roof and ran lightly through the alley ways until I came upon a little group. I watched closely. It looked like three strays, a pup and it’s mother.

            “Please leave us alone!” the mother said desperately.

                        “Not a chance, you’re on our turf”

            “Don’t make me fight you!” the little pup squealed, trying to protect it’s mother.

I smiled. That pup reminded me a lot of Dakota…

The strays weren’t impressed at all. They started to close in… my old father-mate instincts started to kick in.

“Leave them alone” I growled.

All spun to face me. I might not be able to fight them, but I could act.

“You know your precious Klondike?”

The strays exchanged glances.

“I just sent him home, crying for his mommy”

The strays weren’t impressed. They started to creep toward me.

Doing my best to look scary, I bristled, bared my teeth and started to crawl toward them. It worked. All three tucked their tails between their legs and ran.

            I snorted, puffed out my chest and watched them run. Two points for Buck, zero for the dogs of Nome. I turned and the two dogs were still there. We stared blankly at each other. Time to go. I dashed away; if Balto was right, I was going to be in big trouble.

            “Wait! All we want to say is thank you!”

I sprinted until I was far enough away from the pair. Then I took a break, puffing and panting. I glanced around and to my surprise, a small wooden shack spilling a red glow stood only feet away. With a final puff, I stalked over and pushed the door open with my nose.

                        “What were you doing Buck?” Balto moaned.

I didn’t reply. Instead, my eyes traveled over the small group. In the flickering light, I could make out a small light brown female, a slender red husky, undoubtedly Jenna’s daughter, a red male husky, a huge black and white husky and another, older red husky sitting next to Jenna.

                        “This is the family” Balto smiled proudly. “Aleu, Kodi and Mya are my other pups, Mindy is Jenna’s older sister and Triton is a friend of Mya’s”

My eyes glided over them again, stopping on Mindy. Her eyes twinkled and she smiled warmly. She seemed a lot different from her sister who was currently very interested in the wooden floor. For a second, everything was quiet, then everyone exploded with questions.

                        “Hold it, hold it!” Balto managed to yell. “One question at a time! He’s been through a lot”

Once again, everything was quiet.

            “What happened to Nero?” Mya finally asked quietly.

All eyes fell on me. My eyes fell to the floor as hollowness filled up my chest. I knew this question was coming and had already planned this conversation in my head, but now that it was actually said, it hit me harder then I thought. After what had seemed like hours, I finally looked up to answer.

“He was protecting my pu… pack. He was with Yukonand Atka and I’m not really sure what happened after that… he was just… killed. As for Atka and Yukon… I’m not sure what happened to them”

Everyone looked sad except for Mya. Her blue eyes were smoldering and her expression was dark. I narrowed my eyes.

            “Then why are you here?” she asked coldly.

                        “Mya!” Balto and Jenna said in unison.

I stood up and didn’t let my gaze falter.

“Your guess is as good as mine. If it were up to me, I’d be long gone” I replied quietly.

Tension hung in the air. I was done here. I turned and stalked out of the boiler room without another word. No one tried to stop me.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            Since the fight, it seemed like every dog in Nomewas afraid of me. But that was the way I liked it. No one bothered me. No one tried to find me… except Boris who was assigned to watch me by Balto.

            “Buck! Buck! Vhat are you doing! Vait for me!”

I jumped off the edge of the roof and into the alley. Then, sliding into a trash can, I froze. Honking like he was on fire, Boris flew right on by at three feet above ground. I waited until the honking faded away. Grinning to myself, I stepped out of the trashcan and into the alley.

                        “Hey Mister!”

I looked around but all I saw was a little grey and white pup running my way. He looked familiar…

                        “Are you the one that saved me and my mom a few days ago?”

The moment of fatherly instinct flashed back to me.

“What do you want?” I snapped.

                        “I need your help!” he yipped excitedly.

He scrambled off, stopped and looked over his shoulder then yelled “Come on!”

I jogged after him, not believing he had a real problem. The little pup led me out of town and towards the beach. That’s when I started to worry a little.

                        “See!” the pup said, pointing to an ice floe.

I squinted and could just barely make out another little pup shivering on top. I had to save him! I shook my head. What was I doing?! Going against everything I had just told myself, I gave a final disgusted growl and reluctantly threw myself into the frigid water. The cold water sloshed against me and the salt made my stomach a little sick, but the only really bad thing was the cold. The current pushed me right out to the ice.

“What did you think you were doing?” I growled at the pup once I climbed on the ice. “And are you wet!?”

The pup shivered but stayed quiet. I picked it up in my teeth and jumped back in the water. It was harder paddling back to shore because the current was against us, at least until the sand was under us. Then I was able to stand and jog back onto the beach. I dropped the pup in the sand, but it started to shake harder.

“Geez” I muttered under my breath as I tried to cover the pup with my body.

                        “Is he gonna be okay sir?” the other pup chirped.

“I think so…” I mumbled.

                        “I’m Andy by the way!” the pup declared boldly.

“Buck” I replied, smiling at the pup’s boldness.

            “There he is!” someone shrieked.

Scowling, I looked up to see a group of five dogs racing towards us.

            “Oh my God, he’s trying to suffocate Taffy!” a little fluffy dog shrieked.

The little dog’s voice almost shattered my eardrums! But I stood up and let the now- warm pup run back to another dog, probably its mother.

                        “Dixie, I don’t think he was trying to hurt the pup… I think he was trying to save it” Jenna said.

I shook the extra water off my coat and shivered a little myself.

            “You tried to save him? But… but aren’t you that wolf that fought with Klondike?”

Suddenly, I didn’t really feel like talking.

            “Why did you save him?”

I shrugged, “I’ve