coat was as red as blood, but glowed like rust once the sun kissed her skin. White markings donned her thin legs and lovely face, ending at the tip of her perfectly curled tail. But it was her eyes . . . yes, glimmering in the tints of amber-brown and hazel, they hypnotized anyone that dare stare into them, as they had done with my father, who was easily charmed by her grace. With a thoroughbred pedigree and not an imperfect bone in her body, everyone in town loved and adored her company, and she was supposed to live a life with my father to love her forever, but . . .” She paused for another moment; this time, her ears pressed against her neck, and she let out a low growl through her throat. Every word she uttered afterwards was loud and piercing, putting her personal emotions through her voice. “But it was yourfather that stole her from mine! She fell in love with that wolf-dog instead of my purebred father, allowing him to take her through the binding ritual of ever-lasting love, . . . and because of that, she died . . .” Aleu gasped, taking a step back at the fact that her mother was dead. 

“My mother . . . is . . . dead?” The quarter-wolf’s legs weakened, causing her to give way towards the ground, still feeling the shock of the news. Tears began to well up in her almond-shaped eyes, collapsing once they were filled to the brink and drenching her face. “How . . .? How did she die?” Aleu begged in her weeping, hoping that Ebony would provide all of the answers she desired. The Malamute-husky female only continued to chuckle with pure malevolence from her throat, pacing in between her group and the suffering child in her focus. “If you cannot reveal that to me, could you at least tell me her name, so that I may know it?”

“Heh,” Ebony smirked. “and I thought everyone had spread the news about her too.” She chuckled some more with her company snickering in a quieter tone than her own. “If you must know, her name was Jenna . . . and she died, right after giving birth to you and your siblings a year ago!”  

“No . . .” Aleu shook her head slowly back and forth, in shock of this revelation.

“Oh, but that’s not all: Jenna birthed five others once you were born, and they all looked just like her! Not a single one of them was wolfish like you . . . and they all perished along with her that day!” Ebony continued to spill the news to the grieving quarter-wolf, without a bit of remorse in her voice. 

“No . . .” Aleu repeated again, her head shaking a bit rapidly than a moment ago. “You’re lying . . .” Her heart was crying, breaking inside as tears moistened the soil beneath her body and front paws.

Still, Ebony was ruthless, aiming to complete her duty as an informer of news . . . and to cause certain suffering to her enemy. “This isn’t a lie, wolf-dog; my words are all true! It’s your fault that you’re all alone without your mommy and siblings . . . You killed them by being born! Your wild wolf blood killed your family!” 

“NO!” Aleu howled aloud; her head leaned back as tears dropped from her closed eyes as the tiny word morphed into a powerful, mournful howl. Her voice began to vibrate against the wooden buildings of Main Street, causing other animals, dogs, and people to see what the source of the noise.

“Aleu?” Balto’s ears twitched as the hybrid lifted her head up, waking from his nap. He could feel the sorrow in her voice, unsure of why she was doing so, but he knew he had to go to her. “Aleu, I’m coming!” He quickly got up and leaped through Rosy’s two floor house until he made his way past the dog door. Without thinking, he followed his daughter’s scent, hoping that everything was okay with her. 

Back at Main Street, Ebony and her gang were continuing to hover over the weeping quarter-wolf, laughing and teasing her as if they didn’t care that Aleu was even feeling pain about learning the truth about her mother.

She died . . . because of me? Aleu thought in her mind. She couldn’t believe what Ebony had just told her, although the Malamute did say she never lied. That’s impossible! I was only newly-born; what could I have done to kill her? It can’t be my fault . . . it can’t be! She let out another wail as she cried. 

“Aleu!”

The voice of her father finally caused her to turn her crying head towards him, silencing her last howl and causing her to let out a few sniffles. “Oh Papa . . .” Aleu whimpered like a little puppy, still in tears. 

“Aleu,” Balto walked up to her, trying to calm her down with a gentle nuzzle, but Aleu moved her head away as soon as she felt his touch. “Aleu, what’s wrong with you? You probably woke up everyone in town!”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Aleu quietly asked her father, then she spoke in a slightly louder and more upset tone. “Why didn’t you tell me that it was my fault that my mom is dead?” 

Balto’s ears perked up and his eyes grew wide. “Who told you that?” He tried to hide the truth again. “That’s not true, honey.”

Ebony bravely approached the wolf-dog male, smirking in a way that would make her own father jealous. “I told her that, and don’t bother to deny it, Balto!” As Balto’s ears fell against his neck in defeat, her devious smile began to show her sharp, pearly-white teeth. “You know as well as my father does that it was your wolf blood took the life of your beloved Jenna and the rest of your family!” She began to chuckle loudly, still teasing the wolf-breeds. “You know, he always told me that you wolves were nothing but trouble all along.” 

The wolf-dog’s eyebrows lowered after a few moments, his claws dug into the ground. “Go back to Steele, Ebony! Leave us alone!” He growled, lowering his body to the ground as if to attack her and her gang. After a quick couple of barks, the huskies whimpered in fear as Ebony gestured with her head to retreat. Soon, there was no one left on the dusty street except for the half-wolf father and his quarter-wolf daughter.

Aleu had now sat up, but she lifted her head up in anger, turning it away from her father’s gaze. “So, when were you going to tell me the truth, Papa?” 

“What truth, Aleu?” He lied. Balto remembered that he promised to keep Jenna’s death from his daughter, but he guessed that Boris’s prediction from earlier had come to pass.

“About my mother, Papa. Why did you keep something so important from me?” Aleu growled. The two part-wolves didn’t notice that Boris had waddled towards them with Muk and Luk behind him. The gander stopped a building away, hiding by the side of it so that he could listen to their conversation without disturbing them. 

Balto let out a deep breath, remembering the words that Boris had told him. “But what if she asks? Aleu will want an answer one day. What will you tell her then?”He lowered his head, afraid of the fact that his guardian was right all along. “I didn’t mean to keep the truth from you, but I was afraid to tell you; I only wanted to protect you, Aleu.” For once, Balto spoke the truth that he had been hiding within his heart. He really meant every word he uttered.

“Afraid? Afraid to tell your own daughter about the mother she never knew?” Aleu yelled, tears flooded her eyes again. “Did you think you could protect that from me forever?” 

Balto hesitated in his answer, but he gave his child the truth. “Actually, I was hoping that you wouldn’t learn about it. I was surprised that you’d learn about it from someone else.” He let out a very deep sigh. “I never wanted it to come to this.”

“So, is it the truth?” Aleu growled. “Was Ebony right on what she said? Did my mother die because of me being born?” 

“No,” Balto reassured her, trying to nuzzle her gently; Aleu dodged her father’s nose in anger. “I mean, she did die after giving birth to you and your siblings, but it’s not your fault. Sometimes these things happen, and there’s nothing that we can do about it.” Just saying those words only reminded him of those moments when he couldn’t do anything to save Jenna on that bloody sheet in the doctor’s office, causing tears to drip down his face as well. “When I watched your mother die with my own eyes, I began to blame myself. I thought it was my wolf blood that led to her sudden death, but –”

Aleu quickly interrupted him, much to the shock of her father. “It was actually mine, wasn’t it? You forget that I have wolf in me too! Because of me and my siblings being born and I being the only one to survive, I killed my own mother!” Her constant weeping drenched her white-beige cheeks until they turned dark tan. “It’s all my fault!” 

“Aleu . . .” Balto tried to calm her down and set things straight with his daughter by approaching her, but she knocked him aside, running past him in a flurry.

“Go away!” She shouted at him as she ran out of the Nome town limits, not even giving her blue eyes another look back at her father. “I can’t stand you right now!” 

“Come back here, Aleu!” Balto ran after her, panting as his feet carried him several yards behind his very fast-footed daughter. “Let’s talk about this, okay?”

Aleu slowed down, stopping at the edge of the woods. Her eyes finally glanced back at her father, filled with emotions of rage and heart-ache. “There’s nothing left to talk about, Papa.” Before Balto could reach her, Aleu leapt into the woods; she knew her father would be upset with her going into the forest alone, but at the time, it didn’t matter to Aleu. She was angry, upset, and felt that she was to blame for the death of her mother. 

The gray-brown father let out a sigh, sitting down by the area where his child entered the woods on her own. “Oh, what have I done?”

“I tell you what you’ve done, Balto,” A familiar Russian tone caused the wolf-dog’s ears to stick up suddenly. 

“Boris?” Balto looked at the snow gander that suddenly appeared beside him. He let out a sigh.