Taya was having trouble sleeping. She was sure her eyes had been playing tricks on her. All day she'd caught glimpses of a black and white dog from the corner of her eye. But every time she turned to look, there was no sign of him. It's got to be my imagination, she thought. He can't be back in Nome. After a great deal of tossing and turning, she finally fell asleep.

However, her sleep was troubled by dreams of a snarling malamute fighting with another dog that was part-wolf. But the wolfdog kept changing. One moment it was Balto, the next moment it would be Copper. Then it would shift back to Balto again. Then Taya saw the malamute running off with a small puppy in his mouth. The dream was dark and full of shadows, but even so she knew who the puppy was. "Mom!" it called out.

"Luna!" Taya cried out in her dream. She tried to run after them, but no matter how fast her legs moved, she didn't. She just watched as the dog dropped Luna down a dark hole. Then he turned and laughed at her.

"I'm back," he said. "And I'm coming for you." As darkness closed in on Taya, she heard the laughter growing louder, accompanied by her daughter's cries for help and her own answering cries.

"No!" Taya screamed.

Outside her nightmare, Taya didn't know she was actually screaming. She jumped up, her sides heaving and her fur damp with cold sweat, glancing wildly around the room with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" asked Copper, awakened by her terrified cry.

Taya looked around, making sure everything was as it should be. Only when she managed to calm down did she tell Copper about her nightmare. "I don't know what the matter is with me," she confessed.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it," said Copper. "Dreams don't usually mean a thing."

Taya shrugged. "I guess not."

Copper yawned. "Well, I'm going back to sleep." He put his head back down and was soon quietly snoring.

Taya was just about to follow his lead when she heard dog claws scratching on the door. "Hello?" called a voice. Without waking Copper, Taya crept to the window and looked out. A strange mix-breed stood on the front step, scratching the door. "Hello?" he called again. "Is Taya here?"

Taya went to the door and whispered, "Who wants to know?"

"I've got a message for her. Is she here?"

A message? "Yes, I'm Taya," she said after a moment. "What's the message?"

"Somebody wants to see you pronto," answered the stray. "He said it was important."

Sensing trouble, Taya turned and headed back to bed. "Sorry, not right now. Come back in the morning."

"He said it couldn't wait. He said it was about Luna."

Taya's ears pricked up. "What about Luna?" she asked.

She could almost hear the stranger shrug. "I don't know, but it sounded important. Listen, are you coming or not? If not, I need to get going."

Taya stuck her head out the doggy door. "What's the message?" she asked again.

"You'll have to come with me," answered the stray. "He said it was for your ears only."

Taya followed him down the darkened street. "I'm warning you," she said. "If you're up to something, you'll regret it."

The dog shrugged. "I'm just doing my job. I've got no part in this except the two bones I'm getting paid to fetch you. Whether or not you believe me makes no difference to me." He led her to a dark alley, where he stopped and gestured. "In there's where he said to meet him."

Taya looked into the shadows. Even though the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, the alley was still dark, just like her dream. "I'm not going in there," she said.

The dog shrugged. "Suit yourself." He watched as Taya paced nervously. "Look, we street dogs don't usually talk to you housedogs, but you don't seem stuck-up to me. If you want, I'll watch and make sure nothing happens."

Taya shook herself. What is this? she wondered. I grew up in the fighting pits and I can't even handle an empty alley? "I'll go in," she said at last. She'd just disappeared into the shadows when she heard a scuffle behind her. She spun around to see the messenger lying motionless on the ground, and standing over him were three dogs. Two of them Taya had never seen before, but the third one she knew all too well.

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 new, he thought, walking through the pet flap. Never known 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? 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 all right?"

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

"What happened to you?" Copper asked.

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

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 before sunrise, saying 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." He pointed into the alley. "And then when she went in there, three maniacs jumped me and I was out. Don't know what happened after that."

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

"Nope."

"Well, what did he look like?"

The stray shrugged. "No clue. Never saw him in the light. Looked pretty tough in the shadows, though."

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

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

Luna? Copper instantly became alert. "Is that all you know?"

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

Frustrated, Copper put his nose to the ground and followed Taya's scent down the street until it disappeared at the edge of town.

"Copper!" called a familiar voice. "There you are!"

Copper looked up and saw Dixie trotting in his direction. From the way the Pomeranian was panting, it didn't take a genius to know that she had news. But Copper had no time and less patience 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 and saw Taya walking towards the west edge of town."

"Thanks," said Copper. He was about to head in that direction when Dixie said something that froze him in his tracks.

"She was with someone."

Copper's ears shot up. Knowing Dixie's brand of storytelling, it was 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 a top trying to make sense of the story. Dixie was a notorious gossip, but she'd never been known to lie about something she'd seen. 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 laid back. "Steele?" he asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, who'd have 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.

Copper wasn't convinced, knowing how reluctant she was to agree to refrain from gossiping. "That's not very reassuring, Dixie," he said. "Supposition isn't a veryC"

"Look," said Dixie indignantly, "I said I'd keep quiet, okay?"

Copper looked her in the eye. "I've known your kind long enough to know how hard it is for you to keep from spreading rumors. I need your word that you won't talk about this."

Dixie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Okay, okay, you have my word."

"Is that the best you can do?" Copper shot back. "This is serious, Dixie. Do I have your word or don't I?"

Dixie's heart almost skipped a beat when it hit her that he wasn't joking. "Alright," she said finally, "I promise."

"I'll hold you to that," said Copper, then dashed 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 wouldn't have run off with Steele because he knew that Steele was her father.