exchanged glances. They had no idea what was going on. But it didn’t matter because my own ears had heard her for sure!

“Listen if you don’t believe me!”

Bristol’s ears twitched and the pack quieted to try to catch any familiar sounds. I strained my ears too, but there were no sounds.

“It was her… I know it was” I said softly. Bristol didn’t believe me and neither did my pack. And it hurt.

            “You need to relax and rest. I know you’ve been through a lot but she’s gone”

I didn’t say anything, just kept staring over my territory. Had I imagined it? I was even starting to doubt myself. But I know I heard her…

“Maybe I just need to rest…” I said weakly.

            “That’s it. Now come back with us where it’s warm” Bristol said, trying to comfort me.

I sighed and turned away from the cliff, following Bristol back to the pack. Atka, Yukon and Nero watched with curiosity at what was happening, still very confused.

            When I woke up again, it was morning. I felt hollow, like I was walking around while sleeping. But I still had a pack to lead. Throughout the day, Bristol didn’t let me be alone for a second. The three hybrids still weren’t used to the wild, but they were smart enough to follow orders, so Bristol told them to watch me, which got annoying very fast. We didn’t catch anything to eat; that was pretty normal for winter, but that didn’t help the pack’s downcast spirit. The only thing I had to look forward to was dreaming. Kaya was the only thing I dreamt about now anyway. That night, I closed my eyes, but was only asleep for a little while before my eyes flew open again. This time, I knew what it was. I scrambled to my feet and shoved a wary Bristol to his feet. The pack grumbled and followed us.

“Come on! Just listen!” I shoved Bristol to the edge of the cliff and strained my ears.

“Buck! It’s not her! You were dreaming!” Bristol moaned.

            This time, the long, sweet howl rang through the air. Bristol’s eyes widened and the pack stared, astonished.

Without waiting for my pack, I took off.

            “Buck! Wait! You don’t think that this is suspicious!?” Bristol called.

I knew that they would follow me, so I didn’t feel bad. I followed the trail and stopped until I heard another howl, this one a little strange. Was she in trouble?! I forced my legs to move faster. Finally, I came to the big open field that could be seen from the other side of the cliff, the one by the northern border. I halted at the edge of the field and strained my eyes. This was a dangerous zone. Hunters were here and so were two other packs. But something was moving at the opposite end of the field. It looked like… a wolf. 

Cautiously, I trotted along the tree line but once I was halfway there, I could clearly see who it was… and I wasn’t about to wait any longer to be with her! I broke into a run. Stupidly, I didn’t even stop to wonder why she didn’t move, as if she was tied. Or why it looked like she was trying to pull something off of her muzzle… or why she was there in the first place.

“Kaya!”

She stopped what she was doing and ran toward me, but some unseen force caught her and made her flip back. She didn’t look one bit happy to see me… she looked horrified. My brain finally started to work again. I skit to a halt. What was going on?!

BANG!

The force of the human’s fire stick sent me rolling. It had hit me square in the side and it hurt a lot more then I remembered from when I was a puppy. My legs still moved like they were trying to grab something. My body shuddered by itself from the pain. I tried to roll over, but it didn’t help.

“BUCK! NO!”

Some other figure was moving towards me, a human figure. I tried to growl, but even growling hurt. Someone was whimpering and to my disgust and surprise, I realized it was coming from me.

“I went through a lot trying to get you, wolf. But it’s worth the reward money” said the human.

I didn’t really understand what he meant but I did as soon as the end of the fire stick was pointed at me again. But my pack, a little late, finally got to me. Bristol, Bear and Talon tackled the human and wrestled the fire stick away.  

Half the pack helped chase away the human while the other half rushed over to me. Kaya pushed her way through, with the thing on her face gone and half of a rope hanging from her neck.

“Hey Kaya…” I said, trying to smile.

Kaya tried to smile and opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn’t think of anything to say at first.

            “What did you think you were doing?” she finally said softly. “That was probably the stupidest mistake anyone could make! You out of everyone should have been able to pick that out”

I smiled but her shape started to look like a shadow. Kaya frowned and said something but I didn’t hear anything. The last thing I saw was a raven circling over us. Then everything went black.

            When my eyes fluttered open again, I still couldn’t see, but it only took me a few seconds to realize it was because Kaya was lying down on my head and her fur was covering my eyes. I still felt very weak, and my side hurt as much as it had before, but my energy felt like it was returning. And someone was definitely standing on my wound.  

            “Who are you?! And what are you doing?!” I heard Kaya growl.

                        “Yukon. The pressure stops the bleeding” I heard Yukon mutter.

“You’re some kind of genius, Yukon” I heard Bristol remark. “But how do you know this…?”

                        “My owners lived next to the doctor’s office, so you hear a lot of stuff through the windows…” he replied quietly. “It’s pretty bad, but I think he’s going to be okay”

Kaya stood up ad nudged my head.

“I’m okay” I mumbled trying to sit up. Pain shot through me again and Kaya pushed me back down. Once I caught my breath, I looked up at Kaya.

“So what happened to you, Kaya?”

            “Oh, well, that night that we got to town, and you left, I wanted to talk to you, cause you were going to ask me something before we had left. I couldn’t find you anywhere, so I went to go back to the pack, but this thing came up right out of the leaves and bit my leg. It was a human trap with metal teeth. I waited there, then all of a sudden, this human came out with a fire stick that had no fire and hit me with a fluffy thing that made me fall asleep. Then when I woke up, I was tied to a tree. I tried to howl, but no one came. Then the man came right out the bushes! And he can howl just like us! Then he went to grab my rope and I bit his hand. Then he put a thing around my mouth. Then tonight, he tied me to that tree and he hid in the bushes, howling until you came running right out of the trees. I tried to warn you, but you weren’t paying attention to anything around you, which was kind of stupid…”

I forgot how fast Kaya talked. Bristol’s eyes were glazed over, like his mind was somewhere else. Yukon, having just met Kaya, had his head cocked as if he couldn’t believe anyone could talk that fast. Then he snapped back to attention and took his paw away.

                        “I’m not sure we should move you back yet” Yukon said.

“Well what’s the worst that can happen?” I said confidently, sitting up.

Yukon looked at me skeptically and Kaya made me lay down again.

“Then how long do you want me to stay here?”

            “Just a little longer, just to be safe” Yukonsaid, studying the wound again.

The pack kept a close watch but the human, even though he managed to escape, didn’t come back. The surrounding packs must have known that the human was there, because they were gone too. The temperature started to drop and I started to shiver. It only got worse when it started to snow.

            “I guess you should be okay now…” Yukon said slowly.

“You guess?”

            “You can’t hear everything through the windows” he shrugged.

Bristol and another older wolf helped me find my feet. Everything felt sore, like I’d gotten beat up. When my legs started to move, I groaned at how hard it was to move. Meanwhile, Kaya feinted back and forth. Every time I made a noise, she darted back to make sure I was okay. Finally, in what seemed like half of a day, Bristol and