bright light. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I remembered hearing Nava say, “Each of us has a unique gift.’ It wasn’t until after I received another dream that night about the ice bridge and the caribou that I figured that these visions could be my gift – my own special ability that could help show me where I belonged.”

“Hmm,” Scarlet pondered for a moment. “Very interesting.”

“What?” Aleu’s ears pricked up. “What is?”

His brown stare was completely drawn into her eyes at the moment. There was something about those mysteriously, beautiful eyes that looked like no other he had ever seen. “Oh, it’s nothing,” the red wolf shook his head, smiling rather sheepishly at his own thoughts that he was so embarrassed to speak about aloud to her himself. He looked out at the sky in front of them, noticing how late it is. “Oh, my gosh . . . You’re going to be late to the morning hunt! I’m so sorry for keeping you, Aleu!”

“Huh?” Aleu had been so entranced by her dream and talking to the one she loved that all time seemed to have been forgotten, but she finally realized how high the sun was in the skies – it was above the trees near their caves, brightly warming the wolves that were gathering to hunt below them. The familiar light-silver she-wolf noticed Aleu’s surprised gaze and howled a soft howl as she flashed a smile. “Oh, the hunt! I forgot all about it!” She stood up, rushing past Scarlet and close to the opening where her hunting party waited for her. “I’m sorry, can we talk later? I’ve got to go.”

“Sure,” Scarlet grinned sweetly. “Good luck with the hunt, Aleu.”

“Thanks.” Nodding quickly, she took a leap from her den and made her way down to where Lorna and a medium-sized team of wolves patiently awaited her command. Scarlet, on the other hand, just looked down at them, keeping his focus on the gray-brown quarter-wolf that he loved so much.

“O Aniu, please watch after her as always,” he prayed as Aleu took charge of her team and began their trek into the woods past the river. “Aleu is learning more and more every day as our Alpha, and I pray that in time, she will understand what you are telling her through these dreams.” His ears fell worriedly. “I don’t know what it is either, but I hope this information you’re sending her will change her for the better. I know Father has made a real difference in her life . . . and I still miss him . . .” Thinking of his former Alpha, tears began to drip from his eyes, causing him to drop to the ground and cry softly at the memory of his Clan patriarch.

She reminds me of him . . . and I don’t know why . . .