the first place ripped into it's throat. There was a spray of greenish blood and an ear peircing screech... then silence. The creature fell limp and then, just as the bullet in Aleu's chambers, the creature began to dissolve, the millions of pieces shooting down the hall and out of sight until there was nothing left.

Aleu was still addled from the blow she'd recieved and couldn't really see. She saw a black and white blur walk over to her.

"You really have to be careful of the Hunters." The dog said. "They won't attack you if you stay in a chamber."

Aleu shivered. "...there's something familiar about that voice." She thought.

It was a voice Aleu heard in her worst nightmares.

She gasped and all the words escaped her save one.

"Steele…"

Chapter 1:

In the darkness of night a lone figure silently climbed a tall mountain, slowly but surely making it's way to the top. Snow was falling steadily from the sky and the figure was cloaked in dense white powder. He continued to climb, unsure of what exactly he hoped to accomplish when he reached the summit. He looked up and saw that his goal was more than two hundred feet off. He shook his head and snorted, blowing the snow clear of his face. The effort was hardly successful as the falling snow quickly replaced that which he had shaken from his body. He was breathing hard with his efforts and his breath clouded in front of him like an angry dragon's steaming breath.

The dark orange wolf sighed and took another slow plodding step. The wind picked up and he shook his head, trying to dislodge the snow from around his eyes before it crystallized and blinded him. He thought back to the horrific event which had forced him out this far from his home. He sighed. Home really didn't seem like home anymore.

He'd been a leader in his clan, second only to the Alpha. He'd been the head of security and leader of all military forces of his clan. In his time in this position he'd seen the cruel face of death many times; it had glared down from the heavens and swallowed up friend and foe alike. Over time the wolf had built up a shield around himself that he retreated to when death took someone too close to home... he'd thought this shield impenetrable for death had come for her many times and many times she had leapt clear at the last second... the wolf had thought it would always be, after all, this was a chosen one, one that had a specific purpose in life. Surely Aniu would protect her wouldn't she, else it would take great evil to overcome the wolven deity's protection.

However, in the end it had not been a great evil that had finally shattered through the shield and taken the only one he had vowed death could not have. ...it had only been a car.

Shadow blinked back tears as he recalled the event, cautious of the wetness on his face, lest it freeze his eyes shut. Being blinded on this steep mountainside would surely be a death sentence.

Shadow stopped.

Was that what he wanted?

Was that why he was climbing this tall mountain in the first place?

He shook his head and continued his slow and perilous journey up the side of the rocky mountain. He would not go out that way. He'd decided this a few days ago as he stood near the edge of a large cliff. He'd climbed that particular hill with that sole purpose in mind. Yet...

...when he reached the top and stood at the edge he couldn't do it. Not because he was afraid of death, nor because he didn't want to die. Every breath since the death of his beloved Aleu had been pure torture to his soul, every step felt as if he were walking on heated coals. He longed for it to end, had asked for an end to find him...

...Shadow was ready to die.

He could not kill himself because he was not a coward, and Aleu wouldn't have wanted him to take his own life. If he died as a result of circumstances beyond his control that was one thing, but to willingly take his own life was something he could not stomach.

He took another step against the howling wind and thought back to that moment. He could still see her as she stood beside him, her countenance one of grief and despair.

She'd taken Aniu's fall very hard, just how hard Shadow could not have possibly imagined.

She turned to him, and the scene shifted to slow motion, her glossy light gray coat hung suspended in the air, falling back to her shoulders much slower than it should have. Her ice blue eyes held more grief than Shadow had ever seen in them... but there was also a warmth to them that they seemed to always hold when they gazed upon his. There was no sound to the memory, but Shadow watched as she mouthed the words. "...I'm sorry Shadow, but I can't fail you again."

He wanted to move to save her, knowing what was coming, but he found himself unable to move. Try as he might he was rooted in place on the sidewalk, doomed to revisit the inevitable conclusion.

She turned again and closed her eyes. Then she stepped off the curb and onto the cool surface of the road. She turned and opened her eyes as Shadow's ears filled with the sound of screeching tires... the bumper of the car hit Aleu sqauerly in the head. She fell and the car bumped over her, the tires running over her belly, putting an almost unbelievable amount of pressure on her mid-section, then the car was gone and Shadow gazed upon the still body of his best friend and mate. A splatter of blood and loose gore had sprayed out of her middle when it had burst from the pressure exerted upon it.

Shadow's mouth fell open, but still he was rooted to the spot, he couldn't move. Finally Balto took a dazed step forward and Shadow followed. As the two got nearer to the decimated body of his beloved Balto faded and then disappeared from view, leaving Shadow alone.

He fell on his face in front of her, crawling up to her side. Hoping against hope that somehow she had survived, though he knew in his heart that it was impossible. She was gone.

He opened his eyes and saw that she was smiling. Her blue eyes wide and clouded by death's cruel hand.

Tears clouded his eyes and he tried to speak her name, but found himself unable to do so. All he could do was focus on the spreading pool of blood and the pile of her insides that laid on the road. He looked back to her face and her graying eyes seemed to pull him in, he drowned in those eyes, feeling as if he couldn't breathe. He gasped as his very soul was pulled from it's moorings and swirled down into those eyes.

The vision faded and Shadow felt tears streaming down his face. He closed his eyes tightly against them and sighed. When he looked up he found that he was closer to the top. He found himself on the edge of a rocky precipice and looked down.

All he could see was swirling snow, the bottom wasn't even in sight. He looked back up and shook his head, clearing his face of the tears that streamed down them. He looked back up and backed away from the drop, then he ran and jumped...

...and missed the ledge.

Shadow slid down the side of the cliff thinking that this was it, the end that he had asked for had come.

...and he was glad.

Then his claws caught a small fissure in the rock and stopped his perilous fall.

Shadow winced at the pain in his shoulder from the shock of the stop. Then he looked up the rocky wall toward the top of the ledge. It was more than fifty feet away, nearly straight up...

He felt his muscles getting tired. Though he didn't know why he felt a burning need to reach the top of this mountain, as if something were waiting for him at the completion of his journey. Shadow raised his other paw and gripped the rock side tightly with his claws. The sharp points dug into the cracks in the rock. Shadow turned his head and looked down and immediately wished he hadn't.

There was nothing but air beneath his swinging rear paws. Shadow didn't know how far away the ground was, but he knew it was far enough. The muscles in his forelegs started to burn and he realized that he couldn't hang on like this much longer. His paws flexed and then relaxed, dropping him a few inches closer to the perilous drop. "Maybe I should just let go..." He thought. "...it would be quick, and..." He turned and looked at the ground again. "...and maybe I could be with her... now, today. ...end this pain." Almost as soon as he'd thought it he looked back up to the top of the hill. Again he felt an inexplicable need to continue his climb. As if she waited for him at the top.

"I'm coming Aleu." He thought. Shadow reached up and grasped another crack with his claws, pulling himself another few inches of the sheer rock face.

After a few more minutes of this the strain was really beginning to tell on Shadow. His legs started shaking and he found it was harder to keep his grip on the rock. Finally he raised himself another few inches and he could get his back legs dug into the rock as well. Shadow kept up his slow and steady pace, slowly but surely inching his way up the face of the bluff.

After nearly seven minutes of this Shadow finally threw his front paws over the top of the hill and strained every muscle in his body as he threw the rest of his body over the top. He rolled over on his side and lay there, panting heavily.

"...I did it Aleu." He thought. "I didn't give up... I didn't give up..."

Shadow caught his breath and stood shakily.

He looked up at the sky. "Alright..." He said. "I made it. ...now what?"

When the voice came it startled Shadow and he turned quickly.

"...now we need to talk my friend.'

Shadow's eyes widened. "...it... it can't be you." He said breathlessly.

The blueish colored wolf walked closer to him. "Oh but it can be, it is." He said.

Shadow shook