shyly.

            “Oh! This is my mate, Mackenzie!”

I smiled and nodded. Sitka moaned and drew my attention back to her. Dakota and another tawny wolf were helping her sit up.

                        “What happened? Is he gone? Did we win?” Sitkafired, sitting straight up”

            “I guess we won” the tawny wolf next to her shrugged.

Sitka grinned from ear to ear.

                        “You look like something that got into a fight with a porcupine and lost!” she laughed. “Did I beat him?! Who did?!”

The tawny wolf nodded to me. Still smiling, Sitkaturned to me too. She tilted her head and squinted her eyes.

                        “Dad…?”

“Hey” I said again. “Long time no see”

Sitka shot to her feet and nuzzled me.

                        “Wed thought you were dead! But you’re not!”

I smiled and nuzzled her back. Everything was almost perfect… but someone was missing.

I looked over my pack: Xenia, Nuka, Bear, Boulderand most of the older wolves were there… except my beta.

“Where’s Bristol?”

            “Gone” Kaya supplied. “He disappeared after Atka and Yukon left… we don’t know if he’s alive or anything”

“Is everyone else okay?”

            “Except for Atka” Kaya nodded.

“She’s safe” I filled in. “She’s with Balto”

I thought about Nome again… and Mindy. But that was far behind me now.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            Soon after the fight, everything started to go back to normal… or as normal as my pack could be. Yukonbecame the new beta. Bristolnever came back, but I was almost sure he wasn’t dead. Anyu and Sitka, who both had mates, promised to come back as soon as possible, once Anyu’s pups were older and Sitka had pups of her own too. As I watched them leave, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Dakota watched his sisters leave, face expressionless. He hadn’t talked to me since I’d returned. But before I could talk to him, he turned and hurried off. I frowned. I started to follow after but Kaya cut me off.

            “Hey” she smiled, as if she couldn’t believe I was there still.

She had a brown and white wolf behind her.

“Who’s that?” I asked half-mindedly.

            “Catori” Kaya filled in. “She wants to know if she can join our pack”

                        “I’ve got no where else to go” the young wolf shrugged before adding shyly, “If it’s not too much trouble or anything”

“Why not” I shrugged. “Bear!”

Bear trotted up obediently.

“Can you just watch Catori and get her used to being in the pack?”

Bear nodded and the two jogged away. Kaya stayed, studying me curiously.

“It’s Dakota” I supplied before she asked.

            “What’s wrong with him? He does seem quiet…”

“I think he had a pack… but it’s like he doesn’t want to leave”

            “Go talk to him” Kaya smiled, shoving me.

“We’re guys! We don’t just talk-.”

Kaya shoved me again, harder.

“I’m goin, I’m goin!”

I shuffled after my son, but looking up when his friends started to call him over. Dakota paused for a second then headed towards them. Trying to stay out of sight, I watched them talk, but I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying. Then, Dakota turned around and walked away, leaving the sad group of four behind with tails and ears drooping. They glanced at Dakota but started to shuffle off. Why were they leaving? When Dakota had drifted out of hearing range from anyone else, I jogged to catch up.

“Dakota! Hey I… uh, want to talk to you”

Dakota turned around and lowered himself submissively.

            “Hey dad…” he greeted quietly.

I glanced over my shoulder at Kaya who nodded toward Dakota encouragingly.

“Uh… well, we haven’t talked since I got back. So… what’ve you been up to?”

Dakota sat down and his eyes trailed to the ground.

            “Well, I did have a pack for a while”

“Do you have a mate?”

            “No… not yet”

“Your sisters left already… are you going to head back out with your pack?”

            “No” Dakota said deliberately.

“What?” I replied, shocked. “I mean, why wouldn’t you want to go back out?”

Dakota’s eyes dropped back down to the ground again.

            “I want to stay here…” Dakota said quietly, before adding, “…with you…”

“Oh…” I breathed, feeling empty.

            “You were dead… an’ I don’t want you to go again…” he said in a small voice.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere” I said, nuzzling him. “I’m going to be around for a long time”

We sat quietly for a while and Dakota’s eyes found the group of four wandering away.

“The pack’s not going anywhere either… you can always visit”

Dakota smiled.

            “Okay” he smiled. “See you later then dad”

I smiled.

“Go catch up before your pack leaves you behind”

Dakota spun around and took off yelling, “Wait for me!”

As I watched Dakota and his happy pack reunite, Kaya strutted over.

            “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

I grinned and looked at her under half-closed eyes.

“Could’ve killed me!” I replied. “You know Dakota…”

She bumped into me playfully, and then nuzzled me. Even after Dakota and his friends had edged out of view, we watched the sun turn the sky into streaks of pink and gold. It was all over now. Nothing bad would happen to my pack ever again. Not as long as I was around. And nothing would ever make me leave again. Nothing.

Buck, Atka,Yukon, Mya, Klondike, Sitka, Anyu, Dakota, Kaya, Bear and Agro © me

Mackenzie, Skyler, Tanner, Diego, Sasha and Melora © the Lone Outsider

Inari © Everni

Catori © AkuadaWolf

Balto and Aniu © Universal

Bristol (c) Anileu

Boss (c) Tadie