Mom and Dad, and we all love you very much . . . but,” He paused, staring into the frightened husky’s dazzling azure eyes with his own brown ones. “but ever since we were younger, I’ve always thought of you as more than just a friend, Saba . . . I just never had the chance to confess it to you for real. I . . . oh, I love you, Saba.”

He suddenly took the plunge, forcefully touching his nose to her own with no thoughts of backing away. His eyes closed, melting into the deep passion he felt emanating from the kiss as he began to place his lips on hers as well, hoping that perhaps this was just the spark Saba needed to remember their special bond. Although she obviously felt uncomfortable about this stranger suddenly bursting in with such a kiss, the blue-eyed beauty began to close her eyes too, not sure how to feel about it. To her new knowledge and the memory that she now had left, it was her first kiss. 

A loud gasp broke the intimate moment as two sets of jaws dropped in the doorway’s space. Dingo and Saba parted and turned to the shocked form of their husky mother and the growling, disappointed figure of their stunned father.

“Dingo!” Balto barked, his shoulder fur standing up on end in disgust. “What in the hell are you doing to your sister?” 

“Sister . . .?” Saba murmured, confused by the words. She turned to Dingo, her eyes wide, hoping to understand the situation. “You’re . . . Is it true? Are you really my brother?”

Dingo was shocked silent with his ears lowered against his neck in humiliation, but he couldn’t bear to reveal the truth to this new Saba; instead, he tried to find some way to defend himself to his father – “I-I . . . er . . . It’s-it’s not what it seems, Dad.” – and he blew it big time. 

The wolf-dog leapt to the table and quickly tugged on his son’s fur and collar, separating him from the sister he just kissed. As Balto angrily rushed Dingo out of the room, Jenna rushed to Saba’s side to offer some sort of calming comfort to her daughter, especially after seeing her own son take advantage of his recovering sister.

Once Father and Son arrived outside of the doctor’s office and back onto the wet, mushy dirt and snow ground of Main Street, Nome, the wolf-dog sat his son down, paused to take a deep breath and gave him a forceful paw swipe to the face. The sting of the blow caused Dingo to shrink down to the ground in pain, but Balto’s wolfish red and yellow eyes burned, showing no remorse for his son’s anguish. 

“What were you thinking, Dingo?” Balto spoke a few moments after giving his son that slap. “Saba’s your sister! Why were you kissing her like she was –” He gasped, his ears lowered against his neck once he realized what his son was doing. The wolf side of his father clearly had dominion over his body at the time as the grayish-brown hybrid snarled in frustration and astonishment. “You know that’s forbidden, Dingo! Have you no shame for yourself or for Saba?” His loud tone and anger caused him to hit Dingo’s other cheek, again making him collapse to the ground.

“I . . . I . . .” The blow took his breath and his current thoughts away from him, but he weakly gazed up helplessly at the towering figure of his wolf-hybrid above his sight. “I can’t help it, Dad . . .” His head surrendered to his own sigh. “I love her and protect her in the way a brother should . . .” 

“But brothers don’t lust after their own blood!” Balto retorted with a growl. “You know better than that . . .” His grizzly-furred head lowered closer to his son’s, his tone began to reflect his personal disappointment. “Oh, I thought I’d taught you so much as a pup, and you have so much talent to become a sled-dog like I was . . . but I suppose I might have made a mistake.” His voice began to calm down as he licked each of his son’s sore cheeks, then began to lift him up to his feet. He let out a sigh. “Son, please, you have to renounce your lust for Saba.”

Dingo gasped, but he was expecting it to happen eventually. Still, hearing the words themselves penetrated his heart as if an iron stake was hammered straight through his white chest. “What? Are you serious about this?” 

The wolf-dog nodded slowly; his visage was still impassive, but clearly he felt distraught and upset about his son’s actions. “I know you don’t want to, but you have no other choice but to forget about your sister,” Balto trying to convince him, sitting him down for a dog-to-dog talk. “Look, Son, I only want what’s best for you, and repentance is the only way for our family to become shamed by your actions. If this comes out that one of my own children has a lust for his own sister, we could be ruined forever in this town!” Clearly, Balto had become quite passionate about his new claim to fame. Ever since he became a hometown hero over a year ago, his social status had gone from being an outcast, the lowest of the low, to becoming the most well-known dog in town or even the whole world by saving the almost twenty sick towns-children from near death and eventually asking Jenna’s paw in becoming his eternal mate. Now with six children to continue his legacy, he wanted what he believed was best for them and hoped that none of them would cause him and his now-larger family to descend down the social chain. “You have sinned and must repent for thinking such unnatural things about a pure soul like Saba. It’s for your own good, Son.”

“Why do you care so much, Dad?” Dingo queried, enraged by his controlling attitude. “You wouldn’t understand why I love her anyway . . .” 

Balto just let out a sigh. “I don’t want your feelings to get hurt so badly, Dingo, but you leave me no choice.” He paused for a moment, then he continued, knowing that his son would be crushed once he spoke what he had heard. “When we went back into the waiting lounge to rejoin Saba’s human, Jenna and I overheard Marilyn’s parents saying that they were planning to move their family to a safer town.”

“No . . .” Dingo muttered under his breath, a look of complete disbelief on his face. He couldn’t believe that they would dare take his sister away from him. 

“Her parents said that after this incident with Saba, they can’t trust themselves to allow Saba to run freely anymore.” The wolf-dog continued. “So for Saba’s health and their own daughter’s happiness, they decided to leave Nome for their previous hometown of St. Michael once Saba is discharged from the hospital.”

“But-but . . . but that’s many miles away!” Dingo replied, still in shock of the announcement. He had heard of that Alaskan town from the mouth of a random human when he and his training team were on their mission in the town of White Mountain; he learned that the journey to St. Michael from White Mountain was a bit over the distance from that snowy harbor town to Nome. “Not even a sled team would travel there!” 

“That is true, unfortunately; it would be impossible to even run there straight from here, Dingo,” Balto clarified to him sadly. “The family is taking a steamer in order to get there, and it’s about a couple of days trip by boat from here.” He paused, allowing himself to watch his son’s reaction but the father repeated his request once more. “Dingo, there’s nothing any of us can do to change their minds, so you must find it in your heart to forget about your infatuation with Saba.” He spoke. “She’s clearly forgotten about you and her other siblings due to the accident, and it’s for the best if she has no memories of you and your incestuous lust for her.” Dingo had a stream of tears fall down his face as his father continued to make his point very clear to the clueless pup. “Couldn’t you see the fear in her eyes, Son?” Balto asked. “Couldn’t you notice how she felt, that sudden shock that she had once you . . .” The wolf-dog shook his head, disgusted by the image that he witnessed when he saw two of his own children doing such an act.

Although he wanted to mention how upset he was knowing that his parents had caught him admitting his love for Saba, he couldn’t bear to get upset with his father and possibly get another blow to the cheek. “I . . . I had only hoped . . . I thought it would help her remember who she was, Dad,” Dingo explained. “I wanted her to get her memories back. I was naïve and foolish, believing that the Doc was wrong about Saba losing her memory in the process of the operation . . .” He sniffled and suddenly leaned against his father’s neck, bawling loudly like a weeks-old pup that was crying out for its mother. “Oh, Dad, she can’t be gone forever . . .” 

“Well, she is, Dingo,” His mother finally arrived outside to check on her son and mate’s conversation. Her tone was filled with rage and shame for seeing what she saw. “and there’s nothing we can do to change that.” She sighed disappointedly. “Goodness, did you realize that you scared your sister sick! What in God’s name –”

“Jen,” The wolf-dog interrupted her, silencing her words by lifting his paw towards her; Balto knew that Dingo had suffered enough harsh words from him already, and he could already sense that Jenna’s criticism wasn’t going to make things better for the situation. 

“I’m . . . I’m sorry if you guys are so upset with me,” Dingo began to apologize to the husky and the wolf-dog, still whimpering with a thin flood in his eyes from crying. “and I know that in a few days, Saba’s family is taking her away from us all, but . . . but I still love her more than I should . . .” He paused as Jenna gasped, still in denial of her son’s confession. “I’m sorry, Dad, but I just can’t let her out of my life. She may have forgotten me and you may tell me again to forget that I ever loved her,” Dingo lifted one of his forepaws to his chest, the vibration of his thundering heartbeat pulsed against the pads of his paw. “but in my heart, she will always be the one that I