Toby Recharged: Fallen Angel

Angel never intended to become a thief. Indeed, there was little to suggest that she might turn out to be one. It was true she was a little prone to get into mischief. But then all of her brothers and her sister Arrow were prone to minor misbehaviors; even their parents spoke, often with laughter, about the trouble they had gotten into in their growing-up years. Only Star, whom some would have considered the youngest of the litter, was obedient every single time without hesitation and never went anywhere without their parents' immediate presence or at least their permission. But Angel, like all puppies, enjoyed wandering around and was known to get a little bit obstinate at times when called or told to go somewhere. All in all, her parents thought her no worse behaved than anyone her age.

Her road to rebellion began in one of her family's favorite places for a good frolic, a storage lot near the harbor.

“Hey Dad!” yipped Caspar, a boy pup with orange-ish fur like Luna's. “Can't catch me!”

The whole family was involved in a spirited game of tag, and Toby was it. He turned toward the sound of Caspar's voice, tripping over his feet and falling on his face. It was an act; he could be quite light on his feet when he chose to. But early on as a father, he had practiced a habit of being clumsy on his paws whenever the game was anything competitive. Most of the pups realized it, but it didn't matter to them. The faking was just part of the fun. The boxes and crates scattered around also gave an extra element of sport to the game. While climbing them was forbidden in tag, they made excellent places to hide from pursuit or lie in wait for potential targets; an especially effective maneuver when everyone was constantly running to and fro, trying to stay in sight of the action but out of sight of whoever was “it.”

Caspar stuck his head out from behind a crate and blew a raspberry – a noise both Toby and Luna always frowned upon. Toby scrambled to his feet and was after him like a shot. The two disappeared from Angel's sight, followed a moment later by a triumphant “Gotcha!” from Toby. Then he came galloping out, tongue waving in a most ridiculous-looking manner, with the pup bounding after him.

Angel stopped behind a crate on the edge of the storage lot to catch her breath. And it was then that she heard a voice.

“Psst! Hey, over here!”

Angel looked around and saw some older pups, about six to nine months old, beckoning her over. Looking back, she saw that her parents and siblings were oblivious to the matter.

“What are you waitin' for? C'mere!”

Curious, she approached the dogs. They were mostly well-groomed, testifying that they were not strays, but well-cared-for pets. “What do you want?” she asked.

One of them, a black and brown mixed-breed, shrugged. “You looked kinda bored and we thought you'd like to hang with us.”

Angel hesitated. “My parents said not to wander too far away,” she replied.

A brown husky sneered. “So what? You always do what they say? Come on. Be your own dog.”

Angel frowned. Part of her knew she'd get in trouble, but another part said, Why not? They're busy with the others. A couple minutes and I can go back. So she nodded. “Yeah, okay,” she said. As they set off down the street, she added, “My name's Angel.”

“Oh, a perfect little Angel, huh?” asked a black-and-gray malamute, guffawing. “Always do what mommy and daddy say, right?”

As the other dogs began to laugh, Angel bared her teeth. She had been taught that it's good to do what you're told, but this bunch made it sound baby-ish. “Hey, I can do what I want!” she protested.

“Ah, relax, Angel,” said the brown husky. “We're just yankin' your collar a little. You stick with us, we'll show you how to have a good time. By the way, name's Max. We were just about to have a little lunch. You want to join us?”

Angel hesitated. Toby and Luna didn't like it when she and her siblings ate between meals, as tempting as that had been since they'd been introduced to solid food and the realization that every garbage can and pile was a potential source of nourishment and flavor.

Max seemed impatient for her reply. “What'sa matter, mom and pop don't want ya to spoil your dinner?” This drew more snickers from the group.

“Well,” she tried to reason, “They might notice if I'm not hungry later, and then I'd get in trouble.”

“Oh, I guess you're right,” Max said, dripping with sarcasm.

“Yeah,” added a girl Akita. “By the way, love the goody-two-shoes you're wearing. What size are they?”

“Ya want me to polish them?” chimed the mixed-breed.

“Okay, fine!” Angel snapped. “I'll have a bite or two, you happy?”

“Gee, don't be so tense, sista,” said Max. “It's okay. We'll have you back with your folks in no time, and they won't know a thing. What they don't know won't hurt 'em.”

As they walked, Angel learned the other dogs' names. The Akita who had made a crack about her “goody two-shoes” was Lily, the black-and-gray malamute was Buck, and the mixed-breed was Sammy.

Angel wasn't surprised when they stopped at the butcher's shop. The back was a popular place for dogs who wanted something tasty to chew on. Toby and Luna had taken their kids there once, and taught them the difference between bones that were safe to chew on and ones that weren't. Going there didn't surprise Angel in the least. What did surprise her was that they didn't stop at the back, but slid into a hole under the building. That hole led to a grate which led up into a cold room lit only by light under the door. What caught her attention, though, was the smell. The room had an overpowering scent of sawdust and meat. She zeroed in on the latter and followed it towards the ceiling, where as her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw dangling hams, strings of sausage, a haunch or two of venison, and some great big slabs of beef.

“What are we doing in here?” she asked as Lily boosted her in.

Max turned to her, his face smug in the dim light. “What, you ain't gonna start up about your folks again, are ya?”

“No,” she replied, although she had indeed been thinking about that very thing. “It's just that I... I heard about a wolf that got in the butcher's shop once. The butcher thought he was stealing and threw a knife at him. He almost got killed.”

“Don't worry,” said Buck, climbing in. “The man'll never know we were in here.”

“But aren't we stealing?” asked Angel as Lily stood on her hind legs to sniff a ham.

Lily smirked. “Of course we are...”

“Aren't,” Max interrupted. “We're just, uh, you know, takin' the stuff that's gonna go bad soon anyways. Saves the butcher havin' to throw it out. We're helpin' him.”

“Oh,” said Angel. Well, there couldn't be anything wrong with helping someone.

“Here,” offered Max, pulling down some sausage links for her to sample. “These are past their prime. Knock yourself out.”

Angel reluctantly took a bite and started to chew. At first it felt like chewing snow mixed with beef juices, but as the cold meat warmed in her mouth, a smile grew. The juicy meat and tangy spices mixed to form a taste like nothing she'd ever had before. “Mmm,” she mumbled contentedly as she swallowed. Maybe it was too old for humans to appreciate, but hey, their loss was her gain, Better not eat too much, though, she thought. She still didn't want to risk her parents' suspicion if she wasn't hungry later. So she only ate four links and, deciding that was enough, turned to Max. “I'd better get going,” she excused herself. “But thanks for the snack.”

“No problem,” he mumbled around a mouthful of beef. “You sure you don't wanna stay a little longer?”

“Nah, I don't have the time,” she admitted. “But maybe we can meet up some other day?”

“Yeah, sure,” Max replied.

“Thanks. Bye.” And with that, she exited through the still-open grate.

After she had gone, the other dogs looked at Max. “Why are you letting a squirt like that hang with us?” asked Lily.

“Yeah, echoed Buck. “Ain't she a little on the shrimpy side for us?”

Max rolled his eyes. “I know that,” he muttered, “But don't you mutts get it? She's so small, she can fit into all kinds of places. We could use a scrawny little pup like that.”

“Not if she knows you were lying,” Sammy pointed out. “That steak I just had was the freshest I've ever tasted.”

Max smirked. “Just leave that to me,” he replied. “She'll be one of us before you know it.”

Angel returned to where her family had been and found them still there, nosing around and calling her name. “Here I am!” she called.

Everyone ran to greet her. “Where were you?” asked Luna.

“Yeah,” echoed Caspar. “We were playing hide-and-seek for hours, but even all of us working together couldn't find you.”

“Caspar,” Toby gently corrected, “It wasn't hours. Maybe half an hour.”

Angel shrugged. “Oh, I just hid really well, that's all.” After all, that wasn't exactly a lie. Still, she decided not to mention her new friends just yet.

Toby leaned over her and sniffed. “At the butcher's?” he asked.

Angel thought fast. “Uh, yeah I figured the meat would, uh, hide my scent.”

Toby sniffed again. “You decided to mask your breath too,” he observed wryly, drawing a cringe from the pup.

“Angel,” Luna chided, “You know we're having lunch as soon as we get back.”

“Oh, I know,” she said, embarrassed at being caught. “I didn't eat much.”

Toby and Luna exchanged a look, apparently trying to decide if they should be worried or not. Finally Luna gave a slight nod and Toby announced their verdict. “Alright, but from now on try to stay closer.”

“Yeah,” agreed Balthasar. “We can't turn the whole town into a place for hide-and-seek.”

Caspar gasped excitedly. “Can we, Dad? Can we, please?”

Toby looked like he wanted to say yes, but wasn't sure he dared.

“Can we go home now?” asked Melchior, breaking off the topic. “I'm hungry.”

Typical, thought Angel. Melchior was always thinking about his creature comforts and never seemed interested in having fun.

Luna smiled. “I think it is about time we headed home. I'm sure you pups are hungry, right? I know I am.”

“Me too,” agreed Star, who was always eager to do whatever Luna suggested. Which, Angel guessed, was why Luna always seemed to spend the most time with her. The other pups were quick to voice their agreement.

“Alright,” Toby said, “We'll go home.” In response to a groan from Caspar, he added, “And later, we can talk about hiding around town.”

As they were heading back, Angel began to fall back in hopes of getting another glimpse of her friends. Toby started to call for her to keep up, then thought better of it and dropped back to trot alongside her. She was so engrossed in scanning every alleyway that she didn't notice him until he spoke up.

“What's up?”

“Ah!” she jumped and stared up at him. “Nothing,” she blurted quickly.

Toby nodded, trying to process this. When he was a puppy, such jumpiness would have at least meant some kind of paranoia. But then, if her imagination was anything like his had been, that could mean little if anything. There was something else he wanted to know. “Angel, that was pretty clever of you to hide so thoroughly at the butcher's, but you didn't have to go so far as to mask your breath. Even I can't track that down over a distance.”

“Oh, okay.” Taking a guess at where this was leading, she added, “And I'm sorry I didn't wait like you and Mom always say to. I guess I just sort of forgot.”

Toby was oblivious to the fib. Oh, he had noticed that there was something odd about the scent of the beef, but he decided not to pursue the matter. Oftentimes he himself had been frustrated at that age when his parents assumed the worst about his shenanigans, and he thought it best not to repeat that. “It's alright,” he said. “Just try to remember next time.”

She put on a fake smile. “Sure Dad.” And she raced to catch up with her brothers and sisters.

Toby slowed to a halt, staring after his progeny with a swelling of pride in his heart. 'They grow up so fast,' he thought. Angel in particular seemed quite prodigious. Barely old enough to eat solid food and she was already foraging it for her own. Oh, she needed to learn a thing or two about heeding her elders, but that would come in time as it had for him. Faster than him, if she took after Luna as he believed she would.

Caspar turned and looked back at him. “Dad, hurry up!” he yipped. “You don't want to go hungry, do you?”

Toby shook his head. Caspar was forgetting that he didn't live with them, but the pup was right about one thing: he was hungry. Shaking for the moment his thoughts of progeny, he headed for his own house where, no doubt, lunch would await him as well.

The pack found her again the following day when she was playing a spirited game of “Follow the leader” around the storage lot with her siblings. Toby was manning the rear of the troop, and Luna was keeping an eye out in front, lest the stunts get too dangerous and someone need rescuing. Angel was tailing the others up a stack of boxes when a voice hissed to her from behind some barrels. “Psst! Angel!”

She checked on her parents and found them distracted long enough for her to slip out if sight. There were her mess mates, looking pleased to see her.

“Hey guys,” she said, “You want to play?”

Max drew back the left side of his mouth. “Ehh, I dunno, kid. We were thinking of, you know, helpin' the butcher out some more today.”

She shook her head. “Nah, no thanks. You go ahead, I'm not all that hungry. Besides, Mom and Dad said not to wander off.”

“What, they don't want you to have fun with other dogs?”

Angel's ears began to droop. “No, it's just...”

Sammy held up a paw. “No need to explain, we get it. Gotta do what they say, sure thing.”

From the other side of the barrels, she heard her parents talking to one another. “Honey, have you seen Angel?”

“No, I thought she was with you.”

“Angel?”

She wanted to go back to her family, but she was starting to remember the taunts from the day before. “Okay, okay, I'll ask them,” she caved in. “Next time I'm hungry and you guys are around.”

“Who said we were just going to eat?” asked Lily. “Come on, I'll go with you and ask if you can hang out for a while.”

“Why can't all of you come?” she asked, puzzled.

The Akita frowned. “Well, grownups sometimes don't like their pups hanging out with large groups of us older dogs. They don't think you're big enough. We'll introduce them to the others later, okay?”

Angel nodded. It seemed reasonable enough. “Okay,” she said, “Let's go.”

The two came out from behind the barrels and bumped into Toby, who was just heading their way. Lily being the bigger of the two, he noticed her first. “Oh, sorry. Have you seen...?”

“Here, Daddy,” said Angel, stepping out from behind Lily's front legs.

He looked down. “Angel, where were you?”

She jerked her head up towards Lily. “Talking to my friend,” she said. “Her name's Lily.”

He smiled and looked up at Lily. “Well, nice to meet you,” he said. “I'm Toby.”

“Hi,” said Lily. “Angel was just talking about you.”

“Really?” said Toby. “Well, I don't believe I've heard about you.”

“We just met,” explained Lily, lying without so much as a twitch of her eye.

“Ah,” said Toby. “Well, that makes sense.”

“So Toby, can Angel and I go hang out?”

Toby hesitated. Lily seemed harmless enough, but there was something not quite right about her. “Sorry, we don't generally let her play with strangers unsupervised. Family rules.”

“Oh, I understand,” said Lily.

“Could she play with us, Dad?” asked Angel.

“Sure,” said Toby. “If she wants to.”

“Lily?” asked Angel, looking up at her friend.

Lily rolled her eyes heavenward as if in thought, then cast a sideways glance toward the barrels. “Not today,” she said. “I, uh, hurt my paw on some broken glass last week and can't really play much.” She raised her back paw as if favoring it, and frowned regretfully. “Maybe some other time.”

Angel was confused. “But you didn't say anything about...”

“I know,” Lily said. “It was just, you know, something stupid I did. It's kinda embarrassing.”

“Oh, believe me,” said Toby, “I understand. Take care of that paw, and uh, I guess we'll see you another time.”

“Yeah,” Lily smiled. “See you around Angel, Toby.” And she hopped away, still putting little weight on the paw.

Angel watched Lily leave. She was fine yesterday, she thought. What gives here?

“Toby?” came Luna's voice. “Any sign of Angel?”

“Yeah, I found her,” he called back. He turned to Angel. “Come on.”

As Toby turned to head back to the others, Angel cast a look the way Lily had gone. This doesn't make any sense, she thought.

After the pack left, Angel found the game... less interesting. She kept thinking back to the adventure in the butcher's meat locker, the taste of the meat. It had been fun sneaking in, and spending time with the older dogs. Angel didn't realize it, but those dogs had been feeding a hunger within her. A need she didn't know she had. Companionship.

As the pups continued with their game, Toby took Luna aside for a brief conference. “Angel made a friend today,” he told her.

“Oh? Who was it?”

“Her name's Lilly. She's an Akita, I'd say about six months old. Seemed pretty mice.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Why didn't you ask her to meet the rest of us?”

He shrugged. “I invited her, but she said her paw was hurting her and she didn't feel up to playing today.”

“Oh, that's too bad,” she said, drooping slightly. “But it's nice to know Angel is making friends with other dogs.”

“Well, maybe,” he said. “I don't know.”

She frowned. “Toby, you can't try to hold onto her, you know that.”

“No, it's not that,” he explained. “There was just something off about Lily, something in her scent. She smelled deceptive.”

Luna considered this. She knew better than anyone that Toby's nose was not a thing to be taken lightly. “What do you make of it?”

“I don't know,” he admitted. “I'm not even positive I smelled it, or that it was coming from her if I did. The wind was at my tail when I was talking to her, and it threw off the scent.”

“But should we take a chance?” she asked anxiously. “She could be up to no good.”

“Yes, or it could just be a misunderstanding. Besides, I really don't want to keep Angel from making friends when it could just be a mistake on my part and nothing more.” After a pause to think it over, he said, “Why don't we invite her to spend some time with the whole family next time we see her? Maybe we can figure something out that way.”

She nodded. “Alright. If you say so.”

Meanwhile, in another part of town, the dogs Angel had been talking to were having a discussion of their own.

“Why did you bail out?” demanded Max, his ears laid back and his face scrunched in disgust as though he couldn't believe the girl dog's stupidity.

“Uh, because her parents were there?” said Lily. “And her dad wasn't about to let her come with me.”

“She's right,” Sammy pointed out. “You oughta know better than anyone that you never mess with a dad.”

Max scowled. “How do I put up with you dolts?!” he practically yelled. “Think – and try not to strain yourselves – how much easier this could all be if we convince her folks they can trust us.”

“Easy for you to say,” said Lily. “I think Toby was getting a little too suspicious of me.”

“Of course,” Max grumbled. “You think that because you know you can't be trusted, but he doesn't. These domestic types are always too trusting for their own good. Yeah, they've got a few safety rules, but once you get past that, they're easy pickings. Besides, if you think they're going to figure you out, the last thing you do is act guilty. You might as well paint it on your stinkin' forehead.”

“Yeah, but what now?” asked Buck. “Where do we go from here?”

“I'll tell ya,” Max replied. “We stay clear of them for a couple of days while Lily's paw 'heals,' and then she's gonna take them up on their little invite. Once she gets them to trust her, the rest is easy. Got it?”

Everyone nodded. The plan was a good one, and besides, they knew better than to question Max.

Over the days Max had spoken of, Angel grew bored. Toby tended to congregate with the boys, and Star would sit around with Luna, doing just about whatever she did. Angel didn't like doing either of those, and chasing the deer hide ball that Connie liked to throw only held her interest so long. On family outings, which occurred at least once a day, she constantly kept an eye out for her friends and was always disappointed when they didn't show. Beyond that, there was nothing to do but take naps and eat, and the various foods given them, which generally came dried or salted, did not suit her tastes. The more she ate, the more she wished for the tender, juicy, spicy sausages she had eaten in the back at the butcher's.

Her lack of energy was not lost on Toby, and he did his best to get her interested in some kind of activity whenever he wasn't busy with the boys. He asked Luna's input, and she tried too. But there is nothing that spoils one's interest in good, clean fun quite like harmful, corrupted fun, even if the only known harm in it is a minor bit of disorderliness. So their efforts to appeal to her were by and large unsuccessful, and before two days had passed they too were looking for Lily.

It was five days before they, or rather Luna, finally saw her again. This time they were on Main Street, Luna and the pups on leashes in Connie's hand. Luna, though she usually roamed free, was used to leashes. The pups, on the other hand, ran helter-skelter, tugging at their leather bonds, tangling them up, and generally behaving as pups do while Luna tried to make them stop. She was wishing Toby was there, but he was busy with Charlie at the moment and couldn't help.

Lily and Max were watching from a hiding place as the family walked by. “Okay,” Max whispered, “This'll be easy. You only have to worry about the mom. Just go up to them, play nice, maybe help that dame keep them in line gently, and everything'll go smooth as ice. Comprende?”

Lily nodded. “Got it,” she said. And she trotted out into the street. “Hey, Angel!”

The pup's head whipped toward the sound. “Lily!” she barked, taking a bound or two in that direction before the leash pulled her up short. Star, along with Caspar and Melchior, quickly grew as enthusiastic as she, if not more so. After all, they had never met this dog before.

Luna watched alertly as the stranger drew near. She guessed this was the same Lily of whom Toby had spoken, and had no intention of being over-trusting with anyone Toby's nose had brought under suspicion. “You must be the Lily I've heard so much about,” she said. “I'm Luna.”

“Hi,” Lily greeted, tail wagging as she fell into step with the family. “I don't think Angel mentioned you.”

“I'm Luna,” she introduced herself. “And, she may not have mentioned me to you, but she's certainly been anxious to see you.”

She'd been hoping that by saying this she would manage to unearth a clue in Lily's expression, but it was to no avail. Lily just smiled. “Yeah, sorry I haven't been able to drop by. My paw was killing me.”

Luna nodded. “Mm-hm, so I heard. Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah, lots.” Lily paused to extend the “healed” leg backwards as if to make a show of how good it felt, then had to increase her pace slightly to catch up. “So, what about the others? I don't think I've met all these guys before.”

More barking broke out from the pups, all of them doing their utmost to talk all at once. Luna, raising her voice, called out, “One at a time, one at a time.”

They quieted down then, and Caspar was the first to speak again. “My name is Caspar,” he greeted.

“I'm Melchior,” added the second boy. “But most people just call me Mel.”

“Balthasar,” added the third on Melchior, “But just call me Zar.”

Lily's face twisted just a little. “Weird names,” she said.

“We were named on Christmas,” explained Star. “That's how I got my name, Star.”

“Huh, finally a normal name,” Lily murmured. Then in response to some rather displeased looks, she added, “No offense.” Looking to the oldest pup, Arrow, she asked, “What about you, kid?”

“Name's Arrow,” she replied. As a pre-emptive counter to the usual question about her appearance, she added, “I'm adopted.”

“Ah,” Lily nodded. “Gotcha.” She studied Arrow for a moment longer than the pup was really comfortable with, then broke off her stare.

“Toby and I adopted Arrow a few months before we had our own pups,” Luna explained.

Lily nodded again, smiling. “Well, I guess it was lucky for Angel you adopted a girl,” she said cheerfully. “It's not much fun being the only girl in the family.”

“The only...?” Luna was taken aback by this remark.

“But I'm a girl too,” Star protested.

Lily seemed surprised, and a bit rattled. 'Crud,' she thought, mentally fumbling to salvage the matter before her house of cards collapsed entirely. “You are? Oh, uh, sorry. I guess I got confused; I mean, you look so much like your dad did when I met him that...”

Luna headed her off. “Yes, Star takes after Toby quite a bit.” It sounded like she wanted to say more, but apparently she decided against it, helped some by Lily's nervous laugh.

“Sorry about that. So, uh, where are you guys – and girls – headed?”

Luna shrugged, finalizing her decision to let the matter alone. “We're just out for a walk. Connie – that's my girl,” she added, jerking her head back slightly to indicate the subject of her comment, “Wants to get the puppies leash trained before they're old enough to leave.”

Lily nodded. “Uh-huh.” Then she looked to the pups. “You looking forward to that?”

“I am!” said Melchior and Balthasar at once.

“Me too,” added Caspar. “I'm going to have lots of adventures when I grow up!”

Star disagreed. “I don't know,” she said in a distracted manner. “I kind of like being around Mommy.”

With a sense of deja-vu, Luna smiled. 'Yep, she takes after Toby alright,' she thought, remembering how Toby had been nearly full-grown by the time he consented to take a home of his own.

Lily managed to disguise a derisive snort as an appreciative “Hm,” and turned to Angel. “What about you?” she asked.

While Luna nudged Star with a paw to make sure she wouldn't miss the smile coming her way, Angel nodded. “Yeah, I think it'll be fun,” she said. And from there, she and Lily began to chatter on rather aimlessly about various things of no real consequence. Angel wanted to ask why Lily hadn't mentioned the broken glass when they went to the butcher's shop, but Lily always somehow managed to deflect the conversation away until Angel realized the she was trying to avoid discussing it in front of Luna.

Lily, meanwhile, kept a surreptitious eye on Luna's reaction to the way she was interacting with the pup. Luna watched and listened more than she spoke at first, but soon found herself drawn into the conversation. Lily's manner was disarming, unobtrusive. Granted, she seemed a bit odd, but on the whole, harmless enough. Besides, she reasoned, if oddity were the sort of thing to deter her, she never would have ended up with someone like Toby.

“So,” she asked, “Do you live around here?”

Lily nodded. “Yeah, me and my owners are just a couple of blocks away.”

“I see,” Luna nodded. “Have you always lived around here?”

Lily shook her head. “No, we actually moved here from Juneau.” This was a lie, but Luna's nose wasn't as sharp as Toby's, and the telltale scent breezed right by her. Max had cautioned Lily about letting on that she'd been born in Nome; if Luna knew that and thought to ask around about her, the responses could be some real cover-blowers.

“How do you like it?” asked Angel.

Lily shrugged. “It's okay,” she admitted. “Kind of small-town for me, but I can deal.”

Luna smiled. “Well, I'm sure you'll like it here once you get used to the place.”

“Thanks,” said Lily, briefly flicking her tongue out on the side opposite from Luna to lick her chops. “I think I will.”

They continued in casual conversation for the rest of the walk, and Luna was not displeased to note that Lily seemed quite popular with the whole litter. Enough so that when they parted ways, every pup seemed disappointed.

“Do you have to go?” asked Melchior.

“Yeah, I'm afraid so,” said Lily. “But I'll be around. We can meet up again sometime.”

“Yeah,” agreed Caspar. “You can play with us in the lot!”

“The lot?” asked Lily, confused.

“It's the place where you first met up with Angel,” explained Luna.

“Oh, right.” Lily stopped for a moment, looking slightly worried. “How did you know that?”

“Toby told me,” Luna replied, confused that Lily was confused. “Remember, he met you about a week ago. Angel introduced you, didn't she?”

“Oh, oh yeah.” Lilly nodded energetically, masking that sense of paranoia common among criminals. “Well, I really oughta be going. I'll see you pups, and you too, Luna, some other time.”

Luna smiled cordially. “I'll be looking forward to it.”

Lily nodded. “So will I,” she said, trotting away.

Luna looked after her, pondering. 'So, that's the dog Toby's worried about?' she thought. Lilly seemed about as harmful as a daisy.

She brought the matter up with Toby later, at the end of the day after the pups were fast asleep. “The pups and I met Lily today while we were out for a walk,” she said.

Toby's eyes widened. Fathers, at least good ones, are instinctively protective, sometimes to ridiculous extremes. Toby was no exception, and Lily's reclusiveness had plucked at his already tight-strung paranoia like a guitarist. “What did she say?” he asked. “What did she do?”

Luna shrugged. “Not much,” she admitted. “She seemed just fine to me. A little awkward around me and the pups, but I wasn't what you'd call a model babysitter at that age either.”

His frown lessened, but only slightly. “Tell me what happened.”

She shrugged and proceeded to give a simple account of the meeting, skimming over Lily's thoughtless comment on Star's appearance. “Like I said, she didn't seem that threatening. Certainly not dangerous.”

He bit his lip. “I don't know...” he persisted.

“You said yourself that the scent was hard to place,” she pointed out. “It could have been a mistake.”

He nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “It might have,” he admitted. He knew from experience that in both humans and dogs, tension or uncertainty often went with deception, and as such they had similar scents. And his olfactory organ was, admittedly, more trained for use in tracking than lie detection. “So, you think she's harmless.”

“I didn't say that,” she countered. “I just think the next time we run into her we should give her a chance, see how she behaves around the pups.”

His considered. His doubts still lingered, but after all, why jump to conclusions? Hadn't his father always said that everyone should have a chance to prove themselves? “Alright,” he agreed at last, “It's a deal.”

She smiled and gently kissed him on the nose. “Good,” she said.

It didn't take long for Lily's presence to become accepted, and even welcomed by Toby and Luna. She was popular with the pups, and Toby didn't have the heart to go on acting suspicious of someone his mate thought harmless and his children thought fun. So without even knowing he was doing it, he began to notice the scent less and less, helped by the fact that as Lily warmed to her job, her scent changed less when she lied or told a misleading truth. In no time at all, he had learned to dismiss it as just a natural quirk of her scent, combined with his own paranoia as a dad. In two weeks' time, the pack was ready to make their next move.

It came when Angel was out basking in the rare (for that season) Arctic sunlight. She lifted her head at the sound of paws plunking down on the wooden steps and saw Lily standing there. “What's new with you, pup?” she greeted.

“Lily, hi!” Angel yipped, jumping to her feet and wagging her tail. “Did you come to play?”

Lily yawned expressively, letting her tongue loll out of her mouth. “If I gotta,” she said, sounding bored. “I've been looking to get a chance to hang with just you, not your brothers and sisters.”

“Why?” asked Angel, tilting her head.

Lily raised a paw and examined it carelessly. “Well, I don't wanna diss them or nothing, but they're kind of goofy, you know? They're not hip like you.”

Angel's face scrunched up in confusion. “Hip?”

“Yeah, you know,” Lily explained, lowering her paw. “Fun, cool. The kind of dogs you wanna hang out and have a good time with. I mean, I like a good game of tag as much as the next dog, but it gets pretty old after a while.”

Angel nodded, accepting this readily; nearly everyone, young or old, likes to be thought of as more fun and likeable than their peers, and she was no exception. “What do you have in mind, then?” she asked.

Lily smiled. “Well, since you brought it up, I was thinking we could meet up with Max and the gang and go hang out somewhere.”

Angel's stomach growled at the memory of the last time she had “hung out” with the pack. “Butcher's shop?” she queried.

Lily nodded. “Yep,” she grinned. “Of course, if you don't wanna come...”

“No, no, I do want to come!” Angel barked. “But... everyone else will want to come too.”

“No sweat,” said Lily. “Just slip inside and ask your Mom real quiet, and we'll be outta here before you know it.”

Angel thought about it. The plan sounded simple enough.

“Oh, and don't mention the gang, okay?” added Lily. “Your folks'll wanna know about them, and if it takes too long your sibs 'll find out and we'll never get away.”

Angel nodded. She could certainly see the sense in that. “Okay, I'll be right back,” she said.

The pup crawled in through the pet flap and quickly found her mother. She was teaching Star to wash herself, and didn't notice Angel's approach until she felt a nose bumping against her thigh. “What... oh, Angel. Is something wrong?”

Angel shook her head. “No,”she replied. She hesitated a moment, then asked as quietly as she could, “Could you lean down here for a sec?”

Puzzled, Luna leaned down so that her ear was right next to Angel, who stuck her nose as far in as it would go before she whispered her request. Luna pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Did she say where you were going?” she asked.

Angel shook her head. “Just around,” she fibbed, knowing that Luna would be less likely to agree if she knew the true destination.

Luna thought for a moment. “Alright,” she agreed, “But don't be gone more than an hour or so, alright?”

Angel nodded. “Okay,” she said, and took off.

“I wanna go too!” complained Star.

Luna shook her head. “No, why don't we let Angel do this herself?” she suggested. “She was the one Lily invited. Maybe you can go along next time.”

Star hung her head dejectedly. “Okay.” Then, changing the subject, she looked back up at her mother and asked, “So, how do I get behind my ears again?”

Lily wasted no time once they were clear of the house. “Sure the rest ain't comin'? She asked.

Angel nodded, though the motion was lost in her head bobbing as she ran to keep up with Lily's fast, easy gait. “They won't be. Caspar and Mel were bothering Zar, and Mommy was teaching Star how to wash herself.” The last part she uttered with some contempt.

“Yeah, gotta keep the fur slick,” agreed Lily, equally dismissive. “Not that it'll do that muddy look any good.”

Angel didn't like to hear her sister being insulted, but she laughed like she did. If Lily started to think she was a stick-in-the-mud too, she might also get picked on.

She forgot about it as they reached the butcher's shop and found the rest of the gang waiting. Just like last time, Max led them into the back entrance and up through the grate. “Cake,” he snickered as they settled down to their dining.

He took up a spot by Angel with some ham while she dug into an “old” T-bone. “So, how's it been, kid? Lily says you ain't had much going on lately.”

Angel swallowed a bite and shrugged. “It's been kind of boring,” she admitted.

Max tore a chunk off the ham and dropped it, licking his chops. “She said your folks don't pay much attention to you?” he ventured.

“No, they do...” Angel started to protest, but then she thought of the events that had brought her here. “Well, maybe not so much,” she admitted. Her appetite dropped a little. “Daddy always takes the boys, pretty much, and Mommy likes Star better than me.”

Max swallowed a piece of meat he'd been gnawing on while Angel talked, then nodded sympathetically. “I feel for ya, kid. My pa and ma didn't listen to me much either.”

“They didn't?”

“Nah.” He shook his head in disgust. “Family. Who needs 'em anyway, right guys?”

“Yeah, they're such a drag,” agreed Buck.

“Totally slow you down,” added Lily.

“And they're always bossing you around, too,” added Sammy.

Angel nodded, not just to avoid disagreeing with them, but because some of what they said made sense. Her parents were always bossing her around. Telling her when to get up, when to go to bed, what to eat and when, what not to eat and when not to eat anything, where to go... why shouldn't she be allowed to do what she wanted once in a while?

“Well, cheer up, pup,” said Max. “You can hang with us any time you want.”

Angel smiled. “Thanks, Max.”

Max grinned to himself as Angel took another bite. No, Angel, he thought. Thank you.

Meanwhile, Toby was just dropping by Luna's house. The first thing he saw upon entering the pet flap was two of the boys tumbling over one another in one of their usual scuffles, with the obligatory wild yips as ears were tugged and noses were clamped. “Careful,” he laughed, knowing that the pups never did each other any serious damage. “Or you'll leave teethmarks.”

“Daddy!” the pups hollered. “Caribou!” And before he knew it, they had begun swarming over him like ants over a trapped cowboy. The game had ended, or so he thought, when he had been called home to his lunch. The pups, however, seemed determined to make him the dessert to theirs.

“Ow, ow!” he cried as Melchior pulled on his ear.

Caspar quickly followed, going after his stricken father's tail. And Balthasar, not to be left out, went for the nose.

Luna watched them and laughed. “Careful, Mel,” she chided. “I'll want that ear in one piece when I need to get his attention later.”

Star, who was engaged in a rather lopsided game of rip-the-rag with Arrow, laughed at Luna's remark. Arrow whipped the cloth away and bounced off, waving it like a cape and drawing Star after her like a bull.

“Very funny,” Toby retorted with a grunt of discomfort. “Okay guys, ten-shun!”

At once the pups dropped off of him and scrambled to get in line, poised in sitting position with ears erect and eyes alert, as rigid as if they had become statues. Toby smiled. It was a little trick he had taught them under the guise of playing at being police dogs. The real game had yet to catch on, but he had found the call to attention to be useful in literally getting them off his back. “At ease,” he commanded, and they relaxed their posture. Then he looked at Luna. “Where's Angel?” he queried.

She smiled. “She went to play with Lily.”

“Oh, how long ago?” asked Toby.

Luna glanced out the window, noting the moon's position. “Actually,” she said, “She should be back by now.” She frowned slightly at Toby's worried look, but then her expression lightened. “She probably just forgot to come home,” she reasoned.

“Maybe,” Toby agreed, although his ears leaned back in concern.

Luna sighed. “Honey, you don't think...?” she stopped, aware that the pups were watching the two of them. “Arrow, could you hold down the fort for a minute?”

Arrow nodded. As the oldest pup, she often landed in the job of puppysitter, a role she took great pride in. “Sure Mom,” she agreed.

Toby and Luna walked outside and sat on the porch in the moonlight, a slight breeze playing with their fur. “So,” Luna commented, “What's on your mind?”

He clicked his tongue. “I don't know,” he admitted. “I just have a feeling, like something isn't right, you know?”

She raised her eyebrows questioningly. “Toby, you know the whole intuition thing is my territory, right?”

He shrugged. “I don't know why I'm worried, I just am.”

Now it was her turn to shrug. “Well what are you going to do about it?” she asked, knowing that Toby was all but incapable of leaving a problem unresolved once he knew of it.

He shook his head. “Part of my brain is saying I should tell her to stop hanging around with her,” he replied. “But I don't want to do that, not when it's only a nagging suspicion. What would it be like for her if we always told her no when we had no real reason?” He stirred a paw in the snow, thinking. “Still, Dad always said that firm discipline is the best way to teach a dog to behave,” he reasoned.

She smirked. “Yeah, and that worked so well on you,” she pointed out.

“Touche,” he admitted. The humor seemed to have brightened his mood a little. “I guess you're right. Maybe I am worrying too much.”

Luna tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “I don't see this side of you much,” she observed.

He gave her a puzzled look. “What side?” he asked.

“The worrywort, the paranoid one. You hardly ever worry. So how come all of the sudden you're the one worrying and not me?”

“I do worry,” he countered, “When I think it's necessary.” He smiled then, adding, “But what do we have to worry about? This is such a small town that she can't get into really serious trouble.”

She raised an eyebrow. Now it was her turn to be the skeptic. “Unless you count getting kidnapped twice in less than a week, taking on an almost-mass-murderer and Alaska's most-wanted dog fight organizer in the space of two days...”

“We didn't have someone older keeping an eye on us during the times when we did most of those things,” he reasoned, interrupting lest she decide to forgo the Top 10 list and go for the whole package. “Honestly, I think she's just growing up and we need to give her room to do that.”

She paused to mull this over. “You really think so?”

He nodded. “As I recall,” he pointed out, “A certain fine lady had a lot of the same tendencies when she was a pup.”

Luna didn't know what to think at this point, but she trusted her mate. And as serious as the matter was, flattery from a spouse is hard to ignore. “Well, I guess it can't hurt to let her roam a little. But if she gets into any trouble, I'm not waiting for it to get worse.”

He nodded. “Agreed.”

It was some time before Angel suddenly realized she needed to get back home. But the T-bone was so good, she lingered a little longer to polish it off. Then she opened her mouth to excuse herself, but a small burp came out instead.

Lily started laughing. “Kid, have you got a lot to learn,” she chided. “Show her, Buck.”

Buck opened his mouth and let out a thunderous “BRAAAPPP!”

The laughter of the other dogs was cut short by approaching footsteps. “Hey, the butcher's coming!” hissed Max. “Everybody bail!”

The dogs snatched up their prizes and dove for the hole in the floor, and once all of them were out, Sammy grabbed the grate with his teeth and pulled it quickly into place, dragging some of the sawdust down with it. Angel coughed on the powdered pine until Lily clamped a paw over her mouth to silence her as the door to the room above unlocked.

Over their heads, the butcher stepped in with a frown on his face. Armed with a lantern in one hand and a cleaver in the other, he surveyed the room ready to rid himself of whatever had made the noise.

“Back away from the vent,” hissed Max. Everyone did so, wary lest the man should look down. “Everybody got their chow, right?”

Everyone nodded except Angel. “I forgot my bone,” she admitted.

Buck groaned. “Didn't I tell ya?” he asked. “I knew this was gonna...”

“Shut up,” hissed Max as the butcher let out a cold, “Ah-ha.”

The dogs crouched in silence, aware that he must have discovered Angel's leftovers. “So, something's been getting in,” he grumbled. “I'll have to fix it up, I guess. Can't have wild animals ruining my meat.” And he set about searching for anything with signs of damage, leaving the dogs no choice but to slink out from under the building as silently as they could.

“Nice one, Angel,” grumbled Buck. “You tipped him off, and now...”

“Stuff it, ya mutt,” Max cut him off. “She made a rookie mistake. It's not like we told her not to leave any evidence. Besides, if you had kept your big trap full of meat instead of gas, we wouldn't have had to bail anyway.”

“But why?” asked Angel. “We're not doing anything bad, are we?”

“No, of course not,” explained Max. “But he doesn't know that. Humans are kinda narrow that way. They think we dogs are just stupid animals.”

“So he thought we were stealing?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Max. “But we aren't, so don't worry. As long as he doesn't figure out how we got in, we'll be just fine. We'll go about our business, and let him go about... uh, I mean make it easier for him to go about his.”

This answer placated Angel, and she nodded. “Okay,” she said. “But I've gotta go. My folks'll be wondering where I am.”

“Okay,” said Max. “See ya around, pup.”

As Angel trotted off, the pack stared after her before turning to their business. “How much longer are we gonna keep her in the dark about all this?” asked Buck.

“As long as we have to,” Max replied. “At this rate it's just a matter of time before old Bones gets wise and blocks the place off, and then we'll need someone like her for real.”

Everyone nodded.

Angel climbed through the pet flap and was greeted by Balthasar, who raised his head and yawned expressively. “Angel's home,” he called.

“Oh, good,” said Luna, coming out of the kitchen. “I was starting to wonder what was taking her so long.”

Angel shook what she could of the snow out of her fur and toddled over to the hearth to melt off the more stubborn clumps that still hung on, like frozen cockleburs. “I was just with Lily and some of her friends,” she replied.

Luna sat down, then sank to a lying down position. “Angel, I can appreciate you wanting to play with your friends,” she said, “But when you're out with them, I'd like you to be home on time. Your father and I...”

A startled yelp sounded from the upstairs. This was followed after a moment by rapidly escalating laughter, and then either Caspar or Balthasar called down, “Mom, get a load of this!”

Luna sighed. “Hold on a minute,” she called. Speaking to Angel once again, she finished, “It's not that it's exactly wrong, but your father was here earlier and he likes to know where you'll be in case something happens. And so do I.”

“Sure, Mom,” said Angel, who was becoming more and more practiced at insincerity. “I'll remember.”

“Good,” said Luna. Then she turned and made her way quickly up the stairs. Angel followed, eager to see what all the fuss was about.

When they reached the upstairs hall, they saw the three boy pups rolling on the ground in hysterics outside an open door. Luna raised an eyebrow and proceeded, with Star trundling at her heels. “What's so funny?” the matriarch inquired.

Melchior (who if not for the uncontrolled laughter would have looked like he was having a seizure) giggled, “Get a look at Star!”

They did, and what they saw froze them both like two deer caught in headlights. There, on the nightstand, was Star, her face an absolute mess. Her brown fur was now covered with cream a shade darker than Connie's skin, mottled with other substances ranging from bright pink to jet black. And where normally it lay fairly flat on her body, now around the edges of her face the longer fur stood out in spikes like a hedgehog's. She stood there like some parrot in the window of a pet shop, perched on the nightstand while her brothers laughed.

Angel keeled over and began laughing like her brothers, guffawing until tears rolled down her face and her sides felt as if they were about to split like an overstuffed pillow. Through her laughter, she could hear Luna ask, “What were you thinking?”

The answer came, “I wanted to look pretty.”

“Pretty?!” giggled Angel. “You look like a paint set threw up on you!”

The boy pups laughed even harder at this insult, but a shout of, “That's enough!” from Luna snapped them out of it. Before they knew quite what was happening, she had the four of them on their feet and scampering down the hall. They didn't stop until they reached the ground floor, and there they sat, panting for breath after the hasty flight from their mother's anger.

It was only a matter of seconds for one of the boys to start giggling. Another joined, and soon they were rolling on the floor all over again. “What a dope!” chortled Angel.

“Yeah,” added Mel. “She looked like she jumped in a mud puddle!”

They carried on like this until all of them suddenly became aware that Luna was standing over them with the air of an eagle perched above a warren of rabbits.

“Listen,” she said through clenched teeth. “As funny as you may find it, I want this business of laughing at Star to stop right now.”

Nobody answered.

“Your sister is up there right now crying because she heard all of you laughing at her when I went to bring her back downstairs. So all four of you, go up there and apologize to her.”

“But Mom,” pleaded Angel, “She looked so...”

Luna gave her the look all mothers have that seems to express an infinite range of words in just a few lines of facial creasing. Words like, “Watch it, kiddo, you're already in hot water,” or, “Say another word and you'll be on a straight diet of broccoli till July.” Angel wisely closed her mouth, and as a unit she and her brothers headed up the stairs. What, she wondered, was their mom's problem anyway? So they laughed. Couldn't she see how flat-out funny it was? Parents. Who could figure them out?

They found Star under Connie's bed, hunched up in a shaking ball of misery. “We're sorry,” Caspar said quietly.

“Yeah,” agreed Balthasar. “Real sorry.”

The two of them might have been speaking for themselves and their brother, but Angel's heart, regrettably, was far from contrite. “If there's anything we can do to make up for it,” she offered teasingly.

“Angel!” her brothers all turned to her with foreheads wrinkled and lips drawn back.

Angel shrank from the withering looks and, for a moment, really did feel guilty. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

Star looked out at all of them. “Why did you laugh at me?” she asked weakly.

Melchior smirked just a little at the memory, and his face started to twitch. “Well,” he snerked, “It was kind of funny, the way you...” he stopped, withering under looks from the other two, and as the lines from Star's eyes brightened with fresh grief, the humor left him entirely. “Sorry,” he admitted, tail lowered and ears drooping down the sides of his head. “It may have been funny, but it was wrong to laugh. At you. Really.”

Star wiped her face with a paw, sniffled, and forced a smile. “It's okay,” she said quietly.

Angel did feel sorry for a while, as most youngsters do when caught and reprimanded. In most cases, being forced to face the consequences of her actions and make restitution would have solidified the matter. Sadly, this was not to be. By dinnertime, she had completely blotted out the guilt by privately thinking how silly, how downright stupid, Star had looked in the makeup. So it was to her good fortune, and Star's ill fortune, that at supper the boy pups and Arrow finished quickly. So while Luna was in another part of the house, Angel sauntered over to Star, who invariably ate quite slowly.

“You really did look kind of goofy wearing that stuff,” she said in a sisterly tone. “Why'd you do that?”

“I don't want to talk about it,” Star replied.

“No, really,” Angel persisted. “Why would you smear stuff like that on your face? I mean I know humans do it; they do a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense. But why would you?”

Star swallowed a mouthful for which she was quickly losing her appetite, and sighed. “I thought it would make me look pretty. It works on humans.”

Angel raised an eyebrow and drew back. “Well it made you look like...”

“Like a paint set threw up on me, I know,” said Star, starting to break down again. “I just want to look nice like you and Mom are.”

Angel turned her head to hide the smirk growing on one side of her mouth. “Guess you'll have to get used to being ugly,” she replied as if commenting on the weather.

Star's face twisted in obvious pain, and she looked at Angel for the first time in their conversation. “Could you just go away?” she asked.

Angel shrugged and walked away. What a wuss, she thought.

Luna didn't pay much attention to Angel any more that evening, which suited the pup just fine. Although she believed that she and her friends really were helping the butcher, somehow she knew her mother wouldn't understand or approve. And Daddy, of course, would back Mom up. Grown-ups, she thought. Oh, she knew she should respect them, but they did tend to get in the way sometimes.

Although their little discussion had ended for the moment, things were rather empty between Luna and Angel over the next couple of days. It wasn't that they were angry or tense, there was just... nothing. Worse than mere nothing, though a lack of connection between a parent and a child is bad enough by itself. Angel, lacking for attention, went out to be with her friends whenever possible. They didn't dine at the butcher's every day, though they often did, and she was picking up more and more tricks constantly. Luna, meanwhile, was getting more agitated although she did her best to hide it. On the one hand, she found Toby's belief that Angel was just looking for some space to be a convincing one, and so she did her best not to force any unwanted attention on her daughter. But the other part of her, the Mom part, didn't like being so alienated, so unconnected from the offspring she had suffered so much to have. Especially not on days when Angel came home late (which, though Luna didn't know, coincided with the raids on the butcher's). Finally, she decided to confront the pup.

“Where have you been?” she asked when Angel came home one Thursday evening.

Angel scrunched her face. “Uh, with my friends,” she replied in the “I-don't-know-why-you-would-ask-such-a-stupid-question-or-why-I'm-answering-it” tone of voice she had picked up.

Luna did not welcome the pup's tone of voice. “Why are you always late?” she insisted.

Angel looked offended. “Always late? I was early just yesterday.”

“Well you've been late three times this week,” Luna replied, a little put off by this. No mother likes to be talked back to or corrected by her child. “Now what's going on?”

The pup rolled her eyes. “Ease up, Mom. I just lost track of time is all.”

“Ease up?” Luna echoed. “Is that how you talk to me?”

Angel smelled a tirade coming on and rushed to head it off. “Sorry, I just don't see what the problem is.”

Luna's ears were starting to lean back, but the edge in her voice was checked. Part of this was because she realized that one should never lose one's temper with one's children – a tip passed to her on request by several more experienced mothers. The other part was that she was suddenly aware of Star watching the altercation, and remembered also having been advised against rebuking one pup in front of another. With a paw, she scooched Angel into the next room, used mainly by the humans as a dining room. “What I'm trying to say is that we worry about you sometimes. It's our job, your father and me both.”

“There's nothing to worry about, Mom. I was just hanging out with my friends and lost track of time, that's all.”

“How?” asked Luna. “How hard is it to remember, 'Be home by dark?' or 'Don't be gone for more than an hour?'”

Angel fidgeted slightly, unsure what to answer. “Well,” she said slowly, “Maybe it's because none of the others have to be home then.” With an edge to her voice, she added, “They get to be out any time they want.”

“Well, that makes sense,” Luna conceded, not in the least discouraged by Angel's tone, “But your friends aren't you, and they don't have me for a mother. I think it's great that you're out there having a good time, but I want you to be home on time, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” grumbled Angel as she walked into an unoccupied room to be alone. Old prude, she added mentally, wishing her mother weren't so suspicious of everything.

Luna's demeanor softened. “Is something wrong?” she asked quietly, following her. “I've never known you to be so tense.”

Angel lay down. “I just want some space is all,” she grumbled.

This prompted Luna to jerk back slightly, but she thought better of expressing her surprise at Angel's attitude. “Well, enjoy it then,” she replied calmly. “But if you need to talk, you know where to find me.”

“Yeah, sure Mom.”

As Luna left the room, Angel lay there sulking with her chin on her paws. “They're all a bunch of jerks,” she grumbled.

She wasn't sure how long she was there, wallowing in discontent, before she heard the clicking of toenails coming her way, followed by a throat clearing. “Hey, Angel?” asked a tentative voice.

Angel whipped her head around and saw Star sitting a few feet away. Her eyes narrowed. “What do you want?” she asked. Star seemed to shrink under her stare, her ears sliding down and her body hunching as if she were cringing in anticipation of a cut from a whip or a blow from a club. She was frightened, but so what, thought Angel. Someone had to be top dog, and someone had to be the bottom of the heap.

“I...” Star began nervously. “I wanted to know what's going on with you.”

Angel turned her back. “Mind your own beeswax,” she spat.

Star persisted. “Everyone's wondering why you and Mommy and Daddy aren't getting along so well,” she said.

“They're too bossy,” Arrow answered curtly. “Does that answer your question?”

Apparently it didn't. “Maybe you should just listen to them,” suggested Star. “They like it when I do that.”

Angel snapped her head toward her sister. “No duh,” she spat. “They like it because they like you. As far as they're concerned, you never do anything wrong. It's me they're always getting mad at.”

Star leaned her ears forward. “I don't think so. I mean they let you play with other puppies, but they want me to stay with them. I wish I had other friends like you do.”

Angel was getting ticked. “You know what I wish?” she asked pointedly. “I wish that you would just stop talking to me and leave me alone!”

Star's chin began to quiver. Here eyes teared up, and then she turned tail and ran into the next room.

Angel rolled her eyes and stalked to the corner. “Crypuppy,” she muttered.

Luna came in a few moments later, her face painted with an expression as sour as rancid milk. “Angel, what's this I hear about you picking on your sister?”

“She was bothering me,” Angel answered. “She started it.”

“Well that's no excuse,” her mother said sternly. “If you have a problem, you come and tell me about it, understand?”

Angel kept her back turned. “I told her I wanted to be left alone,” she insisted.

“Well next time, do it nicely,” Luna replied. “I want you to get along with your brothers and sisters.”

“Well they get on my nerves,” insisted Angel. “Sometimes I just want to get away from them.”

Luna was loaded and ready to fire more scolding, but she stopped. How many times had she felt that way about her sisters, Haley and Phoebe? Even into adulthood, there were times she could barely endure their presence, let alone the fact that they were related to her. But the truth was, they were still family. So, taking a deep breath, she replied. “Well, if you're that desperate to get away from them, that's your problem. You'll get your wish when you and they are old enough to go to new homes. But until then, I want you to try to get along, okay?”

Angel nodded sullenly. Deep down she knew she was wrong in a number of ways, but she was too proud to admit it even to herself. “Okay,” she grumbled.

“Now, I want you to come and apologize to Star.”

The pup's ears slid down like leaves wilting in an early frost. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, you do. Now come on, or you're grounded.”

Angel followed her into the living room, where Star still sat, the fur damp below her eyes. She looked up at the two approaching her.

Angel stepped forward, aware without looking of Luna's expectant gaze. She hung her head and lowered her ears in false contrition. “I'm... I'm sorry,” she said.

She felt the probing eyes leave her back. “Star, do you have something to say?”

Star's expression of hurt didn't change, but she said, “I forgive you.”

“That's better,” said Luna. “Now, I don't want to see or hear any more fighting, okay?”

“I won't fight,” said Star.

“Yeah, me neither,” Angel answered anemically. “I was just trying to get some space is all.”

“I see,” said Luna. “Well, Star, why don't we let her have her space? Hopefully she'll be in a better mood later, and then she can join us.”

Yeah, right, she thought as they left.

“Mommy,” asked Star once she and Luna were out of the room, “How come only Angel gets to play with other dogs?”

Luna pursed her lips. “Well, I wouldn't say she's the only one,” she countered, “But I do see why you might think so. What it really is is just that Angel found her friends, and you haven't yet. Are there some dogs you want to play with?”

Star's ears drooped. “I don't know any,” she admitted weakly.

Luna smiled. “I'll tell you what,” she said. “Next time Angel goes with her friends, I'll leave the boys with Toby and we'll go find you a friend of your own. Deal?”

Star smiled and jumped up and down. “Yeah, that'd be great!”

Luna laughed. “Well okay.”

Late the following day, Arrow yawned and rose to her feet as the cuckoo clock in the living room sounded out the hour. Two o' clock, meaning it was almost time for school to be out. Luna had been in the habit of meeting Connie and Eugene when they left the schoolhouse before the pups were born, and since that time Arrow had taken over the duty. So, after a quick stop at the water bowl, she headed out, unaware of the figure lurking nearby.

She never sensed the other dog's presence until she ran smack into him rounding the corner of the porch. “Oof!” they both cried.

Arrow stepped back and shook her head to clear it. “Sorry,” she apologized.

“Meh, no harm done,” the other dog replied, walking on without a glance in her direction.

Arrow blinked. That brown-and-black fur, the old matted patch on top of the head... “Sam?” she asked.

The larger dog turned and stared in surprise. “Sis?” he asked.

Arrow stood gaping for a moment, then ran to her brother wagging her tail and rubbing her nose against his neck. “Where have you been all this time? I haven't seen you since I got my family!”

He laughed. “Oh, just knocking around like always.”

Arrow's ears drooped, and she pulled away. “Like... always?” she asked slowly. Sammy might have been her brother, but he was always in trouble. When she had last seen him, he was part of Groven's army in the rebellion. What new trouble might he be in now that he had come out of hiding?

Sammy seemed to know what she was thinking. “Ah, come on. I'm not starting any riots this time. Just ask your sister.”

Arrow blinked, and her ears leaned back as she tried to process the information. She had lots of sisters, but why would Sammy call any of them... wait. “You talking about Angel or Star?”

“Angel,” he replied. “She hangs with me and my pals.”

She squinted. “You're one of the friends she keeps going off with?”

Sam shrugged. “Yeah, what's the matter?”

“Well, it's just that, um...” she trailed off, suddenly not sure what to say. That he used to get into trouble a lot? That had been a long time ago. Besides, Angel's other friend Lily seemed okay. A little reluctant to talk, maybe, but okay. “Nothing,” she admitted.

“Look,” he said, “I know I did some dumb things before, especially with Groven, but I'm different now. Me and the other dogs, we don't hurt anyone. In fact, sometimes we help people.”

She tilted her head, considering. There hadn't been any big trouble going on lately, it was true. Meaning Sammy and Arrow's other friends hadn't been in any big trouble lately. “Well,” she conceded, “Okay.”

“Great,” he agreed. “'Cause, uh, the others are kinda waiting for Angel, so I came to pick her up.”

Arrow thought about it. “Okay, I'll get her. In fact, since you're here, why don't you meet Mom and Dad?”

“No!” he blurted, wide-eyed. “I mean, please don't mention me just yet. The last they remember, I was trying to help Groven and his bunch kill Chase. They wouldn't understand.”

She laughed. “Not understand? They're all about second chances, bro. They gave my uncle a second chance. And you may not know him, but he used to be a real jerk. Heck, I double-crossed them worse than anybody else could and they still kept me. I'm sure they'd give you a chance.”

He dropped his chin, thinking fast. “Maybe, but I just... well, I'm just a little, you know, shy. I'm new at this being good stuff, and I don't really like dogs crowding me. I mean with you it's okay, you're my sister. But them...” he trailed off and shrugged weakly. “Guess I sound kinda dumb, huh?”

She shook her head sympathetically. “No, I know exactly how you feel. I was the same way, right after I told them I was supposed to keep them out of Groven's business. It took me forever to really feel like they forgave me, but they did.”

Sammy looked away and fidgeted just a little.

“But,” Arrow conceded, “If you'd rather keep a low profile, that's okay. I'll just tell them you're one of Angel's friends and leave it at that.”

He grinned and ran his muzzle over the top of her head. “Thanks, sis. I owe you one.”

She laughed. “I don't keep debts. It's on the house.” And she ran inside to tell Angel that her friend had arrived.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a paw across his nose where, in spite of the low temperature, he had started to sweat. That, he told himself, Was too close.

It seemed luck was with Sam that day. When Arrow called to Angel to tell her one of her friends had arrived, Luna was too preoccupied with Star to see Angel off or ask when she'd be back. And luckier still, Toby was already out with the trio of boys. So there was no one to ask any questions, and no one to see them leave who might, just might, recognize Sam and remember his history.

“So, ya hungry, kid?” asked Sam.

Angel nodded. “I think I'll have some pork today,” she said. “It comes pretty salty, but I like the sweet juices and the chewy fat.”

Sam shrugged. “I prefer a good bit of beef myself,” he replied. “There's just something about the taste that's kinda boom, you know?” A more trained gourmet might have said the same thing as, “It has a nice, robust flavor,” but then thieves such as Sam are not generally known for a good vocabulary.

“Anyway,” he went on, taking a turn down a side street, “We decided we're gonna show you a little something else before we go there.”

Angel's tongue was hanging out, partly from keeping up with the larger dog and partly from the anticipation of some juicy pork. “What?” she asked.

Sam herded her into an alley, then to an old, run-down shed in someone's back yard. “Angel,” he said with the air of an artist about to unveil a great masterpiece, “I give you our hideout.”

Angel tilted her head, confused and slightly disappointed. As secret places went, it wasn't much to look at. It sure wasn't as pretty as the crystal caves her parents had shown her and her siblings once, or even as interesting as the caves that the Northern Lights Pack lived in when their seasonal travels brought them within a short walk of Nome. “Uh, thanks,” she said. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

Sam looked at her funny. “Do with it? What do you... oh, I get it,” he added as realization washed over his features. “No, you see, when I said 'I give you,' it was just an expression. The hideout belongs to all of us. Come on, the others are waiting inside.”

Angel followed him in to where the others sat or lay around amidst various items piled against the walls. Numerous tools and a few buckets and other miscellanea sat gathering dust on a dirt floor.

“Hey, Angel, what's up?” asked Lily.

She shrugged in reply. “Not much. So, we gonna go?”

“Yeah,” said Max, “We're goin', but first we got somethin' to show ya.”

He stood up and stepped back, scratching at the dirt floor until his nail caught on the edge of a large board just below the dirt. He lifted it up, caught it with his front teeth, and pulled it aside to reveal...

Bones. So many bones as Angel had never even imagined being in one place except for the butcher's heap. T-bones, ribs, little circle bones from sliced hams, all lying in a hole about three feet in diameter.

“Whoa,” she said in awe, feeling as you might if someone showed you a stash of pirate's treasure.

Max grinned. “We stow our leftover bones here,” he explained, “And anytime one of us wants one, they're right here for the taking. This way the butcher never finds any leftovers from our visits.”

“You can't tell from up here,” Buck added, “But that hole is so deep if you fell in it would take forever to get out.”

“That is so cool!” Angel exulted. “Can I have one now?”

Max shrugged. “Sure, but why settle for some old bones when we're going to the butcher's anyway? Come on.”

“Alright!” cheered Angel.

The raid couldn't have started off better, in Angel's opinion. She polished off two strings of sausages single-pawed; not bad for a pup her size.

“Watch out,” called Max, chuckling. “Looks like the kid thinks this is an eating race.”

“Yeah,” added Lily. “Careful, Angel, or you'll be looking like your sister in no time.”

“Her sister?” asked Buck, looking up from a porterhouse.

“Oh yewah, huh,” Sammy nodded, mumbling around a mouthful of raw goose. Of course he meant, “Oh yeah, her.” Swallowing the bite, he added, “Her sister. The ugly one of the litter.”

“Got fur like a mop,” cracked Lily. “And I ain't talking a clean one, either.”

Angel snorted, barely keeping some of the sausage from going out her nose. Coughing a moment before she dropped the meat, she smirked. “You don't know the half of it. One time, she thought she could make herself pretty if she tried some of that makeup stuff Mom's girl uses. She looked like she ticked off a paint factory.”

Everyone laughed, so Angel kept on going. “Smears of all kinds of stuff all through her fur, soot around her eyes, the works. If she smelled as bad as she looked, she coulda knocked out a wolverine!”

The more she spoke, the more they laughed. It was fun mocking her sister behind her back.

And no Mom and Dad to yell at me, she thought.

Just then they heard footsteps thudding outside. “Scram!” shouted Max. “Butcher's coming!”

They dove into the hole and Sammy hastily pulled the grate shut just before the door opened and the butcher walked in with a lantern in one hand and a cleaver in the other. “Alright, who's in here?” he demanded. “Show yourselves, you thieving mutts.”

Everyone stayed quiet and slowly backed away from the grate, making their way down the vent to the outside.

“Hmm.” Up above, the butcher knelt on the floor. Already re-frozen atop the sawdust was a small pile of chewed-up brown meat: Angel's mouthful. Scowling, the man followed the tracks from it until his lantern's glow fell upon the crooked grate.

With a grunt, he suddenly brought his cleaver down on the floor with such force that it pierced the boards right above the dogs and showered them with splinters. Buck nearly got the blade itself across the top of his head.

“Move!” shouted Max, and the whole pack of them scrambled for the outside and safety.

Behind their retreating tails came a bellowing threat. “Don't you ever come back, you hear me? Or there's going to be a special on dog-meat!”

They didn't stop running until the butcher's shop was a block behind them. When they did they panted hard, and then first one, then another began to laugh. It spread like fire among them until even Angel was laughing, giddy with the glee of narrowly escaping death.

“Woo!” shouted Sam. “That was the most fun I've had since Groven's army!”

Angel nodded and looked to Max, the only one who wasn't laughing. Instantly his dour expression doused her mirth. “Max?” she asked.

He waited until the rest of them had stopped laughing. “This isn't good,” he told them, every inch of his body shouting severity. “We've got a big problem now that the butcher knows we were in there.”

“So?” asked Buck. “He's known about us for a long time.”

“No, he only suspected,” Max corrected, ears flat against his head. “But now he knows we've been sneaking in, and how, and that's gonna make it a lot harder on us in the future.”

The others looked worried. This hadn't occurred to them. “So now what?” asked Angel.

Max frowned. “You go back home,” he ordered. “The rest of us'll meet at the hideout. I've been cooking up a plan in case something like this happened.”

Angel tilted her head. “So why can't I come to the hideout?” she asked.

Max' eyes flicked to one side so briefly it was almost unnoticeable. “Eh, trust me, it'll be better if you go home. Besides, look how late it's getting. Ya don't want your folks on your tail again, do ya?”

Angel had to agree to this logic. “Okay,” she agreed. “See you guys later.”

Max grinned as she scampered off. Believe it, kiddo, he thought quietly.

Partly due to Max's comment about her parents' recent admonitions, Angel decided to come in the back way and perhaps let them think she had been home for some time. As it turned out, she needn't have worried much. Toby was out with the boys, Luna was dozing contentedly by the fire, and Star was regaling Arrow with the events of her day spent playing with someone named Eska.

Incongruously, Angel was annoyed at the fact that no one seemed to have missed her while she was out. And the fact that no one seemed to notice even when she sauntered right into the room and plunked herself down behind Star in full view of Arrow. The older sister's expression was only one of casual interest, but she seemed totally oblivious to anything but Star's account.

“Hey sis,” Angel grumbled, trying to sound bored.

Star's ears perked up and she turned her head. “Oh, hi, Angel,” she greeted brightly. In fact she was practically glowing. Her eyes were bright, her ears were perked,. And her tail would not stop wagging. Even her fur looked happy. “I was just telling Arrow about the friend I met today. His name is Eska.”

Angel rolled her eyes. “Whoop-ee,” she uttered.

Arrow made a face. To any decent dog, Angel's attitude would have seemed inconsiderate at best. But Arrow recognized the tone all too well; it sounded an awful lot like the old Sam. For that matter, it sounded a lot like she herself had before Luna rescued her from the stray life.

“Angel,” she offered, trying to mimic the trademark “warning tone,” Luna often used in the face of inappropriate behavior, “Why don't you have a seat and listen?”

Stifling a groan, Angel did so. But bored to begin with, she had little interest in Star's tale and focused more on thinking up an excuse to leave. Finally, as Star was in the middle of describing a game of hide-and-sniff (complete with the obligatory reenactment of the game's crouching, stalking, and pouncing) she seized on an excuse.

“Look,” she said, “It sounds fun, but this is hard to pick up in the middle.”

Star looked slightly disconcerted at this.. “Do you want me to start over?” she asked.

Angel shook her head. “Nah, forget it. You keep going; I'll hear it some other time.”

Arrow narrowed her eyes. “It's fine, Angel. Go ahead and start over, Star. I don't mind.”

Luna groaned and opened one eye. “Kids, no fighting,” she scolded in a half-awake voice, and went back to sleep.

Angel smirked just a little as she sauntered out of the room before Arrow could come up with an answer. At least something was going her way.

Going into the kitchen, she settled down to ponder the nature of Max's elusive “plan,” for she hadn't the slightest doubt that this was what he had taken the others away to discuss without her. But why was she left out, she wondered, when everyone else got to be in the know? Perhaps the idea was too dangerous – she remembered with a shiver that massive cleaver piercing the floorboards above. Was Max planning to attack the butcher? No, forget that. Although in truth she was starting to see past the ploy about helping him, it would be foolish to harm him directly. One word of crazed dogs in town and it would be game over. Besides, the ending threat he had hurled at them played itself in her mind like a horror story. She knew humans didn't eat dog meat, but all the same the thought of being on the wrong end of one of those knives gave her goosebumps.

So she considered some manner of stealth, and while this seemed infinitely safer, it seemed senseless that she should be left out. Who better to hide or fit through unexpected places than she? Who better to be silent than she?

Well, except for that little comic act she did the day before. Maybe that was it; she had spoiled it by causing all that ruckus. But it wasn't fair, not when they had all laughed and made noise too.

As she was thinking this dismal thought, who should disrupt her but Star. “Hey,” she greeted.

The delinquent frowned. Perhaps isolation wasn't so terrible after all. “What do you want?”

Star smiled hopefully. “You seem bothered, and I just want to cheer you up.”

Angel rolled her eyes. “Knock yourself out,” she retorted, dearly hoping her sister would do just that.

Much to her chagrin, Star did not ram her skull against the nearest wall as requested. Instead, she sat down and began to tell of the day's ventures. Tag, hide-and-sniff, caves, bo-ring.

“It was so much fun,” Star said at one point, to which Angel rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Yeah, if you like pups' stuff.”

Star tilted her head, puzzled. “But we are pups.”

“Maybe some of us,” Angel all but sniped. “My friends and I never bother with that kind of junk.”

Star's eyes widened. “So what do you do?”

At once Angel realized she had made a mistake. What was she to say? “Do?” she asked, trying to stall for time while she fumbled.

“Yeah, what kind of stuff do you do with your friends?” asked Star.

Angel forced an indifferent shrug. “We just sort of hang out,” she replied.

“Eska and I did lots of stuff,” said Star, as hyper as a chipmunk on espresso. “We're best friends, just like Mommy and Daddy were.”

“He probably feels sorry for you,” Angel sniped.

At this the brown pup tilted her head. “Sorry for me? Why?” asked Star.

“Because you've got no friends, you're boring, and you're ugly too.”

“I am not!” Star shot back.

“Are too.”

“Am not!”

“Ugly, ugly, ugly,” Angel sang, knowing this was Star's most sensitive point. “Mom's pretty, and I'm pretty, but you're just an ugly mutt.”

“I am not!” Star cried, and did her usual run-out-of-the-room-sobbing routine. Angel thought to herself that Star was getting really good at it. Only thing she is good at, she thought.

She decided not to stick around to get chewed out by Luna. Instead, she dashed over to the wall by the doorway and crouched behind a small chest of drawers. Luna walked right past, looking as mad as ever. “Angel, what is the matter with... Angel?” As Luna stared around in confusion, the puppy perpetrator slipped out the doorway and made her way quickly across the room to the pet flap. Luna never even saw her leave.

Now what? she thought as she doubled back under the house to avoid leaving tracks. She crossed around and through several houses scrunched up close together, dodging snow whenever possible and even squeezing through discarded pipes if they were big enough. Bunch of jerks, she thought to herself as she zig-zagged hither and yon. That dumb prissy Star thinks she's so big, and every time there's a problem, they take her side. She scooted under another house, rolled in the dirt to mask her scent, and made her way to the gang's headquarters in confidence that the trail was sufficient to baffle even Toby. She needed something to settle her stomach, and she knew where to get it.

Luck was with her. The gang was all there. “Angel!” Max greeted, a look of annoyance passing his face. “What's the deal, sis? I told you to go back to your house.”

“I want to go sneak into the butcher's shop,” she replied.

“Again?” asked Buck, surprised. “But we just went.”

“Yeah,” added Lily. “You wanna make him madder or somethin'?”

Angel scowled. “I'll tell you while we're there,” she replied. “But can we go, like now?”

Max rose to his paws, shrugging. “Yeah, why not?” he asked. “Besides, we may as well see what that chump came up with while we were gone. Come on, let's get going.”

Angel filled them in on the details as they headed to the butcher's shop with a bit more caution than usual, aware that Toby, Luna, and who-knew-who-else would be out looking for her by now. They all voiced their sympathies with her, and told her of times when they themselves had suffered the slings and arrows of moralistic tyranny. And each them, to a dog, vowed to free her from any punishment her actions might incur.

As their luck would have it, however, someone else had already enacted a punishment.

“What the...?” demanded Sam as he pushed against the grate.

“What's the matter?” asked Max. “We're waiting.”

Sam made another shove and looked back at them. “The grate's not moving.”

“What? Move over, let me see.” Max squeezed past Sammy and studied the grate a moment. “Aw, crud,” he grumbled. “That dumb butcher's nailed it down.”

Angel was dismayed at this. Had she been in a more reasonable frame of mind, it might have dawned on her that they could still get their meat from the scrap pile. But of course that meat was never as tasty as what they ate in the butcher's room, and oftentimes one had to be quick to get the first pick at the pile. Besides, there was a certain element of fun, a sense of sport in stealing. Not to mention a sense of getting even with her parents by breaking their rules. “So how do we get in?” she asked anxiously.

Even from behind she could see irritation, almost rage, on Max's countenance. “We can't, for now,” he replied. “I've got a plan, but we'll have to do it later. Right now we'd better book.”

“Aww,” Angel whined as they left. In truth she was not terribly hungry, but she had reached a point where stealing food was her solace, her means of feeling satisfied when things didn't go her way. And now it seemed she might lose that as well.

She was so absorbed that she thought little of where she was going until, as she and the gang clustered outside the entrance, she heard a familiar voice. “So there you are.”

Angel flinched and froze as she saw Toby, his eyebrows knitted and his face scrunched with anger. Instantly her tail was between her legs, and her ears were down at their lowest. “Uh, hi Daddy,” she whined.

Max looked surprised too, but tried to put on a bold face. “Oh, uh, you must be Toby. I don't think we've met.”

Toby glared at him. “Not yet we haven't,” he growled, “But I have a feeling there's a reason for that.” He looked back down at his daughter. “Angel, we are going to have a looong talk about this.”

“Hey look, man, this ain't what it looks like,” Max began as he flicked his tail in a signal for the others to begin surrounding Toby.

Though he kept one eye locked on Angel and the other on Max, the maneuver was not lost on or unexpected to Toby. “We'll let the police decide that,” he replied. “Take 'em, boys.”

Max's pack didn't wait to see the dogs coming their way. They took to their heels and bolted fully two blocks before they figured out it was a bluff.

And by that time, father and daughter both were long gone.

“Angel, I am very disappointed in you,” Toby scolded. “Both of us are. Didn't we always tell you it's wrong to steal?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“And lie?” added Luna. “To us?”

“Yes Mom,” she protested, “But the food was so good...”

“It's human food!” Toby snapped. “It doesn't belong to us unless they decide to let us have some.”

“But why?” persisted Angel.

“Because they are in charge,” he replied. “It's their meat, and they give us what we need. We shouldn't go grabbing for more than is our right.”

“But it's not fair,” Angel protested. “Why do they get the best stuff and we get the scraps?”

“Because it's their meat,” Toby insisted. “They're the ones in authority, not us. And we don't make the rules, we just follow them. Besides, the point here is not who gets what meat, it's that you have been going behind our backs, stealing, and lying to us. We thought we could trust you.”

She lowered her head and ears, hunched her back, and sulked. “Maybe if you weren't such prudes I wouldn't have to be so sneaky.”

“We are not 'prudes,' Luna answered. “We are trying to raise you to know right from wrong.”

“We're doing this because we care about you,” Toby insisted. “The kind of life you're headed for isn't worth living. Just ask your uncle Pete.”

Angel rolled her eyes. She'd heard it all before, but she also knew her uncle had always been a little dumb. He was easy to fool, easy to outsmart. Toby had said so before. She was too smart to get into the same kinds of messes Pete had. After all, like Max always said, it was only bad if you got caught, right? “Fine,” she lied, “I'll stop breaking into the butcher's shop.”

“You bet you will,” said Toby sharply. “Because as of right now, you are grounded. Two weeks.”

“What?!” Angel was aghast. Her eyes flew open and her ears shot up. “Two weeks?! You... you can't do that!”

“He can,” Luna replied. “He's your father. And I'm backing him up on this one hundred percent.”

“But... but... but...”

Toby shook his head. “Honey, we don't like this any better than you do. But someday, we'll all be glad we did this.”

“No I won't!” she yipped back. “I hate you! I just want to be with my friends!”

Toby's ears leaned back at this unaccustomed talk from his daughter. “Angel, I am your father. I'm only trying to do what's best for you.”

Luna watched the unfolding argument from her spot next to Toby, wanting to say something that would put everyone at peace. All she could think of was, “We do care about you, Angel.”

“No you don't!” she shot back, tears springing from her eyes. “You just don't want me to have any fun!” And she ran off before either of them could stop her.

The two parents stared after her, wondering what to do. Finally Luna looked at Toby and saw that he was crying too. She leaned toward him and licked the tears away from his right eye, drawing his attention in her direction.

“You did the right thing,” she tried to reassure him. “We did the right thing.”

He hung his head. “Then why do I feel so bad?” he asked glumly. He sniffed loudly and looked at her. “I'm almost sorry we ever had pups.”

Luna was shocked. “Toby, don't talk that way!” she cried.

“Well, I am,” he confessed. His tears began to subside as his rational mind took control of his emotions once more. “When I was a puppy, I had this notion that being a grown-up meant automatically knowing what to do in any given situation. Especially being a parent.” He looked at the floor. “Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the kids for anything, or the happiness it gave us when they were born. I just never thought any of them would turn out to be as rebellious as Angel. It's like she's not even my daughter.”

Luna sighed. “I feel the same way,” she agreed, “But what can we do about it?”

She laid her head down, and he came over and rested his neck across the top of hers in a canine embrace, trying to comfort her. “I don't know,” he admitted. “I just don't know.”

Meanwhile, someone outside was pondering the same question.

“Did you pick up anything worth hearing?” asked Max as Sam entered their hideout.

Sam nodded. “They grounded her,” he replied. “She's not gonna be out of their sight for weeks, and if she even tries to get near us then or later, he'll sick the cops on us for real.”

“This is a problem,” grumbled Max.

“Yeah,” agreed Buck, “But can't we just get another runt to do our dirty work?”

Lily nodded. “Yeah, why go messing around with her, of all dogs. I mean her dad's in tight with the cops, remember?”

Max rolled his eyes. “What are you guys, a bunch of pea-brained chihuahuas? That's why she's so important. Yeah, any pint-sized squirt could get us into places, but as long as we've got her, we've got leverage.”

Buck scratched an ear. “I don't get it,” he admitted.

His next scratch drew blood behind his ear as a back-pawed swat from Max drove his head against his claws. “Idiot!” Max berated him. “We already know that mutt Toby's a hazard to anyone trying to pull a job in this town. His old man may still be wearing the badge, but Toby's the active chief and everybody knows it. If we can keep Angel doing what we want, we've got inside information if he plans anything. Not only that, but if he tries to stop us, we'll have a little dirty laundry on him to keep him at bay.”

“Dirty laundry?” asked Lily.

Max looked in disgust at his cohorts before turning to Sammy with an expression that said, in effect, “You had better know what I'm talking about or you are all going to be in for a world of hurt.”

Sammy gulped. “It means, uh, something he doesn't want other dogs to know about?”

Max nodded, leering. “And what might that be?”

“Angel,” Sammy replied, more quickly this time.

“Exactly,” Max grinned. “Right now, nobody outside their family knows about Angel's behavior. Toby will want to keep it that way. After all, what could be more embarrassing for him as a police dog than his own pup turning to crime?”

“So we tell everyone that his kid is a criminal?” asked Buck eagerly.

Max shook his head. “Not yet, we don't,” he replied. “”If word gets out about that, we lose our greatest weapon against him. Besides, some of us have reputations in society...” he nodded to Lily, “Which it would be in our best interests to keep intact.”

“But that means they could turn around and do the same thing to us!” she protested.

Max rolled his eyes. “Oh brother,” he uttered under his breath. “Take note,” he said, “This is why I'm the boss. You fail to grasp the innocent mind. Angel's parents are unlikely to even consider countering our efforts at blackmail. They're too honorable,” and he said it with disdain, “to even think of stooping to our level.”

The other dogs nodded, but Lily still frowned. “So how do we keep the little brat working for us?”

Max leered. “Listen carefully,” he said with a smile that would have made Dracula's look friendly.

Later that night, all was quiet at the Calvins' house. The humans were asleep. Toby and Luna were upstairs, keeping vigil over Angel, who had dozed off hours ago out of boredom. Arrow had found a comfortable place by the Franklin stove in the kitchen, and Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior had decided this seemed like a good idea. Star lay in the living room, gazing at the orange flames so bright and vibrant like her mother's fur, and wishing she could look like that too as she listened to the wind howling outside. Suddenly she lifted an ear. Was that a voice out there? Yes, there it came again. Someone was outside, calling. And the closer she listened, the more familiar it sounded. Like someone was calling her name. And the someone...

“Eska?” asked Star. “What are you doing here?”

“I need you to come outside for a minute,” replied his voice.

She scrunched her face and reclined her ears. “Now?” she asked, glancing at the window. “It's freezing outside. Don't you want to come in?”

“No, I can't. You come out here.”

She frowned. Something didn't sound right about all this. But it was Eska asking. “Okay,” she said, “But just for a minute, promise?”

“I promise,” came the reply.

She toddled to the pet flap and stuck her nose out. Youch! The minute she cracked it open, the biting wind hit her nose like the tip of an icicle. She jerked back, rubbing her nose. “Can't this wait until morning?” she asked.

“No, it's gotta be now. Come outside, or I won't be your friend anymore.”

Well, she couldn't say no to that. “Okay,” she agreed. And with gritted teeth, she slipped out the pet flap.

The snow was so deep even on the porch that she immediately sank up to her chin in the icy powder. The wind blew in her eyes, forcing them shut. “Eska!” she shouted. “Where are you?!”

“Not here,” came a much different voice. And before she could turn and see who it was – if seeing were even possible in the squall – she felt herself being snatched up like a mouse in the clutches of an owl. She was totally powerless as her faceless captor took off, carrying her away into the night. There was nothing she could do but scream.

Which, as it turned out, was exactly what the enemy wanted.

Upstairs, Luna lifted her head and raised her ears. “What was that?” she asked.

“Hrrm?” Toby mumbled in his sleep.

“I thought I heard a scream,” she asked.

He lifted his head and yawned. “Oh, probably just the wind,” he replied, dismissing the matter categorically.

She nodded, but inside she felt uneasy. “Well, I might as well go check it out,” she said. “I need to, uh, take a walk anyway.”

Toby shrugged, uttered a drowsy, “Alright,” and returned to his nap. But a minute or two later, loud barking called him to attention.

“Toby! Toby, get down here quickly! Something's wrong!”

He was on his feet in an instant and ran for the stairs. “What, what is it?” In the living room he found Luna nearly hysterical. “Luna, calm down and tell me what the problem is!” he barked.

“It's Star!” she replied. “She's disappeared!”

Meanwhile, Toby's sudden movement had jarred Angel awake, and she blinked sleep from her eyes. “Wha...?” she asked the suddenly empty room.

A scratching at the window grabbed her attention. It was Buck!

“Buck?” asked Angel. “What are you doing out there?”

“I've been waiting for your folks to leave, pup. Now hurry up, we don't have much time.”

Angel was still confused. “How do I get out of here?”

“Easy,” he replied. “Get up on the ledge in front of the window and flip the latch with your nose.”

Angel obeyed, and with a little tooth-work, the stubborn window latch came open. She pushed at the bottom of the pane with her paw, and the lower half slid outward at the bottom enough for her to slip through. “Brr!” she shivered. Even though they were on a side of the house that blocked the wind, it was still freezing cold. “What the heck are we doing out here?!”

“Will you come on?” Buck growled in reply, scooping her up in his jaws. He slid down the icy roof they stood on, dropped into a snow drift below, and with a moment's work, managed to wriggle free. “We've got some things to do.”

Angel did not enjoy her trip to the gang's hideout. And when they finally got there, she didn't realize they were one dog short. “What are we doing here?” she asked, shivering as Lily, in a show of what pity she had, wrapped her tail around her to provide some protection from the cold. “My mom's gonna kill me when she finds out I sneaked out.”

Max smiled. “Don't worry, we arranged a little... diversion.”

Angel tilted her head. “Diversion?” she echoed. “What's that?”

“Let's just say your folks are a little distracted right now,” Lily replied. “And if we don't take too long...”

“Speaking of taking too long,” Max interrupted, “I think it's time we got down to business. The sooner we get this show on the road, the less chance those snoops'll realize you're gone.”

“So what are we doing at this time of night?” asked Angel.

Max growled in a display of irritation. “The butcher,” he replied. “He finally got wise and nailed the grate in the meat locker shut.”

“So now we can't get to the beef,” added Buck.

“S-s-so?” asked Angel. “What are we supposed to do about it?”

Max grinned. “That's where you come in,” he replied. “I've been keeping an eye on the butcher, and he has these little metal things he uses to open the door. They look kinda like this.” And he clawed one line, then a set jutting out from it in the snow that had blown into the shed.

“I've seen things like that,” Angel said, studying the crude diagram. “The humans call them keys.”

Max smiled. “Smart girl. Well, then it should be easy for you to see that all we gotta do is get into his house and get them so we can open the door too.”

“But only humans can use keys,” Angel pointed out. “Dad said he tried once, and-”

“Dad, schmad,” Max cut her off. His ears were leaning back, and he scowled as if Angel had just insulted him somehow. “Look at me, kid. I've been watching this guy lock and unlock his door for weeks. You really think I can't unlock the door too?”

She shook her head. “No,” she lied, lest she offend him.

“Good. Now here's the plan. Angel, you'll get us in.”

“How?” she asked.

“The guy's got a chute for that black coal stuff people put in fires. Most chutes like that are easy to get down, but this one's a bit too small for us. So you've gotta slide down and get inside, then find the keys.”

“Where should I look?” she asked.

“I dunno.” Max scrunched his face in irritation and leaned down, nose to nose with her. “I've never been in his house, remember? Just figure out a way to get the keys.”

She nodded, intimidated by his threatening display. “Yeah, okay,” she agreed quickly.

They slipped out and made their way through the night to the butcher's house. The wind had died down some, but it was still biting cold, and Angel couldn't stop shivering. “C-c-can't we d-do this in the m-m-morning?” she asked.

Max rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. “Duh, no,” he snapped. “The butcher always takes his keys to work with him, and we can't get them from him while he's awake. We gotta do it now, while he's asleep. Got it?”

“Okay, okay,” whined Angel. She wanted to say more, like how no amount of meat was worth the discomfort they were going through to get it, but she knew that Max was someone not to be crossed.

Finally they reached a house like any other – wooden boards, snowy roof, no lights on – which Max announced was the one. He led them around back to a small door in the side of the house, so low they had to dig away some snow to get to it. “Showtime, kid,” he grinned, pulling it open.

Angel inched her way up to the hole. “It's dark,” she protested.

“So?” asked Max. “You're not scared, are ya?”

“N-no, it's just... what if once I'm down there I can't get back out?”

Buck shrugged. “We'll find some rope to pull you back up.”

“Uh, right,” agreed Max. The truth was, as little as he knew of the inside of houses, he did know that coal bins often had doors on the inside, blocking cold air – and in this case, cold dogs, from getting in. If the door was shut, Angel could freeze, and the plan would fail.

“We're all counting on you,” Lily added, unaware of the doubt.

Angel peered down the hole. It was a simple plan. Get in, get the keys, get out. Simple. Except for finding the keys. And maybe getting...

A paw nudged her from behind, and she fell.

“WOOOAAH!” she screamed as she slid down. A moment later there was an abrupt drop, and she landed on a heap of small, hard rocks. The edges were jagged, but not quite sharp enough to cut her. What did bother her was the smell. The air was thick with the choking stench of coal. I've gotta get out of here fast, she thought, before I suffocate!

She squinted into the dim light through the cloud of dust kicked up by her arrival, but everything in there was pitch black. So, orienting herself by the tiny bit of light showing through the chute, she guessed and made her way directly across the bin, tripping and stumbling on the loose coal as she went. At last she found the door and, after groping about for what felt like an eternity, found a small latch. That was the good news.

Unfortunately, there was some bad too. Like the fact that it was shut.

She started to panic. She turned back to the chute and called up, “Max, it's locked! I can't get out! Help me!”

Max's voice came echoing back down. “Relax, kid. Now tell me, is there a latch down there?”

“Yeah, but it's closed!”

Max sounded impatient. “So push it up. You can do that, right?”

Angel returned to the latch and, with a little effort, was able to force it up just enough for the door to slip open. With a wave of coal, she tumbled out onto the floor of the basement.

Coughing in all the freshly kicked-up dust, she struggled free of the small avalanche she had made and stumbled away from the coal bin. The air in the basement was musty and unpleasant, but it did make for an improvement over the coal dust. By what little light was down there, and by a scent of warmer air from the house, she made her way to the stairs and up out of the basement. Luck was with her: the door wasn't locked.

But now what? She had no idea where the keys might be. So, warily, she walked back down to the basement to ask Max what to do. Sure he didn't know where the keys were, but maybe he could give her an idea of where they might be. She scrabbled her way up the heap of coal spilling out of the bin, and was about to call up when she heard voices bouncing down the chute. Sammy had arrived.

“Where's the pup?” he asked.

“Inside by now, like a good little bandit,” laughed Max. “Did you take care of your assignment?”

“Yep,” Sammy replied. “Her sister's tucked away, safe and sound. I put her in an empty trash can a few blocks north of their house.”

“Good,” Max leered. “By the time her folks find her, she'll have such a cold that they'll be well out of our hair for weeks. Piece of cake.”

'What?!' Thought Angel. 'They kidnapped my sister?'

“Yeah, but what if we went too far?” asked Lily, sounding like she was having second thoughts. “I mean what if she... you know, croaks?”

Max scoffed. “Look, as long as those mutts are distracted and don't bother us, who cares what happens to that little runt?”

Angel gritted her teeth. She wanted to shout, “I care, you jerks!” but resisted. A life of crime had taught her one thing: never blow your cover. Thinking quickly, she slid back down the pile of coal and ran upstairs, where a brief search turned up a chair next to a window. 'Gotta hurry,' she thought. 'Star could die if I don't tell Mom and Dad where she is!'

Getting a running start, she managed to jump up onto the chair. From there she dragged to the arm, and from there to the windowsill. But her efforts had been in vain. No latch!

She went through two more windows before finding one she could open. Unfortunately it was not on the far side of the house from the others, as she had hoped, but around the corner from them. But she had no choice. As much as Star annoyed her, she didn't want to see her sister freeze to death. Especially not on her account.

With a little work, she managed to jimmy the latch and push the window open just far enough to escape.

“What's taking the pup so long?” the voice of one of the dogs carried to her on the wind.

“I don't know,” came a voice she could barely identify as Max. “Hey kid, you still stuck in the bin?”

Angel huddled down behind a snowbank, even though they weren't looking anywhere near her. With one eye she peered around the corner to see Max withdraw his head from the chute. “It's too dark to see down there,” he grumbled. “I can't tell if she's down there or not, but she ain't answering.”

“Maybe we should call to her in the house,” Buck suggested.

“No, you moron!” Max barked angrily. “If we make too much noise, the butcher might wake up. We've just gotta be patient.”

“Well if we're p-patient much l-l-longer, we'll be s-sitting out here till sp-sp-spring,” Lily complained. “I can barely feel my t-t-tail.”

Max turned his head in such a way that Angel knew he must be rolling his eyes. “Fine, go get a rope so we can pull the kid back up when she comes back,” he ordered. “It'll save me from your whining.”

Lily got up. “Okay, okay. You don't have to be so kindhearted about it,” she agreed in a tone dripping with sarcasm. “Maybe I can swipe some from somebody's shed or something.”

Angel dove under the snow as Lily walked by her. The dog was so busy muttering to herself that she never noticed the open window or the ears poking out of the snow. As soon as she was past, Angel shook off her frigid cover and made a beeline for home.

It took her two or three tries to get her direction right. She had never been to this particular part of town, and the wind and snow made it hard to guess direction, something she had never been too good at to begin with. Houses and stores provided some shelter, but the roofs had a hazard of their own: ice. Chunks of re-frozen snow almost crushed her a few times, and once or twice she narrowly escaped being impaled by a falling icicle. Above all this, it was cold, and she worried she might freeze to death before she found Star or her parents. 'As if I could face them now,' she thought. 'It's all my fault this happened in the first place. I should have listened to Mom and Dad from the start.'

But it seemed the weather was not altogether against her. Every now and then a brief lull in the wind would grant her clear enough vision to see a familiar building or recognize a street. And then she stopped, straining to hear above the sound of the wind. She could have sworn she heard a voice.

“Star...”

It was Toby, calling for Star! Angel almost hid, but then she remembered it was she who had gotten Star into this mess in the first place. And now, only she could fix it. So when she heard the voice again, she immediately headed toward it. “Dad!” she tried to shout, but the wind blew the words back in her face. She was fighting the weather now, head-to-head. She actually missed her father at first and could have gone on wandering forever if he hadn't spotted her.

“Star!” he cried out, mistaking her for her sister. Even in good light, it would have been a logical error. Angel hadn't thought of it up until now, but her normally beautiful fur, luxurious even at her age, was stained with soot and coal dust.

“No,” she replied. “Not Star.”

“Angel?” he asked. “What are you doing out here, you're supposed to...”

“I know, I know Daddy,” she replied, reverting to the more familiar, more personal name. “I'll tell you later, but I know where Star is.”

“Where?” he asked anxiously. “And how do you know?”

“She's in a trash can a few blocks north of home,” she replied. “Please, Daddy, you've got to trust me.” Tears were blowing from her eyes now.

Toby frowned. “Alright.” He threw back his head and howled. Another howl sounded in reply, and moments later Luna cam barreling out of an alley. “Toby, did you find...?”

“No, but I know where to look. Take Angel back to the house and come join me as soon as possible.”

“Angel?” Luna was confused.

Toby squinted against the wind. “Tell Arrow to keep an eye on her. I'll be a few blocks north of your house. Hurry!”

“Right.” Luna snatched up Angel and made a beeline for home. “Uh you ukay?” she asked through her teeth.

“Y-y-yes,” the pup replied, part of her stutter coming from cold and the other from her mother's running.

“Good, 'cause you wun be once we find your sister. What are you doing out here anyway? I told you...”

“Mom-my... I... know,” Angel answered between bounces, “But first... I... need... to... tell... you... some... thing.”

“What?” asked Luna.

“Star...didn't... leave,” Angel replied. Then, growing tired of the bouncing talk, she finished quickly, “She was kidnapped.”

Luna skidded to such an abrupt halt that Angel almost flew from her jaws. “Kidnapped?” she asked in shock. “What on earth...?”

“It's those dogs Daddy caught me with at the butcher's,” she explained. “They didn't tell me this, but they took Star so you and Daddy wouldn't know I left.”

Luna dropped her in the snow and stared down at her. “Look me in the eye, Angel,” she ordered.

Angel did briefly, but then she looked down, ashamed.

“Look at me!” Luna demanded. “”Why did you...?”

“I didn't know they had Star, Mom,” Angel insisted. “I overheard them through the butcher's coal chute when they made me go in to get the keys, honest.” Now she was looking up into Luna's face, and this time, Luna knew she was telling the truth.

“Come on,” she said quietly. “Let's get you inside.” Scooping her daughter into her jaws, she added, “And this time, stay there.”

The other pups were, unfortunately, not asleep when Luna and Angel got back. They were very much awake and eager to know what had happened and why Angel was such a mess. Apart from getting them to be quiet, it didn't take long for Luna to get the details: the kidnappers were still at the butcher's shop, as far as Angel knew they had no idea she was gone, and there were only a handful of them. That was about when Toby got back with Star in his grasp. She wasn't moving.

“Star!” Luna cried, nosing the pup. Her voice cracked like a mid-pubescent teenager's as Toby laid the unresponsive pup by the fire and grabbed a blanket from the basket to drape over her. “Is she...?”

“Alive,” he reported, panting. “But barely. She could have frozen to death.”

Angel's eyes grew wide. 'Oh my gosh,' she thought with a sense of doom. 'If she dies, it's gonna be my fault.' She started to back away, but Luna moved to block her escape.

“Toby,” she reported, “Angel has something to tell you.”

As her father's eyes turned to her, Angel took a deep breath and quickly poured out her story. Her escape from the house, sneaking into the butcher's home, learning about their trick, and escaping again. “I think they're still at his house,” she finished.

Toby glared. “This time they've gone too far,” he growled, grinding his teeth. He turned to the rest of his family. “I'll get the police dogs. Luna, you bring the mail team and any of your relatives whose homes you happen to pass en route. They're the strongest dogs in town. We'll meet at the post office, then go teach that pack a lesson. Arrow, Caspar, you two hold down the fort here. Everyone gather around Star to give her as much heat as you can. Make sure no one leaves...” and here he turned to Angel. “...especially her.”

Angel hung her head. I really blew it this time, she thought. This was worse than getting caught chewing the furniture, messing on the carpet, and digging in the trash all at the same time.

Less than half an hour later, the miscreants were still outside the coal chute, shivering. Their fur was adorned with ice and snow so that one could scarcely recognize them, not unlike Steele had been so long ago when he barged into the boiler room on his return from the famed sled run. “What's t-t-t-taking her s-s-so l-l-long?” asked Lily, her tail tucked under her belly more from cold than emotion.

“I dunno,” Max replied, forcibly suppressing a stutter. “But she'd better hurry up, or I'm throwing her out once we have the keys.”

Buck blew against the snow that had gathered itself into the gap around his closed mouth. “I'm about ready to give up,” he grumbled. “No amount of beef is worth...”

Max spun and rammed into him, spikes of ice from his fur digging into Buck. “No you don't,” he said slowly, full of menace. “We've come too far to weasel out now. If you want to wait in a shed or something, fine. But nobody quits, or...”

“Actually,” came a voice, “I'd suggest that you do quit while you're ahead.”

The frozen felons turned to face what for their purposes amounted to a small army of dogs, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. Front and center among them was Toby, who added, “Or maybe I should say while you still have heads.”

Angel was not having a good time of it back home. Her brothers hadn't let up since Toby and Luna left, but she had endured silently with little or no defense as they tormented her. Why not? She deserved every minute of it.

“Why didn't you listen?” asked Caspar. “You should have stayed away from those punks like Mom and Dad said.”

“Yeah,” added Melchior. “Why couldn't you play with us anyway? We're your-”

“Okay, that's enough,” Arrow cut him off forcefully. “Listen, you guys, she made a mistake. We all do. But talking her to death about it won't change it. It's up to Mom and Dad to tell her she blew it, and they will. So shut up.”

“But...” Zar protested.

“But nothing,” Arrow replied. She gestured to Angel's tear-soaked face. “She's already sorry, so leave her alone. In fact, beat it. Go somewhere else, now.”

“Dad said to stay with Star,” Caspar pointed out. “To keep her warm.”

Arrow laid a paw on Star's side, then ran it up and down her body like someone running a metal detector over a beach. “She's warm now,” she replied. “Angel and I can handle it from here, and we'll call you if she starts to get cold again. Now scram.”

The boys looked at one another, and Caspar nodded. “She's right,” he agreed. “We'll let Mom and Dad fix this. Let's go.” And he left, followed by Zar, then Mel. Arrow stayed with Star, who still lay inert in the warmth of the flames, and with Angel, who sat in silence, brooding over her misdeeds.

At last, Arrow placed a paw on Angel's back. “I'm sorry, sis,” she whispered.

“You?” asked Angel, looking up. “Why would you be sorry? I'm the one who did this.”

“Yeah, but I messed up too. I turned a blind eye when you sneaked off that one time because you were with my brother. And I didn't mention it when I saw him snooping around. Maybe I didn't steal like you did, or kidnap like him, but I'm guilty too.” She looked at Star. “I even knew about his knack for mimicking voices, but I didn't warn anyone. I thought maybe he had changed since the time he was in Groven's bunch of strays, but I should have known better. Especially since I was used just like you were, back before you and the others were even born. So I'm sorry too. And when Mom and Dad get back, I'm going to tell them that. And whatever they decide to do to you, they'll have to do it to me too.”

Angel shook her head. “No, you can't do that. It's my responsibility. I caused the whole thing.”

Arrow shrugged. “Maybe you did, but I let it happen. We got into this mess together, so we're going to get out of it together. That's what families do.”

Angel smiled briefly, then hung her head. “Thanks,” she whispered.

Not long after, Toby and Luna arrived. They gave no details except that Max and his gang had been taken with hardly any fight and wouldn't be bothering anyone for a good, long time. Angel was to be confined for the remainder of the night, and in the morning when Toby returned, her fate would be decided. With that, Toby went home. The pups bedded down, with Angel under close guard by Luna.

As Luna lay awake, watching her daughter squirm around searching for sleep beside her, she took a deep breath. It wasn't easy to punish any of her children, and although she didn't want to play favorites, it helped little that Angel looked just as she had at that age. Maybe, she thought, I should have been a better mother. Maybe then none of this would have happened. It was with this unpleasant thought going through her mind that she at last drifted to sleep.

Angel, on the other hand, hardly slept at all that night. Every time she chanced a look at her mother until she at last fell asleep, the pup saw disappointment and thought it was in her. It must be, after all she had done. She had no idea at that moment how much they looked alike – inside, and out.

The following day, Toby arrived still bothered over the previous night's events and fully ready to ground Angel till the day she died. He was partially disappointed to learn that Luna had already taken the other pups to her parents' home to avoid bringing further embarrassment to their little ex-con. He had been hoping to use the situation as a lesson to all the pups about the consequences of crime. He was further displeased to learn this while sitting out on the porch. The minute he had arrived, Luna had stopped him at the pet flap and wouldn't let him enter until they'd had a chance to talk.

“I still can't believe she would do this,” he grumbled. “Why would she betray us like this?”

“She made a mistake, honey,” she said softly. “Everyone does. You made a few when you were her age.”

“Yes, but I never got mixed up with felons.”

“Pete's committed a felony or two, and you let him go,” she protested.

“Yes, because he proved he'd had a change of heart.”

“And she hasn't?” Luna was incredulous. “Toby, she did the right thing in the end. If it weren't for her, those criminals would still be loose and Star would probably be dead.” She paused for a second as if to take a breath, then gestured for him to follow her and went up to the front window. Toby raised his paws to the sill and looked in, following her gaze. It didn't take him long to see what she was directing him to.

In front of the fireplace lay Star, her sides rising and falling with her breath as they watched. Beside her, keeping watch like two cherubs, were the placid figures of Arrow and Angel.

“They've been like that ever since last night,” she told him. “Every second they were awake, they've been watching her. I couldn't even get them to eat breakfast.”

Toby frowned. “Angel I can understand,” he murmured softly, thinking of the guilt she must feel. “But what about Arrow? Didn't you take her to your parents' with the others?”

Luna looked at him. “The dog who kidnapped Star was Arrow's brother,” she explained. Before he could express his shock at this, she added, “She knew what he was capable of, but he convinced her he was trustworthy.”

'Convinced her she was trustworthy.' the words struck a note in Toby's mind, and he shook his head in dismay. Not at his daughters' carelessness, but at his own. Because in a sense, he was to blame for this. If he had known what was going on in the lives of his family, not just the boys, but the girls as well, he might have somehow prevented this. They were guilty, that much was inescapable. But he needed to get himself in line too. He'd never be able to deliver the sentence they needed as an angry judge. They needed a father.

“I'm going to go talk to them,” he said, in a low, rough voice.

She tried to head him off. “Wait,” she pleaded, thinking he might still be angry at them.

He looked her in the eye. “I have to do this, Luna,” he told her. “There's no question of that. The question is, will you trust me? You of all dogs?”

She considered, but found that in truth there was nothing to consider. Toby could be impetuous at times, but he always did his best to be a good mate and a good father. She had said her piece, and now she owed it to both of them to let him do what he had to, and trust his judgment. She stepped aside.

Inside, the three girls dwelt in silence, one in slumber, the other two in vigil. Angel didn't look up when Toby walked in, but Arrow did. “Hi Dad,” she whispered.

Toby nodded. “Hello, girls.”

Angel stiffened her neck, refusing to look as Toby drew near to them both. All she wanted was for it to be over.

“How is she?” he asked.

Arrow answered. “She's warm now, but she's still sleeping a lot.”

Toby nodded. “She needs a good rest after a night like that.”

'Come on,' Angel thought. 'Get it over with.'

Arrow bravely looked up at her father. “Did Mom tell you about... about the dog who kidnapped her?”

He nodded. “Yes. Yes she did.”

Angel refused to twitch so much as an eyelash, but she knew what was coming. 'He knows Arrow didn't blow the whistle on Sam, which means now we're both going to get the riot act and probably be grounded if we get off easy.'

“And I'm sure you realize I can't let this go unpunished.”

'Here it comes...'

“But, I am proud of you. Both of you.”

That took Angel by surprise, and ever so slowly she looked up at her father, her daddy. “What do you mean?” she asked. “How can you be proud of us after we blew it so bad?”

Toby took a deep breath. “Well,” he said, “I can't deny that both of you did some bad things. Angel, you lied to your mother and me, you stole from the butcher, and you helped with burglary. And Arrow, you knew that Sammy could be dangerous, but you agreed not to tell us about him. If either or both of you had done the right thing, Star wouldn't have almost died, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

Each girl lowered her gaze, weighed down by her own guilt like a swimmer tied to an anvil.

“But you did the right thing in the end,” he added. “And to be honest, I haven't been entirely right this whole time either. I left too much up to your mother, and I should have been paying more attention to you.”

Now both were staring at him, confused. “So, what does that mean?” asked Star.

He frowned. “Well, unfortunately it doesn't mean I can let you off the hook completely. You do need to be punished. So since Star is stuck in here until she recovers, you both will be too.”

Then his face lightened, and he actually smiled a little. “On the other hand, I've been pretty careless myself, so at least part of the time I'm going to have to ground myself too.”

“Huh?” Now they were really lost.

He actually laughed. “I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm going to have a talk with your mother. And from now on, I'm going to spend more time with each of you.”

“To keep us out of trouble?” asked Angel skeptically.

“No, not exactly,” he replied. “It's more like I'll be just... well, getting to know you. Connecting with you, I guess.”

Angel glanced at Arrow. “Is that a reward or a punishment?”

Arrow smirked. She knew the answer, and she knew that it meant it was safe now to have a little fun. “I don't think he knows that either,” she stage-whispered.

Toby produced a very contrived frown and said, “Now, I'm going to have a talk with Luna, and I'll pretend I didn't hear that little remark.”

As he walked out, both of them looked after him. Angel wasn't sure what “Dad time.” would be like. But somehow she knew that everything was going to be okay.

Angel took her punishment remarkably well. She never once complained, and she spent every free moment looking after Star almost to the point of absurdity. Luna was surprised one time to come in and find a wet trail across the floor, terminating in a sopping-wet Angel trying to push the water bowl, which by now was nearly empty, over to where Star sat. After all, Angel defended herself when Star had at last gotten her drink and Luna had finished cleaning up what she could of the mess, Star was sick because of her. So why make her move around when there was no need?

Luna had to laugh. If nothing else, it seemed Angel had at least gotten the point. Which was very fortunate. It would give the parents one less thing to worry about the next time a problem arose – which, as always, would be much, much too soon.

All characters © Dragon Tamer

Don't forget to also read Toby Recharged: Rising Star.