Alpha’s wolfish howl tore over the circle of dogs and Moon shrank back.
“Are you all fools? We can’t raise Fierce Dogs! It would be like nurturing your own conqueror! We should kill those vermin before they can grow up to attack us. Savagery is in their blood, and sharing our food with them will not change that.”
“How can you be so sure?” Lucky barked, bracing his legs defensively as he squared up to the Pack leader.
“This is how,” snarled Alpha. He jutted out his left foreleg. Lucky saw a deep scar running along the curve of the half wolf’s paw, welts of damaged flesh exposed between the strands of shaggy gray fur. He had never noticed it before, but now he shuddered at the sight.
“One of those savage monsters nearly bit it clean off when I was a pup,” Alpha growled. “You call them Fierce Dogs, but wolves have a different name for them. To a wolf, they’re known as Longpaw Fangs—because the longpaws use them as tools to do their biting for them. And you have the stupidity to lead them into our camp!”
Lucky flinched, a cold shiver of fear passing through him. Looking around him, he met Bella’s questioning gaze. She thinks I’ve done the wrong thing too. . . .
Then he remembered how she had let Alpha force him from the Pack, and her foolishness in challenging the Wild Dogs with foxes. His litter-sister was not one to judge any dog’s actions.
The dog-wolf wasn’t finished. “You say you found the pups on their own?” he snarled. “The Mother-Dog was dead?”
“Yes . . .” Lucky shot a look at Wiggle, who had edged along his flank. Lick stood at her litter-brother’s side, with Grunt a pace or two ahead of them, next to Mickey.
“Why would the Fierce Dogs leave the pups behind? What if they come back to collect them and find that they’re missing?”
“I wondered that, too,” said Mickey. “But their scents had faded and the Mother-Dog had been dead for a full journey of the Sun-Dog, at least.”
Alpha gazed over their heads toward the cluster of pine trees. “That means their Pack is out there somewhere, roaming the wild. They could be anywhere. They could be up to anything.”
“But that would be true whether the pups were here or not,” Martha pointed out in her deep, gentle voice. She padded forward on huge webbed paws. She was easily as large as Alpha, though she was not using her size to command any dog. She lowered her panting, jowly face to the pups. “They’re so small,” she murmured. “They could grow up to be kind and brave. Who are we to brand them ‘bad’ dogs when they’ve barely had a chance at life?”
Lick trotted toward Martha and buried herself beneath the great dog’s thick, dark coat. Wiggle scrambled after her, followed by Grunt. Martha nuzzled the pups and they yipped in response, huddling together under her belly.
“They’re just pups; we should remember that,” said Martha. “And Lucky deserves our trust. He has brought Mickey back to us. We should be grateful that he’s here after how he was forced to leave . . .” She looked at Lucky sadly. “Things have changed since the Big Growl, and we’re all just trying to figure out how best to survive—it’s like Mickey said, we need to stick together.” She raised her great furry head to Alpha. “If danger does come to the camp, we can beat it as a Pack, and Lucky knows better than any dog how to defend himself.”
“The pups should be given a chance,” Fiery agreed.
Snap was softening too. “They haven’t done anything wrong, have they?”
Alpha turned his head, casting his fierce gaze around the circle of dogs.
He knows he’s outnumbered, thought Lucky. But if he insists that the pups be abandoned or killed, he may still be able to get his way.
Alpha stared down his long nose at the pups, then raised his head to meet Martha’s eye. “Very well,” he spat. “They can remain here. . . .” His yellow eyes settled on Lucky. “But they will be your responsibility.”
“So we can stay with you?” Wiggle yipped, creeping out from beneath Martha’s belly to nuzzle Lucky’s leg. Martha sighed with relief and Mickey nosed Grunt and Lick protectively.
Lucky never took his eyes off Alpha. “So . . . does that mean . . . ?”
“You will be tolerated for the time being,” Alpha barked. “You will return to being Omega—but you will also have the task of training and teaching the Fierce Dog pups, making sure they grow up to become loyal, obedient dogs who can serve the Pack—and not savage monsters who will kill us all while we sleep.”
“That will never happen,” Lucky promised.
“It’s a hard life, being Omega,” Whine smirked, his short tail thrashing. “Are you sure you’re up to the job, City Dog?”
Lucky swallowed his annoyance. He would suffer the indignity of being Omega if this was Alpha’s price for allowing the pups to stay.
The half wolf turned and strode away. Lucky watched him as he made for a knoll covered by spongy green moss and stretched out in the sunshine, rolling onto his side with a yawn.
He was doing his best to save face, but Lucky wondered if his leadership had been dented since the dark cloud after all.
Have the others realized that he is scrabbling for a foothold in this world without longpaws, just like the rest of us?
Lucky turned to the pups, who had gathered between Martha and Mickey.
“Good news,” he told them.
“But they don’t want us,” Lick whined.
“They think we’re dangerous,” Wiggle agreed.
Martha lowered her head and washed them with her tongue. The pups nuzzled against her and Lucky was touched. He saw how they were drawn to her—perhaps she reminded them of their Mother-Dog. Even Grunt yipped happily and nuzzled her leg with his short snout.
“You will be well looked after,” Martha assured them. She turned slowly, making for her den, and the pups tumbled after her. He watched them for a moment. Perhaps everything was going to work out after all.
Then his gaze fell on Sweet, who was sitting nearby, washing one elegant paw, a strange expression on her face as she peered at him. Was she sad . . . or angry? Lucky’s ears drooped and he cocked his head at her, but the swift-dog looked away, twisting around to groom her tail.
Lucky turned to a nudge from Bella. He hadn’t noticed her approaching. Her pink tongue lolled in her panting mouth and she reached forward to lick his nose, but he backed away.
“Don’t be like that!” She pawed the ground, then approached again, but he raised his haunches and she stopped in her tracks. “Please, Lucky. I’m so sorry for everything. We haven’t even had a chance to talk alone since the dogfight. I have to talk to you.”
Lucky made as if to leave and she called after him. “What I said to Alpha was true. I was a fool to attack the Wild Pack, and even more of a fool for doing it without warning you.”
Lucky raised his muzzle. “And the foxes?”
Bella dropped her head. “That was a terrible mistake. And I should have spoken up for you when Alpha told you to leave the Pack. I really wanted to, but . . . I just felt like, more than anything, I had to do my best for the Leashed Dogs. I was scared of what would happen if Alpha attacked us or kicked us out. I didn’t know how the Pack would survive. Can you forgive me?”
Lucky felt a tug in his chest. He tried to chase it away with an angry growl. Bella stayed silent when Alpha cast me out, he reminded himself. She let me carry the worst of the blame for the dogfight. She betrayed me! What she did was unforgiveable.
His tail shot out behind him and he tried to walk away, but he hadn’t gone three dog-lengths when she called to him again.
“Yap . . . ?”
Lucky stopped in his tracks. In an instant he was at his Mother-Dog’s side, his littermates jostling against him in a jumble of soft bodies. He turned and met Bella’s eye. Her long snout was low and she gazed up at him, her eyes large and sad.
Lucky sighed. “I know that you did it for the Pack. Your heart was in the right place. It always is.”
“Can you forgive me?” she repeated in a whispe
r.
“Come here,” he replied. She bounded up to him and licked his muzzle, nudging and whining with relief.
I can forgive you, Bella, he thought. But I can’t forget.
He wanted to trust his litter-sister, but he couldn’t—not after everything she had done.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lucky yawned and settled down in the long grass, listening as Mickey told Bella, Daisy, Bruno, and Sunshine about the state of their homes in the crumbling city. Martha was sitting some distance away with the Fierce Dog pups. The rest of the Pack was scattered around, resting before nightfall.
Lucky looked around appreciatively. The camp was every bit as good as Daisy had promised, with its sun-soaked meadow where the dogs had gathered, and a large cave at the edges of the forest where they could sleep in warmth and safety. Deep inside the cave was a nook selected to be the pup den, where Moon nursed Nose and Squirm.
It felt wonderful to be back in the safety of the Pack after the hardships since he had left.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” Mickey whined. “The city was worse than it had been the last time we were there. All the front yards are wild, and the streets have even more wounds in them—with foul liquid pouring out.”
“There was no sign that the longpaws had returned?” asked little Sunshine as she miserably tugged at a burr caught in her filthy white tail. “Not one?”
“They can’t have come back,” Mickey yowled. “Everything there was stale or wild.”
“It’s still hard to think of the city without longpaws, even though I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” said Bella.
Mickey sniffed. “There were some longpaws—a couple at least.”
Bruno pricked up his ears and Daisy jumped to her paws.
“But they were not good ones,” Mickey added quickly. “These longpaws were mean and angry. They were the kind that want to hurt dogs.”
“The scary ones with the yellow pelts and black faces?” asked Bella.
“No, these longpaws were scraggy and old. They were entering houses and stealing things! We defended my house, didn’t we, Lucky? I—I mean Omega,” the black-and-white dog added.
Lucky gave him a nod. It’s all right. I agreed to be Omega—let Alpha have his rules.
Mickey’s black ears fell as he went on. “But the house was all broken, and then it caved in. It was horrible. All of you were right—there’s nothing for us in the city anymore.”
Lucky lifted his muzzle and gazed into the sky. The Sun-Dog was starting his slow descent over the high white clouds. Lucky’s head sank back against the moss, his eyes closing. It had been a long few days and it was pleasant just to sit and think.
“So they really have gone for good,” said Bruno sadly.
“Well,” sighed Sunshine. “We have to do our best to put them completely out of our minds. That is the only way we can survive now.”
Lucky opened one eye and looked at her. He was impressed that she, of all the Leashed Dogs, would show such resolve.
Sunshine noticed him looking at her. “Omega,” she began nervously. “What made you decide to come back? Oh, I’m so glad you did but . . . I didn’t think that you would.”
Lucky sighed. “It’s like Mickey said, the city is ruined. And then we found the pups. We knew they’d be safer here.”
Mickey yipped in acknowledgment.
Sunshine cocked her fluffy white head. “Is that the only reason?”
Lucky was about to admit that he’d missed the Pack when he was distracted by a distant thrumming that reminded him of fluttering bugs he had once seen in trees. His ears pricked up and he raised his snout.
Night insects . . . He looked up at the sky. It was not dark yet. Why are they out before the Sun-Dog has finished his journey?
Lucky’s thoughts were drowned out by the sound, which was rapidly growing in volume to a deep drone. The dogs raised their heads in unison and Mickey yelped: “It’s the giant loudbirds! We saw them in the city!”
Lucky squinted at the sky, fear clenching at his stomach. What are the loudbirds doing now? Are they still searching for sick longpaws?
Mickey was right—several of the huge birds were swinging into view, gliding over from the forest. Panic coursed through the Pack. Sunshine and Bruno whimpered and cowered. A short distance away, Alpha and Sweet were on their paws, barking. Mickey was still saying something but one of the birds had dropped overhead and was hovering in the sky, thrashing the air so loudly with its wings that it swallowed his words. Lucky saw Mickey back into Bella. Bella threw up her head and barked. The two dogs stood close as chaos broke out all around them.
The loudbird leaped up high enough for Lucky to catch what the dogs around him were saying.
“Longpaws!” barked Daisy. “There are longpaws trapped inside the birds!”
The dogs fell silent a moment, staring up at the bird. Yellow-furred longpaws were hanging out of the gashes in the bird’s flank.
“It’s true!” Bruno gasped. “There are longpaws up there trying to escape the belly of that hideous creature!”
“We should help them!” Sunshine howled. Lucky threw her a wary look. Had she already forgotten her promise to put longpaws out of her mind?
“No, Sunshine,” Mickey warned. “These longpaws are no friends of dogs! We need to stay back.”
Snap had drawn closer, perhaps realizing that Mickey and Lucky had something to say about the giant bird. Dart and Spring followed her and they huddled close to Lucky, waiting for him to speak.
“They aren’t trying to escape,” Lucky barked, raising his voice as the huge bird swept a loop over their heads. “We saw a bird like this settle in the forest. The longpaws left and returned, which means that they are not prisoners. I think they are controlling the bird somehow.”
Alpha and Sweet approached, their eyes fixed to the great bird overhead. They growled and barked as it started to sink over the valley, whipping up a ferocious wind beneath its wings that flattened their fur and shook the pine trees at the edge of the camp.
“It’s going to land!” barked Bruno. “Maybe the longpaws will get out, like they did in the forest.” He started pawing the ground excitedly. “We should try to find it! We should help the longpaws.” The bird was moving back to the deep forest, beyond the cluster of pine trees. Bruno started after it. Lucky saw Alpha’s eyes darken. The dog-wolf was about to say something, but Bella got in first.
“No!” she barked, and Bruno stopped in his tracks. “No dog chases the bird!” She turned to each Leashed Dog, giving them a stern look. “That goes for all of you. Don’t you remember how the yellow-furred longpaws treated Daisy? They are not friendly. I’d never trust a longpaw that covers its face, much less one that chooses to live inside the belly of a loudbird!”
Alpha growled his agreement and Bruno dropped guiltily to the ground, his tail pressed to his flank. Sunshine crouched beside him.
Lucky stood by, his ears pricked. The shiny bird disappeared beyond the pine trees. Eventually its whirring drone became quieter. The branches of the pine trees went on swaying but their trunks grew still. Lucky craned his neck, his body frozen. He could hear the crunch of the longpaws as they ambled heavily over twigs and leaves. Their harsh barks sounded sinister in the silence that followed the bird’s descent. Lucky’s ears flattened and his stomach clenched.
After a short while, the terrible thrumming began again. The Pack waited tensely, low to the ground. They watched, wide-eyed, as the loudbird rose from the forest floor and swept away beyond a bank of tall trees.
Lucky rose to his paws, his ears pricked and his tail straight behind him. What can this mean? he wondered. What are the longpaws up to?
Lucky wandered along the edges of the camp, feeling a shiver of loneliness as he looked beyond the rushing water to the thistles on the river’s far bank. He shook the feeling away. He had work to do before nightfall—Omega work, gathering bedding for the shelter. He used his snout to shuffle some dried leaves and twigs into a pile
, then scooped them up in his jaws and made for the cave. He dropped them at the entrance by the overhanging brambles and retraced his steps to the riverbank. He padded around, sniffing until he found a nice, damp clump of moss. He began digging it up with his paws—it came up easily enough into a wet pile. Once the moss dried out, it would make a comfortable bed to sleep on.
A prouder dog would have said these tasks were beneath him, and even Lucky found himself fighting the impulse to dip his head in shame when he passed Dart and Daisy on patrol.
He trudged back to the shelter with a mouthful of moss. Whine appeared from behind a tangle of nettles, his long tongue lolling from the side of his mouth. “You dropped some, Omega.”
Lucky’s neck snapped around and he glared at the little dog.
“Just trying to be helpful,” Whine yapped. Lucky could see the glint of pleasure in the other dog’s eyes. The former Omega was enjoying Lucky’s humiliation. Lucky raised his tail and strutted past Whine toward the shelter, his head held high. As he rounded down the slope toward the brambles he almost dropped the moss in surprise—the pile of bedding that he’d gathered had doubled in size. Lucky blinked at it, confused, when little Sunshine scampered up to him and added some leaves.
Lucky dropped the moss and rubbed his paw against his chops, wiping away the bitter aftertaste.
“Sunshine, what are you doing?”
She wagged her tail, turning proudly to the mound of bedding. “Helping, of course. When I was Omega, I did this a couple of times. I figured out where to find the softest leaves. The trick is not to go for the really dry ones; they just crumble when you sit on them. When I was making up the bedding in the shelter, I’d set down the moss first, then soft twigs, then half-dry leaves. You have no idea how comfortable a bed all that makes. It’s even better than the soft-hide my longpaws gave me!”
Lucky stared at her, his head cocking. “When you were Omega?” he asked.