“You’ll be a terrific teacher, Lucky,” Daisy said. “You always are.”

“It has been so good to see you, Lucky!” yipped Sunshine. She looked mournful. “We miss you a lot. Especially me and Daisy.”

“That’s why we offered to come in Bella’s place,” said Daisy with a whine of agreement.

“I miss you, too,” Lucky assured them, caressing their heads fondly with his tongue. “But it will not be forever. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I hope so, anyway.

As he licked and yipped his farewells and trotted away into the woods again, he felt sick with worry.

Earth-Dog, we already lost Alfie. Surely you can’t want two more of my friends. Not now.

Lucky could barely focus on the sounds of the forest around him, on the stir of leaves and the rustle of small beasts in the undergrowth. It was only when a bigger shadow flickered through the bushes that he was finally jolted out of his unhappy thoughts.

Another longpaw? he thought, his heart thudding.

No, too small for a longpaw. All the same, Lucky stopped, ears pricked, and gave a soft growl.

A small fox, perhaps, on its nightly hunt. As long as it was alone, and had not brought friends, it was not a threat Lucky needed to worry about. . . .

But the shadow was creeping closer through the dense bracken, and from its rustling and occasional snuffling he could tell it was not nearly as cautious as a fox. Stiffening, Lucky yipped a challenge.

A squat, ugly little face shoved out through the leaves. It was not a fox, but the black eyes glinted with just as much cunning.

“Omega,” breathed Lucky, shocked. “What are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same question,” said Omega, his bark high-pitched and impudent. “You are not a patrol dog anymore. Are you, Lucky?”

“I . . . I . . .”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” said Omega. “I saw you sneaking out of the camp.”

Lucky thought his heart had actually stopped beating. Omega looked so smug, and the instinctive knowledge struck Lucky that if any member of the Pack had to find him out, Omega was the worst. “I just needed to be alone for a bit.”

“Is that right?” That glint in Omega’s eye was not friendly. “If you needed to be alone, why were you meeting up with the Leashed Dogs?”

Lucky instinctively glanced over his shoulder before he realized that he had just confirmed Omega’s suspicions. His heart thudded in his chest as his panic rose. “But I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did, you Liar Dog. Did you enjoy spending time with the little fluffy dogs? All that licking! Ugh!”

He did see me.

Omega sounded unbearably smug. “You are a spy for that Pack. I have known all about it right from the start.”

No! thought Lucky. That is not possible!

There was a horrible trickle of suspicion in his gut, though. That scent he had caught, when he and Bella had first discussed her plan . . . the half-drowned smell he could not quite place, the paw prints he could not identify. Could it have been Omega, sneaking around alone, ignored by his Pack as always?