There was nothing about her he could be sure of anymore, he thought with a ripple of sadness and unease.

“Have you turned into a grass-eater?” Snap’s cheerful bark made him jump. “Come on. There are rabbits!”

Snap was in a fine mood this afternoon, skittish and eager, and strangely enough her enthusiasm was catching. Lucky gave her a happy bark, suddenly glad to be jolted out of his misery.

“Drive a few my way and we’ll see who’s a grass-eater!”

Snap yelped a laugh and darted off, veering across the sun-splashed grassland until she disappeared beyond a rise in the ground. Only moments later panicked rabbits were careening toward him, and Lucky leaped after them with a gleeful bark. The creatures were in chaos, tumbling and racing across one another’s paths to reach their burrows, and some were too mindless with fear to even try to avoid him. One furry streak bolted almost between Lucky’s legs, but instead of doubling back he sprang for its companion, rolling the terrified rabbit over and over until he could grab its neck in his jaws and snap it.

The others were having just as much success. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Fiery shaking the life out of a rabbit with his powerful jaws, and Spring was playing with another almost like a well-fed sharpclaw. She tossed it into the air and caught it.

“Good hunting today!” she yelped as she slapped her rabbit to the ground with a deadly paw.

Lucky barked his agreement and turned to chase another before they could all vanish underground. He was so charged with the thrill of the hunt, his blood fizzing in his ears, that he didn’t hear the first sharp barks of alarm.

It was Snap’s wild cry that finally made him look up, letting another rabbit scamper free and down into its hole. Snap wasn’t hunting anymore; she was staring at a dog who was racing across the meadow toward them, panting with distress.

“Dart?” she barked.

Fiery and Spring had frozen now, too, staring at the brown-and-white dog as she skidded to a halt.

“The camp!” Dart barked, breathless. “Come fast! The camp’s under attack!”

“What?” snarled Fiery, and then: “My pups!”

“Dart, who? Who’s attacking?” Spring bounded toward her, dropping a squealing gopher that skittered away as fast as it could.

“That Leashed Pack! There are more of them! And they’re attacking us!”

No! Lucky thought, his brain in turmoil. No, Bella! What have you done?

“That’s not possible—” began Snap.

“Yes! They sneaked past that slug-brain Whine! I knew he’d be a useless guard! They must have known the hunters were gone, and they’re going to kill us!” Dart turned and bolted back the way she’d come.

Without another word, the hunters raced across the meadow after Dart, Lucky at Fiery’s heels. He kept up with the furious pace though his heart was a stone inside him.

Branches whipped Lucky’s muzzle as they plunged into the trees, but all he could see was Fiery’s brown haunches as he pounded through the flickering sun-shadows. He didn’t dare think. His Packmates were a blur of speed at his sides. Packmates. Lucky’s belly twisted with guilt.