grandfather!”

Jax and I exchanged confused glances.

                        “Mackenzie already explained everything to me! As long as Anyu is carrying pups, I’m not mad at you!”

Jax shrugged.

            “What ever makes you happy dad”

“Sasha!”

The brown wolf desperately tried to scramble away but the bear was faster. It slashed out with a paw that must have been half the size of the wolf it broadsided. Sasha tumbled head over heals and somersaulted into a tree. Although I was running as fast as I could, it felt like I couldn’t get my feet to fly fast enough. Sasha, dazed but from what I could see, unhurt, shook her head only to see the bear roar and corner her. But Tanner, who had reached her first, flew through the air and landed right between the bear’s shoulders. With another spine chilling roar, the bear shook Tanner off and smacked him away. Melora and I tried to attack next, Melora jumping on it’s back while I tried to pull its feet out from under it. Meanwhile, Diego tried to comfort his older sister. The bear shook off Melora, but before he could do anything to her, Tanner and Sasha had both recovered and were desperately trying to help. The shaggy thing got onto all four and tried to make a break for it. Melora and Diego lost their grips first and tumbled onto the ground. Tanner stayed on a little longer but the bear gave a determined buck and Tanner soared through the air but landed onto his feet. I started to fall off but let go voluntarily and ran alongside. Sasha, determined as ever, refused to let go. Where was the bear even going?! All that was in front of us was a rocky cliff…

“Sasha! Let go of the bear now!” I demanded.

Sasha’s green eyes flashed to me for a second, but she wouldn’t even let go of the bear to answer.

“Please Sasha! He’s going to dump you off at that cliff!”

Her green eyes widened in surprise and she finally let go. But the bear had already gotten close enough. With a one of its huge paws, the bear clobbered Sasha for a second time. Head over heals she rolled and although she was able to slow herself down, half of her had already slipped over the cliff. For a second I stopped, thinking she had fallen all the way off, but two paws desperately held onto the edge of the rock. With a furious roar, the bear rose back onto its front legs to knock Sasha off the cliff. I dove for the bear’s leg and managed to grab on. It was almost like I wasn’t there. In a flash, Tanner had the other leg in his mouth and with both of us, we were able to make the bear concentrate on us while Melora and Diego tried to drag Sasha up. Now the bear focused on Tanner and I. It roared and slashed. We darted and jumped back out of reach. Tanner threw me a look. He didn’t need words to describe what he was thinking… I was thinking the same thing too. This danger had turned into a game for us. Melora joined in, but when Diego and a wary Sasha joined in, the bear started to lose its confidence and its temper. The shaggy beast attempted to stand on its front legs, but with all five of us attacking from all sides, in organized bursts, it didn’t have a chance of hitting us. Finally, with one last roar, the bear shot forward with surprising speed and made a break for it. We all followed, barking and making as much noise as we could. We let it get ahead and slowed down to a jog. The brown shape ran out of sight and darted into the familiar big cave. We had won! I tilted my head back and started a group howl. We had won!

            “Psst! Wake up!”

“What…?”

I opened my eyes. Everything was dark except for a small square with bars across it. I must have been in one of the holding crates outside of the dog fighting barn. And that meant I had lost.

            “Geez” someone said under their breath. “PSST! Wake up! I didn’t hit you that hard!”

My blood started to boil. I scrambled up and darted to the window, trying to get a decent view of who I was speaking to even though I knew who it was.

“You tricked me!” I spat angrily. “Why should I ever talk to you again!?”

            “You’re talking to me right now” the voice drawled. “And I didn’t trick you”

“Why should I believe you?! I don’t even know your name!”

            “It’s Skyler-.”

“Why should I believe that!? That could just be a trick too!”

            “Do you want to get out of here or not?”

I shut my mouth and weighed my distrust against how much I wanted to get free.

“Fine” I sighed. “But I’m not going to forgive you”

In the crate next to me, the latch started to clink and finally, the wooden door opened and out stepped the tawny wolf that I had attempted to fight. He glanced around to make sure no one was around, then came over to my crate and looked through the window.

            “Now here’s what I’m going to do… I’m going to open your door but you’re not going to attack me. Got it? The reason we’re escaping is because we don’t want to fight. Then you have to be quiet and follow me”

I sighed angrily loud enough for him to hear but nodded. Then he started to claw at the door’s lock. He probably had no idea what he was doing. Suddenly, I heard another clink of metal and my own door swung open. I hesitated for a second, but finally stepped out. I hadn’t been outside without a chain around my neck for a long time.

            “Well are you coming or are you going to stand there all night”

“I still don’t trust you” I snorted.

            “You don’t have to …” he mumbled, waiting for me to fill my name in for him.

“Maybe I don’t trust you enough to give you my name!” I replied stubbornly.

He shrugged and continued on. I huffed, making my breath a cloud and followed angrily.

“Fine. My name’s Sitka. Okay?”

He didn’t even care!

“What’s your problem anyway?!”

            “Didn’t I tell you to be quiet?” he growled.

“I don’t need you! I can find my own way home!” I said in a quieter voice.

            “How about a little thanks!” he whispered loudly.

“You didn’t need me either!” I said, ignoring what he had said. “You could have just escaped by yourself!”

            “First of all, I didn’t want to escape before now, and second, there hadn’t been another wolf there before now and there was no way I was going to run away with a stupid mutt… and maybe I thought you’d be a better partner than any one else”

I paused for a second to study him, but he only looked down at the ground in front of him. I couldn’t think of anything to say. So I shut up and followed him.

            Someone shook me and I blinked. A form of a wolf just barely made it into my sight.

“Go by yourself Jax. Your dad doesn’t care anymore”

            “Anyu, it’s me!” Mackenzie whispered. “I need to talk to you. Alone”

My eyes popped open and I sat up, allowing my eyes to adjust and take in Mackenzie’s face. Before I could clearly see the expression on his face, he exited out of the cave. I scrambled after him, accidently knocking into Jax in the process. He opened his eyes and opened his mouth to say something, but he saw Mackenzie leaving and just gave me a hopeful smile instead. I returned the smile and hurried out. I silently followed him until we had reached the same pond I’d taken him to so I could tell him I liked him. Then he sat and looked at me awkwardly…

            “Um… well I just wanted to talk to you…”

I smiled at him.

            “To start with… I thought you and Jax actually had a thing for each other…always sneaking out at night and stuff. And I guess that one night I followed you guys out, I just had to see for myself… and maybe I was a little jealous…”

My heart started to race and a little ray of hope started to shine through.

“Really?” was all I could manage.

Mackenzie smiled sheepishly.

            “Yeah. I guess I have a delayed answer for you then...” he smiled wider. “I guess I do like -.”

I didn’t wait for him to finish. I gave him a kiss right on his nose and his words just faded away. When I stepped back again, he looked like he was in a trance. Then he snapped out of it and gave me a puppyish smile. With a huge leap, Mackenzie sprang into the ice cold, shallow pond and