Balto: Story of a Wolf Dog
Chapter 4: Early Teens
A/N: All ages mentioned in this story are in dog years.
Balto was now at age 14, and prospering. Despite the fact that she was the runt of her litter, she turned out to be pretty big and strong. Her dark brown fur was soft and shiny, despite her best attempts to keep it dirty. Wilson was now 48, but he was still strong and still looked the same as he did fourteen dog years ago. Balto usually spent her time out on the beach, where she swam freely in the ocean, playing around with some other mutts. One day, when she was out on the beach, she met a group of four wolf-dog hybrids just like her. They looked like a fun loving group, so she approached them in an attempt to make their acquaintance.
"Hi there! I'm Balto," she said as she trotted up to them. One of them turned and looked at her, and was immediately captured by her appearance: dark brown fur with whitish-brown fur around her eyes, on her muzzle, underbelly, paws, and on the underside of her tail. Her hazel green eyes also caught his attention, but he composed himself quickly.
"Hi. Name's Dakota. I'm half wolf, half German shepherd. That over there's my older brother, Jack," he said moving his head to his right. Dakota was a sort of dark purplish-brown color with white fur around his eyes, and on his chest and paws. His ears were a dark brown and his eyes were dark brown as well. The one he introduced as Jack stepped forward next.
"Hey. Like my brother said, I'm Jack. Half wolf, half malamute. I'm from a litter before Dakota's." Jack said. Balto had to admit that he was fairly handsome. He had dark brown fur and light brown fur around his eyes, on his muzzle, legs, inside his ears, and underneath his tail. He had red-orange eyes that had to have been inherited from his wolf parent.
"And I'm Garth and this is Duke." Said the wolf dog on Dakota's left. He was a lighter brown than the others, and appeared to be half arctic wolf, half malamute. He had pale brown fur with a whitish face, belly, legs, and inner ears, and striking blue eyes. The one introduced as Duke had light brown fur and white fur on his face, legs, neck, belly, and tail, with brown eyes.
"Nice to meet all of you. You guys hungry?" Balto asked.
"Starved. We haven't had anything to eat since lunch yesterday." Garth said.
"Well c'mon. I know this great Italian restaurant in town." Balto said, running off into the city, closely followed by her new friends.
"Gasano's? Hey, Duke and I have been here before! Remember? The guy chased us out when we were playing in a trash can," said Dakota, laughing. Balto barked a few times before the guy came out.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the little razza mezza! You are here for your breakfast, no?" said the guy with a thick Italian accent. Balto barked happily and jumped up a few times. Then, she signaled for her new friends to come out of hiding.
"C'mon, guys! I've been visiting here for food since I was a pup." Balto said, motioning for them to come.
"Ah, and what do we have here, eh? I see the little canelupo has some new friends," said the man, laughing with a hearty high-pitched tone. "Here you go," he said as he tossed out a few meatballs. Balto and the guys attacked the meatballs and devoured them quickly.
"So where are you from, Balto? You don't look like you're from around here." Jack said, still eating his meatball.
"I was born in Kamloops and ran away when I was eight weeks old, because I was the runt." Balto replied.
"You were the runt? You're kidding right? You're a lot bigger than most teenage runts I've seen. I was the runt too, you know. I'm still pretty small, but I get by." Dakota said.
"I was also the only one in my litter that looked like a wolf. My brother and two sisters looked like they were all husky, instead of half wolf. My puphood up until I came here was a living hell of being beaten up by my siblings, protected only by my parents. I was attacked by them on a regular basis!" Balto explained, catching all of the guys' attention. Damn it, why did I start yakking about my puphood to these guys? I never told anyone but Wilson!
"Hey, you're an outcast! That's great, so are we!" Duke said, jolting his head up and smiling. "We've formed our own little pack of omegas. Omegas have all the fun, and well, we love to have fun."
"We've known each other since we were pups. All of us were either exiled, orphaned, or ran away." Garth explained.
"Dakota and I are orphans, Garth was exiled, Duke ran away and apparently, so did you." Jack said, gulping down the last of his meatball.
"I like you guys. You're a fun pack." Balto said, smiling warmly at them.
"Yeah, I guess we are. Just a pack of stray jokers." Duke said.
"Let me in?" Balto asked, smiling her charming smile, cocking her left eyebrow.
"I don't see why not. What do you say, guys? We lettin' Balto here in the pack?" Garth said, looking from left to right.
"Sure." Dakota said.
Balto raised her head and howled, shortly followed by the rest of their "pack", as five wolf dogs became one. Balto's life, so far, was perfect. She had a loving father, four great friends, and good memories. However, on the other side of town, a dark red husky by the name of Codie wasn't so lucky.
Codie was also fourteen years old and not doing so well. His father was getting sick, and his mother had hooked him up with at least twenty girls in the past seven years. His mother had brought home another girl named Aurora. She was a golden-furred husky with white fur on her face, legs, inner ears, and on the underside of her tail. Codie honestly didn't like her, but her human was a veterinarian and his mother forced him into it. She had told him that he was to make Aurora his mate. Codie, of course, wouldn't make her his mate for the world. This, of course, set his mother off, but his father told him he could do whatever he wanted.
Codie agreed to go out with Aurora, and see if he can learn to liker her. After a few months, he started to warm up to her. When he turned seventeen, he agreed to make her his mate. In people terms, you could say they were engaged. However, she was controlling and egotistical. She wouldn't let him go out without her, and forbade him to see his friends. He felt completely drained and empty. That is, until one fateful day on the beach.
