worriedly.

“Nothing” I whispered, eyes dropping to the ground.

            “It’s Mackenzie again, isn’t it?”

I nodded sadly.

            “Just ignore him” she advised. “That’s what I do”

Even though I was sad, I couldn’t help but to smile at that. She had ignored him…for the past three months. I let out a little laugh and sniffled. Jade gave me a sympathetic smile and pat.

            “Hey, he can’t keep this up forever” she said softly.

I nodded but I didn’t really think that. If Jade could hold a grudge that long, Mackenzie could stay away from me that long.

             Like we were one wolf instead of five, my pack and I followed the scent of a deer. We had trained hard and chased anything we could whenever possible and play fought whenever we had the time. But now we were hunting for dinner. We picked up speed and the deer came into view. The woods were coming to an end and the grass we were running on became a stretch of grey stone. I almost didn’t notice it. Usually, we would have branched out and cornered it, but that was the end of our territory and what we were running into was foreign.

We dashed past the giant den/ cave thing and kept running. The deer ahead of us was tiring but the trail it left behind started to smell… stale. Trails didn’t get stale unless they were old… or if some other smell was mixed in with it. Tanner and I exchanged glances and Melora and Diego slowed down a little and fell behind us. But Sasha kept right on running.

“Sasha! Slow down! It doesn’t smell right!”

            “Come on Dakota!” she yelled back. “You’re taking all the fun out of it!”

She sped up more and left us in the dust. I had a bad feeling about this…

Tanner and I picked up speed to desperately catch up to Sasha. A brown blur flew out of no where and landed on the deer. Poor Sasha didn’t see it coming and didn’t have enough time to stop. Sasha smacked right into the thing and it spun around. Then it let out the loudest roar I’d ever heard and immediately, I knew what it was. A bear.

            Twitching inside the holding crates outside the barn, I waited nervously for my turn to fight. My fight was the last fight of the night since it was going to be the most exciting. No one else had been able to catch another wolf until now and now I was supposed to fight him tonight. The looped pole hung awkwardly out of the tiny window in the crate. I could hear the men yelling and bidding from inside the barn but my heart started to race when I heard those familiar footsteps. I didn’t growl this time, but only because my heart was in my throat.

            “Come on killer” he said, gruffly pulling me out of the crate.

He brought me into the barn and a chorus of yells and cheers met me. But all I focused on was the ring of hay that marked the fighting ring. I stepped into the ring but was faced the other way so I couldn’t see my opponent. My heart couldn’t be beating any faster as the Man took the loop off from around my neck. Then he let me go.

Teeth already bared, I spun around and raced at my opponent: a tawny colored wolf… why did he look familiar? Then it clicked: it was the wolf I had talked to in the wild!

I skit to a stop and he did as well.

“You!”

            “Who are you!?” he growled viciously.

“I was the wolf you met in the wild! Remember?!”

Recognition sparkled in his eyes but he wasn’t letting his guard down. From behind me the Man was yelling at me to attack.

            “Why should that make any difference?”

“I guess I thought that would make us friends…” I replied weakly.

He relaxed a little but started to circle. Meanwhile, everyone watching started to boo.

            “So what if we were… does that mean you want me to help you get out of here?”

I thought about it. I didn’t want to fight him…

“Yes”

The tawny wolf’s expression lightened but his brown eyes stayed on me.

            “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

            “Okay then, if you’re sure, then this might hurt a little”

I looked at him confused. In a flash, he lunged, not giving me enough time to react. He knocked me right off my feet and my head hit the wooden floor so hard, everything went black.

            The moon was high in the sky when I slipped out of the back of the den. Every night, I had snuck out of the den, just to take a walk and think things over. I walked for a little while in silence, just staring up at the sky, but a weird feeling started to come over me… like I was being followed. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t help it. Suddenly, a stick cracked. I stopped and stiffened.

            “Anyu?”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“My gosh Jax, you scared me half to death!”

The grinning grey wolf with the darker eye patches jogged up along side me.

            “Hey” he greeted. “Just thought you looked a little lonely…”

But he kept on smiling and smiling. I couldn’t help but to smile myself.

“But that’s not all is it?” I teased.

            “Well I’m going out to meet someone and I figured since you were going to be my mate, you should meet the wolf that really is my mate”

“Congratulations!”

Ever since we had told each other we didn’t love each other, we had been like a brother and sister. Jax was probably my closest friend besides Jade. We talked for a while until we got to the glistening pond. At the edge sat another silvery grey wolf. She looked up and smiled when we approached.

            “Anyu, this is Aspen”

I smiled warmly at Aspenand she said a shy hi. Before we could even start talking, something behind us made the bushes rustle and made all three of us spin around. I couldn’t believe who it was when he came out into the open.

“Mackenzie?”

Mackenzie’s face was all scrunched up; he probably had no idea what was going on.

            “Hey little bro” Jax greeted weakly.

                        “What’re you doing?”

All three of us exchanged awkward glances but before we could answer, Mackenzie started to jump to conclusions.

                        “Are you… cheating on her?” Mackenzie said quietly, narrowing his eyes.

Jax let a little laugh slip out and it took all my strength to hold my own laugh back.

            “No! That’s probably the farthest thing from what’s really happening!” Jax laughed.

“Mackenzie, Jax and I DON’T love each other!” I smiled. “This is his one and only mate”

Mackenzie’s expression softened and he stood there awkwardly.

                        “Oh” he said softly. “Well I just thought… you know…”

All four of us stood awkwardly and the sun’s first rays were visible over the distant mountains.

                        “I should probably go” Mackenzie said in a small voice.

With that he turned tail and sped back to the pack.

            “We need to get back before the rest of the pack wakes up!” Jax said worriedly.

He gave Aspen a quick lick and nuzzled her.

            “I’ll see you tomorrow night” he crooned.

I smiled and said a quick goodbye. Then Jax and I raced back to the pack, minds spinning as fast as our feet were moving. As the den and fully awake pack gathered outside came into view, my heart sank. We were dead. The apprehensive look on Jax’s face had to have mirrored my own.

            “Hey dad” Jax said, submissively wagging his tail. “Listen Dad, I’m sorry-.”

                        “What do you need to be sorry for?!” Ace said, beaming. “I’m going to be a