Great. Steele's back in town again, and he's after Taya. Now what do you suppose he's plotting this time?

Later that morning, Copper woke up to find Taya missing. "Taya?" he called. There was no answer. "Taya?" Not a sound. He sniffed, and at once he knew that she wasn't home. 'That's weird,' he thought. 'Never knew her to be an early riser.' He looked at the ground and saw her tracks leading away, along with another set of pawprints. 'What's going on here?' he wondered. Following the trail, he came across a mutt lying on the street looking as if he had been in a fight with a gorilla. "Hey, are you alright?"

The dog opened an eye that was nearly swollen shut. "Ouch," was all he said.

"What happened?"

The stray rose shakily to his feet. "I got beat up. What's it look like?"

Then Copper remembered what he was doing. The strange tracks led right to the stray. "Do you know a dog named Taya?"

The stray looked at him in surprise. "Not really. But I saw her this morning."

"What were you doing?"

"Well, somebody woke me up almost an hour before sunrise and told me he had a job for me to do. Said he'd pay me two bones to go tell Taya that he had a message for her and that she was supposed to meet him right here in this alley." He scratched his head, then winced when his paw struck a bruise behind his ear. "I went to the house he told me to go to, got Taya to come here, and then when she went in there…" he pointed to the alley, "Three maniacs jumped me and I was out. Dunno what happened after that."

Copper had a bad feeling about the situation. "Did you recognize him? The guy who hired you?"

"Nope."

"Well, what did he look like?"

The stray shrugged. "Dunno, really. Never saw him in the light. Looked pretty tough in the shadows, though."

"Well, do you know what the message was?"

"He wouldn't tell me. He just said that if Taya wasn't willing to come I should tell her it was about Luna."

"Luna?' Copper was really anxious now. "Is that all you know?"

The stray thought for a minute. "Yeah, pretty much."

Frustrated, Copper put his nose to the ground and kept following Taya's scent down the street. But before long, the trail disappeared.

"Copper!" called a familiar voice. "There you are!" Copper looked up and saw Dixie trotting in his direction. From the way the terrier was panting, it didn't take a genius to figure out that she had some big news. Copper, however, had no time for gossip.

"Not now, Dixie. I'm trying to find Taya."

"But that's why I've been trying to find you! I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and there was Taya, walking towards the west edge of town."

"Thanks," said Copper. He was about to head in that direction, but the next thing Dixie said froze him in his tracks.

"She was with someone."

Copper's ears shot up. Knowing Dixie's brand of story-spreading, it was pretty obvious what she meant. "What?" he asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, she was following him, and he kept looking back to make sure she was keeping up."

Copper's mind was spinning like mad trying to make sense of the story. Dixie was a notorious gossip, but she had never been known to lie about seeing something. Jump to conclusions, yes. But not lie. "Did you see who he was?" he asked.

"That's the strangest part," Dixie said. "It was Steele."

Copper's ears lay back. "STEELE?" he asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, who'da thought?" answered Dixie. "Taking off with that no-good double-talker."

Copper furrowed his brow. " Dixie, could you do me a favor and not spread this story around? I'm sure there's more to it than there seems."

Dixie considered. "Well, I suppose," she agreed.

"Thanks," said Copper, dashing off. He knew for a fact that there was more to the matter than Dixie suspected. And it wasn't just that he knew Taya too well to take what Dixie had said at face value. He knew that Taya couldn't have run off with Steele because he knew that Steele was Taya's father.

Meanwhile, about a mile and a half outside of Nome, four dogs were marching along: Steele, Taya, and two street dogs Steele had recruited. Taya looked like she had been hit by a tank, which was pretty close to what the other three had done.

"You know Taya, it was quite a shock when I found out you'd taken Copper for a mate," Steele was saying. "And you didn't even invite me to the wedding," he added sarcastically.

Taya's ears were plastered against her skull. "That's because I'm not stupid," she replied. "You've never been anything but trouble for me or anyone else."

"And you really thought I would be OK with you getting mixed up with Balto's pack of half-breeds?" Steele asked. "You thought I'd just go on my way and let you live happily ever after with a wolf-dog, is that it?"

"Why do you think I didn't tell you,besides the fact that I thought I'd already wiped you out? Anyway, those half-breeds have been a lot better to me than you were, dad," she growled. "And at least Copper didn't leave me to die like you did. Like you're planning to do right now."

"I had better things to do than waste my time with kids. That was your mom's job." Taya's fur bristled and a snarl rose in her throat, but Steele ignored her. "Now keep on walking and don't look back. And remember, if I ever see you again…" he drew a paw across his throat.

Taya bared her teeth, but she knew she couldn't fight three at once. So she kept on walking.

Steele waited until she had gone about a hundred yards and was out of earshot. Then he turned to his accomplices and gave a toothy grin. "Make sure she doesn't come back," he said. He watched, laughing to himself as they took off after Taya.

Sorry if this chapter should be longer. But this seemed like a good place to stop.

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