I was the lead dog. Master had been keen on me since the very beginning, but I hadn’t always been ready to run. When I was born my back legs were weak in the muscles and I had to deal with the vets prodding and poking, sticking to figure out why. Most masters wouldn’t put that money or time in their dogs, but he did me.

The other dogs didn’t like it one bit. Kallus, the former leader of our pack runs behind me now. Occasionally when I do something stupid or foolish he’ll bite hard at my heels. It’s always the same scene then; I yelp, get on my back, and whimper. The others all know who the alpha dog still is in this pack. I’m not an omega, they know that, and poor Slander has always had that spot. I just do my best, because I know I can run now, I’m freer and I appreciate it more than the others do. They’ve always been able to run, but to me…it’s freedom.

Today we are on a hunt—wolves. I jump up, avoiding a snap from Kallus’ jaws after I nearly crash into a rock hidden by the snow. My eyes were on the wolf, not the landscape but I should be able to focus on them both.

Missing his target, he snarls, “Pace, keep your sockets on the landscape or you’ll kill us all!”

I just press my jaws together and bring my paws down hard in the drifts, pulling all of them forward.

It’s a hard job, to follow a wolf, but they usually tire out before we do. This one is fast, however.

“Keep going straight, Pace, good boy--turn!”

I obey my master, sharpening my claws into the snow and turning the team, and his worn hands bring back an arrow to his ears before releasing them in a snap. The arrow pierces through the beast, but he keeps on, blood pattering his prints. This is the second arrow the wolf has taken, and yet he still flees.

We’ve been running so long I’ve become entranced by his muscles as they flex and move as he runs. The grey and brown fur whitens and darkens at certain points and the blood spreads. It is a sad sight to me, to watch him on his last leg, because he looks like one of our brethren, like one of us. Only our domestication keeps us separate.

Slander yelps behind me and I look quickly over my shoulder to see what happened, but I’m jerked by my harness sideways and off my feet, into the snow. Slander has fallen injured.

The growls and snarls make me stand up and shake the snow from my black fur and muzzle and I find Slander with my eyes. He meets them desperately with his tired ones, and for a moment the gold in them are mine. I can feel his heart racing as the other dogs let out their frustration on him. He wants me to protect him, but he knows there isn’t much I can do.

Our master isn’t happy either; he’s thrown down his bow in anger. It has been a long hunt, and this wolf has gotten away from us many times. The only thing I can really do is…

But in his eyes there is a similarity to the wolf in their savage pain. His heart is running faster than he can, beyond his harness and even his abilities. I close my eyes and let the wind blow through me…and I feel a crazy wildness in my heart as well.

When I open my eyes again the scene looks strange to me, there is the human and his dogs, the hunters, hunting their own kind. There is a howl behind me on the wind.

I shrug free from my harness and lunge away from the group, beating my paws in desperation into the snow, and for the first time I feel the sound of it and smell the smells. Blood twines with the pine trees and the bitter wind, and I follow it.

“Pace! Get back here, dog!”

“Find the wolf, Pace! Or don’t dare come back!” I hear Kallus snarl.

I don’t care. I don’t want to come back.

But I do find the wolf.

He’s on his side, breathing hard, already covered in the falling snow. His bright eyes look at me distantly; his ears do not even rise in curiosity.

“Get up,” I growl.

It’s in desperation. I cannot have helped kill him. He must live. I do not want to kill freedom.

His pupils focus in on me, but he doesn’t move.

“I said, get up! We have to run!”

I’m showing my teeth at him now, snarling. It is not normal for me to do this.

He doesn’t move, but still watches me through the wind like I’m but a mirage.

My fur nits between my eyes in frustration and I jerk my head up to the sky, breathing in, and then suddenly…I let out a beautiful song.

My tail flicks, letting out the energy and lightness flowing through my chest and body. This is what I want to feel. This is the freedom I’ve been running towards.

But then something smacks against my chest and sends me onto my back into the snow, knocking the rest of the air from my chest. I look up, and He is snarling at me.

“You fool, don’t lead them here!”

“Then run!” I growl.

He considers me, but I already hear the barks of my pack and the calls of the man.

He steps off of me, “Go back to your human, you little fool.”

The edge of my lip rises, but then a snarl outweighs mine and I turn quickly to face Kallus. He’s slipped free of his harness too, and lunched over me, plowing the wolf into the snow.

I’m on top of him before I can think, tearing at his throat. His white eyes are staring up at me, the same fear that Slander had in his, so harshly evident. I have killed him in one quick blow.

The wolf is watching me from the side where he jumped away haphazardly. His ears are partially up, one hanging to the side. His bright yellow eyes are wide and staring at me silently, looking at my soul. I feel fear, but I also feel like I have broken through a gate. I have killed, but I have saved.

Kallus’ eyes distance, and he is gone. There is no whimpering, no cry for help. His blood coats my fur and tarnishes the snow.

“Let go of him,” the wolf says suddenly, “You do not need…”

He jumped at me, sending me flying off of Kallus and the hunter and the wolves are here. What he sees is the wolf standing over Kallus, I tossed aside in blood. Why would the wolf do this? He is hurt; he cannot win against a pack. The other dogs are already throwing of their harnesses and the hunter is stringing his bow.

Then before my eyes I see the wolf transform, he is human. He pulls free the arrow and in a sudden movement the ear claims the back and the man.

I am staring at a wolf again, his injuries are healing slowly in front of me, and he turns, ears folded back and staring at me with those same soul-searching eyes…as if for acceptance.

I stand up slowly and sniff at his jaw. Is he real? I have heard of magic like this from the humans.

He stands there and lets me do this as if he understands, “I am Luera, one of the were-gods of wolves.”

And he says this with such conviction I feel I need to lower my head as he raises his.

He looks down without lowering his muzzle, “They called you Pace?” he asked firmly, but did not wait for an answer, “your name is now on the wind.”

“The wind…?” I ask.

“Where all wolves reach for freedom.”

He walked around me as if he was looking me over, and then nuzzled my tail aside, climbing onto me and clamping my scruff between his jaws.

Here we mated.

Here I became free.