A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you're doing well and staying safe! Here is the next chapter! Thankyou for always taking the time to review and read. I appreciate it so much! Enjoy :)

Chapter 4: It's Not My Turn

Balto twitched his nose as he felt little teeth pricking into his fur. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, scrunching his brows, and tried to doze off again. Finally the nibbling stops and he lets out a relaxed sigh and nudges his paws over his face.

As soon as he begins to drift off into a dreamless sleep, he feels the little fangs, more persistent this time, and now they have moved from biting his tail to now trying to devour his ear.

He dragged his eye lids up halfway and groaned knowing this was going to be a losing battle. He rolled over onto his side, the dust and dirt floating around him.

A pup's pitiful whine fills his ears and he couldn't help smirking to himself. He lifted up his head to look up and saw Moki and Loki looking at him with the biggest, saddest eyes they could ever muster.

Balto pretended not to see them, keeping his head turned away. He couldn't help the smirk on his face as he kept his eyes closed, but they kept whining and finally he gave into the sorrowful sounds.

"What?"

"We wanna pway" Moki cried out, his little teeth poking out of his mouth.

"Yeah mister Balto. Pwease pway with us." Loki begged, nudging Balto's paw with his head.

"I can't "pway" with you guys right now and I don't think your Mama would approve of you guys sneaking off without her permission." Balto says, mocking them in an amused tone.

The pair of brown eyes darted nervously back and forth. They were a cute little pair. Their fur was very fluffy, soft like clouds. Their coats were cream white and they both had big brown eyes. Loki was a bit more plump than his brother Moki.

They were good pups, but they sometimes got into mischief and used their cute little bodies to their advantage. Wiggling their noses, making their eyes as big as milk chocolate saucers, flattening their ears against their head so they appear as innocent as ever. Boy did they have that puppy look down.

"Why not?" Loki pouted, tilting his head to the side.

Balto sighed and rolled onto his back, looking up at the cave's ceiling.

"Because it's late and you should both be sleeping like I wish I could be doing right now."

"But we wanna pway! And Mama won't pway with us." Loki cries out.

"Yeah Mama won't pway with us!" Moki repeats, reiterating his brother's point.

"Well that's because your Mama doesn't want you playing at night. She wants you to sleep."

"That's no fun!"

"Oh it is fun. Believe me once you two get older, you'll appreciate a good night's rest." Balto grins and closes his eyes, still laying on his back.

Balto groans when he feels the two climb on to his belly and when he lifts his head up to look at them, their big brown eyes stare at him with such intensity and he watches as their little ears wiggle.

He tries not to laugh and puts on a serious face, but when he sees their little black noses twitch at the same time, he chuckles and caves.

"Alright…alright we can play. But quietly, okay?"

"Oh yes!"

"Yay!"

Balto watches as the two pups climb off his belly and he rolls onto his side and wags his tail. Moki tries to capture Balto's tail with his paws. Loki on the other hand was trying to climb a mighty mountain. A mountain named Balto. He used his little legs to pull himself onto Balto's back and cheered happily once he reached the top.

Balto rolled on his other side, knocking Loki off him with a laugh and the pups giggled and tried to nip his feet and ears.

"Hey! Hey! Cut it tickles!" Balto said, between laughs as he tried to escape their little teeth.

Loki continued to bite at Balto's feet, barking happily and Moki kept wagging his behind as he chased after the big grey tail.

"I knew I'd find you two in here." A light cream she wolf announced, standing at the entrance of the cave. Her eyes were a crisp golden hazel and they were sparkling with amusement. She was a short, lithe wolf with brown tips on her tail and ears and she had light tan fur laced through her chest and down her legs.

"Uh oh." Balto said in unison with Moki and Loki when they saw her standing at the entrance of the den. All of their eyes got big as they watched her walk towards them.

Tala looked down at her pups, her nose scrunched up, one eyebrow quirked, as she stared the two down.

Loki and Moki looked at each other and then with slow hesitant steps, they climbed off Balto and went to stand in front of their mother.

"We're sorry Mommy." Moki cried out.

"You're sorry Mommy?" She asks with a smile on her face, looking over at Balto.

"Yeah I'm sorry too, Mama."

"Yeah you're sorry too. Boys, how many times have I told you not to leave the den after sunset?" Tala asks them, putting on her adult tone.

Loki and Moki flinched when she raised her voice at the end. Even Balto flinched from her sudden change in tone.

"I told them you would be mad that they snuck over here." Balto says, looking at Moki and Loki with an "I told you" look.

"And yet here you are playing with them. Even though you know they should be sleeping." Tala states, throwing a deadly stare into his direction.

"Well I…tried to reason with them, but c'mon you know how they are." Balto says with a smirk, rolling onto his belly to look up at her.

"Oh, and how are they?" Tala inches ever closer to Balto until she's almost touching noses with the wolf lying on the ground.

"Well there uhh…you know…uhh." Balto stammers nervously, his yellow eyes turning huge as he watches her get closer.

"Uh huh?"

" Well they…they used their cute little looks on me. Wiggling their ears and all that. I had no chance!"

"I taught them well."

"Well hehe you know what they say?" Balto grins, trying to get the upper ground, but she sinks him before he can even get a chance.

"No, what do they say?"

"Uhh well they say err...like mother like son." Balto gulps, feeling her hazel eyes stare at him with such intensity.

"Is this your way of telling me I'm cute?"

"Of course not…. I just uhh was trying uhh to save myself." Balto stutters out nervously.

"And did you?"

"….No." Balto finally admitted, keeping his eyes low.

"Good answer." She says before pouncing on top of him, laughing as she pins him to the ground.

Moki and Loki barked happily and scurried right back to the long furry limbs and bushy tails. They jumped onto their mother's back while she laid on top of Balto.

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

"Nope."

The sun rose slowly, painting pink and orange hues into the abyss of sky. The bird started to chirp alerting the earth and every creature to wake up.

Balto yawned and opened his eyes. Tala had stayed with him and the pups had snuggled up. One between each of their paws. He smirked and leaned down and nuzzled Moki.

"Morning Sleepy-head." Tala cooed as she watched him nuzzle her pup's head.

"Morning." He yawned, the sleep still evident in his voice.

"Sleep well?"

"Well enough."

Balto and Tala both turned their heads to the entrance of the cave when they heard chatter outside.

"Time to get up, Alpha." Tala teased nudging her paw with his head.

"I know. I know." Balto begrudgingly ground out slowly. He felt his spine flinch as feeling regained into his legs.

"Alright Boys! Guys, Moki! C'mon Loki! Time to get up!" Tala ordered, standing up. She used her head to nudge their furry bodies awake.

Moki and Loki groaned and let out pitiful whines from being awoken from their slumber.

"Mama it's so early!" Moki yawned, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah Mama, it's too early." Loki cried out once again reiterating his brother's point.

"Well how do you expect to get some food in those bellies if you don't get up?" Tala asks, leaning down to meet their eye level. She doesn't miss the concerned yellow eyes glancing over at her as he stands up. She throws a sympathetic glance back in his direction.

Suddenly Moki and Loki's ears stick up straight like arrows and their eyes bulge out of their heads. Little tails wag with such intensity and their little bodies squirm with overwhelming excitement..

"FOOD!" Moki barks happily and bounces around his mother, causing her head to spin. Loki chases his brother, tongue hanging out of his mouth. The thought of food quickly replacing sleep.

"Oh Mama I'm starving!" Loki cries out.

"Me too Mama! Can we eat now? Oh please!" Moki begs, prancing around eagerly.

Balto's eyes flatten against his head as he watches them walk near the entrance of the stops short when she notices Balto is staying behind and she turns around.

"You wait here. We'll eat soon." Tala whispers to her boys. They nod anxiously not really hearing a word she said. They start to rough around with each other, biting ears and nipping. Rolling around.

Tala walks back towards Balto.

"Aren't you coming?" She asks him, keeping her voice low so the pups don't hear.

"It's not my turn."

"Balto, you haven't taken your turn for the past three meals now. Why?" Tala coos, her hazel eyes full of worry and concern for him.

"You need it more. The pups need it more. And my m-mother… my mother needs it more. I'll be fine, trust me. I'll be alright. I'll manage."

"You won't be fine if you starve yourself."

"Yes I will."

"No you won't. You can't take care of a whole pack when you're barely taking care of yourself!" Tala snaps, surprised by the anger creeping into her voice.

Balto had been a friend for a long time. Years in fact. She learned that he liked to keep to himself. He was rather shy. And he was a challenge and she liked challenges. In fact she longed for them.

She had reached out to him. He wasn't exactly the most friendly wolf, but gradually he had opened up to snapping at her to leave him alone at times. He had felt so out of place as he got older with a pack he was thrown into. He had a bitter heart for years. Completely lost in his own mind and miseries.

She remembered the first time he had ever accepted her help and accepted her as a friend.

(Tala's Flashback)

"Have you seen Balto?" Tala asked, her hazel eyes big with excitement and her tail wagging as she tried to peer past Mira into the den.

"No. no as a matter of fact I haven't seen him. You know he has been going down to the river alot lately. You might try finding him there." Mira says with a smile. Tala came around their den looking for Balto like clockwork. Mira knew exactly when to expect her and she found Tala's puppy love for Balto adorable and amusing,

"Maybe I shouldn't go look for him." Tala admits, her ears flattening against her head.

Mira coos as she sees the little pup curl in on herself. She walks over to her.

"Tala, I know he can be a bit cold to you sometimes, but he really doesn't mean it. He's just trying to find his place here."

"But he doesn't like me."

"And who told you that?"

"W-well no one. I just kind of guessed." Tala squeaked out, feeling Mira's eyes on her.

"What a silly thing to say! Balto is just shy, little one. He needs friends and the fact that you're willing and kind to him, it's only a matter of time before he wants you to be his friend back."

"You think s-so?" Tala asks, looking up at Mira with big eyes.

"I know so. Now go on, no one really wants to be alone, Tala. Go on, be a friend,"

Tala smiles up at Mira and wraps her paws around her leg, giving her a hug and scurries off to find Balto. Mira chuckles to herself watching the pup bounce out of her den.

Tala runs as fast as she can to the river. She runs past the lush greens and trees and suddenly her ears perk up when she hears a cry for help.

She rushes over to the sound and sees Balto hanging on with his claws to a log, the river roaring and crashing violently under him.

"Help! Please help!" Balto cries out over the loud river underneath him.

Tala looks around frantically for a long stick and when she finds one, she grabs it in her mouth.

"H...nng urh Balto I'm coming!" She says with the stick in her mouth. She walks slowly on the log and holds the stick out for him.

"Here, grab it." She shouts.

"I c-can't. I'm s-scared." Balto stutters out, the water slapping against his backside putting him into full panic mode.

"It's okay, I'm right here. Just grab the stick with your teeth. You can do it Balto! I'm right here." Tala squeaks out, her own fear taking over as she sees him begin to shiver from the cold water.

Balto looks at her, tears in her eyes and takes a breath before snatching the stick in his teeth. He whines loudly as his eyes show his clear panic.

"Alright! C'mon! Climb! Just a little more!" Tala pulls the stick back, slowly inching off the log and pulling Balto up with her. He keeps his eyes locked on hers, not daring to look anywhere else.

Finally they walk off the log and sink to the ground, the adrenaline and panic pouring out of their bodies as they pant heavily.

"T-thanks for saving me." Balto says between pants, his little body shivering from the cold and fear.

"What happened?" Tala asked between pants, noting how truly yellow his eyes were.

"I was walking over the log to get to the other side of the river but I slipped."

"What would you do that for?"

"I just wanted to be alone."

"Thats dumb! You could have fallen in!"

"It is not dumb! I just lost my balance!" Balto argues back.

"It is too dumb!" Tala squeaks back.

Balto sticks his tongue out at Tala and she does the same back at the exact same moment.

"Thanks." Balto says after a long moment of silence, his head low and his ears back.

"You know being alone is dumb. It's way better to be with friends. To be together!" Tala barks happily, her tail wagging and she stands up and shakes the water off her fur.

She laughs when she sees Balto grimace, now even more soaked than before. He can't help laughing with her after a stern look fades away.

"Together huh?" Balto teases, shaking the water out of his fur.

"Yep, together." Tala smiles and in that moment Balto sees her more as a pestering puppy. He sees her as his friend. His new friend. His only friend. As long as they stuck together, they would be alright.

(End of Flashback)

After that day, she had watched him accept Mira as his mother. She had watched Akeli grow to hate him. She had always watched him and she watched him grow from a scrawny grey mass of bones into a strong muscular wolf with beautiful yellow orbs that could take your breath away. He could take her breath away and he did. She had kept these new feelings for him to herself. Teasing him was so much easier than telling the truth. She had felt something new, different and exciting towards the wolf that stood a head taller than her.

And when he had become Alpha, she still saw him as her friend even though he was now the leader of the pack. Leader of her. Her feelings had grown stronger for him when she saw how selfless he was. How kind and quiet minded he was. He didn't take Akeli's words and fight them. He took each beating and each awful word with a quiet tongue. His mildness allured her and she longed to become more to him. His more.

"Tala c'mon, be real. You know this is how it has to be. The elders, the pups all need food. More than me. I need you to think of the greater good."

"The "greater good." My god! You know you are so stubborn! Why can't you just listen to someone besides yourself for a change!" Tala growls, her hair sticking up all the way down to her tail. Her fear for his well being was quickly turning into anger. She knew when he made up his mind, that was it. And there was no talking him out of it. Or even hinting a different suggestion.

Balto scrunched his eyebrows, his yellow eyes burned flames into her hazel ones. He walked past her, not giving her a response.

"Balto, the greater good doesn't mean you starving yourself." Tala says brushing alongside him and holding his gaze. '

She watches him take a deep breath and close his eyes for a moment.

"I know what you're doing and I appreciate it. But you don't understand. This position, this new responsibility has been hard for me to accept. Hard for me to control. But this? Deciding who gets to eat and who doesn't has been one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make and Tala...I have to keep making them. I have to keep controlling who eats and who doesn't. I can't even tell you...I can't even explain how that feels. Seeing my mother getting weaker everyday. Seeing the elders getting sick from not having enough to eat. Seeing your pups….seeing you…" He trails off, looking into her eyes feeling an overwhelming sense of dread.

Tala had become his rock over the years. She had always been around him even when he was a pup and was just brought into the pack. She was awfully curious about him and to put it in the nicest word possible...he tolerated her. She was ALWAYS around him. Asking questions, trying to play with him. Her squeaky voice made him wanna shove his paws over his ears. He bit her head off everytime she came near him.

Then as if the night never ended, the weather seemed colder and the air seemed stiff and chilling. She didn't come around him anymore. She didn't come over to talk to him, even be near him. She never came back. And he hated to admit it but he missed her, annoying him and pestering him. No one had cared enough to pay him any mind. His mother loved him but she was also the Alpha at the time so she didn't have much attention to give him. Akeli, his brother, was mean to him and hurt him physically and mentally. But this cream wolf had cared enough to be kind to him even when she didn't even know him. And he had pushed her away.

Until that one fateful day, She had saved him. A river had never seemed so scary before until he had been so close from being washed away by one. He was thankful for her. To her. And he learned that being alone in her words was "dumb."

Then suddenly something changed. He had grown up, learned to hunt. Even made some friends. And he learned to get out of his head and focus on life and the things that truly mattered.

Then one day he saw this wolf walk out into the sunlight while he was gazing out on his stone perch over the horizon and she was stunning. Her fur was golden tan and she walked gracefully on her long legs. She had a broad chest and muscles showed throughout her body from her own hunting trips. She had grown into a beautiful she wolf. And yet when she came up to him, he heard that same squeaky voice that had annoyed him so long ago and yet it didn't even matter. She had changed and so had he. And at that particular time he didn't know what that meant, but now it was more clear than ever before.

Tala can see his eyes well up with tears and she nuzzles his face and neck, burying herself into him.

"It'll get better."

"Will it? I can't provide for this pack. I can't provide for my mother, Provide...for you."

"Balto, you have been so strong as a leader and as my friend so I will tell you this. You don't have to worry. Yes food has been scarce, but there's no fighting in the pack. There's no death. There is only love. We all know the challenges that we are facing and the challenges that lie ahead and as much as you don't think so, they believe in you. I believe in you. I know you'll do what's right even if it means hurting yourself because that is who you are."

Balto smiles at her and nuzzles her head. They sit by each other, allowing the warmths of their bodies to calm their minds and soften their hearts.

"Together?" He says, looking into her eyes.

"Together." She whispers.

So that's Chapter 4. Sorry for such a long wait, I've been super busy and haven't had time to just sit and write for quite some time. This chapter was sort of rushed but I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear your thoughts! Thank you! Next chapter is coming soon!