Thanks to all my readers for hanging in there. Due to the fan response I've received, I've decided to make this my main project fanfic-wise, and (pending any future input from you fans) will hope to post a chapter of about this length every week. This one was especilly challenging to write because I'm way out of practie writing fight scenes between wolves and dogs (and looking back, I don't know if I was that good when I was inpractice). Special thanks to Redwolf03, whose story "A Second Chance: Copper" gave me the jolt I needed.

Please also check out Toby Part Two: Steele's Revenge and let me know what you think!

Aniu

I had only moments to decide how to present myself facing Klaus. I tried to remember everything I had ever learned about fighting, and especially about maneuvering. I couldn't match him for strength; I knew that. Nor was it a safe assumption that I could outlast him; from what Kodan had told me during his time with the pack, most sled dogs had endurancenearly equal to that of a wolf. According to what little I had seen and what Kodan had told me, I decided that it would be unwise to take him with a full, frontal challenge. Instead of raising my hackles and baring my teeth, I lowered myself and tried to look small, as if I were expressing submission.

Several of the dogs toward the back howled and laughed. "She's quitting already!" one of them yelled.

Klaus didn't seem to know what to make of my behavior. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I don't want to fight," I replied, making my voice tremble. "Kodan and I have done nothing to you. Can't we just...?"

"In your dreams," he growled, coming close. "If you're not going to fight, then you're leaving – even if I have to drag you out of the- kkkkgh!"

His words were cut off as I used my low position, darted under his chin, and butted my head up under his throat. He stumbled backward, is breath halted. Still on the momentum from my initial lunge, I curved and hit him in the side, throwing him off his feet.

The dogs who had laughed a moment before grew silent as I pressed the attack a moment later. Bounding on top of him, I planted all four paws on his stomach, kicked off, and turned in mid-leap. By the time I landed, all paws braced, I was facing him and he was fighting for air.

"Like she said," Kodan called helpfully from the side, "we've done nothing to you dogs. If you want it to stay that way..."

"Shut up!" Klaus snarled, shaking off my attack. He glared at me as he rolled to his feet. "Sneaky," he admitted, "but not sneaky enough."

He charged me, but I jumped clear, dealing him a blow with both of my back paws to the right side of his face as he passed. He spun and tried to bite me, but I ws already out of reach.

"Stand still!" he shouted, blood leaking from a scratch next to his right eye. The eye itself was nearly shut; not damaged, as far as I could see, but I must have hit him hard in that place.

I turned to face him, this time with my hackled raised. In his next charge I caught him by the scruff and threw him down. I placed my paws against his throat meaningfully. "Submit," I warned.

He lunged up at me, and this time I knew he meant to kill me. I barely got my throat away, but I felt his teeth sink into my leg and strike bone. Everything became a strange haze of fur, and my vision grew blood red. Even those looking on didn't very well know what had happened, but Kodan said it was like watching all the fury of a blizzard compressed into two raging bodies. One thing I clearly remembered, though, was when in our anger we drove up against one another like two waves clashing together. Pushed back into my hind legs, I caught hold of him with my front paws tumbled backward, and drew in my back legs, As we rolled onto my back, I kicked both hind paws hard in one place, throwing him over my head.

I came around to find Klaus on his side, doubled with pain. I trotted over, reared, and crashed my front paws onto his stomach; once, twice, three times. Then as he struggled to fill his empty lungs, I rolled him onto his back and pressed one front paw on his throat. His eyes grew wide as he realized that all I had to do to end his life was to not take that paw away.

"Now," I said, panting for breath myself, "will you and your friends leave me and Kodan alone?"

He let out a half-whimpering, half-whistling sound.

"Yes or no?" I challenged.

Weakly, he nodded his head. I took the paw away, and he did nothing for nearly a full minute but lie there struggling to breathe.

"I'll hold you to your promise," I told him, casting my gaze over the other dogs. "See that neither you nor your team harm or even threaten me or Kodan again. Break your promise..." I leaned down and looked him squarely in the eyes, "and I won't take my paw away next time."

Klaus limped away with his dogs, back to the dens they had dug for themselves. I returned to Kodan, still stunned from the fight... and from what I had done.

"That was amazing," he said in awe. Then he added, "Are you okay? You're limping."

I shook my head, thoroughly tired. Now I knew why Kodan had been so shaken over Kava's death. I had stood over a dog I'd met that same day, and I had been ready to end him. I didn't care about the sickness; I fell down against Kodan, buried my face in his fur, and wept.