answered cheerfully.

I was so excited to meet her parents as well. The pack stayed in this spot for a month while the pups got bigger. The day before the pack would leave we took the pups to Nome. The pups where old enough to travel but Aleu walked beside them. We walked from alley to alley until we reached my mothers house.

"Stay here" I whispered to Aleu.

I walked into the back yard and saw my mother laying on the porch.

"Dominic?!" My mother asked.

"Mom!" I barked as I ran to nuzzle her.

"Mom, I want you to meet my mate."

Aleu walked into the yard, the three pups following her. My mother gasped and Aleu stoped dead on her tracks.

"Aleu!" My mother asked.

"Mom?" Aleu sounded shocked.

"Mom, do you know Aleu?" I asked, shaking.

"Dominic, Aleu is the daughter of Balto and myself."

I gasped.

"Does that mean...?" Aleu asked.

"No" My mother replied.

"What do you mean 'no' " I asked.

"I mean I'm not your real mother Dominic, you and Aleu are not related."

I gasped again and ran past Aleu into the street. She followed me into the street as well.

"Shit" I whispered under my breath.

A sled team ran straight into Nome and charged towards us. Aleu pushed me and I fell onto the side of the road. I couldn't find Aleu but I know she wasn't alive. I howled for her but I never heard her anwser.

                                *   *   *

My pups had been stoped my Balto as he was walking down the street. If Balto hadn't been there my pups AND Aleu would be lost.

I returned to the pack with my pups and they told me that it would be okay. The next day  before we left to travel, I heard a howl. Aleu!

"ALEU?" I holwed

She raced up to me and nuzzled me. Her paw was twisted and her fur was matted. She told me her father has found her and she was treated well.

Two years later the pups had grown and only one had stayed with the pack. The others had gone to join other packs.

Our last pup was named Delilah, she now leads the Ocean Trail pack. Aleu and I watched her from the stars. She has a destiny yet to be found.

The End