“And they attacked you? Just like that?”

“Not right away.” Bella came to a halt, lay down on her belly, and licked disconsolately at a paw. “I tried to reason with them. I asked if we could drink from the lake—if we could at least share that. There was so much water there—more than any dog could ever need!”

Lucky shook his head sadly. “That’s not the way it works.”

Bella gave an annoyed grumble. “But I couldn’t back down, Lucky. I knew my Pack would die if we had to go back and drink from the river. I tried again. I did my best, truly.”

“I know you did, Bella.” Lucky felt a flash of anger at dogs who could be so unfeeling for anyone who wasn’t in their Pack.

Bella’s tail thumped the ground, slowly and heavily. “The more I argued, the more I tried to persuade them, the angrier those other dogs got. It was as if they were offended that I would even try. Finally, their leader gave the order to attack, and they went for us. We ran at first, but when we got close to the poisoned river again, we couldn’t keep running. . . .”

“And that’s where I came in.” Lucky licked her nose. “I saw the fight from a long way off, and heard you from even farther. I wanted to help, but I knew I had to be careful. Rushing in could have made things worse. Then Alfie . . .” His voice caught in his throat as he remembered.

If I had been there, if I had been fighting with them, would I have been able to stop all this from happening? Would Alfie still be alive?

Lucky could not help thinking he’d have handled it differently, had it been him in the standoff with the angry dogs. He would never have tried to argue with that dog-wolf once he had refused them. Bella should have backed off humbly, thought of some other strategy—challenging the Wild Pack’s Alpha was asking for trouble.

Maybe coming back had been a mistake. He knew the others didn’t think so, but . . . the Growl had put a stop to the fighting without his help, and perhaps if Lucky hadn’t shown his face, Alfie would never have made his stupidly brave attack on the dog-wolf. That guilt still pricked at him.

“Come on,” he said at last. “We’d better get back to the others.”

Bella rose slowly to her feet, her tail and ears still down, and the two littermates retraced their steps back to the dogs’ makeshift camp. All the sunlight and brightness seemed to have been taken out of the day. Lucky almost wished he hadn’t asked about the battle.

As soon as they came in sight of the rest of the Pack, Lucky realized how much work there was still to do with these dogs—how desperately they needed a streetwise friend. Mickey was licking so hungrily from an old rain puddle, he was down to the mud at the bottom.