Lucky could find no answer to that, so he dipped his muzzle to the cool, clear water and, playing for time, took a long drink. He had never truly appreciated clean water before. In this new and dangerous world, on a bright, hot sunup, there was something blissfully refreshing about a simple drink. Dart and Twitch were still bantering with each other, poking fun at Bella’s Pack, but he took no notice. He did not need to hear their opinions about his friends.

“Anyway, they’ll have moved on, if they know what’s good for them.” Dart padded along the lakeshore, sniffing, then glanced back and barked in horror. “Lucky! We do not indulge ourselves on patrol!”

Lucky lifted his dripping muzzle, astonished.

“A quick lap, that’s all,” said Twitch sternly. “Alpha says if we eat and drink on patrol, we will not see properly. Indulging our own appetites is disregarding our duty.”

Disregarding our duty? Lucky was shocked to his core. How did these mutts ever come to think like this?

Still, as much as their attitude horrified him, Lucky didn’t want to cause any trouble. He backed away from the water and followed them again. Clearly Alpha was serious about discipline—and he had to admit it was true: With his tongue lapping the clear, delicious water, and the lovely coolness of it in his throat, he had been unaware of what was going on at his back. Danger could have fallen upon him, and he would have been completely caught off guard.

“One of our Pack dogs learned that lesson recently,” said Dart. “Found a rabbit corpse while he was out on patrol. Ate it himself.”

Twitch shuddered. “Alpha did not take kindly to that.”

Lucky felt his own skin shiver. “Which dog was this?”

“He is not in the Pack anymore. We do not mention his name.” Dart seemed nervous, and she gave her coat a massive shake before she trotted on. Lucky guessed that whoever the nameless dog had been, he was not in anyone’s Pack now.

“Lucky, check that hillock,” commanded Twitch. “Three dogs could hide behind that rise.”

He had been going to do it anyway, but Lucky kept his jaws shut and did as he was told. To be truthful, he was glad of a moment’s breathing space in the wake of that story about the nameless Pack member. He could not let himself forget that he was playing a very, very dangerous game. There were chills in his spine as he shoved his muzzle into hollows, pawing aside long grass to look for anything that might be hiding, ready to attack. The sharp odor of raccoon made him tense up with alarm, but when he followed the trail a rabbit-chase or two, he realized it was too old to worry about.

He looked back toward Twitch and Dart, a strange thought tugging at his fur. When those two dogs sniffed at the air, and at the ground, their tails stayed down. Nothing they scented excited them, even though Lucky knew they had to be teased by the scent of prey, old and new. But they stayed calm at all times.