with a lowered head, for only she knew the consequences of her father’s actions.  

If he tells her the truth, then I’ll never become a member of the Clan . . . and White Feather . . . she may do something terrible . . .

She might sentence him to death, just like with those two other wolves that were reunited during that winter storm . . . 

No . . . No, I can’t let that happen! I just can’t have something happen to Papa when there’s something I can do about it!

“Look, I know you’re upset, but it’s the honest thing to do,” Balto told her softly, using a paw to lift his daughter’s head. He took a few seconds to gaze into the large almond eyes of yellow and blue before kindly smiling. “You know, I still have a story to finish for you. Would you like to hear the next part?” 

“Okay, why not?” Aleu agreed glumly. “I might as well listen while I clean your wound.” She leaned over to the stretched-out form of her father as began to cool and clean the red cut with her tongue. Balto let out a slight hiss, but calmed down as Aleu’s licking stabilized the redness of the wound. The taste of his blood and fur on her tongue was similar to that of the deer meat she had tasted the previous night, but because it was her father she was caring for, she tried not to notice it, especially since she still thought the idea of tasting her father’s now dried blood was more disgusting than her first impression of the ripped venison she had eaten.

Once the swelling of the cut allowed the hybrid to breathe normally after about a minute, Aleu took a break from licking and listened to the next part of her father’s story. 

“So, where did I leave off at?”

“You had just shown my mother the Northern Lights underneath the doc’s office,” Aleu reminded him. “And Ebony’s father had barged in while the two of you were leaving.” 

“Ah, yes,” Balto nodded. “I remember that memory now. You have quite a knack for memory, Aleu.” After a pause, a soft chuckle and a sigh, he began where he left off. “Well, Steele crashed through the door with a long link of sausages wrapped around his neck. He was shocked to see the two of us together, especially since he had lusted over Jenna for quite a while. I growled low, ready to defend her from his play-dog calls and charms, but she surprised me by clearing her throat and stepping forward towards the large Malamute, smiling brightly.”

“Huh, and I thought she liked you,” Aleu smugly murmured under her breath.  

“Actually, I had thought so too,” Balto replied, causing Aleu to gasp; she hadn’t realized that he had heard her comment. “At the time, I saw how she looked at him, gazing her beautifully large eyes at Steele and returning his affections . . .” His ears and head lowered as the memory flashed through his mind’s eye. “My heart felt like breaking . . . I was completely devastated. At that moment, I believed that my last hunch was unfortunately right: she was only playing with my heart all this time . . . Jenna must have been pressured by her other purebred companions and friends to make me long for her, want to be with her and then just like that, . . . she would turn on me, making me seem like a fool to believe that anyone, even the most gorgeous creature on Earth, could love a half-breed like me.”

“But she must have changed her mind at some point or another, right?” Aleu asked. “I’m here, right? So something must have happened in order for me to even be here!” 

Balto’s face changed into a bit of a grin. “You’re right – she did, but that comes a little later on in the story.” He cleared his throat and returned to his tale. “I soon noticed amongst my disappointment at the time that Jenna was sending me signals of what she was really up to; she was pushing Steele backwards as she pretended to swoon over him, allowing his hind-side to end up against the nearby burner.”

“Serves him right, Papa,” Aleu nearly barked with happiness. “He deserved that!” 

Balto chuckled at his daughter’s comment. “I was laughing inside when she did that, but once he noticed the heat touching his hindquarters, Steele howled loudly in pain, waking a couple of nearby humans, including Rosy’s father and the butcher. All three of us could hear their voices growing louder as they came closer, and I quickly got Jenna out of there . . . but Steele came through the door, the sausages wrapped around him like one of his coveted Golden Collar Awards. Jenna and I escaped his grasp, but the Malamute was a clever one; he threw his meat in the air, and once the humans’ lantern lights hit him, Steele was seen as the innocent party . . . and I was the guilty one in their eyes.”

Aleu gasped. “But that’s not fair! You didn’t do anything wrong!” 

“I know, and both Jenna and Steele knew that as well, but to the humans, they could only believe the sight that was in front of them: clearly the sausages were touched by my hybrid jaws and were on me as well, so they immediately passed their verdict. Steele received the sausages that he had stolen, and Rosy’s father grabbed Jenna by the bandanna as I was chased away from town by their awful slurs and threats.” Balto’s ears lowered but a small smile was on his face despite the mood of the tale so far. “Even though I was hated by the humans and by my fellow canines, I was glad to notice that Jenna tried to prove my innocence by trying to follow me home before being pulled back by Rosy’s father. Just by that act, I had a feeling that she really did love me for me – we needed no words at all.”

“So she did love you back then, huh?” The quarter-wolf child asked; her father nodded. “But wouldn’t her friends hate her because of it? I’m sure Steele told the other dogs about you and my mother being together, right?” 

“Well, I don’t know who told them, but by the next day, I had a feeling other dogs knew about us. Actually, that morning, something else had caught my fancy: a choosing race.” Balto paused for a moment, letting out a breath as he remembered the rush of his husky heritage.

“Why was there a race, Papa?” Aleu queried. 

“Remember I told you about that disease that Rosy had – diphtheria?” Balto reminded; Aleu nodded, allowing him to continue. “Well, that night, a message was sent for the critical serum needed to save them. A faraway city agreed to send

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