VOICES:
-Dakota: Zac Efron
-Anyu: Claire Danes
-Sitka: Ashley Tisdale
Dakota
Anyu
Tail twitching, I stared ferociously into my attacker’s green eyes. He bared his teeth and lunged. I dove and rolled, knocking his feet right out from under him. Before either of us knew what was happening, I was sitting on him, pinning him to the ground.
“And that” I snorted “Is why I’m the leader”
Tanner struggled for a few seconds then finally went limp.
“Yeah yeah now get off of me before I suffocate!”
With a grin, I helped my best friend back on his feet.
“You’re getting better… that fight lasted longer then the last one. A few more weeks and we’ll be ready”
We broke into a trot and headed to the tiny excuse for a creek where the rest of our small pack was dozing in the shade. When we arrived, Sasha was the only one awake enough to greet us: her two younger and darker siblings were sound asleep. Tanner’s eyes flitted across his younger siblings and a smile spread across his face.
With one huge bound, Tanner jumped right into the water, sending it spraying everywhere… including over Melora and Diego.
Melora screeched, Diego scrambled around and darted away from his screaming older sister. Tanner, Sasha and I all laughed. Shaking with fury, Melora stormed over to Tanner.
“What is wrong with you?! We were trying to sleep you know!! You are so immature!!”
“Well you should have been more careful” Tanner grinned. “After all, Dakota says we’re supposed to be training!”
Not sure what to say, Melora just snarled and shook all the water off onto Tanner.
“Who’s the immature one now?” Tanner mumbled.
Diego poked his head through the branches.
“She’s stopped yelling you can come out now” Tanner called.
Diego smiled and came back out.
“I was getting hot anyway” he said as he shook off the water.
I stretched out and plopped on the ground.
“Aren’t we all…?” I moaned. “It’s not even spring yet but it’s so much warmer then winter… I almost miss it”
“Let’s just sleep it off”
I closed my eyes and rested my head on my front paws. Truth be told, I hadn’t had a good sleep in a long time. Three months. Three months since I had lost my younger sister. I never let it show on the outside but on the inside, I hated myself. I had two sisters and I only needed to look after one. But now, I had no idea where she was or if she was alive. And the only person I could blame was myself for not watching her more closely. However, it did give me a little push towards what needed to be done…
Now the only thing on my mind was to train. For the three months
The sounds of human feet reached my ears and woke me up. The fur on my back and neck stood on end and even though I couldn’t see him, I growled. The blanket covering my cage was yanked off, revealing a shabby, dirty and pale man. I snarled and refused to let my eyes leave his. In all the months I’d been here, he was the only thing that I hated.
Three months ago, I had been captured by him in the wild and taken away from my new pack. After a long ride by train to another town full of people, I discovered I was going to be a fighting dog. But as soon as I reached my new “home”, I realized I was actually going to “make” fighting dogs. This man already had a champion and wanted to breed wolf into his dog. There was NO way I was going to let that happen and when the champion dog came to see me, I fought him instead. The unbelievable part was that I won.So now I was a fighting dog. Three months and dozens of fights later, I was still undefeated.
“Shut up you stupid animal” the Man yelled over my snarling. “Or you’re not getting your food”
I quieted down but never stopped showing my teeth. The Man chucked some type of food scraps at me and I ate them hungrily, always keeping my eyes on the
“Better save up that energy” he snapped. “Cause you’re fighting something you’ve never fought before and I bet all my money on it… so it’s either you win or I’m getting rid of you”
He threw the blanket back over the cage and once again, I was thrown into darkness. My cage was set behind the Man’s house even though I rarely saw it because of the blanket. I shared this side of the house with two other caged dogs. One was a kind hearted Rottweiler named Ren who was never going to be a fighting dog. I didn’t even know why the Man still kept him. The other was my almost mate, Stone. He was a scarred, cold- hearted husky, once brimming with confidence but after his defeat, was afraid of me. Each of us was also chained to the ground so that the Man could just open our doors and run around for exercise. But we could only be let out one at a time or else we’d fight each other.
* * *
Later on that night, I heard the Man’s footsteps coming back to me again. Before he opened the door or whipped off the blanket, I knew what he was coming for and what he was holding. The blanket was whipped off but it was still dark outside. And there was the Man with his stick with a loop at the end so that I couldn’t bite him. He opened the door a crack and slipped in the pole. I growled softly as the loop slipped over my neck and tightened.
“Alright Killer, let’s go” he drawled as he dragged me out.
I slowly opened my eyes and soaked up the early morning feeling. Birds chirped and the leaves were rustling. Jax shifted next to me, making me take my chin off his back and set it between my paws. I tried to close my eyes and think about what had happened three months ago.
“Mackenzie, I think I love you…” I said shyly. The look on his face changed from confusion to horror. The happy feeling I had inside disappeared and my smile faded.
He opened his mouth but nothing came out.
“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.
“I don’t love you…” he finally managed to choke out. “I can’t love you”
“Oh” was all I could say.
Mackenzie stood up and started to back away.
“Please no” I begged.
“Ace would…” he started.
I stood up to follow him but he stood up and broke into a run, leaving me at the pond.
Someone’s nails clicked on the rock floor. My eyes flew open and my head snapped up.
“Mackenzie?”
Mackenzie did a double take and hurried out.
I moaned and let my head fall between my paws again. Mackenzie didn’t want to be around me any more. Jax opened his eyes and yawned.
“Mornin’ sunshine” he drawled with a grin. Then, noticing the miserable look on my face, added “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing” I grumbled, standing up to exit the cave.
The rules that had been made just for me were still in effect, so as soon as I went outside, Jade was there to escort me… but since we were friends now, she probably would have followed me even if there weren’t any rules.
“What’s wrong?” She asked 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
I smiled warmly at
“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
“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 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
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 sent a spray of water flying everywhere. Smile still on my face, I pranced after him, ignoring the numbing affects of the water. We chased each other around until we were so tired and cold, we were ready to drop. But even when we headed back home, shivering, wet and happy, we didn’t drift far apart. We walked so close, our shoulders bumped the whole way back. As soon as the cave came into sight, I stopped. Mackenzie stopped too, quizzically looking over his shoulder.
“You know Jax and
Mackenzie nodded and filled in the empty spaces.
“So do you want to be mine?” he smiled.
I smiled widely and licked the end of Mackenzie’s nose again.
“I wouldn’t be happy unless I was” I replied sweetly. “Now let’s go into the cave before I lose whatever feeling I have left in my paws!”
With one last nuzzle, I led the way back into the cave and we went our separate ways. Jax was still awake when I lay down next to him again.
“That was a long time to just talk” Jax whispered playfully.
I shoved him playfully with a smile.
“We just went for a swim, that’s all!”
“No kidding, you’re getting me all wet!”
I set my head down on my paws and tried to fall asleep but my heart wouldn’t let me. Mackenzie must have had the same problem. His brown eyes met my brown ones and we exchanged smiles. He wagged his tail. I wagged mine. He rolled on his back. I wagged my tail harder and forced myself to stay where I was. He made a face. I had to smother a laugh. This was definitely going to change my life in this pack…
After we had defeated the bear, the pack had grown more confident in themselves. Our bond was like a family bond now, and our fighting skills had reached their peak. Even Diego, the smallest of our pack, could put up a good fight. That’s why I decided it was time to find allies and build them up. That growing idea in the back of my head had exploded. Boss’s reign of terror needed to end. And since it was my father who should have been avenged, it was my duty to bring Boss down. So about a month and a half after the bear attack, I decided to send the pack on a hunt for packs that had a common goal… but what we ended up getting instead was far better then what I could have hoped for.
Traveling with Skyler wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The first few days, I looked for every excuse to fight. After I had gotten over that, I revolted back to my old, shy, timid self again. Yet again, I flipped into a whole new personality I had never settled into before. Of course Skyler and I had our spats… a lot of spats, but we never got into a physical fight, and that was a huge accomplishment for me. We didn’t talk much and even when we did, it was because we were arguing. It was one hundred percent a hate- love, do or die relationship… but I found out I liked it better that way.
Then one day, Skyler was trying to prove to me how he was faster and broke into a run. I gave him a few seconds head start, and then whipped after him. But we never finished our race… Skyler disappeared into a stand of trees and the vicious sounds of jaws snapping and snarls erupted. Heart racing and lungs pumping, I flew around the corner to aid my friend. Skyler was fighting a black wolf… but it wasn’t an ordinary wolf!
“Dakota!”
My brother stopped fighting immediately only to be plowed down by an angry Skyler. My brother took the hit and got to his feet, shaking himself off.
“Would you knock it off?” Dakota said annoyed at Skyler, making Skyler furious that he wasn’t taken seriously.
“
My other old pack mates where all sitting around as if they were just watching the fight.
“I don’t believe it!” Dakota exclaimed, wagging tail a blur. “We thought you were never coming back!”
All five came over and started to nuzzle me. I really had missed them. Then they all gave me space except for Dakota, who looked like he would never let me go again. Meanwhile, Skyler’s expression grew darker and darker. He didn’t like Dakota at all.
“Skyler, this is my pack!” I chirped. “This Dakota, Sasha, Tanner, Melora and Diego”
Skyler nodded as a greeting but didn’t utter a word. Dakota tensed up next to me. I bet he didn’t like Skyler either.
“And who is this?” Dakota said, narrowing his eyes.
The rest of the pack, who seemed to be fiercely loyal to Dakota, trusted his judgment and threw Skyler glares.
“This is Skyler” I said quickly. “I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for him”
Skyler’s grim expression softened and he managed a small smile. Dakota looked at me quizzically.
“A human took me!” I exclaimed. “I’ll tell you everything that happened!”
After explaining my adventure to Dakota and the pack, they started to understand everything that I had been through.
I couldn’t think of a time that I had been happier! The sun warmed my fur and I watched a squirrel scramble across the ice. The worst part of winter was only almost over, but I felt all warm inside. Someone else inside me must have felt happy too because something in my stomach kicked. I let a smile spread across my face. Mackenzie saw me smile and sat up.
“They moved again!” I giggled.
Jax, who was playing with
Even though
I led the way down a trail, just on a regular check on the territory. Behind me, Sasha, Diego and Melora,
“What did you think you were doing?” I growled coldly, glaring at
“What were you trying to prove, huh?”
“I can’t believe you’re related to me. Dad would have been disappointed”
Sitka’s eyes brimmed with tears, but she kept her eyes glued to the ground.
“That’s something Boss would do”
Sitka’s eyes flashed up at me in surprise, a tear trickling down her cheek. It was then that Skyler caught on.
“You can’t talk to her that way!” he barked.
“You better watch it!” I snarled. “You’re worse then Boss. You’re lucky you’re still alive. You attacked a member of my pack. YOUR pack! That’s reason enough!”
Skyler kept his mouth shut, but his smoldering eyes stayed on me. I nodded and my pack got up to follow me.
“Get out of here. Now” I said quietly.
“Dakota…I’m…”
“Go. Don’t come back. Ever”
“Let’s go then
Sitka, tail dragging on the ground, followed Skyler away, stopping every few feet to glance back and see if I would forgive her. I saw her turn back a few times, but I didn’t care anymore. She was different now, and almost killing one of her own family wasn’t going to be tolerated. I could tell that she kept on looking over her shoulder, but I had a new family to protect. And if
How could I have done that?! What was wrong with me?! The whole time that I followed Skyler, questions like that buzzed in my head like angry hornets. Was I really that much like Boss?! Just thinking about it made fresh tears wet my face again. Skyler glanced over his shoulder and grimaced. I knew he felt bad and uncomfortable. I had been traveling with him long enough to know him, but in a way, I blamed him a little for it too. Finally he stopped and turned around.
“Come on
“But he was right!” I managed, looking up through tear- blurred eyes.
Then Skyler nuzzled me, catching me completely off- guard. I stopped crying and gaped at him in amazement.
“Then we can just be our own pack of two”
I gave him a small smile and followed him. Maybe he was right! Maybe I’d be happier this way.
My stomach was so big now; it felt like it would explode! It was really easy for me to get tired too, but I knew it was worth it. In a few weeks, I knew that I’d have a beautiful litter of pups and my only worry was that it was still cold out and spring still seemed far away… but I was sure the den would keep them warm… I couldn’t wait!
Tanner, Sasha, Melora, Diego, Skyler, Mackenzie, Jade, Jax and Ace © Xion Fan