Callaway Park

	“Welcome to Callaway Park.” A pleasant female voice announced over the PA system, as the security guards opened the gates to allow the guests into the park.  
	  
	Children jumped and yelled with excitement of the park. Parents held their hands so that they wouldn’t run off. The animals were all in habitats that were designed for each species. There were no cages in this park. 

	It was an unusually hot day and many of the animals were hiding in shade and in their homes. There were a few animals that were almost the most popular. The lions, who were laying on their backs in the sun. The horses, which were walking around, eating grass and hanging their heads over the fence to get petted. And of course, the wolves. 

	Men always seemed to gather around the wolves. Many of them would try to “stare” down the animals; most of the wolves would just take a quick look at the men and then walk away. But there was always one wolf that would never turn. This wolf was a large male, his fur was like spun gold in the sun. He was currently laying in the sun, snoozing. He wasn’t completely asleep, there was always to much noise in the park to sleep during the day, when he was fully woken up by the shrill sound of a young child. 

	“LOOK MOM! DOGGIES!” The child yelled and jumped up and down, pointing at the wolves. The golden wolf opened his eyes and blinked till his eyes adjusted to the light.  
	“That’s a wolf dear.” The parent said, trying to correct her child, and took the Childs hand and walked away to look at some more animals. 

	“BYE DOGGIE WOLF!” the child yelled as they walked away. The golden wolf sighed and laid his head back down on his paws.

	“Damn soft skins.” A brown furred wolf said as he walked up next to the golden one. “What do you think Challenger?”

	Challenger replied without opening his eyes. 

	“I think I’m trying to sleep, Marc.” Challenger said

	“I see, I’ll leave you be then. I’ll see you tonight in the pit.” Marc said and walked off.   
	  
	No one would ever know by looking at them, but the animals of Callaway Park, and in fact all the animals in Callaway underwent a very interesting change every night at the stroke of midnight, to the dawn of the first light. Every animal changed, from a feral to an anthro form. The animals of Callaway park however fight every night. They don’t fight to gain dominance. They don’t fight to gain power, they fight for fun, they fight for exercise, and they fight to keep their senses sharp. The park has many places that are designed for the guest of the park to stop and rest. They are roped in areas, and the animals use them as rings, which they call pits, or rings. 

	Some of the animals got into fights that ended up in yiffing, trying to dominate the other and make them cum to lose. However, Challenger was not one that ever got into those kind of matches, no matter how many people tried to convince him. Challenger was seen in the park as a kind of mystery. He almost never fought, but when he did, he was magnificent. No one ever seen him practice, no one ever seen him battle between the matches in which he participated. Little did he know, that his life would soon change some would say for the better, some would say for the worse. 

	Challenger opened his eyes and sat up. As much as he tried he couldn’t fall back asleep. It was his night to do watch for the fights. He liked to do the watch. He would sit on top of a rock cliff, that was put in mainly for something for the guests to look at, but for the animals, it was perfect. Whoever was the lookout for the night, could sit on top of it, and see the whole park. The guards would do their rounds every night, they usually kept to one route, but now and then one would stray from that path. If they heard some of the fights, and the one on the watch would call out in their animal tongue. To anyone listening it just sounded like an animal calling out, but to the animals in the park, they knew it was a call to hide from site. 

	“Hello there gorgeous.” A female wolf said as she walked up next to Challenger and sat down beside him. “Aren’t you looking lovely today.”

	“Hello Shania.” Challenger said. The tone in his voice was less then impressed. 

	“I can never get a rise out of you, can I?” Shania asked.

	“Keep trying, you won’t succeed. But keep trying anyway.” Challenger said. “What can I do for you Shania?”

	“Just making sure that you are going to do look out tonight. Marc asked me to come and ask you. He said you seemed in a foul mood and was afraid to come and talk to you.” Shania said.   
	Challenger sighed.

	“Yeah, I’ll be there. And I’m not in a foul mood. Just trying to sleep that’s all.” Challenger said. 

	Shania nodded and walked away. Challenger was more than just sleepy, he was tired of his life in this park. He wished for a different life. He dreamed of settling down and raising a family with someone he loves.   
	  
	The day went by as normal, slowly the traffic slowed down, and the sun worked it way over the sky. About 2 hours before the park closed, the attendants, went around and fed the animals and made sure the park was cleaned up. 

	The sun sunk slowly into the horizon, the sky was on fire with a mixture of red and orange. Once the sky was blanked by a velvet glove of darkness, the guards walked around the grounds of the park and made sure that everyone was gone before closing and locking the gates.  The animals began to gather in the Pit. 

	Challenger walked slowly up the cliff as a small breeze rustled his fur. He stopped and lifted his nose to the air, the smell of the town was on the winds, Challenger loved the smell that came off the town, but he could never see himself living in it. The night was silent, and the sound of the town clock was easy to hear, and it began to strike the hour.   
	  
With each tone of the chimes, Challenger’s body underwent it’s change. With each step up the cliff he took on an anthro form. When the last tone chimed, Challenger stood at the top of the cliff; his body was very muscular developed almost to perfection and toned. He lifted his arms and stretched his back out. He took a long breath in letting it out slowly. He stood and looked over the park. 

	“Nice night isn’t it?” A voice said from behind him. Challenger turned and looked into the yellow eyes of a male black panther who was walking up the cliff towards him.   
	  
	“It’s very nice. You're Aiden right?” Challenger asked as the panther walked up and stood next to him.

	“That’s right. I’m happy you remember me. I’m nothing really spectacular.” Aiden said. 

	“Hey now, I’ve watched you fight, you are good. You do need a little help with something’s though.” Challenger said with a gentle smile.

	“You offering to teach me are you?” Aiden asked. He laughed a little, thinking that it was all a good joke. Challenger laughed a little as well. 

	“Sure. I can do that.” Challenger said. Aiden went quite. 

	“Are you serious?” Aiden asked. 

	“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t.” Challenger said. Challenger wasn’t really sure why he said he would teach Aiden to fight. But he felt it was right. And he liked the panther he had something that most did not, but what wasn't clear.  

	“I’m honored.” Aiden said  
	  
	“I’m nothing special, I’m just another one trying to get through life. But if what I know can help someone else, I’m more than happy to share my knowledge.” Challenger said. 

	Challenger sat down and Aiden sat next to him, the two of them looked out over the park, a small glow from the lamps laid over the darkness. Challenger started to think about Aiden and when he first came to Callaway park. Aiden was brought to the park as a mate for Sheba, the only female panther the park had, in hopes that they could start a breeding program. The animals of the park, weren’t mean to him, but most of them weren’t friendly either. They mostly ignored him and went about their own business. 

	Challenger though, decided to try and befriend this young panther. Aiden quickly became good friends with Challenger. They hung around a lot and Aiden was one of the few animals to actually watch Challenger as he trained. It wasn’t because he wanted to show off, but he felt that he could trust Aiden. And Aiden learned that Challenger was one that he could trust as well. 

	“You look lost in thought Challenger, what worries you?” Aiden asked after Challenger felt silent for what seemed like an unusually long time. 

	“Oh, just thinking back. I tend to think  a lot when I’m up here, it’s a good place for it, quite and calming.” Challenger said. Aiden got up and looked down at the wolf. 

	“Well, I’m going to watch the fight, you can learn a lot by watching. When would you like to start my first lesson?” Aiden asked. Challenger smiled

	“Let’s say tomorrow night. Don’t think I’m going to take it easy on you.” Challenger said laughing. And gave a little wink t'wards him, there was something about that wink, that would make any resident's heart stop, male or female. 

	“I wouldn’t expect you.” Aiden said and walked away. Challenger watched him go and thought that he would make a good student. He was stronger then he believed himself to be. 

	The night was fairly uneventful. The guards stayed to the paths they were suppose to take and no one got caught. Challenger rested most of the following day, as he was going to need some strength to start Aiden’s training that night. Challenger was surprised at how agile Aiden really was. He was really willing to learn and that’s what really helped. After the lesson, Aiden and Challenger went back to the panthers habitat, Sheba was there relaxing in the cool night air. She perked up when she heard the voices of Aiden and Challenger coming. 

	“Good evening boys, how are you tonight?” Sheba asked as she got up and greeted the two of them. 

	“Hello hon.” Aiden said and hugged his mate. Sheba and Aiden hit it off quickly when he came to the park. They haven’t had any cubs yet, but they certainly made a quick friendship. Sheba gave Challenger a big hug as well. She liked him, he was always kind to her and never wanted anything in return. 

	“So what are you two up to tonight?” Sheba asked. 

	“Challenger here is teaching me the ropes, helping me to become a little better fighter.” Aiden said. 	

	“Oh, good. That way I won’t have to protect you as much then.” Sheba said, and laughed. 

	“Hey now!” Aiden said. “Challenger, help me out here.” But Challenger was also laughing and couldn’t reply. It wasn’t long before Aiden was laughing as well. 

	“I hate to cut this short, but I need to get going.” Challenger said as he composed himself and got up. 

	“Awww.. do you really have to go?” Sheba asked and pouted. 

	“Turn it off hon.” Aiden said. Sheba looked at him with wide eyes and a pouting look, and then started to laugh again. 

	“Yeah, sorry to disappoint, but I should get back.” Challenger said and hugged both Aiden and Sheba and started off back to the wolf compound. 

	Challenger left and started to walk back slowly. He would never say it to them, but the main reason he left was that seeing the two of them together and in love made him feel a little jealous, and made him feel very much alone. He was walking and suddenly felt like he wasn’t alone. There was someone else close. He looked around and saw a shadow move in the darkness beside him. 

	“I know someone is there, might as well come out.” Challenger said, is tone was dry and low. He wasn’t in the mood for games. 

	“Well, were in a good mood aren’t we.” A male lion said as he walked out of the shadow. 

	“Hello Salvator. What do you want?” Challenger said. He had no time for this lion. Salvator was born in captivity, but the acted like he was the king of them all. He was arrogant, self centered and egotistical. He fancied himself the best fighter in the park. 

	“Just wanted to say hello that’s all. Why do you and I never battle it out in the pit wolf? Afraid?” Salvator asked. 

	  
“Hardly. I just know how you fight. You always reduce any fight into a full out sex scene and you know I don’t do that kind of fight.” Challenger said coldly. There were two types of fights that happened in the park. One was just your basic fight, and the one was a yiff fight, where you assert dominance over your partner and try to make them orgasm first. That was Salvators favorite fight, even if the animal he was with didn’t want it. 

	“You’ll change your tune some time wolf.” Salvator said. “And then you’ll be all mine to play with.” Salvator laughed and walked back into the shadows and out of Challengers sight. Challenger just shook his head and continued walking. Salvator watched as Challenger walked away. “Oh, I’m going have my way with you wolf, one way or another. I’m going to have my way with you.”  
	  
	As Challenger walked back to the wolf compound, his mind wondered again. He thought back to when he first came to Callaway park. He couldn’t remember much about his life before then. He remembers that he was very young when he was brought here. His father was shot and killed by some poacher’s, one day when he was taking Challenger out and teaching him how to hunt. The sound of the poacher’s gun still haunts him at night. His mother vanished about a year before that. Till this day, he has no idea what happened to her. She left one night, and never returned. 

	Challenger got back to the wolf compound, he was the only one there. Everyone else was still in the pit, he sat down on a rock and looked up at the sky. His eyes filled with the moon light. He lived so much of his life alone, he has brought himself up, taught himself so much of his life. He remembered when the humans from the park found him, he was cold and hungry. He was on the brink of death and he welcomed it. He remembers growling and trying to snap at them, cause in his eyes, humans were the ones that killed his family, and they were all evil and mean. 

They took him to the park, fed him, and got him cleaned up. They even named him, it wasn’t a name that he liked, they all called him Samson, cause of his golden fur. He was being kept in a quarantine zone, just to make sure that if he had anything from being in the wild, he didn’t pass it onto the other animals of the park. It took them the better part of a month, before Challenger would trust them to come close to him. There was one human however, a female, to whom Challenger came to trust. Her name was Claire. She would sit at the bars of his cage and talk to him, tell him stories of her life. At first Challenger wasn’t sure what she was doing, but after about a week, he realized that she was very lonely, and just needed someone to talk to, even if it was a wolf. She was the first one that Challenger let touch him. When Challenger fell sick one week, Claire spent a lot of them with him, holding him and feeding him, so that he wouldn’t get malnourished. 

Challenger was kept in this area for almost a year, he grew by leaps and bounds, and with every day, he came to trust Claire even more. Near the end of a year, Challenger sat up all night, struggling with a difficult choice. His mind raced and he couldn’t sleep. When dawn broke the next morning, Claire walked in with his food and he decided. 

“Good morning handsome wolf. I have for you today, an array of canned something, mystery meat, and some kind of vegetable. I hope this is refined enough for your distinguished pallet.” Claire said as she flopped down his food dish. “Service with a smile.” Challenger always loved her sense of humor. He took a few mouth full’s of food. And Claire started to rub his head. 

Challenger munched away at his food and Claire sat down next to him on the edge of the cage. She sighed and mindlessly rubbed his head as he ate. He lifted his eyes to her and she looked down. 

“Ya know Samson. It’s crazy, but over the past year, you have been my best friend. I can tell you anything and you never talk back. You never say I’m getting to fat, you never say I look bad. You always greet me with a smile and a wagging tail. It’s everything I could ask for in a friend.” Claire said. 

Challenger lifted his head and looked into Claire’s eyes. She looked into those emerald green eyes. Those eyes that seemed to tell the history of the world. She smiled and ruffled his fur. 

“I love those eyes, when I look into them, I can almost see your soul.” Claire said and got up. She closed the cage door and locked it. “See you at lunch Samson.” Claire turned and walked toward the door.

“Challenger.” A voice said from behind her. Claire turned around and saw no one. 

“What? Who said that? David is that you hiding in here?” Claire said and looked around. 

“My name is Challenger.” That low male voice said again. Claire looked around again, and saw only Challenger or Samson as she knew him. Claire walked up to the cage and looked at him.

“Did you…did you just?” Claire asked Challenger.

“Claire please dont be alarmed or afraid. Challenger said. 

Claire didn’t scream, she didn’t back away. She just stood there and looked at him. There was a mixture of surprise, fear, and wonderment on her face. Claire opened the cage and sat on the edge, Challenger backed up a little. He had never spoken to a human before, he wasn’t really sure why he was now, but he felt that he had to. He trusted Claire. 

“I guess, somehow.. deep down.. I always knew you were different. I always knew something was odd about you. But. How?” Claire asked. Challenger was amazed that she wasn’t yelling. “Challenger is it?” her mouth still wide open the look of shock pricless.

“Yes. Please don’t tell anyone about me. I’m breaking an ancient code by talking to you. We are never to raise a voice to a human.” Challenger said, getting a little closer to Claire. 

“All this time, I’ve sat and talked to you, you sat there and listened, you should have told me to shut up. I talk too much.” Claire said. Challenger laughed, and Claire laughed. It was a wonderful sound.  

“I loved hearing your stories. It reminded me of my mother, she would sit and tell me stories for hours of when she was growing up.” Challenger said, he lowered his head at the thought of his mother. Claire reached up her hand and rubbed his head. Challenger smiled.

“Challenger, aren’t you full of surprises. And I love your name, way better than Samson.” Claire said. Challenger smiled. 

“Come back after midnight. If you trust me Claire meet me here at midnight. .” Challenger said. 

“What do you mean?” Claire asked. 

“Just visit me after the clock strikes the hour.” Challenger said, and he wouldn’t say anymore than that. Claire agreed and left to go home, her shift was over, but she went home a different person that day, she knew something no other human did. And she waited for midnight with great expectations, and excitment.

Claire walked into the room five minutes after midnight. It was full of shadows, and Challenger cage was only half light. She didn’t dare turn the light on, in case someone saw her. She was of course a little nervous and scared but she was more curious.

“Challenger?” She whispered. “I’m here.”

“Hello Claire, thanks for coming.” Challenger said, he was standing in the shadow of the cage. 

“Why are you hiding?” Claire asked. 

“Claire, here is my true form, please don’t be afraid..” Challenger said. And slowly walked out into light, his full anthro body emerged into the light. Claire’s eyes widened. She walked slowly towards the cage, her jaw dropping, as she took in a large breath. He was so tall. very handsom and yet still the very gentle wolf she knew.  “Are you ok?” Challenger asked a little nervously.

“Challenger.. your.. you’re so…” Claire trailed off and her eyes sized up Challengers body, from tip to tail. “You’re so.. handsome.” Challenger smiled. 

“Come now, you must say that to all the 7 ft anthro wolves.” Challenger said. Claire opened the cage slowly and stood back. Challenger stepped down out of the cage and stood on the floor in front of Claire. She looked up at him, he was much taller than her.   
“Wow.. you really are big. But, you are also the same gentle wolf I know, I’m sure of it.” Claire placed her hand on his chest. She could feel his heart beat, and the warmth of his fur. He truly was real, and this wasn’t some kind of dream. 

“Yeah, I’m real. And this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now.” Challenger stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close.Claire was a little over come and not expecting to be put into such a hug, but it was a very friendly hug, his fur was so soft and clean and had a very nice sheen to it from the moonlight that epped in.  Claire returned the hug with no hesitation. She couldn’t explain it, but hugging Challenger felt right, it felt warm, it felt familiar. “Thank you. Thank you for everything you have done for me.”

As Challenger let Claire go, there were tears in her eyes. She looked up at him and smiled her little smile that Challenger came to love. 

“You big softy you.” She said as she gently “punched” his chest and laughed. “I help hundreds of animals every year, you are the first one that has ever hugged me, to say thanks. And you’re welcome.” Challenger smiled. " I know Claire that without your love and caring ways, I would of died a long time ago. "

Challenger sat down on the edge of his cage, and Claire sat beside him and put her hand on his leg. Challenger looked down and smiled gently, he knew it was a sort of gesture of friendship and not something else. 

“So, do you change like this at will?” Claire asked.

“No, it happens every night, at the stroke of midnight. My mother use to say, that when the bells of time chime, the spirit of a thousand souls sing and we stand to applaud their song. And when the light of day first shines, they still their voices and we sit till their next performance.” Challenger was looking across the room, as if he was actually hearing the song that they were singing.

“That’s so beautiful.” Claire said. Challenger could hear in her voice she was trying to hold back. He brushed the back of his paw against her face and wiped away a tear.

“Now who’s the softy.” Challenger said smiling. Claire let out a short laugh and hung her head.

“I have failed.” She said and the two of them laughed again. “I am enjoying this. Can we do it more often?”

“I would like to, How much longer am I going to be here in quarantine?” Challenger asked.

“Only a few more weeks actually, they are planning on putting you into the wolf compound soon, integrating you with the other wolves.” Claire said. “Tell me about yourself Dav..sorry Challenger.” 

“There isn’t much to tell.” Challenger said. Claire took his paw and held it.  
“Then tell me all you have. You’ve listened to me talk for almost a year, it’s my turn to listen to you.” Claire said.

Challenger sat and told her all about his life, all of what he could remember. He reminisced about his father and mother and the time spent growing up. It wasn’t long since he was still young when he was brought to the park. Claire held his paw through out his whole story. His paws were so big, and yet so gentle. 

“Well, that’s pretty much my life. Up till when I came here.” Challenger said. He never realized how much time had passed, it would be  about two hours before the rise of the sun. “Claire, you should get going, the sun should be up soon.”

Claire reluctantly got up and stretched. Challenger stood up and walked her to the door. She turned and hugged him one more time. 

“Thank you Challenger. I really enjoyed this. I look forward to meeting again. I might be a little late coming into work. Seeing what time it is. But I’ll see you soon enough.” Claire said. 

“I think that would be a wonderful plan. Claire can I ask you something?” Challenger asked, his voice seemed a little unsure. 

“Of course, what is it?” Claire asked.

“Do............do you love me?” Challenger asked. The question was so sudden and un expected that Claire didn’t know what to say at first, which made Challenger nervous. “I’m sorry.. I shouldn’t.”

“No, no it’s alright. I just wasn’t expecting that. I guess that all depends on how you define love. Do I love you in a way that would mean a relationship. I don’t think so, not because of our difference in species, but because, I see you as a very close friend. Someone I feel that I can talk to without fear of judgement. Someone until now, I always wished I could hang out with. But at the same time, I guess, I consider you more than a friend at the same time. I’m sorry It’s complicated. I do love you Challenger. You’re my soul mate, I guess would be the best way to describe it. My love for you goes beyond everything.” Claire said. “I guess I don’t make any sense.”

“You make perfect sense, cause I feel for you the same way.” Challenger hugged her tight. “Now get on, you need to go get some sleep.”

Claire smiled and nodded. 

“Well, at least we both make sense to each other. Good night Challenger.” Claire said. 

Claire left, Challenger stood alone in the darkness of the room. “ Good night Claire sleep well..”

Challenger looked up at the moon, and noticed it was almost three quarters of the way across the sky. He blinked and yawned. He hadn’t realized he had let his mind wonder for so long. He stood up, stretched and shook his head to bring himself back to the present day. He took a big chance that day, talking to Claire and letting her see all the things she had seen. But thinking back, he would have done it again.  He even got her near the pit and let her watch a few fights. After the first fight, she told him that her heart had never raced so much in her life. It was amazing, she had been to fights with her father, but never had she seen two fighters, fight with such passion, honor and skill, but without a single hint of hate between them. 

Challenger walked up to the edge of the compound and leaned on the fence. He looked out into the park, it was quite and calm. He stood there all night, he watched the sun rise, as soon the sun touched the sky, opening like an eye, Challenger slowly shifted back to his feral form. He took a breath and walked back into the compound, he laid under a tree and fell asleep. 

Challenger slept most of the day, he had to save up his strength, that night he promised to start helping Aiden with his fights.

When the night fell, Challenger was waiting in the pit, when Aiden came walking in. There was no one else around. 

“Good evening Challenger.” Aiden said as he walked up to Challenger. Challenger walked to meet Aiden and gave him a welcoming hug. “What do you have in store for me tonight?”

“Well, I’m just going to help you on stances, and basics. Don’t want to start you off too quick or else you’ll get hurt. Besides, I thought we could go watch the fight between Salvator and Samson. That way you can see what not to do.” Challenger said and smiled. “Salvator isn’t the best fighter.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen him, he’s a dirty fighter.” Aiden said. Challenger put his arm around him and smiled. 

“We’ll get along just fine.” Challenger said. “Let’s start, show me your fighting stance.” After about an hour Challenger and Aiden started, Challenger called it quits, mainly so that Aiden didn’t over exert himself. 

“Alright, that’s enough for tonight. You are doing really well. Let’s go to watch the fights, I always say you can learn even more by watching. Because you can learn your opponents way of fighting, that’s not something you can learn by practice. They walked to the area where Salvator was going to fight with Samson. Samson was a young lion, brought in from Africa. Salvator was foaming at the mouth to fight this lion, he figured if he could take down a wild born lion, he would earn the respect of everyone. 

There was a large crowd that had already gathered. Challenger and Aiden walked up to one side of the pit that didn’t seem to crowed. A few people cheered when they saw Challenger, who simply smiled and waved. " Hello everyone" Challenger was seen as a very friendly resident and seemed pretty much to get on with everyone. It wasn’t him they were here to see. It wasn’t long before Samson showed up, he was a well toned lion, his body was hard from his life in the wild, he had a lot of scar's, and he was missing part of his left ear, but when his eyes met with Challengers, Challenger could see it in his eyes, he was scared. Samson walked into the ring and started to walk in a circle, looking at it, and trying to work himself up. When he walked past Challenger, the wolf put his paw out and placed it on his shoulder. Samson didn’t flinch, he didn’t yelp, he wasn’t surprised in one bit, as soon as Challengers paw touched him, he stopped, as if he was waiting for it. Challenger leaned forward and whispered into the lions ear. Samson didn’t move, he held his stance and listened to Challenger. 

Once Challenger had his word, Samson looked at him and gave the wolf a small nod and continued his walking. Aiden looked at Challenger and tilted his head in question. Challenger just looked at him, Aiden knew that his conversation was to remain between them. 

The crowd started to cheer, Aiden and Challenger turned their heads, knowing what site they would see. Salvator was walking towards the ring, Samson stopped, just next to Challenger and watched Salvator approach. Salvator walked up, shaking paws and basking in the fan fair that he was getting. Once into the ring, he walked up to Samson and the two lions stood face to face. Their eyes locked and neither faltered. Samson was a little smaller then Salvator. 

Each resident had someone on their side, watching the fight and at any time when they believed that it was getting to be dangerous, they could throw in their towels, and the fight would stop. The two lions simply backed away from each other, and went to either side of the ring. The air was still with anticipation. Finally the two lions stepped forward and the fight began. 

Salvator struck out first, his strategy was always to attack fast, but Samson was quicker. He dodged the attack easy and gave Salvator a small smack on the back as he passed him. He smiled as Salvator turned around and gave his smirk. This time Samson made a lightning quick attack, he was on Salvator before the lion knew what was happening and Samson came down with a hard right across Salvators jaw line, not hard enough to break anything, but enough to make him know he had been hit and make him stagger. The crowd cheered and clapped. Even Challenger clapped, it was a good strike. He turned his eyes over to Aiden and was very happy to see that the panther was watching intently. 

Salvator snickered and wiped a small amount of blood from his jaw. He looked at it and back at Samson. Now was when the battle really started. Salvator dug his foot claws into the ground and lunged, this time Samson wasn’t able to dodge it and Salvator fell on top of him and the two rolled on the ground. Salvator rolled off him and on to all fours. Samson rolled to his side but before he could get to his footing, Salvator jumped on him and dug his claws into the lions sides. 

Samson yelled as Salvator clawed him. He managed to buck Salvator off him and get to his feet. There was small trickle of blood running down his sides from Salvators attack. 

“That was dirty.” Samson said. 

“What’s the matter, rougher then the great wilds of Africa?” Salvator sneered. 

“How would you know, zoo trash.” Samson replied. There was a hushed silence that whispered through the crowd. Salvator snarled and extended his claws. 

Salvator lunged forward and slashed at Samson’s chest, one paw hit it’s mark and a trail of blood ran down his chest. Samson smashed his elbow into Salvators back as he passed him. As the fight went on, Samson got more and more wild, and Salvator started to fight more and more dirty. 

When Samson went in for a claw to Salvators face, Salvator brought up his paws and grabbed Samson by the throat. He stopped dead in his tracks as Salvator squeezed the lions neck. Samson started to claw and dig at Salvators arms, but he would not let go. Samson’s eyes started to fade out and his breathing was getting harder. The one that was holding his towel threw it in, this fight went on to long.

But to the surprise of everyone, Salvator wasn’t letting go of Samson, even though the towel had been thrown in to stop the match. Salvators eyes were fixed on Samson, and he didn’t see anything else. Everyone started to shout and yell. “Let him go!” “He’s given up.” “You’re killing him.”

Finally Challenger had enough, he stepped in. Aiden grabbed his arm but one quick look from Challenger and he let go. Challenger walked up to the two lions and with one quick move, he brought his paw up and snapped it underneath Salvators elbow, Salvator broke his choke hold on Samson, who fell to the ground gasping for air, and Salvator turned his look to Challenger. 

“He threw in his towel, the rules are that you stop. You know that.” Challenger said, his voice was steady and un failing. Salvator narrowed his eyes and glared at Challenger.

“You stupid little dog, how dare you interfere.” Salvator said. He took a step forward and tried to take a swipe at Challenger, but Challenger dodged and took hold of his arm and twisted it so that he was standing behind him, with his arm bent up behind his back.   
“I wouldn’t if I were you, lion. Get out of the ring, your done for the night. And don’t let me catch you breaking the rules again.” Challenger said and pushed Salvator away, who turned and stared at Challenger. Challengers eyes were cold as steel. Salvator snarled and turned around and left. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere that night. 

Challenger waited for Salvator to leave and then knelt down next to Samson who was rubbing his neck and coughing. Challenger put a paw on his shoulder and Samson looked up at him. 

“Samson are you alright?” Challenger asked. 

“I, guess so.” Samson said. He tried to get up, but his head started to swim.

“Whoa, take it easy. Just sit back and relax.” Challenger said, and helped Samson sit down, making sure he didn’t fall over. A lot of the residents were leaving, they knew if there was anyone in the park that would take care of Samson it would be Challenger, he was in the best hands. Samson grabbed his side and leaned his head back. “Let me take a look.” Challenger said as he got on his knees. Samson was hesitant but moved his paw so that Challenger could look at the wounds. They didn’t seem bad, they just broke the surface of the skin and bled a little, but they would heal quickly. “Those will heal fast, you’ll be fine in that manner. But how are you feeling?”

“A little shaken, but I’ll be alright.” Samson said. “Why are you helping me? I don’t really know you, Have I ever done anything that you needed to repay me for?”

“No, you haven’t done anything. But I hate to see dirty fighting, which Salvator does all the time. He has no honor.” Challenger said. 

“I hope I didn’t offend you with that Zoo born remark?  it was the heat of the moment. You weren’t..” Samson started to ask.

“No, I was born wild.” Challenger chimed in before Samson could complete his question.

“I thought so, you know too much to be bred in captivity.” Samson laid his head back and closed his eyes.”

“Do you think it’s safe to return to the lion compound tonight, after what just happened.” Challenger asked. “If not, I’m sure we can hide you in the wolf area.”

“Thank you, but there is no need. I don’t stay with the other lions, they have me in a separate section of the park. Wild born you know, they are afraid that I might kill some of the younger lions.” Samson said. “I don’t mind it, get’s kind of lonely sometimes though. Mind you they are trying to find me a nice mate. What about you Challenger? Strapping young wolf like yourself, you must have females hanging off you all the time?”

Challenger fell silent for a moment. Samson started to worry that he had said something that he shouldn’t have.

“No, no mate. Not from this lot at least. It’s complicated, hard to explain.” Challenger said, he looked at Samson who simply nodded. He knew what Challenger was getting at. He wanted a lover, not just a mate. 

“Oh well, hopefully these humans have a good eye for finding me a nice lioness.” Samson said. 

“Yeah, but I guess that’s only if they know which end to look at.” Challenger said. Samson looked at him with wide eyes and then started to laugh. Challenger laughed as well. Samson was holding onto this side, it hurt to laugh, but it felt good at the same time. Once the humor died down a little, Samson tried to catch his breath. 

“God damn that hurt, but was well worth it. You’re a quick one Challenger. I’ll give you that. Now help me up, I think I’ll retire to my own compound for the remainder of the night.” Samson held out his paw and Challenger grabbed it, pulling him slowly and gently to his feet.

“Take it easy Samson.” Challenger said as he shook the lions paw.

“Same to you Challenger. May the light of the moon watch over you and guide you, even in the darkest of nights.” Samson said and walked off slowly to his area to rest.

Challenger nodded and walked back to his home. The next day. Claire was the one that brought the wolves their food. Challenger walked over to her and she rubbed his head, she bent down and whispered in his ear. 

“Come meet me tonight, over by the gift shop. I have something to tell you.” Claire said. Challenger nodded, he didn’t dare say anything, in case someone heard him talking to her. Challenger went over and ate with the others. 

Meanwhile over in the lions habitat. Salvator sat in his rock cave, laying in the shadow, his mind working over time. Thinking about how Challenger humiliated him. He tapped his claws on the stone flooring. He scraped his claws towards him and smiled. 

“Got it.” He said to himself. He laughed and laid his head down and fell asleep with that evil grin on his face.

That night, Challenger walked through the park slowly, making sure that no one was watching him, or seen him. He approached the gift shop slowly, when he heard someone behind him, he turned around and there was Claire standing with a smile on her face. 

“Oh my god. It’s a wolf standing on his hind legs. I should call for help.” Claire said. Challenger stood up straight and looked down at her with his paws on his hips. 

“There is no need to fear me little girl. I am not going to harm you.” Challenger said, but he couldn’t keep a straight face and laughed. Claire walked up to him and punched him in the stomach. 

“I’ll show you little girl, you big fluff ball.” Claire said laughing and gave him a hug. Challenger smiled and hugged her back. 

“So, what is this news?” Challenger asked, as he took Claire by the hand and walked over to a bench and sat down. 

“I just wanted to warn you. There might be some people snooping around the park for the next few days, apparently someone damaged a lot of property last night. There were what looked like claw marks in some of the buildings. So the owners are bringing in some people to look around and make sure that nothing is wrong in the park. They might be walking around at night as well, to make sure that no one was breaking in and doing things.” Claire said. She noticed that the look on Challenger face, said that he knew something. “What is it?”

“Salvator.”Was all that Challenger said. 

“You mean the lion?” Claire asked. Challenger looked down at her. It seemed that the people in the park named him, and he kept it. 

“Yeah, him. Last night, he broke the rules of the fight. He must have stormed off and took his anger out on the park. I’m sorry Claire, I blame myself for that.” Challenger said. He lowered his head and looked down at the ground. Claire huffed and placed her hand under his chin and lifted it, to look in her eyes. 

“Don’t you dare. Trust me, we have had problems with that lion ever since he was born. He was a handful for the keepers.” Claire said. She was happy when she saw that Challenger was smiling again. She loved his smile, it was one of the most beautiful thing she ever seen. 

“Thanks for the warning. I’ll have to make sure that everyone knows. I’ll think of something as to where I got the information.” Challenger said. “So what are you up to tonight?”

“Nothing much, I’ve got this friend that I thought would be nice to visit and hang out with for a while.” Claire said and smiled. Challenger looked and smiled. 

“Well, I think that would be just wonderful.” Challenger said. 

“What? Did you think I was talking about you?” Claire said.   
Challenger started to pout and stooped his shoulders down. Claire rolled her eyes. 

“Ok ok.. stop.. that is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen. You know damn well I meant you.” Claire said and shook her head. They both snickered. “I can’t believe you lowered yourself to that level.”

“I can’t believe I did either.” Challenger said. “I’m getting soft.”

Claire held onto his arm.

“Don’t feel like it to me.” Claire said and blushed a little. “Sorry, I really can’t believe I did that.”

Challenger laughed. 

“Oh my, you are one of a kind. Would you like to go for a walk, I know a place in here, where you can look up at the sky and see every star.” Challenger said. Claire’s eyes lit up.

“I would love that. I love star gazing.” Claire said. Challenger smiled and held out his paw, Claire placed her hand in it and the two of them got up and walked through the park. They talked and laughed. To anyone looking at them, would have sworn they were lovers, but they were just close friends. They both needed each other more than the other would ever know. When they got to the spot that Challenger wanted to show her, they stopped and sat in the cool grass and looked up. The sky was littered with stars. Claire didn’t think she had ever seen so many stars in her life.

“Oh, wow. That is just amazing.” Claire said. Her mouth was wide open as she looked around. Challenger watched her, happy that he was able to make her so happy. “Oh my Challenger, this is just…wow.”

“I’m glad you like it.” Challenger said as he laid back in the grass and folded his arms behind his head.. Claire did the same, laying close to him. Challenger smiled and put an arm under her head and she smiled at him.

“This is nice. A cool night and a warm wolf.” Claire said. 

Challenger smiled. 

“You’re the first one I’ve ever brought here.” Challenger said. Claire was shocked. 

“Really? Why?” Claire asked. 

“Just waiting for someone special to show up I guess.” Challenger said, Claire looked at him and he was already looking at her. She smiled. 

“Do you think I’m special?” Claire asked. 

“Oh yes.” Challenger said. He winked at her. It was both funny and cute at the same time. 

“You’re a character Challenger.” Claire said and looked back up at that sky. Challenger and Claire laid there for almost an hour, without saying a word. Finally Claire spoke up. 

“ I really should be going. Before someone finds us here.” Claire said getting up to her feet. Challenger rose as well. Challenger walked her as close to the entrance of the park as he dared to without being seen. Claire hugged Challenger. “Thank you so much, I really enjoyed that. I think it was a first time a male has ever done anything so nice for me, without wanting something in return.”

“How could I ask for more than the perfect companion.” Challenger said and hugged Claire tight. “Have a good night, and thank you for the heads up.” 

“Any time.” Claire said. “Good night Challenger.” 

Claire walked away and left the park. Challenger watched and when he was sure that she was gone and the area was clear he walked back to his compound.

The next day, just as Claire said, the park was full of the local police and all the park workers were going around checking fences and gates to make sure that nothing was damaged. Challenger had started the news spreading that this was going to happen, so all the meetings for that night had been put off, and everyone was to stay in their habitats for the night just in case. It burned Challenger up knowing that it was Salvator that was causing all these problems. 

The investigation team did stay there overnight, but only for that one. When nothing happened they decided to let the next night pass. Challenger didn’t feel like visiting the fights that night, he really wanted to go over and knock some sense into Salvator, but it wasn’t his style. 		

	Challenger was standing on the edge of an empty ring, He tried to relax and gather his thoughts. He closed his eyes and leaned back against a rock. He opened his eyes when he heard the foot falls of someone approaching. When he opened his eyes, a male black panther was standing in front of him. 

	“Hey Bud, you look like you could use some company, or would you rather be alone?” The panther asked.   
	  
	“Hello Aiden. No, I’m just thinking.” Challenger said. “Pretty quite night.”

	“I hope that you’re not thinking of quitting the fights, your too damn good of a fighter.” Aiden said. 

	“That isn’t going to happen any time soon, No need to worry about that.” Challenger said. He looked at Aiden, he could tell that the panther wanted to ask something, he could see it on his face. “You want something don’t you?”

	“Well, you’re here all alone, I’m here, the ring is empty…” Aiden said and smiled, he walked backward into the ring and got into a fighting stance. He looked at challenger and made a “come get it” motion with his paws.”

	“You think your strong enough to take me alone, or do you want to call for some backup?” Challenger remarked and stepped into the center of the ring. 

	“You talk big, let’s dance dog.” Aiden said and struck out at Challenger who dogged it easy. 

	Aiden was still young and he had a lot to learn. Challenger liked to help out young fighters though. Everyone had to start somewhere, and he felt that it was good for them to start with him, cause unlike some of the other animals, when the one he was fighting with, looked like they were going to get too hurt he would stop and give them the option of quitting before they got seriously hurt.

	Challenger gave Aiden a small jab in the ribs when he dogged his first attack. 

	“Never keep your sides exposed like that. Even if your attacking, if you jab with your left, keep your right arm down to protect your sides.” Challenger said. 

	Aiden stumbled backward.  
		  
	“I’ll keep that in mind.” Aiden said. 

	Aiden admired Challenger very much. But not in a lovers way. Aiden seen in Challenger what he would love to see in himself. Challenger was strong, powerful, and also kind and gentle. Since he came to the park, Aiden asked around about Challenger. As far as anyone knew, he never had any kind of training to fight, but he was easy one of the best.   
	  
	The two of them never noticed that they were starting to gather a crowd. But there was a good group starting to surround the ring. All the residents in the park loved to see a good fight, and they all loved to see Challenger fight. It wasn’t until some of them started to cheer for Challenger that the two noticed that they were being watched. Not that it mattered. They were fully into the heat of the battle now, and with every attack Aiden learned more and Challenger taught. But there was one resident that wasn’t watching for the pure joy of watching a battle. 

	Standing on the edge of the ring of residents watching, as a lion, Salvator was watching the fight, or more to the point was watching Challenger. Everything was great until that wolf showed up at the park, Salvator thought. He was the best fighter, no he is the best fighter, or so his mind kept telling him. He didn’t like that wolf and he needed to take him down. He watched with great interest, learning the wolfs moves, how he attacked, how he blocked, he wanted to know everything about him. 

	He was standing with his arms folded in front of him, his face was emotionless. He watched for about ten minutes and then started to eye the crowd; he was looking for someone in particular. When his eyes fell on a large male shire horse, named Trojan. He knew at once he found the one he wanted, and Salvator walked toward him.  
	  
	“They seem to be having fun.” Salvators Voice was toneless and cold, a voice that would send a chill up the back of death. 

	“Yeah.” Trojan turned to look at the face behind the voice that was addressing him. When he saw Salvators face looking at him, his heart skipped a beat. Trojan didn’t like Salvator, he didn’t trust him.  Salvator had a reputation around the park as being a manipulator of the mind. “what do you want?”

	“Is that a way to say hello?” Salvator said. His face stayed stone like as he talked. 

	“It is when it’s addressing someone is more than likely up to no good.” Trojan said. 

	“All I want to do is talk. Shall we take a walk?” Salvator said, he extended one arm and pointed toward a small path out of the arena area. “Just want to talk.”

	Trojan didn’t trust him. But he didn’t want him to try starting anything here. 

	“Fine.” Trojan said. He and Salvator walked off. 

	After about five minutes they were out of the ear shot of everyone. Trojan spoke up. 

	“What do you want lion?” Trojan ask.   
	  
	“What do you know about Challenger?” Salvator asked. 

	“I know he’s a better fighter then you.” Trojan said. 

	Salvator snarled quietly under his breath. 

	“You should watch what you say, little pony. You never know what some people know about you that you don’t want getting out.” Salvator said. 

	Trojan stopped dead in his tracks. Salvator stopped and turned around. He had a wide and evil grin on his face. 

	“What’s that suppose to mean?” Trojan asked.

	The two of them stared at each other, Salvators grin told the whole tale. 

	“I know all about you, pony boy. I know what you want, I know what you do. You think there is anyone in this park that I don’t know about. I know all about him, I know who you sneak out to see. And If you don’t want the rest of the park to know, you had better do what I say.” Salvator said.   
	  
	Trojan could feel the blood rush from his face. It was hard enough being the only real horse in this place, but to have that information escape into the park…he never hated Salvator more than he did now.. he had him. And he had him good. 

	“You bastard.......... What do you want me to do?” Trojan asked. He took a deep breath.

	“I want to see Challenger fall. I want you to bring him down. You will challenge him to a yiff fight.” Salvator said. “I’m sure that’s something you would enjoy.”

	“But I know for a fact that he won’t do those types of fights.” Trojan tried to argue. 

	“I know.” Was all that Salvator said and crossed his arms again and just looked at Trojan.

	“You are pure evil. I hope you get what’s coming to you some day.” Trojan cursed at Salvator. 

	“Oh of that I have no doubt, but it won’t be at the hands of you or anyone in this cesspool of low brow animals.” Salvator laughed. 

	“When do you want this evil task done?” Trojan asked, his voice was low and shaky.   
	“After this battle, he’s going to be tired and weak. That will be the perfect time to hit.” Salvator said. 

	“Fine… but watch your back Lion.. You might find something sticking out of it.” Trojan said and walked away. 

	Salvator didn’t reply, he just smiled, his teeth glistened in the light. 

	“Oh yes my little pony… you’re going to do well. I’m sure your… little secret would be happy that you were such a helpful horse.” Salvator walked back to the ring and watched from the shadows. “You're going to be mine soon, pup.” Salvator slinked back into the shadows. 

	The battle was over when Challenger stopped it. Aiden was getting tired and was starting to make a lot of mistakes, if Challenger was more of an under handed fighter he could have taken a great deal of opportunities to attack and very likely hurt the young panther, But this fight wasn’t like that. 

	The crowd applauded and most of them disbanded once the two fighters shook paws and Aiden gave Challenger a friendly hug.   
	  
	“Your getting much better. You really have to make sure to keep your arms closer to your body though, You keep yourself too open many times.” Challenger said as he and Aiden started to walk off. Challenger was also very tired, although he could have beaten the young panther, it would have truly been a fight. 

	“You are a great teacher Challenger. I’ve learned a lot from you.” Aiden replied. 

	“Hey great fight.” A female black panther walked up to the two fighters. 

	“Thank you.” Aiden said. He turned to Challenger. “You remember Sheba right?”   
	  
	“Of course, how could I forget?” Challenger extended his paw but Sheba pushed it away and gave Challenger a big hug. Challenger wasn’t expecting it and was taken off his feet a little bit but he was happy to hug her back. 

	“Your way to formal hon., always give your friends lot’s of hugs, that’s what I always say.” Sheba said as she let Challenger go. For a small female panther, she was very strong. “So what are you boys up to?”

	“Nothing now, I think Challenger was just heading back to his place. And I was just, doing nothing.” Aiden replied. 

	“Want some company on your walk hon?” Sheba asked Challenger. 

	“Sure, would love some.” Challenger said and the three of them started walking back toward the wolf enclosure.”

	Trojan watched them leave and took a deep breath. He took another path in order to intercept them as they were walking. He really didn’t want to do this, but he couldn’t risk having his secrets spread around the park. 

	Challenger and Sheba were laughing while Aiden told them some stories about when he first met Challenger. Some of the tales Challenger had forgotten and it was fun to hear them again. They turned the corner, it was Challenger who stopped first, he was the one that saw Trojan standing there with his arms crossed looking at him and him alone. 

	“Hello Trojan.” Challenger said. Aiden and Sheba stopped when Challenger spoke. They looked at the horse with some distrust. There was something in his eyes. 

	“Good day Challenger. That was a very nice fight you two had earlier. I watched the whole thing. Maybe sometime you can show me a few of your more special moves.” Trojan said. 

	Challenger looked puzzled, there was something about Trojan that wasn’t sitting right with him. 

	“Maybe some other time. I’m rather tired right now.” Challenger said in a friendly manner. Maybe Trojan was just having a hard day. 

	“Oh that’s no good. I thought that you strong fighters could go all day.” Trojan said and moved as if to begin a confrontation. Aiden stepped between Challenger and Trojan.

	“He said he was tired. Now don’t you think you should be a good horse and leave him be.” Aiden stood firm, he didn’t waver under the staring match that he and Trojan were starting. It was Trojan that ended it and shrugged his shoulders. 

	“Very well then, I’ll just have to take a rain check on that match.” Trojan said and walked away. Challenger watched him go. Aiden turned and before he could speak Challenger shook his head.

	“I know that horse, that wasn’t him. Something was on his mind, and his voice was shaking a little. There is more to this then what we can see in front of us.” Challenger said. There was some genuine concern in his voice. Even though he wasn’t the alpha of the wolf pack, or leader of any of them, he cared for the animals in the park. All of them save for Salvator and his lady hump puppet Sahara. 

	

When they got back to the wolf enclosure Aiden and Sheba hugged and said good bye to Challenger. Alone with this thoughts Challenger sat and wondered what could have been wrong with Trojan. He closed his eyes and eventually drifted off into a deep sleep, where he dreamed as usual of a slower life and a beautiful mate. 

The next day came and went with the usual excitement. That night, Challenger chose not to attend the fights. He sat and watched the moon. The night air was chilly and his breath circled around his head in a white mist. He was deep in thought when he thought he heard a noise coming from the trees behind him. He turned his head slightly, but didn’t see anything moving. When he turned his head back to the front he could see a large shadow walking toward him. He made out the figure right away, it was Trojan. 

“Not attending the fights tonight?” Trojan asked as he walked up to Challenger. 

“No. Why are you not there?” Challenger asked, he made to get to his feet when Trojan lifted a hoof and stopped him.

“Please don’t get up. I just wanted to come by and apologize for my actions last night. I shouldn’t have been so rude to you. I could see you were tried and you were with company.” Trojan said as he sat down beside Challenger and leant back a little on his arms and looked up at the sky. 

“Everyone has an off day.” Challenger said. He looked over at the horse, who was looking up at the sky. 

“Yeah. You could say an off day is what I was having.” Trojan said and looked at Challenger. Those green eyes were glowing in the moonlight. 

“You still want that lesson?” Challenger asked. Trojan didn’t reply right away, his mind was thinking of what Challenger was talking about, and then it came to him. 

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Trojan said. “You pick the time.”

“Tomorrow, main arena, I’ve been looking for a partner for the match up tomorrow.” Challenger said. 

“That sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Trojan said and patted Challenger on the shoulder. He got up and left. Challenger watched as he went and then laid on his back and stared at the sky. Something was still bothering him about the whole situation.

Trojan was walking through a path in the woods, his mind was all over the place. He wasn’t even aware that he was being followed. 

“Good evening my little pony.” A low toneless voice said from behind Trojan. Trojan jumped startled.

“SALVATOR!” Trojan yelled and jumped. 

“Please, keep your voice down, you don’t want to wake the whole park.” Salvator said grinning.

“What do you want with me now?” Trojan asked. 

“How are you doing with our little puppy challenger? I haven’t seen any action yet.” Salvator said.

“I have a fight with him tomorrow night. I’ll do your dirty deed then.” Trojan’s voice lowered with each word that he said. He felt sick to his stomach just thinking about what he was doing. 

“Good. I’ll see you at the fights then.” Salvator said and walked away. Trojan watched him leave and then lowered his head, closed his eyes and cried. 

The following night, the animals gathered as usual. Someone was spreading the word that Challenger was fighting Trojan. Trojan was the first to show up. He didn’t think there was going to be so many animals around. He was starting to get nervous. He was walking toward the ring, when all the hair on his neck stood straight up. He started to look around, but the one he was looking for he couldn’t see, but he could feel those cold heartless eyes looking at him. Salvator was around here somewhere. Trojan made his way to the ring. 

Suddenly a cheer came up from the crowd, Trojan turned and saw Challenger walking up toward the ring. Maybe it was the light, or just the fact that he was nervous, but for some reason Challenger was bigger than usual. Challenger entered the ring and walked up to Trojan. 

“Good evening. You ready for the lesson?” Challenger asked. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be I guess.” Trojan replied. 

Challenger and Trojan shook hands and each went to one side of the ring. Both of them just stood there and stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. It was Challenger that made the move to advance into the center of the ring, Trojan followed suit, the two animals walked in a small circle around each other, never removing their gaze. Trojan was the first to strike, he lunged forward toward Challenger, who dodged his attack easy, he never made an attempt to counter, just simply moved out of the way. Trojan regained his balance and made another attempt. This time Challenger moved to the side and got in behind Trojan, he wrapped one arm around the horses neck and whispered into his ear.

“Your being too eager to attack. You have all the time in the world to plan your move, take it.” Challenger let go of Trojan and moved back.   
Trojan turned and nodded. The two of them started to circle again. Trojan started to get that feeling of being watched again, but this time it was mixed with the feeling of annoyance. He could tell that Salvator was growing impatient he wanted the deed done and he wanted it done faster then what Trojan was doing it. He took a deep breath and then lunged at Challenger. Challenger was taking a little off guard and Trojan managed to knock him to the ground. 

The crowd cheered and some booed. Challenger rolled on the ground and landed on his back. 

“Oooof. Damnit, nice shot Trojan.” Challenger said as he stopped rolling. 

Challenger tried to get up when suddenly there was a large body on top of him. His vision was blinded for a second, and when his eyes cleared he realized he was looking at the ass end of Trojan who was laying 69 on top of him. 

“TROJAN! What in the name of hell are you doing?” Challenger yelled, he tried to push the horse off him, but he wouldn’t move. 

“Shut up and take it like a real wolf.” Trojan said and started to massage Challengers sac and sheath. “I’m going to make you squeal”

There was a silence in the crowd, some of them were just simply in shock of what they were seeing. Trojan moved his body back a little, pressing his balls into Challengers face. Challenger tried to move his maw out of the way, but Trojan wouldn’t give in.

“DAMIT Trojan, what are you doing, get off me, I’m not doing a yiff fight with you, You know I don’t do that and leave my balls alone!.” Challenger started to snarl.

“Not until you lick me, Lick me puppy. I want to feel your warm tongue sliding along my hole and sac. Now get hard for me little puppy, I want to taste that nice wolf member of yours.” Trojan said..He was trying not to sound as nervous and disgusted as he was feeling. 

Hidden in the shadows in the outskirts of the arena, Salvator watched with wicked delight. He was smiling from ear to ear. 

“That’s it my little pony. You are doing me proud. This time at least, I’ll keep my side of the deal and not expose your dirty little secret. Now keep it up, I want to see his size.” Salvator thought to himself, his smile widened even more. He crossed his arms and leaned up against a tree and watched. He even found himself getting a little hard thinking of the joy it would be to get Challenger into a hot position under him.

Challenger tried once again to push Trojan off him, he was heavy. Trojan kept working at Challengers sheath and sac. Despite the fact that Challenger was disgusted at the thought of a male trying to blow him, he couldn’t help but find himself starting to get a little excited. Trojan felt the tip of Challenger member poke out of his sheath and started to lick at it. His own member was hard and pressing against Challengers chest. Challenger yelped out and arched his back. " STOP!!......."

It was more than Challenger could take. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and grabbed Trojan’s hips. 

“Oh yeah little doggie, feels like your getting ready to..” But Trojan wasn’t able to finish his sentence. He felt himself starting to rise, not in the groin area, but latterly being lifted into the air. There was a stunned awe in the crowd as they suddenly realized that Challenger was lifting Trojan from a dead weight. Trojan stopped licking at Challengers member. Challenger gave one large heave, his canines clenched togther a snarl of pain erupting from with in him as it took all he had pushing Trojan over to the right, Challenger rolled to his left and jumped to his feet.  

“Holly shit!” Someone commented from the crowd. There was a murmured hush in the crowd. Challenger stared at Trojan, his fists clenched and his muscles flexed tight. He was snarling and his teeth were bared, a look of anger, distaste, and hatred on his face. 

Meanwhile, Salvator had dropped his arms and stood with his jaw wide open. He couldn’t’ believe what he was seeing. " How the hell did he do that?!!" It was the final straw, he knew that he had to get rid of Challenger and he had to do it soon. He ran his claws down the tree he was leaning on and growled softly under his breath, he turned  and walked away.

“Challenger.” Trojan started to say. But Challenger put his paw up and Trojan stopped. Challenger stood up and walked away without saying a word. He left Trojan sitting on the ground, no one tried to stop Challenger as he walked away. Challenger walked back to his compound and sat on a rock. He couldn’t bring himself to think of anything. His mind was a complete blank and he was at a loss for words. He was so lost in the lack of thought that he almost didn’t hear someone approach. He turned his head and saw Trojan standing there. Challenger jumped to his feet and bared his teeth and growled. 

“YOU!! GET THE HELL AWAY OR I’LL..” Challenger snarled. He was about to strike but he noticed that Trojans eyes were full of tears. He stopped.

“I..I’m so sorry… Challenger.. I..I…” Trojan tried to start to say.. but he was sobbing hard. Challenger felt almost sorry for him, even though he had pretty much tried to rape him in public like that. Challenger slowly lowered his fists and those powerful green optics narrowed.

“How could you do that to me Trojan? I thought I was your friend, you know damn well i do NOT Do that sort of fight, you better explain and fast. Challenger said. He sat back down on the rock and Trojan sat next to him. Challenger was a bit uncomfortable of Trojan sitting next to him, but he remained. 

“I really didn’t want to do that. I really didn’t. It was Salvator that put me up to it, He made me do it.” Trojan said after he gathered himself a little. At the mention of Salvators name, Challenger bared his teeth and growled again. Trojan winched and lowered his head. Challenger placed a paw under Trojans jaw and lifted his head to meet his eyes. 

“Tell me everything.” Challenger said. So Trojan told him the whole story, how Salvator blackmailed him into doing this deed, threating to tell his secrets. How he is planned to take down Challenger. He told how he wanted to see Challenger fail. He knew he was planning something big, but he wasn’t sure what. Afterwards Challenger sat silent. He placed his paws up to his face and took a deep breath. Trojan waited for Challenger to speak before he would utter another word. 

“I believe you Trojan...I will forgive you, but not forget... Not yet. Challenger said. 

Trojan burst into tears and cried. He couldn’t believe that Challenger would forgive him after what he did. Challenger put his arms around Trojans shoulder and comforted him. 

“Why didn’t you just come to me and tell me?” Challenger asked.

“I..\*sniff\*.. I couldn’t risk Salvator spreading my secret.” Trojan sobbed. 

“Leave it to me. I’ll take care of that lion. You have me on your side. Just promise me one thing.. you will never do that again. or you Trojan will see a very nasty side of me...” Challenger said. " I'm sure you can prove yourself to me in all good time. I will remain as your friend Trojan. It wasnt your fault, but that damn Lion is going to pay, Its time I deal with him, Just me and him. If that is what he wants, that is what he will get. "

Trojan smiled gently, " how could such a wolf forgive something so bad so easily and still remain friends he thought" Challenger can i tell you something...."

“Sure, of course.” Challenger said. 

“The one thing Salvator had against me is..” Trojan leaned forward and whispered into Challengers ear. Once he was finished he leaned back and looked into Challengers eyes. Challenger placed a paw on the horses hoof. 

“Your secret is safe with me, I’ll take it to my grave.” Challenger said. “You can trust me. My friend.”

Meanwhile, Salvator was sitting on a his own rock in the lion enclosure, he was sitting and staring into the sky. His mate Sahara was rubbing herself against him, trying to get him into a more frisky mood. By this time of the night, Salvator had already made love to her at least three times, but he hadn’t touched her since he got back, she wanted him. 

“Hey there stud, you and I are all alone, why not stop thinking for a while and show me how the king of the jungle keeps his name and take me.” Sahara said, in a sweet seductive tone. But Salvator didn’t move, he didn’t even seem to hear her. “HEY! Pay attention to me asshole.” Sahara slapped Salvator across the face. 

Salvator reacted quickly by grabbing the lioness around the throat and digging his claws into her neck, breaking the skin a little bit. She chocked and gasped.

“Don’t EVER slap me again you low life whore. I have more important things to think about then satisfying your endless need to have someone inside you.” Salvator snarled and threw her to the ground, she landed with a thud and rubbed her throat and looked up at him.

“Fine. I’ll just have to go find someone with a bigger cock, trust me, there are enough of them.” Sahara said and got up and left. 

Salvator didn’t even notice her leave or even hear what she said. He was to focused on what he was going to do with Challenger. Every time he thought of how he lifted Trojan off him he got madder and madder. He started to drum his claws on the rock he was sitting on, he even started to run his claws along the stone. His plan to use Trojan had yielded both negative and positive results. He wasn't prepared for Challenger to be so strong.  

“I’ll get to you pup. I just have to find your weakness. And Find it I will.” Salvator said. “You can’t run for ever, some day it will hit me.” That’s when Salvator’s mind flashed, he saw everything he had to do, the whole plan fell into place so fast that he almost fell over. To him it was so obvious that he was pissed off at himself for missing it. He would wait a few days before putting his plan into action. It was too risky right now and he had to pull in a few favors from some of his friends. 

All through the following day, Challenger thought of how he would deal with Salvator, likewise, Salvator tried to refine his plan. When Sahara woke up that morning he told her the plan and she laughed and smiled. She was all for it and she was more than willing to help. 

“Forget what I said last night hon. You are still the only one for me.” Sahara said. “When do we do it?”

“Tonight I think, I’ll contact the others that will help us. Tonight we win over that little doggie.” Salvator laughed. “Now, let’s go into our cave, I feel like celebrating.” Sahara didn’t have to ask what he meant, she knew and she was off like a shot. 

Meanwhile Challenger was walking around the wolf compound. He was in a fairly good mood this morning. So he thought he would show off for the crowds, give them something to look at. Soon he was joined by Shania. 

“Aren’t you looking sexy this morning.” She said as she walked up to Challenger, who sat down and looked at her. “How are you doing this morning?”

“I’m doing fine, how are you?” Challenger asked. 

“Even better now that I get to talk to you.” Shania said. “It’s nice that you’re at least talking to me this morning. Normally you just ignore me, you must be in a good mood, get laid last night did you?”

“No. I just happen to be having a good morning. Don’t ruin it.” Challenger replied. 

“There’s the hard to get hunk that I know and love.” Shania said and started to nuzzle Challenger tenderly. Challenger backed away a little and shook his head. 

“Don’t start, I’m not mating with you, not now, not ever. Just stop. I’m growing tired of this little game of yours.” Challenger said, his voice was stern and cold. Shania sighed and got up. 

“Fine, your no fun anymore anyway.” Shania said and walked off. Challenger shook his head. She was going to be a problem some day, he knew it. But he couldn’t worry about that right now. He would deal with that when and if it came around. 

That night Salvator sat and waiting for the clock to strike the hour. Everyone that he had asked to help was already in the lions enclosure. His mate, Sahara. A young lion from his pride, Ryan, and a female leopard who is looking for a little attention from Salvator, Celine. Salvator looked each one of them in the eye. 

“Alright, this is the night that we take care of the wolf. He thinks he’s better then all of us, he thinks he’s a better fighter then all of us, we have to get rid of him if we want to rule this park. And rule it we shall.” Salvator said as he sat on a rock, looking down on his small crew. 

“RIGHT!” They all said in unison. Everyone there had a dislike for Challenger. But it was mainly because Salvator had convinced them that they didn’t the golden wolf. The only ones that actually hated him, was Salvator and his mate Sahara. 

“So what is the final plan?” Ryan asked. Salvator grinned his evil little grin, and told them the plan he had. They all laughed and agreed. Challenger had no chance. When the clock in town struck the hour. They put their plan into action. 

Once again, Challenger had no plans to attend the fights. He sat in the compound for about an hour after the clock and decided he would go for a walk instead. He still had Salvator on his mind. He figured he wasn’t going to be able to do anything until he talked to Salvator. So he made the decision to go talk to him tonight. He was walking though some of the back paths of the park, he had to stop and hide in the brush a few times, so that the passing guards didn’t see him. He walked into the lions compound and looked around, there didn’t seem to be anyone there. Then his ears perked up, he heard a small faint voice somewhere in the area. 

Challenger started to walk around, trying to pin point where the sound was coming from. The closer he got, he could hear that it was a female voice, she was crying. Challenger called out a few times, but no one answered. He got closer and closer to the sound of the voice. It was coming from a rock cave. Challenger walked to the mouth of it and looked inside, he could see the figure of a lioness in the darkness, she was crying and holding onto her arm.

“Hey, are you ok? Come on out, I won’t hurt you.” Challenger’s voice was soft and warm. The female didn’t move at first, but she slowly got up and walked out into the light. Challenger knew right away it was Sahara, Salvators mate. He thought that maybe it was just Salvator wouldn’t mate with her, and she was sobbing, but then he saw that she was holding her arm, and it was red with blood. “What happened?”

“Oh, Challenger. It’s you. Thank you, I’m glad I was afraid he was back.” Sahara said, between her tears. “Salvator went crazy, he started to attack me, he clawed my arm and punched  and kicked me. Then stormed off. It was him that damaged those buildings in the park. He has lost his mind. I’m so afraid.” She kneeled down to the ground, still holding onto her arm. 

Challenger got on his knees and held out his paws. 

“Let me see. I can help.” Challenger said. Sahara looked up at him, through tear filled eyes, she looked down at her arm and then back up at Challenger. She slowly lifted her arm and held it out to Challenger who took it gently into his paws. She lifted her paw and challenger started to wipe away the blood slowly. “What the?”

As Challenger wiped away the blood, he came to realize that there was no wound. He looked up at Sahara with a look of puzzlement, and saw it in her eyes, he had been taken, he noticed her crying had stopped and she was smiling. 

“What is the meaning of this?” Challenger’s tone had changed from the soft gentle voice to a demanding tone. It was then he heard the snap of a twig from behind him. But it was too late, suddenly the world around him flashed a bright white and a sharp sudden pain shot from the back of his head. 

Challenger fell forward and managed to brace himself by putting his paws down. He felt warm blood going down his neck, and he heard someone laughing. The maniacal sound of Salvators voice, ringing out from behind him. Challenger tried to get up, but he couldn’t manage it. He fell to his side as his vision blurred. Sahara and Salvator were standing above him, looking down and laughing. 

“It’s cow blood, I just smeared it over my arm, you stupid wolf, you were so easy to manipulate. We knew you couldn’t resist the call of a hurt animal. Even if it was me.” Sahara said, as she licked the blood clean from her arm. “Mmmmmm.. tastes like victory.” 

The last thing that Challenger heard and saw before he fell unconscious was Salvator kneeling beside him and leaning down and whispering into his ear. 

“Got ya little doggie.” Salvator said and kissed him on the cheek. Challengers eyes rolled back in his head as darkness took over him. “Alright boys and girls, let’s get him out of here.” 

The full moon, cast its eerie sliver glow over the streets of Callaway, A young female wolf was walking through the streets, and she turned down an alley and saw Challenger laying there. She stopped, thinking that he was just sleeping, but something wasn't quite right, he was lying as if he had fallen. She walked over to him slowly; looking around everywhere to make sure this wasn't some kind of trap. She got up to challenger, and looked him over. She knelt down and lowered her head next to his muzzle. He was breathing, it was normal, as she lifted her head up; she noticed a splotch of blood on the back of his head. There was some small rubble on his fur; he was hit with some kind of rock. She felt kind of sorry for him, but this was the street and it was a hard life. 

Challenger groaned and rolled onto his back, Sasha shifted back, but he didn't wake up. She moved back beside him and started to look at his body, in the moonlight, he looked very handsome. He was a well built male, whoever he was Sasha thought. She carefully, placed her paw on his chest; she felt his strong muscles under her paw. As his chest rose and fell with his breathing, she rubbed his chest slowly, she was afraid of waking him up, but she found she couldn't help herself from touching him. 

She worked her paw in his chest fur, feeling his heart beating, she was moving her other paw to his stomach when, Challenger opened his eyes, slowly, his head was pounding, and his body felt like it was covered in lead. He tried to lift himself up, and couldn't. His arms were weak. 

Sasha reeled back, afraid that he was going to attack her. But she could see that he was hurt badly. But being from the street, she was still weary. And figured it was safe to take it slow.

"So you’re finally awake". A female voice said. Challenger couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. His vision was still blurry, he managed to move his head and his eyes fell upon a female wolf, her fur was a light tawny color. She was partly hidden by shadows. Challenger tried to get up again, when he felt a paw on his back. "Don't try to move. You took quite a hit to the back of your head. I didn't think you were going to wake up. I was getting ready to leave you here."

"What...where." Challenger voice was garbled, and slow, he closed his eyes again and tried to concentrate. "Where am I?"

"There you go; I knew you would get it out." The female said. "You're in the back alleys of Callaway. What's your name?"

"Challenger." Challenger replied. "Where is Salvator?"

Challenger heard the female move around beside him.

"I have no idea what a Salvator is, but Challenger.. nice name. You can call me Sasha. Can you get up?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know." Challenger said. He places his paws on the ground and pushed. Slowly he pushed himself up, he managed to get up to a sitting position. His eyes finally cleared, and he looked at the female who he was talking to, his eyes fell on her body, she was beautiful. They met eyes, her eyes were a light blue, they were like a ocean of crystal blue. Challenger couldn't take his eyes off her. 

"Good. Now...what are you looking at?" Sasha asked. 

"I'm sorry, Sasha was it?" Challenger asked. 

"Yes. Now, how did you end up in the street?" Sasha asked. 

"I don't know." Challenger said. He held his paw to his head and rubbed it. "Wait. Salvator. it was Salvator, he did something. all I remember was trying to help Sahara.. and then someone hit me from behind.. Salvator, it was Salvator. They tricked me, it was all a trick."

"Lion? Where are you from?" Sasha asked. 

"Callaway park." Challenger said. 

"Oh. your one of those domestic wolves." Sasha said. "You're going to have lots of fun here."

"I'm not domestic.. I wasn't born there." Challenger said. 

"We'll, if you want to survive past the week. You better listen to what I have to say." Sasha got up and looked down at Challenger. "Well?"

Challenger got up slowly, his back was to Sasha and he turned around and was sure that he caught Sasha looking down at his butt. "I think I’m going to be..." but Challenger had to lean against the wall before he fell over. 

"Yeah, I better give you a few more moments." Sasha said. 

Challenger tried to move toward Sasha, he lifted his right paw up, Sasha stepped back, ready to jump into action, when she noticed that his paw wasn't in a fist, he was extending it to shake hers. 

"Thank you." Challenger said. Sasha looked deep into his eyes, there was no hint of deception on those eyes, those, deep, emerald eyes, she found herself almost lost in them. She had to will herself to come back to reality, she had been hurt to many times by people she thought were wonderful, and she wasn't going to be hurt again. Sasha took Challengers paw and shook it in a semi informal way. 

"Don't thank me yet, big boy. This is just the start, The street isn't a place for someone like you. I'll keep you alive the best that I can, but when push comes to shove, I just pray that you can take care of yourself." Sasha said. When she grabbed his paw, she felt a heat, deep in her body. "What the hell is wrong with me?" Sasha thought to herself. "I don't know anything about him, and yet.. for some reason.. get a hold of yourself girl." Sasha went and sat on a box and rubbed her eyes. Challenger leaned against the wall again. 

"Sasha. Might I ask you a question?" Challenger asked. 

"Why not." Sasha replied. 

"Why did you shy away from me, when I went to shake your paw?" Challenger blinked, there were still stars running in front of his eyes. 

"This is the street hon., I mean Challenger. You don't usually get a stranger offering to shake your paw. You get a stranger offering to strike you for interfering with their life." Sasha said, she laughed a little, a nervous laugh that tugged at Challengers heart, such a beautiful wolf that she was, but living a life that seemed full of fear. 

Challenger started to walk toward Sasha. She was looking at him, and saw on his face a fast flash of pain and he went down on his knees in front of her. She hesitated getting up to help him. 

"There is no need to fear me Sasha. I would never strike someone as beautiful as you." Challenger said, and then passed out from his concussion. Sasha stood, shocked and in awe. This wolf was like non she had ever met before. She was going to have to keep an eye on this one. 

She knelt down beside him, slowly and hesitantly, she slowly brushed the back of her paw against his forehead. She looked down at him, and smiled. She placed her other paw back on his chest and felt his heart beating, it was calm and steady. Sasha couldn’t help but feel like she was falling in love with this young strange wolf, she knew nothing about him, she knew nothing about his past. But she could feel something kind from him. Never in her life in the street, had she ever come across something like him before. She bent her head down and whispered very softly into Challengers ear.

“I don’t fear you.” She said as she gave him a little kiss on his cheek. Before sitting back up and caressing his forehead with her paw. 

"You are an interesting wolf, Challenger. You are very interesting indeed. I think I might have to stick around a little longer. Just to see what you are really made of." Sasha said to herself in a low voice. 

She sat and watched, and waited.

When Challenger finally came to again, he saw Sasha was sitting next to him, she had a paw on his chest and was looking into his eyes. Before he could say anything, she leaned down and kissed him. 

Challenger wasn’t quite sure what to do or to think. This was his first kiss, he just closed his eyes. When Sasha broke the kiss he opened his eyes and looked at her. 

“Don’t take it the wrong way, I do believe that I have feelings for you, but you have to prove yourself to me, before I can really open up to you. Consider that a freebee. The rest you are going to have to earn.” Sasha said. A lot of the edge was gone from her voice. It was sweet and tender, like a mothers lullaby. 

Challenger smiled and lifted himself up to a sitting position. He was feeling better. He smiled at Sasha and took one of her paws in his and covered it with his other paw. 

“I’m up for that challenge.” Challenger replied. 

“I’ve heard that from others before. Just make sure your up to it. Oh and don’t think I’m easy cause I just kissed you, I’m not that kind of girl.” Sasha said. 

“I would never think such a thought.” Challenger said. He started to look around at where he had obviously been dumped. “Where did you say we were?”

“You’re a long way from home, that’s for sure. First you rest up, and then we can talk about where you are and what we are going to do with you.” Sasha said. “So tell me about what happened, and how you ended up here.”

Challenger told her everything he could think of, slowly thoughts started to come back to him the more he talked. Sasha found herself almost intrigued by his story. But she had to keep reminding herself, to not fall for him to fast, she couldn’t afford to be hurt again.

“Well, that is quite a story. So tell me, do you hunger for revenge?” Sasha asked. Challenger looked at her. In his eyes, a thousand answers flashed, a million possible outcomes. Finally he made a decision. 

“No.” Challenger said. “I don’t wish revenge. Revenge is not the answer for anything. It only brings more pain that the original deed for which you are taking revenge on.” 

“Who are you? I’ve never met anyone like you before. You are there, but your such a mystery.” Sasha said. Challenger didn’t know what to say, Sasha just shook her head. “Never mind. Let me get you something to eat, you need to get some strength up.” 

Sasha walked off to find them some food. Challenger watched her go and smiled. She was so nice to him. She didn’t know him at all, and here she was helping. A sudden thought hit him. It was like a train speeding through his mind. Challenger had found the one person he was looking for all his life. He found the person he wanted to spend time with. He was in love.

Sasha came back about five minutes later with what looked like two chickens, but they were both missing a lot of meat, but still had a good amount, more than enough to make a meal. She grabbed a box and placed it in front of Challenger and placed the two chickens on it. Challenger looked at them and at her. 

“I know it’s not what you are use to, but it’s hard to get a catered meal here in the streets hon.” Sasha said. 

“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry.” Challenger said, he lowered his head. He didn’t want to offend her.

“If it’s any consolation, they are from a very good dumpster.” Sasha said. Challenger snickered a little. Sasha smiled and sat down opposite him. Challenger separated the two chickens, moving the one that had more meat over in front of Sasha. 

“The most beautiful one always get the most food.” Challenger said. Sasha was about to say something, when she looked into his eyes. She saw in those eyes, everything. She knew that he wasn’t just being funny, he wasn’t just trying to get away from eating garbage. He truly meant what he was saying and she truly believed it. She smiled and nodded thanks. 

Challenger picked up the chicken, sniffed it and took a small bite. Sasha watched him, she thought it was so cute how he was acting. It was almost as if he had never seen a chicken before. But after he took his first bite, he really started to eat. It was really good, and he couldn’t believe it. Sasha ate hers as well. 

After they finished their meal, Sasha sat down next to Challenger. She even put her paw on his. Challenger turned his paw over and Sasha’s paw laid in his. He didn’t close it. 

“Thank you for the meal. I owe you for that.” Challenger said. Sasha looked at him. 

“Would you like to know what you can do for me?” Sasha asked. Challenger was kind of nervous to know what she was talking about.

“What can I do?” Challenger asked. 

“You can prove to me. You can prove that if I should fall in love with you, that you are worth my time. I want to love you. But I can’t be hurt.” Sasha said. 

Challenger thought long and hard, he knew what she meant. But he didn’t know if he could do it.

“Sasha. I know what you want me to do. But please understand this.” Challenger took a deep breath. “I have never in my life, fought someone just to fight. A fight should be between friends, for honor, for practice. Love isn’t something that should be proven by a battle. Love isn’t so meaningless, that it should be decided by people fighting.”

Sasha looked at him, her face was a mixture of shock and love. Never in her life had she heard anything so beautiful. 

“Challenger, that, that was amazing. Here in the streets, it’s all about fighting. Everything is solved by fists. It’s finally nice to meet,  to meet a true gentleman.” Sasha said, Challenger was almost sure that there was a tear in the corner of her eye. “But, I’m not ready yet to give myself to you completely. I care about you, let’s take some time.”

“Sasha, I would wait till time ended for you to make your choice.” Challenger said, he held onto her paw softly and kissed the back of it tenderly. Sasha chocked back a tear and looked up at the sky.

“It will be dawn soon. We’ll rest for the day and during the night we’ll start our move. I’ll show you how to survive the streets.” Sasha said. “Now, let’s get some rest. Tomorrow night is going to be fun for you.” Sasha said and curled up and closed her eyes. Challenger looked at her laying down and took a long slow deep breath. She was very beautiful. Challenger laid down next to her, but didn’t touch her. He drifted off thinking about Callaway park. He thought about Claire, would she be worried that she didn’t see him. What would Salvator be doing to all the other animals? The thought of Salvator caused the pain in his head flair up again, and he closed his eyes and tried not to whine.

“I’ll get back.” Challenger whispered to himself. “I have to get back.”He drifted off to sleep.

Sasha waited till she was sure that Challenger was asleep, she rolled over and looked at him. His back was to her, she smiled and shifted her body closer to him. She hesitated, but put her paw on his side and cuddled up close to him. Challenger shifted a little, but settled quickly. Challenger wasn’t as asleep as she had hoped he was. He smiled when he felt her place her paw on him and cuddle up. They both fell asleep, neither one aware that the other was awake. 

When morning came, Sasha was the first to wake up. She blinked away her sleep and was looking at the back of Challengers head. She was lost for a moment and then it all came back to her and she smiled. She took a deep breath and Challengers scent filled her nose. It was clean and wonderful. It was full of power and masculinity, but she knew that he was soft and gentle. His scent filled her with a heat that ran down her entire body.

She rolled to her feet, slowly as not to wake up Challenger, he was going to need all the sleep he could get. She got up and stretched. She looked around, no one was about, the alley was quite, but she could hear the sound of humans walking around, ignoring their life and others around them in the streets. She looked back at Challenger. Even in his feral form, he was gorgeous. Her eyes fell down his body, looking at every curve. “You even have a cute butt in feral form.” She thought to herself. 

Challenger rolled over, Sasha’s eyes were still fixed on his butt, when he moved, and she caught a nice long glimpse of his sheath . She raised an eye brow and smiled. “Well now.. looks like you don’t lose any size anywhere when you change form.” She said to herself. That heat filled her body again. She had never told anyone before, but she yearned to be a mother. She just wanted to leave the grunge of the streets, and live a carefree life of a mother and mate. Could Challenger be the one that would fulfill this dream of hers, she thought to herself. He doesn’t seem to have anything wrong with him, he’s all in tact and very much a male. 

Sasha just sat and watched him, never in her life had she wanted someone as much as she wanted him. She wondered what it would be like to mate with such a well built wolf. She was sure that he must have had hundreds of females hanging off him in Callaway park, he was probably a father to more than a few pups. Would he really want to mate with her? Her mind flashed back to what he said, about fighting. He wouldn’t fight for her, just to become her mate. She had never heard that before, but she wondered if he would fight to protect her. That would be a big thing, if he was willing to fight to protect her. Her only wish was for the answer to be yes.

It wasn’t long before Challenger woke up, he opening his eyes and rolled onto his stomach. The pain in his head wasn’t as bad as it was the night before, but he still had a small headache. He looked up and saw Sasha sitting and looking at him. He smiled. Her beautiful tawny fur was shining in the sunlight, she looked radiant and beautiful. Challenger sat up and smiled at her. 

“Good morning. How did you sleep?” Challenger asked. 

“Oh.. I slept well thank you. Did you sleep alright?” Sasha asked. She wasn’t use to being asked if she slept well. “What about you?”

“Well, got a bit of a headache. You have very comfortable streets.” Challenger said. Sasha giggled. She loved his sense of humor, it was so innocent. Sasha moved in and nuzzled him gently. 

“Don’t worry, a nice little walk will fix you right up, so I hope you’re ready? We have to start moving. It’s not safe to stay too long in one spot. There are some packs of dogs and such that are out here that tend to think they own everything, plus we can’t get caught by the humans.” Sasha got up and walked to the back of the alley. Challenger got up and followed her. He couldn’t help  but let his eyes fall on her backside. He had seen females a lot in the park, but none of them were as beautiful as Sasha, her body was the perfect shape. Sasha looked back for a second to ask him a question, when she noticed he was checking her out, she smiled, and started to show off a little. 

Challenger didn’t know that she had seen him looking at her at first. But when she started to wiggle her hips some, he noticed that she was looking back at him and he looked away quickly. He was completely embarrassed that she caught him looking at her. His face felt red. But he kept wanting to look back, it wasn’t a feeling of lust. Shania use to expose herself all the time, trying to entice Challenger, but he never really felt what he was when he looked at Sasha. He felt a heat over him. It was love, and he was sure of it.

Challenger decided that it was best for him to walk up next to her. When he got up beside her, Sasha nuzzled him and even gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Challenger looked at her surprised. 

“I thought I had to work for more of those?” Challenger said. 

“Well, I just thought, I would give you another example of what you had to work for.” Sasha said and smiled. She looked forward and Challenger leaned in and kissed her back. Sasha smiled wide and looked at him. “Thank you.” She said. She could almost see that he was turning red. His almost pup like innocence was something she found so endearing. She thought that on anyone else, it would look stupid, but for some reason, on him.. it was just so damn cute.

As they walked through some of the back streets, Challenger never knew that there were animals that lived in places like this. As they walked, Sasha told him about what things to avoid doing, what places to stay out of. But always, deep in the back of Sasha’s mind was a war, she wanted him, wanted him badly. But was she ready to go down that one road that she was avoiding for so many years. 

“How long have you lived here?” Challenger asked. “Oh.. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.” 

“No it’s alright sweet heart. I mean..” It was Sasha’s turn to turn red. “I have lived most of my life in the streets, well as far back as I can remember at least.” Sasha stopped. Challenger looked at her concerned. “It’s ok. I think we’ve walked enough for today. Let’s take some rest. Besides it’s going to be night soon.

Challenger hadn’t noticed, it was always dark in these streets, but when he looked up between the buildings, he could see that the sky was turning a burnt orange. His heart suddenly felt very heavy. His mind thought to Callaway park, it was soon going to be time for the fights, and he knew that Salvator was going to try and take over. Sasha saw the change of in his face and walked up to him and nuzzled under his chin. Challenger smiled and rubbed his head along hers. He pulled his head back and their muzzles grazed each other. Their eyes locked and for a moment, time stopped for them both. Sasha was the first to break the gaze and look down, almost embarrassed. 

“What’s wrong Challenger?” Sasha asked, trying to compose herself. 

“Just thinking of my friends in the park. Remember the fights I told you about at night. Well, I know that Salvator will be trying to rule them all through them.” Challenger said. “I really need to get back. But I don’t know how.” Sasha saw a small tear form in the corner of Challengers eye. It tugged at her heart. She licked at his face, licking away the tear. Challenger smiled and coughed, trying to compose himself. 

“Challenger. I’ll help you get home.” Sasha said. He had placed her paw on his. Challenger looked at her, his emerald green eyes, shone with hope and love. She could see a thousand emotions in there. The smile on his face was worth it all.

“Sasha. Thank you. Thank you so much.” Challenger said, there was a tone of both joy and love in his voice. “Tonight, supper is on me.” Challenger said and smiled. 

That night, after the tone of midnight. Challenger walked off a little and tried to find some food. Sasha watched him go, her eyes fixed on his cute little round ass. She shook her head slightly and licked her lips. It wasn’t long when Challenger came back, with his arms behind his back. Sasha smiled. 

“So, did you find something?” Sasha asked. She was interested in seeing what he came out with, since he wasn’t gone long. 

“I think so, how is this?” Challenger brought his arms to the front and held in them, two Styrofoam boxes. When Sasha opened them up, they were both full of Food, one had ribs, chips, vegetables. The other had ham, rice, potatoes, and vegetables.   
“Challenger. Where did you find these?” Sasha was shocked and amazed.

“I was just walking down an alley over there, when someone opened a door, I had to move pretty fast to not be seen, and then a human threw these into a bin. He said something about some asshole ordering something and not wanting it, and something else, but I didn’t really pay attention. Is this going to be ok?” Challenger asked. Sasha looked at him and nodded. 

“This is perfect.” She moved the ribs toward Challenger, who looked like he was going to refuse it, but she wouldn’t let him. “The one who does the work, get’s the best of the haul, besides you have to eat to keep yourself sexy.” Sasha didn’t try to take back what she said, she didn’t even blink or look away. 

“Well if it’s a matter of staying sexy, I think you should be eating it, but then again, I don’t think you need any help.” Challenger said and winked at her. That adorable wink of his sent shiver up through Sashas entire body, she was aching for him now.  The two of them ate. Sasha hadn’t eaten food that good for a while, it was even still warm.

After they had finished, Challenger laid on his back and looked at the sky. He remembered the night when he took Claire to his favorite little spot, and stared at the sky. Sasha laid next to him and rolled on her side and placed her paw on his chest. 

“Thank you for that supper. That was wonderful.” Sasha said. “Challenger, do you have anyone waiting for you back in Callaway park?”

“No, no one but my friends.” Challenger said. “I have no mates, no one there that I would even mate with.” Sasha blinked. 

She thought about that sentence, she wondered if it meant that he had never mated, or was it just a matter that he didn’t have a mate. She didn’t want to ask him, it’s such a personal question and such a touchy one as well. 

“So, what is your thought of a perfect mate then?” Sasha asked. She wasn’t really sure why she was asking all this. She was only going to try and make small talk, but it was coming out as she was almost asking him out. Challenger turned to his side so that he was facing her and smiled. 

Challenger did something then, he never thought he would do in his life. He placed his paw, gently on the back of her head, and not pulled, but gently coached her head towards his, She didn’t fight him, she let him guide her head where he wanted. Challenger pressed his maw against hers, open and pulled her into a deep kiss full of passion and love. Sasha closed her eyes and melted into the kiss, she wrapped her paw around him and pulled his body close, pressing his body against her. Challenger wrapped his arm around her and held her close. 

Sasha’s heart was pounding, she could feel it against her chest. The road that she had hesitated to go down so long, she decided to run down it, run as fast as she could. She loved him, and she wanted him. Her paw traced his spine and down along his body. She caressed his hips and almost slipped it down between his legs, but she stayed it. It was only a kiss, and she wanted to keep it this way. If he wanted more, she would let him make that first move.

After some time, Challenger broke the kiss. Sasha kept her eyes closed for a few moments after wards and held onto the thought of the feeling of his lips against hers. She opened her eyes and looked into Challengers. 

“I hope you didn’t mind that.” Challenger said, shyly. Sasha moved her paw up to the side of his face and caressed it gently.

“That was wonderful. You must have had some practice at that, it was one of the best kisses I’ve ever had.” Sasha said. Challenger lowered his eyes, not in shame but embarrassment. 

“Sasha, I’ve.. I’ve never kissed anyone before. You are my first.” Challenger whispered. 

Sasha was floored, he was perfect. His kiss was so full of passion and full of power, the kiss of a true alpha wolf. 

“If that’s true, then I consider myself one lucky wolf. That was an amazing kiss. I could handle a few more of those.” Sasha said and smiled. Challenger chuckled and looked at her. Sasha’s body was still pressed against his, she could feel his heart beat through his chest, it was pounding, and so was hers. It made him even more endearing. 

“It’s true. I have never done anything before. I hope you dont mind.” Challenger said. He was nervous that she would see him different if he told her he was a virgin. But her reaction showed him that she didn’t care. He was happy to see that she never pulled away, and in fact he was sure that she moved in closer, he could feel the heat of her body pressing against him. He wanted to make love to her, but didn’t want to push it too far. 

They laid there, holding each other for a while, and looking into the sky. 

“I think I’m going to go to sleep, I’m feeling a little tired.” Sasha said. “Well do some more walking tomorrow.” She kissed challenger again and turned around, putting her back to him. This time it was Challenger’s turn to cuddle up. He slipped his body close and wrapped an arm around her. She smiled and murred softly as she felt him press up against her. He kissed the back of her neck and it sent a shiver down her spine. He placed his paw on her stomach and laid his head next to hers and closed his eyes. 

“Good night Sasha. Sleep well.” Challenger said. 

“I’ll sleep better than I’ve ever slept before.” Sasha replied. It didn’t take them long to fall into slumber and neither of them moved much during the night.

The following day, they didn’t move very much the rain had started to fall and where they were was still dry. They waited for night to fall before they moved on this time, the rain had stopped and no one was out and around. Sasha decided to take Challenger out into the streets, so they could walk in the lamp light. 

	The night was quite and the city was still. There was something in the air, Challenger couldn’t pick up on what it was, but it was something. His mind wondered, back to only a few days ago, but what seemed like a life time. Salvator tricking him and shoving him in the streets, but there was one good thing that came out of his situation that was Sasha. He would never have met such a lovely wolf if he wasn’t here now.

	Sasha was walking beside him, holding onto his paw and smiling. She was so much happier than when he first met her.  

	“So we have to think about how to get you back into Callaway park. So you can take care of Salvator and teach him a lesson for..” But Sasha was cut off by a cry of pain from the pack in front of them. They both took off toward the sound of the cry, they didn’t even think about it. 

	When they arrived, they saw a grey wolf, he was sitting on the ground and holding onto his leg, it was covered in blood, they could see that his leg was caught in some kind of clawed trap. Standing over him though.. was the real threat. Above him, stood a human, with a rather large bladed sword. He was looking down at him and laughing. 

	“I KNEW IT!” The man yelled. “I knew that you monsters were real, but no one believed me, NO ONE.. but now.. hahaha.. now I’ll bring them your head and show them your real.”

	Sasha grabbed Challengers arm and looked at him, Challenger looked back and nodded. He started to move toward the human. He was coming up behind him, slowly and quietly. But this human was so intent on the grey wolf that he had trapped, that Challenger could have ran up to him yelling and screaming and he would never have been noticed. 

	The grey wolf looked up past the human and looked at Challenger. Challenger just raised a paw to his maw and made a “keep quite” Motion. He nodded at the wolf and the wolf closed his eyes in understanding to Challenger.

	“Now you unholy beast of hell, I will send you back to your master, and prove once and for all that you exist.” The human boasted as he drew the sword back to strike at the wolf on the ground. But when he went to bring the blade down and deliver the finishing blow, he found he could not move it. There was something around his wrist. He turned his head to see a large tawny gold wolf with his paw wrapped around his wrist. Challengers emerald green eyes were looking directly into his, the man felt like he was looking into his very soul. He tried to speak but he found himself unable to get words to form. Finally he was able to speak.

	“YOU BASTARD!” He screamed. “How dare you interfere with the work of the all mighty..”

But Challenger cut him off, he had heard all he wanted to hear and could take from him. He let go of the humans wrist and with one swift move he drew back his arm, formed a balled paw and connected it with the jaw of the human. The human’ looked  like he was going to stand his ground for a moment and then slowly fell backwards, his sword falling from his hand and sticking point first into the ground beside him. He slumped to the ground with a thud. Challenger stood atop him and looked down. 

“Just shut up.” Challenger said and turned his back to him to look at the wolf. Sasha was already there, trying to remove the trap from the wolfs leg. Challenger knelt down beside her. “I’ll remove the trap. You help him.”

Sasha knew what he meant, and went to the wolfs side and took his paw in hers. 

“Hold on, this may hurt.” She said to him, her voice was soothing and soft. The wolf looked at her, his eyes full of fear, but not mistrust. These were two strangers to him, and yet here they were, willing to help him. He griped Sasha’s paw. She nodded to Challenger.   
	  
Challenger grabbed the trap and as quick and gentle as he could he pried the teeth apart. The wolf bared his teeth and tried to hold back a scream, he squeezed Sasha’s paw pretty hard, but it didn’t hurt her. He moved his leg, slowly away from the trap and laid it on the ground. Challenger closed the trap and tossed it to the side. The grey wolf laid his head back on the ground and let out a huge sigh of relieve. Challenger moved beside Sasha and put his arm around her. They looked down at the wolf and waited. He soon sat up and looked back at the both of them. 

“I really must thank you. You saved my life. But why would you save the life of someone you don’t’ even know?”

“I couldn’t stand by and watch a fellow canine be hurt by soft skin. They think they own everything, and are so much better….” Challenger took a deep breath. “I’m sorry… Are you ok?”

“Yes, I should be alright. My name is Saber.” He extended his paw to Challenger, who took it gladly and shook it.

“Call me Challenger and this is Sasha. What was with that human?” Challenger asked. 

“He is a hunter. It’s a group that live to hunt our kind down. Are you two alone? If so you must be hungry. I am part of a large pack, we have lots of food and shelter for the nights and day so that no one will bother us. My alpha Lycan, I’m sure would have no problems with giving you food and letting you stay the night.” Saber said. He knew that Lycan would put them up, after all these two just saved his life. 

Challenger and Sasha looked at each other for a moment, not a single word past their lips but there was an entire conversation in their eyes. Sasha nodded, she was a little nervous but any port in a storm, they did need food and they did need somewhere to sleep, they were both a little tired and both very hungry. 

“We would be honored to take you up on your offer Saber.” Sasha finally said. “Can you walk?”

“I think I should rest a little, you go on a head. Our pack is on the other side of this park, between the Chinese and Italian restaurants, in the small alley there. Just let Lycan know that Saber sent you on his way.” 

Saber lay back against a tree that was close to him and rubbed his leg, he was bleeding a little, but the bone wasn’t broken. Sasha and Challenger walked away from Saber, they looked back a few times to make sure that he was going to be ok, each time Saber motioned them on. 

They walked along the outside edge of the park for a while in silence.

“Who do you think would do such a thing?” Sasha finally spoke. 

“I don’t know, I know that soft skins are fearful of that they don’t understand, but that was going a little out of control.” Challenger replied. He was thinking the same thing. 

“That’s the second time I’ve heard you refer to humans as Soft skins. Why do you call them that?” Sasha asked. 

“It’s a term that I heard a long time ago, I can’t really remember where I picked it up. But I’ve called them that ever since I’m sure.” Challenger said. “it is kind of silly isn’t it, now that you bring it to my attention.”

Sasha snickers a little. “I think it’s kind of cute.” She said, and looked away coy like. Challenger smirked a little. “Well that must be the place that Saber said we would find his pack.” Sasha pointed to an alley between two restaurants. The feeling came over Challenger again, of something not quite right. “So are we going to go or not?”

“Yeah, he was nice enough to invite us, it would be rude if we didn’t take up his offer.” Challenger said. 

“Well, then. Let’s not keep them waiting.” Sasha said. 

Sasha walked toward the alley. Challenger watched as Sasha walked away. The low glow of the street lights gave her tawny fur a nice glow to it. He loved the way she moved. Her hips swaying and her tail moving with perfect rhythm. In his mind’s eye, he could already see being behind her, lifting her tail and making passionate love to her. 

	Sasha turned her head and looked back at Challenger. He seemed to be lost in thought. 

	“You are very handsome. After our meal tonight, I’ll tell you that I love you, and I want to be your mate.” Sasha turned and started toward the alley again. She turned down it, her mind was elsewhere, she never even noticed there was anyone else there, till she almost ran into them. 

	Challenger watched Sasha disappear into the alley.. He lowered his head and sighed.. “I love you beautiful wolf… but I fear that I will never be able to show you how much I do.”

	Sasha stopped when she walked into the alley. There were six wolves standing there, that were simply looking at her. The one closest to her was a large white wolf. He had some unusual color scheme. His foot and front paws looked like he was wearing black socks with a red top. The underside of his maw was black and so was the underside of his tail. Around his left eye was black and around his right was red. 

	His eyes were closed, but Sasha knew he wasn’t asleep. He opened his eyes and slowly turned his head to look at Sasha. She was taken back a few steps. His eyes were a cold steel blue. He was sitting on a box with his arms crossed. He never moved an inch, even when he talked to her. 

	“Looks like we have some fresh meat.” The wolf said. His tone was low and emotionless. 

	“My name is Sasha. We were invited here by..” But Sasha wasn’t able to finish her sentence. One of the wolves in the pack was behind her and placed his arms around her and shoved her deeper into the alley, she was caught by the only female that she should see.”

	“Well Lycan, what are we going to do with her?” The grey wolf that pushed her asked. 

	“What else do we do Ace?” Lycan replied. “She has to pay to toll for being in my packs territory. I think it’s your turn.”. 

	Ace, the large grey wolf smiled back and looked at Sasha and grinned. He cupped his balls and  moved toward her. “yeah, and I think I’ll make this bitch swallow it.”

	“GET AWAY FROM ME!!!!” Sasha screamed.

	Challenger heard her scream and was off and running before he even knew what he was doing. He ran into the mouth of the alley and saw that the wolf he loved was being attacked. He howled loudly to grab the attention of the wolves. Once he was done, he looked at them. He took a quick glance around and his eyes fell on Lycan, he knew at once that he was the alpha, cause his howl didn’t seem to bother him at all.

	“LET HER GO!!” Challenger demanded. The pack didn’t move, they all just looked at him. Lycan opened his eyes and stared at Challenger. Lycan’s eyes were an icy blue, cold as steel and they seemed to look directly into your soul. 

	“This bitch yours is she?” Lycan asked. He never moved from his spot as he addressed Challenger. The sound of this wolf talking about Sasha in such a way made his blood boil. 

	“She is a dear friend, She is no one’s bitch, and she sure as hell ISN’T your play toy.” Challenger snapped. 

	Challenger lunged forward. Lycan moved with such a speed that to Challenger and to Sasha, he almost seemed to blur, before Challenger knew it, Lycan was standing with his right paw crushing his throat.

	“Looks like the puppy learns the hard way. I guess I’ll have to teach him the lesson myself.” Lycan said and began to squeeze Challengers throat. 

	“Challenger!!” Sasha yelled.. Challenger closed his eyes and concentrated.

	“Shut her up, if she tries to interfere with anything…. Take care of her.” Lycan commanded the pack. That was all Challenger needed to hear.. He balled up his right paw and opened his eyes. Lycan wasn’t looking at him at the moment, it was the biggest mistake he ever made. 

	When Lycan turned his head and looked back at Challenger, he looked into his eyes. Those deep emerald green eyes that seemed to go on forever. Lycan was almost hypnotized for a moment by those eyes, that was when Challenger took his chance to strike.

	He brought his balled fist up and connected square to Lycan’s jaw. Lycan let go of Challengers throat and stumbled back a little. One of the members of the pack, moved to help him, but Lycan put his paw up and he stopped. Lycan looked at Challenger and smiled. 

	“That was a lucky shot. I was distracted, it WON’T happen again.” Lycan said as he regained his balance. “Let’s dance.”

	  
	Lycan began to back up a little, he brought his paws up to his chest, closed fists and stared into Challengers eyes. Challenger followed, he never raised his paws up though. He just walked toward Lycan. The two wolves began to walk in a small circle, neither one taking their eyes off the other. 

	“I hope the bitch is worth it, cause you are going to die for her.” Lycan sneered. 

	“Don’t you ever shut up?” Challenger remarked back.

Challenger made the first move toward Lycan. He took a step forward and attacked with his right paw, Lycan dogged it easy stepping to his left, Lycan however countered with his own small jab to Challengers ribs. Challenger grunted and backed away quickly. Lycan was faster then he thought he would be. 

“you should have never decided to tangle with an alpha.” Lycan sneered. He looked back as Sasha and then back to Challenger. “I hope that bitch is worth dying for?”

Challenger snarled. “She’s worth more to me then some bastard like you will ever know.” 

Lycan laughed and lunged at Challenger, Challenger tried to move but he wasn’t fast enough, Lycan’s clenched paw hit their mark. Lycan connected just above Challengers left eye. Challenger moved back as the blood began to run down his face. He moved a paw up to wipe at his eye and saw blood soaking into his fur. Lycan’s pack howled and yelled and encouraged their alpha. Sasha Yelped and went to move, but remembered the threat, she held her own. It hurt her so much to watch the wolf she fell in love with being hurt. 

Challenger looked up from his paw and looked into Lycan’s eyes. He started to take slow deep breaths, he could feel his blood start to heat up, there was a tightness in his chest. He lowered his paws to his sides and started to walk toward the wolf. 

Meanwhile, Dante who was standing in the entrance of the alley, to make sure that Challenger didn’t think about trying to run. Picked up the distinct smell of humans. His attention was too distracted to notice them earlier, and when he turned to see where they were, they were already on top of them.. but from the look of them, they weren’t any condition to notice much. 

What Dante saw as two males, both in office cloths, walking down the street, talking in voices that were a little louder then they needed to be, by two people who were standing next to each other. Dante’s sensitive smell, picked up the beer on their breath long before they got to him. He thought he was going to be lucky to have them pass right by, cause nether of them seem to notice him standing there, but one of them caught the fight out of the corner of his eye and stopped. 

	“Hey Ian, Look here.. Guess someone is having out a little argument.” The man said and grabbed the others arm and pointed down the alley, ignoring the fact that a large male anthro wolf was standing there next to them. 

	“Mike man, we don’t have time for…oh.. yeah.. look at that.” Ian said. Ian looked at Dante. “What’s going on brother?”  
	  
	Dante didn’t say anything, he just looked at the pair. 

	“Guess he’s not allowed to talk or something.” Mike said. “I tell ya what… I place $20 on the one with the golden jacket on.” Mike took out a 20 and put it into Dante’s paw. Dante just looked down at it and rolled his eye. 

	“Whatever.” He said and turned his attention back to the fight. He didn’t think these two were going to cause much trouble, they were so tanked, they were totally oblivious to that fact they just gave a 20 to a wolf.

	“Oh look, the big bad wolf is coming to get me it seems.” Lycan remarked. He walked up to Challenger. The two of them stood nose to nose. Lycan looked into challengers eyes and Challenger into Lycan’s. Lycan made a fast and sudden move, he brought his right paw up to clock Challenger again, but Challenger blocked his attack. 

Challenger grabbed Lycan’s wrist and with a fast action, gave it a twist. There was a wet popping sound that seemed to cut through everything. Lycan howled in pain as Challenger pushed him back against a wall. Lycan grabbed his wrist and snarled at the golden wolf. 

	“Hope your left handed.” Challenger snickered, and looked around at the pack, some of which had a look of disbelief on their faces. He took a quick glance over at Sasha. She had a huge grin on her face. Her eyes seemed to say. “That’s right hon., show him a true alpha.”

Challenger walked up to Lycan and gave him a hard and fast right, across the jaw. Lycan went spinning to the right and almost fell over. None of the pack members made to move to help. They knew it was between those two. 

“Yeah, go Goldie” Mike said. “Hey Ian, looks like I’m going to win.”

Dante just snarled a little and Mike shut up.

“Dude, chill man. Here have a swig of this.” Mike handed a bottle of whisky over to Dante.

Dante shook his head and looks away from them and back at Challenger and Lycan.

Challenger made to kick Lycan in the ribs, but Lycan moved out of the way. Lycan ducked down and came up hard hitting Challenger in the ribs. He knocked Challenger back a little. 

“You may have broken my wrist, but you’ve far from won this fight.” Lycan laughed.

Challenger held his rib, he looked at Lycan and smiled. 

“What are you smiling at?” Lycan asked. 

“Your nothing more than a damned fool. It’s just fitting that you should die laughing.” Challenger said. 

Challenger spun around and gave Lycan and backhanded smack across the face. The crack echoed through the alley. Lycan spun around and fell to the ground, he didn’t move. Challenger turned around and started to walk away. 

“NOW.. let her..” But Challenger didn’t get to finish that line, and Sasha never had to the chance to yell.. But he felt a paw on his shoulder.

“You foolish pup. Never turn your back on your enemy, till you know they are dead.” Lycan said. 

Challenger felt Lycan Slip his arms around his chest and start to squeeze him tight. His arms were pinned and Lycan was stronger then he looked.. Challenger was having a hard time trying to free himself. 

“Fight all you want pup. I’ve got you right where I want you, now to teach you to be a behave like the bitch you are.” Lycan said. Challenger felt Lycan shift weight, and suddenly felt something start to press against him under his tail. He knew at once that Lycan was trying to penetrate him.. Challenger closed his eyes and took a deep and slowly breathed. 

“You getting ready to feel an alpha are you.. you’re a good little..” But Lycan wasn’t able to finish that sentence. Challenger leaned his head forward and brought it back really fast, He hit Lycan directly in the end of the muzzle with the back of his head.

To Lycan everything went dark for a moment. He let go of Challenger, and staggered backward and regained his balance only by hitting the wall. He came to just in time to move to the right as Challenger came flying at him. He missed and hit the wall instead. Lycan brought his fist up to smash into Challengers side again this time Challenger yelped as he could feel something break. He grabbed his side and fell to the ground. Lycan stumbled forward to finish Challenger off. 

“WAIT!!!” A voice cried from beyond the alley. 

A large grey wolf came running into the alley. He blew past Mike and Ian and Dante. He ran up to Lycan. 

“No, Alpha please you have to stop this.” Saber said. Lycan looked at him, he saw that his leg was bleeding.

“What happened to you? Was it this pair?” Lycan asked.. He made to move toward Challenger again, But Saber put his paw on Lycan’s chest.

“NO!..They saved me from the reapers.” Saber said.

The look on Lycan’s face was almost like he was going to faint. He looked at Challenger and at Sasha. Sasha started to move toward Challenger. But Ace meant to grab her. 

“NO!” Lycan screamed. “Let her go.” Ace stopped dead in his tracks. Sasha ran toward challenger. She got to him and hugged him. Challenger fell into her arms. 

“Is it over?” Mike asked Ace. “Who won?”

“It was a tie I think.” Ian said. 

“Oh the hell with this. Let’s get going.” Mike said. The two of them turned and walked away. Ace watched them go, he looked down at his paw and saw the $20. He shook his head and rolled his eyes.   
“Damn humans.” Ace said. 

When Mike and Ian were about 2 miles away. Mike stopped dead in his tracks, he almost fell on his face with how abrupt he stopped. 

“HOLLY SHIT!” Mike exclaimed. Ian stopped and whipped around and looked at him. 

“What?” Ian asked. 

“Did…did I just lose $20 on a large wolf?” Mike said.. he had a look on his face that was both surprise and wonderment.

“Ya know… now that you mention it. They did seem a little to..furry to be men.” Ian replied. “And that guy that you gave the money to, did have a nice tail.”

Mike lifted an eye brow and looked at Ian. He took the bottle of booze he was holding, looked at it for a long time and then tossed it behind him.

“It NEVER happened.” Mike stated. “I never bet $20 on a wolf. We never talked to a wolf. I have no idea that wolves have ever been in these streets before. You NEVER said that a wolf had a nice tail. We were at the local pub, getting drunk and then we went home. Nothing else happened. I think I’m going to stop drinking.” 

The two of them walked away, and never spoke again of what happened. But out of the shadows of the building, a large human holding a sword, picked up the bottle and took a swig. He watched Ian and Mike walk away. 

“You have no idea what you saw boys. But I know. We’ll met again, when the time is right.” The man said and walked back into the shadows. 

“I’m.. I’m so sorry.. I didn’t know..that.” Lycan moved toward Challenger and Sasha.

“Don’t come any closer.” Sasha yelled. Lycan stopped and looked down. “If you think that after what you just did.” Challenger stood up and lifted his paw. Sasha stopped talking.

“Talk.” Challenger said. His tone was dry and emotionless.

“Saber? What happened.” Lycan asked. Saber told him the whole story. When he finished Lycan’s legs came out from under him and he fell to the ground. The whole pack was in stunned silence. “Challenger, Sasha, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.. I thought you were just another couple of wolves trying to come in and hoard in on my pack. I had to protect them, we are all we have here in the streets. I am so sorry. I can’t say it enough. Please, stay here with us tonight. We have lots of food and shelter. What we have is yours, I know it’s not enough to apologize. But,”

“I have to go clean up MY wolf. Saber, where is somewhere I can do that?” Sasha asked. She wanted nothing to do with Lycan. 

“There is a pond or lake I guess in the park that you helped me.” Saber said. 

“Thank you Saber.” Sasha said. She put her arms around Challenger and started walking him back to the park.

When they were gone, Lycan looked at Saber and closed his eyes. He lowered his head.

“I was only protecting my pack.” Lycan said. “I was only protecting my pack.”

Saber placed his paw on Lycan’s shoulder.

“I know my Alpha, I know.” Saber said and kneeled down in front of him. Lycan looked at him and a small tear formed in his eye. Despite the pain from Lycan’s broken paw, he took Sabers paw in his.

“Are you ok?” Lycan asked

Sasha helped Challenger to the side of the lake, he was bleeding and bruised. She supported his weight as they walked. Once they got to the water, she helped Challenger sit on the edge of the water and rested a little. 

“You have proven yourself to be a strong and compassionate male, you would fight for me. Even after you said that you only fought for honor, but I can see now you also fight for love, even if it’s not to become some ones mate, you fight for the one you love. My wolf, I love you with all my heart,  Now let’s clean you up.” Sasha kissed the tip of Challengers nose and went to pick up a few clumps of moss. 

	The Full moon cast it’s silvery light down onto the land. The silver light mixed with Sasha’s fur and gave her a slim and slender look. She seems as if a ghost of an angel that was sent to Challenger to protect him, well that’s what he thought at least. He watched her with a deep interest and love, however he would never have the courage to tell her. She was older then he was, not by much, but still a little older and he was afraid that such a lovely creature such as her, would want a much older and experienced lover. 

	When Sasha turned around she caught the look on Challengers face. She knew he was looking at her and she smiled at him. Challenger thought that she was simply smiling to be nice, and never thought that she saw that he was looking at her body. 

	Sasha walked over to him and took his paw lightly in hers. She helped him up and the two of them walked into the water. It was cool and refreshing, to Challenger after his battle with Lycan. Challenger let out a slow sigh of relief as the water slipped up his legs. 

	Sasha stopped and turned to look at Challenger. Her eyes had a silvery edge to them, the moon was reflected in them and Challenger’s heart almost skipped a beat as he gazed upon her beauty. She took the paw full of moss that she had collected and dipped it in the water.

	She rang out the moss and started to clean the blood from his face, where Lycan had cut open his brow. She brushed the blood away from his face gently. Challenger closed his eyes and relished in the feeling of her warm paw under the cool moss. Never before had he been taken care of in this way. She was so gentle and loving with her actions. 

	Once the blood was gone from his face, she used free paw to smooth out his fur and to check the wound, it was healing well. She smiled at him, his face was so beautiful to her, like it was cut by an god. She dipped the moss back into the water. 

 She then proceeded to wipe the blood from Challengers chest. He shivered a little as the cool water touched his chest and ran down his body. 

	As Sasha ran the moss over his chest, she could feel the heat from his battle, his warmth and battle energy cooling off him. She could feel his tight chest muscles under her paw, She had to stop from just running her paws over his body, She loved the feeling of him. 

	After Sasha was done cleaning the blood off of Challengers chest, she worked down his body, he wasn’t cut anywhere other his chest and arms, but it ran down and mixed in with his fur lower down his body. She wiped away at his stomach, She kneeled in the water, and began to clean his hips and legs. She moved the moss along the front of his legs, she moved her paw to his inner thigh, the back of her paw brushed against his sheath. Challenger pulled back from her paw a little, it was mostly from surprise, he wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing, and when she brushed his sheath he came around. 

	“I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean.” Sasha said, standing up. She was afraid that he was going to be upset.

	“No, you just surprised me, I…I just wasn’t expecting it that’s all.” Challenger said. 

	Sasha noted that he couldn’t seem to look her in the eyes, she takes Challengers paw in hers, he is shivering a little, but not from the coolness of the lake or the chill in the air. She moves her free paw up to his face and lifts his Maw up, gently forcing his head to rise and for his eyes to meet hers. She could see the uncertainty in his eyes.  She can see that he is both frightened and excited. She moves in a little closer to him, causing the lake to ripple and shift. The silky darkness of the night surrounds them and the slivery skin of the moon lays like a blanket on the water, illuminating their bodies just enough.

	“Are you ok?” Sasha asked, she was so worried that she had upset him. 

	“Yeah, It’s just… well.” Challenger lowered his head, took a deep breath and looked back at Sasha. His eyes met hers, they were very smooth and calming. “Remember, I’ve never done anything with anyone before, I’m a little nervous.

	“That’s ok hon. We can take it slow and easy, I don’t want to push you into anything. You are a very kind and wonderful male, I have fallen in love with you. I don’t want to push you into anything.” Sasha said, as she slowly caressed the side of his face with the back of her paw. 

	“NO…no.. it’s not that. I do want to, I really do.. I’m just nervous.. I’m just afraid of messing something up..” Challenger made to turn his head away, but Sasha’s paw stopped him. 

	“You won’t mess up anything. I’ll make sure to that.” Sasha said, in a calm and soothing voice. She leaned in close and kissed his cheek. 

	Challenger smiled, still nervous, but very interested in the female who stood in front of him. The light of the moon fell over her slender body, it gave her a light glow, to him she looked like an angel. Looking at her made him forget all about his pains. She moved toward him, the ripples in the water and glow from the moon, just added to the ethereal image that she had already, but soon as she laid her paw against his chest, he knew that she real. 

	Sasha could feel his heart beating, it was quick and fast. She rubbed her paw up his chest and neck, to the side of his face, where she run her claws lightly through his head fur. Challenger closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He felt her body come close to his, he could feel the heat off her, and it warmed him to his soul. 

	Sasha slipped her other paw around Challengers hip and to the small of his back, gently she pressed her body against his, feeling his warmth against her. She could feel his sheath press against her, it seemed to have a warmth all of its own, and she yearned to feel him inside her. She was gentle with his, as she knew that his body was beaten and sore, and she didn’t want to aggravate any injuries and make them worse. 

	Sasha moved her Maw to slide down along Challengers, rubbing it tenderly against his. Her breathing was slow and steady, but his was quick, he truly was shy but he never tried to pull away from her. Challenger moved his head back a little so that his nose was touching Sasha's. He parted his Maw slightly and Sasha mimicked his action. Then he turned his head slightly and drew Sasha into a deep and passionate kiss, his tongue slide from his Maw into hers. Sasha moaned a little with excitement, she wasn’t expecting him to do this, and she knew that he was truly going to make love with her.   
	  
	Challenger placed his paws on Sasha’s back and let them slide down her slender body. Feeling the silky smoothness of her fur under his leathery paw pads. He let his claws run gently through her fur, he stopped in the small of her back and held her for a moment as he kissed her. 

	Challenger relaxed into her paw that was holding his back, his heart beat slowed and started to beat in rhythm with Sasha. The night started to fade away, the sound of the wind, the birds, the light everything was gone, only him and Sasha remained. He broke the kiss and opened his eyes. His deep emerald green eyes looked into Sasha’s blue eyes. The sparks of passion jumped between them. 

	Challenger laid his head down on her shoulder, and hugged you close to him. It hurt him a little to have her press against his ribs, but he wouldn’t give up the feeling of her warm body against his for anything. When he stopped hugging her, she smiled at him. 

	“Well, now. I think that someone is starting to loosen up a little bit.” Sasha said, as she moved her paw from his face to met her other paw on the small of his back. She started to feel something hard press against her, she moved a paw and slipped it up against his sheath, she could feel the tip of his member poking from his sheath, inside his member started to get hard. “Well, I really do think your loosening up. Look what we have here?”

	Challenger started to get a little embarrassed, but it was true. He was becoming more comfortable, he wanted to mate with this lovely wolf, he wanted to feel her and become her mate. 

	“I am feeling more comfortable, the feeling of your paws on me, sends me to places I’ve never been. I love you and I only hope I can keep to live up to you.” Challenger said as he caressed her back lovingly. 

	“Make love to me, my darling male.. no… not male.. mate. Make me yours.” Sasha said as she rubbed his sheath, and grabbed it softly and squeezed it.” 

	Challenger shivered at her touch on him. He never had someone else’s paw on him before, it felt so good. He moved his paws down and started to caress her, just above her tail. Sasha’s back arched a little at his touch, and her tail lifted as he massaged her. 

	Sasha took a deep long breath, and let it out slowly, she moved her paw up and down softly along the length of his sheath. Challenger let out a moan and gripped her rear gently. Sasha stopped the attention to his sheath and moved her paws up once again to his face. She placed a paw on either side of his Maw and looked into his eyes. 

	“Let’s get out of this water, and up on the land.” Sasha took Challengers paws and lead him to the side of the water. He went very willingly. When they got to the bank, Sasha let go of Challengers paws and turned and laid down on the cool ground. She stretched out and turned on her back. She looked up at Challenger and smiled sweetly. He stood and gazed at her body, so slick and slender, the water glistened off her. 

	Challenger slowly lowered himself to the ground, and got on all fours. He moved slowly as his ribs were still very sore and it hurt to bend very fast. He walked on all fours over to where Sasha lay, He laid down beside her and laid his head on her shoulder. He nuzzled her tenderly. 

	Sasha turned to her side and faced Challenger, she smiled at him and placed a paw on his chest. Challenger took his paw and placed it on top of hers, such a warm and tender gesture that it took her a little by surprise. She leaned forward and kiss him again. She slipped her free paw down and started to massage his sheath again, this time she was met by more than just the tip of his member, he paw slide down half of his shaft that was exposed from his sheath. 

	Challenger moaned at her touch, he moved a paw to her chest and started to massage her breast. Sasha took a deep breath. 

	“I want to try something with you, I am sure that your going to love.” Sasha said. She smiled and didn’t get Challenger get a chance to reply. She got up and shifted around, so that her body was opposite of Challenger. She was looking at his pink member as the moonlight lit it. She moved her Maw close to him and let out a breath, Challenger shivered a little as her cool breath touched his exposed member. He had never had someone suck him before, and he was unsure of how it would feel or how he would react. The anticipation was almost too much, but he was welcoming the experience. 

	Sasha, let her tongue slide from her Maw and she took a long slow lick at his cock. Challengers body stiffened, but relaxed quickly. The sudden feeling of heat that ran through his body was unexplainable. It was like someone had lit a fire inside him, it was warm and soothing. Sasha didn’t let the fact that he tensed stop her, She almost knew that his body would do that, and so she continued to lap at him. She parted her legs, and exposed herself to him, if he would wish to part-take in exploring the taste and feel of her. 

	Challenger, was a little unsure of himself. But he had always wanted the experience of tasting a female. He moved just a little so that he was closer to her. As Sasha slowly licked at his member, he moved his Maw close to her vulva, he let his tongue slide along her opening slowly. She gasped and moaned as the feeling of his tongue touching such a tender area. The taste of her was not what he expected, she was sweet to taste. He enjoyed it and only hoped that he was doing things right. He let his tongue slide up and down her, licking around her opening and along it.   
	  
	With every pass of Sasha’s tongue on his cock, he got harder and harder. Finally his full member slide from his sheath and lay open and exposed for her to play with. She teased the tip of his shaft gently with her soft tongue. Challenger licked her, softly, He moved a paw and started to rub at her inner thigh. He made a stroke with his tongue and this time it slipped inside her. She took a deep moaning breath as she felt his tongue slip inside her. 

	Challenger was taken back a little but the taste of her raised tenfold. He began to lick at her inside, letting his tongue slide around the inner walls of her vulva.

	“Oh god… yes. For someone who has never done this before, Hon you have a very talented tongue. I must return the favor.” Sasha said. The feeling of him licking her out, made her body shiver with pleasure. 

	Sasha took Challengers member in her paw and jerked at it a little, she licked at the tip of his cock and then let it slide into her Maw. Challenger stopped and closed his eyes and leaned his head back as he felt Sasha’s warm Maw slide down onto his cock. Sasha placed a paw on his stomach and pushed him very gently, she didn’t want to hurt him, but to give him the idea to lay on his back. Challenger took the hint and laid on his back willingly. Sasha got on her knees and went down on his cock slowly, letting her tongue slide down his length, just before her Maw engulfed it. Challenger with eyes closed, relished the feeling. 

	Sasha started to massage his furry sac as he closed her Maw around his member and began to move her head up and down, sucking lightly as she went. She never intended to take his load in her Maw, she had other plans for his seed. While Sasha Mawd him, Challenger moved a paw and began to rub at her slit. Sasha moved her body, so that her hips were over him, the two wolves lay 69, Challenger immediately start to lick at her again, letting his tongue slide inside her, letting the full length of his tongue slide in, Sasha humped her hips a little onto his Maw, Challenger couldn’t help but do that same, He couldn’t do it much, as trying to hump from the way he was laying, used the muscles in his chest and his ribs were, if not broken, at least bruised. But he managed a few thrust into her Maw, she went down as he went up, she took his length into her Maw easy, he was long and thick but her throat was well relaxed, not that she has done this many times before, but she relaxed easy. 

	Challenger began to massage around her rear as he licked at her sweet moist slit. He was loving the taste of her and hoping that she was liking the taste of him. He squirted a few shots of pre into her Maw and every time she licked at his cock hungry for more. After a few minutes of the two wolves 69ing each other, Sasha let Challengers cock slide from her Maw. She let her tail fall on top of Challengers face, he stopped licking at her and looked down his body at her. She looked back at him and smiled. She turned her body once more so that she was once again facing him. She gave him a tender kiss and then sat upright, straddling his hips. 

	Sasha looked down at him and smiled. She reached down and grabbed Challengers member, she pressed the tip of him against her wet slit. Challenger could feel her heat falling down on top of him, even before he penetrated her body. Sasha slowly lowered her body down onto him. She could feel his thickness penetrate her, the warmth of his hard member move slowly up her. Challenger closed his eyes and laid his head back into the cool grass, he enjoyed the feeling of Sasha as she slide down him. Never before had he felt such warmth on him before.  Sasha moved her body down and sat on his hips, taking the full length of him into her with ease. She sat still for a minute. Letting the feeling of him inside her fill her body with joy and pleasure. Challenger felt her moist warmth penetrate his very soul.

	“Oh my hon.. your big, but just the right fit. I’m sure you were made just for me.” Sasha said, as she sat on his hips. 

	After a minute, she began to move slowly up and down, she would lift herself till he was almost completely out of her, and then slowly move her body back down along him, tightening her muscle walls, as she went down, milking his cock. Challenger let out a long sigh. He resisted the natural urges that he had to hump his hips upward into her. He simply wanted to lay here and let her do to him whatever she wanted to do. 

	Sasha looked down at Challenger as he pumped him, she saw that his eyes were closed, she wasn’t worried that she was hurting him cause the look on his face was that of pure pleasure. Sasha clenched her slit walls she rode him. 

	“Give me your paws hon.” Sasha said. Challenger opening his eyes and looked at her. He wasn’t sure why, but he lifted his paws to met hers. She grasped them and used them to give herself some more leverage, now with every movement, it felt to her that he was going even deeper inside her. To Challenger every time she went down on him fully, it felt that he was going deeper then he should have been able to, she was tight and loose at the same time. 

	Sasha could feel him shake under her, she stopped for a moment. Challenger Looked up at her. His eyes were full of bliss. She knew he wasn’t shaking from pain, she continued with her actions. Sasha thought about how nice it would feel to be on all fours, taking him from behind like a real wolf, but that would come in time. Right now, she just wanted to make his first experience one that he would never forget. As she went down on him again, she could feel that his knot was starting to form a little. 

	“Are you enjoying this, or need I even ask, from what I can feel.” Sasha said, She smiled widely and squeezed around him. Challenger gasped and moaned. He moved his paws to her hips and started to hump his hips upward. He couldn’t hold himself anymore, he simply had to try thrusting into her. Sasha moaned and gasped, as she felt him thrust upwards into her, She wasn’t expecting it, but the feeling of him pushing himself into her was even more powerful than her simply riding him. 

	Both wolves began to whine and moan as they mated, the coolness of the air and the grass were no longer enough to keep them cold. Their heat began to mix and they started to get hot. Challenger let his tongue hang out of his maw, he panted and grunted as he thrust. 

	Suddenly without warning to Sasha, Challenger moved his paws up to her hips and rolled her over onto her back. She whelped a little, from surprise. Challenger was no laying between her legs, he was still inside her and he looked down at her. Sasha looked up at him and smiled, she wrapped her legs around his hips and thrust her hips upward. 

	Challenger began to rock his hips and thrust into Sasha. He exhaled with each forward thrust into Sasha. His paws were to either side of her to support him up as he made sweet love to the wolf he loved. Sasha was moaning and groaning with ecstasy as Challenger invaded her body. 

	“Oh god…” Challenger moaned. His knot was tight and hard, with each thrust he pushed his knot closer to going inside her, He tried not to let it slide in cause he knew he would not be able to control his climax at that point. He never wanted this to end.   
	His heart was racing, pounding hard in his chest. Sasha was also starting to close in on her climax, each time she felt Challengers member slide deep inside her, she felt like she was going to explode. 

	“I…I don’t know..ugg…how much longer…oh god… I can hold.” Challenger said. 

	“Oh yes… please…make me yours.. I want to feel..AH…feel you inside.. deep.” Sasha yelped and moaned.

	Challenger thrust his hips forward and his knot popped inside Sasha. Both wolves gasped, Challenger felt a wave of heat flow over his body and he let go with his orgasm. His member spewed his seed into Sasha’s warm and wet slit. Sasha could feel Challenger start to cum in her, his member pulsing and throbbing with each shot of seed. It sent her over the edge. Her Body shook and rocked her as her own climax over took her, She spurted around Challengers cock, both wolves Howled loudly into the air. Their voices mixed in the sky, like a natural soundboard had tuned them to blend with perfect harmony.    
   
Once his flow of seed stopped, Challenger laid on Sasha’s chest  he breath was fast and quick. He could feel Sasha’s heart beating through her chest. Once Sasha’s senses were back, she noticed that Challenger was shaking as he laid on her. She places a paw on his head, concerned. 

“What’s wrong my love?” Sasha asked, she was concerned that he has hurt himself even more. Challenger didn’t answer and that worried her even deeper, maybe she had pushed him into do this, everything bad ran through her head. 

“I’m… I’m ok. It’s just… you were my first. I’ve never in my life mated with someone, I’ve never had the experience of feeling someone from the inside. I never knew the intense passion and power that went along with mating. Even the most grueling fight have I ever felt so spent. I have no energy in my body, but it’s not from being tired, it feels like I passed most of it to you. And I liked it, no I loved it…and…I Love you.”

Hearing those words come from Challenger, caused Sasha to tear up, she couldn’t help herself, it just came like a wave over her. A tear rolled down her cheek, Challenger saw and licked it away. The salty taste on his tongue worried him. 

“Oh Challenger. I’m sorry. I’ve heard those words from a few others, but never, never before have they felt so true and have held so much power. I love you too my darling alpha. My loving wolf. My mate.” Sasha wiped a few tears away from her eyes. 

The two wolves laid still for a few moments, after a few moments Challenger rolled off of Sasha and laid beside her, she turned and looked at him and kisses his nose. Challenger pulled Sasha into a tight and warm hug. His spent member pressed against her again, and he shivered. He let out a satisfying sigh and laid on his back. 

Challenger looked up at the at the sky he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Was it finally happening? Was he finally going to settle down and raise a family? He would love to, if Sasha would.. but right now, he must heal and return to Lycan. There was a matter of unfinished business  
.   
“Can I ask you a question?” Sasha asked, breaking the silence.

“Always.” Challenger replied. He turned and looked at her. 

“Are you happy that we mated?” Challenger could hear the nervousness in her voice. She was obviously afraid of the answer.

“My love, I look forward to when we mate again. Yes you were my first, but you will also be my last. I never want to feel anyone else.” Challenger replied. He kissed her on the cheek and hugged her close to him again.

“Thank you. I look forward to it as well. I wish I had met you first, I never knew true love till I mated with you.” Sasha said. “Should we get back to Lycan, he was nice enough to offer us shelter and food for the night. I don’t know if I trust him..”

“He was doing what he thought was right as an alpha.. protecting his pack… we can’t judge him to harshly.” Challenger said. He took one of her paws into his.

Sasha closed her eyes and placed her other paw on top of his. 

“We’ll see.” Sasha said. “For now.. no one else matters, you are the only one that is here with me right now. For now, only you exist. So let’s be the only ones that exist in the world.”

“That sounds lovely. That sounds just fine.” Challenger said and laid his head down.

“Challenger, can I say something?” Sasha asked.

“You can say anything you like my love.” Challenger replied. 

“I.. really hope you never have to fight again, I don’t think I could bare to see that again. I would have died if I had lost you.” Sasha said, there was tears in her voice. Challenger held her close, safe in his strong arms. 

“You know that I have to do it one more time. I have to teach Salvator a lesson, he has to know what he has done.” Challenger said. He was afraid to say it. 

“Yes, I suppose your right. Part of me knows it has to be done, and part of me thinks we should just run away. But you would never leave your friends, and that’s one of the things I love about you.” Sasha said, wiping away a tear. “One more and then you’re done. Do you promise me that?”

“I promise you. I only want to spend my life, making love to you.” Challenger said and nuzzled her tenderly, he kissed her neck and sent a shiver down her spin.

“Thank you. I love you Challenger, my big handsome wolf.” Sasha said. 

“And I love you too. My beautiful angel.” Challenger replied. The two of them laid in the bath of the moonlight.

When Challenger and Sasha got back to the alley, they were greeted by Ace, who smiled and backed down when he saw who it was that was entering.

“Welcome back.” Ace said. 

“Thank you..uh. Ace was it?” Challenger asked.

“That’s correct. Lace and Trench are just getting some supplies and some extra food so we can have a large feast.” Ace said. “Come in and sit down.”

Ace led them into the alleyway. Lycan was standing near the end of the alley talking to one of the wolves. When he saw Challenger and Sasha enter, he nodded to the wolf he was talking to, and walked to meet them. Sasha’s body stiffened and she barred her teeth a little. Lycan stopped. 

“Welcome back.” Lycan said, his voice was much more tender then the last time they were all together. Challenger took Sasha’s paw and squeezed it, she looked at him, she could see in his eyes, the concern. They both knew that Lycan was only trying to protect his pack, but Sasha was not as forgiving as Challenger seemed to be. He was a wonderful and the most beautiful wolf she had ever met, but he had a lot to learn of the streets. But she relaxed a little, she didn’t trust Lycan, but for Challenger she would at least act civil, Challenger smiled and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek. He let go of her paw and walked toward Lycan. 

Sasha tensed once again, she was sure that Lycan was going to attack her handsome wolf again. Challenger extended his paw, Lycan took it and shook it. 

“I’m very sorry.” Lycan started to say. But Challenger lifted his other paw in a “Stop” gesture. 

“You were doing what you thought was right, you were behaving like an alpha. I would have done the same if I were in your post.” Challenger replied. “How is your paw?”  
Lycan looked at his paw and smiled. 

“Broken. But I’ve had worse.” Lycan said. 

“Will you be ok?” Challenger asked.

“You have a large heart. She is very lucky to have someone like you.” Lycan said. 

Challenger looked at Sasha and smiled. She smiled back at him, but was still keeping her distance from Lycan. 

“That I am.” Challenger said. 

Lace and Trench walked into the alley. 

“Were back.” Lace said. “We have some good stuff.”

“Welcome back, did you get the med supplies?” Lycan asked as he greeted the pair.

“I found some.” Trench said and handed Lycan a bag of bandages. “I’m sorry there wasn’t many that I could get a hold of.”

“You did great. Saber, come here.” Lycan said. He pawed though the bag, there was only enough bandages for one. Saber limped over to his alpha. 

“Yes alpha.” Saber said as he sat in front of Lycan. 

“Let’s bandage up that leg of yours.” Lycan said, he kneeled down and started to wrap Sabers leg. Challenger and Sasha watched. Sasha knew at once that there wasn’t enough bandages there to do both of them.

“But Alpha, your paw. It’s broken…” Saber was putting his paws down to stop Lycan from doing this, but Lycan just looked into his eyes and he stopped.

“You need to be taken care of more than me. I will heal.” Lycan started to wrap Sabers leg. He was gentle and tender. Sasha watched closely. She thought it was all just an act at first, something to show off to them.. but then she noticed that he was using his broken paw now and then. Lycan never said anything out loud, but Sasha could see the pain in his face. Every time he moved his paw, it was hurting him a lot. But here he was, in obviously more pain and more injured then Saber. And all he cared about was keeping his pack member safe. “There that should make you good as new.” Lycan said as he finished off the wrap. He got up and gave Saber a tender kiss on the check. “Now no more getting into trouble for a while.” Lycan said with a smile on his face. He looked at Challenger and Sasha. “Shall we eat?”

Trench and Lace starting setting up a massive amount of food, neither Challenger or Sasha had ever seen so much food. The pack, Challenger and Sasha all sat. Lycan helped Saber sit down and then sat himself next to him. 

“Please, help yourself. We have plenty of food.” Lycan said. 

Challenger was the first to start. Sasha joined him and then the pack. After a few moments of silence Saber was the one that broke the silence. 

“What brings you around here Challenger? Your obviously not from the streets. Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound rude.” Saber said, lowering his head.

“No, it’s ok. Your right, I’m not from the streets.” Challenger said. He looked at Sasha and took her paw in his. He told the story of how he ended up here. He told all about the park, about what his life was there, and about Salvator and how he was trying to get back to set the animals of the park free from Salvatore’s rain, He told about how he met Sasha and how if it wasn’t for her, he would probably just be sitting in the street, alone and scared, and more than likely on the edge of death. At one point Saber got up and sat next down to Challenger. The whole pack listened with great interest. Lycan sat and listened to the whole tale, mindlessly rubbing his paw. Sasha keep watching him, out of the corner of her eye. She thought he didn’t notice, but Lycan was well aware that she was watching him. He knew that she didn’t trust him. After Challenger was finished there was a still silence around the pack. 

“So you’re heading back to take care of the lion that did this to you?” Lycan asked. “I’m sure that Sasha knows the streets well. But would you care for some company along the way?”

“Are you asking to join us?” Sasha asked. Her eyes met with Lycan’s, neither of them looked away. There was tension in the air. Challenger could feel it, and he rubbed Sasha’s paw. She relaxed her body a little. 

“I wish to travel with you two. I would like to help in any way I can, to help make up for what I did.” Lycan replied. 

Sasha bite her lip, she was close to shouting out that there was nothing that Lycan could do to make up what he did to her beloved wolf. But she kept her peace. Challenger seemed shocked at what Lycan was saying. 

“I would consider it an honor to travel with you.” Challenger said. 

“Would the pack be permitted to join us?” Lycan asked.

This time it was Sasha that spoke up. 

“That would be a good idea. Traveling around town is better with more than just two. There is safety in numbers.” Sasha said. But in her mind, she thought that with the pack there, or at least Saber, then Lycan wouldn’t try anything. 

“Good, then it’s settled, we’ll head off in the morning then?” Lycan asked. “I think it’s time for us to settle down for a nice sleep.”

“There is a nice spot over in the end of the alley, it has some privacy if you two would like to have it.” Ace said and pointed toward to rear of the alley.

“Thank you Ace.” Challenger said. 

Challenger and Sasha walked back to the end of the alley. The pack started to settle in for the night. No one really noticed that Saber had walked away from everyone and went to the entrance of the alley. Challenger and Sasha got to the spot that Ace was talking about. It did give some nice privacy. Sasha sat down on the ground and Challenger eased himself down next to her. 

“Are you sure it’s going to be safe if we bring them all with us?” Sasha asked. She was shaking a little and Challenger put his arm around her and held to close.

“I’m sure, I’ll be there to protect you no matter what. I would take on his whole pack and more to keep you safe. My love for you is stronger than any pack can hope to be.” Challenger said. He kissed her softly on the cheek.

Sasha smiled and leaned into him.

“I love you too my darling.” Sasha said and laid down on her back. Challenger looked down at her and smiled. 

“So.. you want me on my back again?” Challenger said with a grin on his face as he placed a paw on Sasha stomach.

“I was thinking something a little different.” Sasha said. She rolled over and got up on all fours, and looked back at Challenger. 

When the pack had settled in for the night, Lycan looked around and did a quick head count like he always did. That’s when he noticed that Saber was missing. He started looking around and saw Saber sitting near the entrance of the alley. He walked up and stood next to him.

“What’s on your mind?” Lycan asked as stood next to Saber. Saber sighed and looked down.

“I just feel bad, I let myself get caught, I’m no where’s near as hurt as you and yet, I’m the one that got all the medical care. I just.” Lycan put up his paw and stopped Saber there.  
   
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” Lycan said. It wasn’t harsh, but it was a firm tone. Saber stopped and lowered his head. Lycan placed his paw gently under Sabers Muzzle and lifted it up softly till Saber was looking directly into Lycan’s eyes. “You know why I stopped you? Cause you know that you are much more important, a pack is only as strong as the members in it. I need my pack members to be tip top shape. Besides… I hurts me deeply to see you suffer.” Lycan leaned forward and gave Saber a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m sorry, I know that you care.” Saber said and looked out over the town. Lycan placed a paw on his shoulder. 

“I care about my pack. I wouldn’t be much of an Alpha if I didn’t care.” Lycan said. He yawned and shook his head. “I think it’s time for your alpha to get some sleep.”

“I think I’ll stay close to you tonight, I know how you are. If you need some help, I’m here for you.” Saber said. Lycan smiled and nuzzled his pack mate. 

“Thank you. You know me better than everyone else.” Lycan laughed a little. “Oh well, we should get some rest.” 

Saber smiled and nodded. Lycan laid down and Saber laid next to him. He placed a paw on Lycan’s side. He loved his alpha, everyone in the pack loved him, He saved their lives so many times. They closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Sasha was the first one to wake up. She opened her eyes and blinked as the sun bounced off the ground. She rolled onto her feet. She was back into feral form, as was the rest of the pack. She looked down at Challenger. He was sleeping soundly. She smiled and started to walk through the alley, trying not to wake anyone else up. She needed some time to think and gather her thoughts. 

She walked next to Lycan and Saber, she looked down at Lycan, she listened closely, his breathing was slow and steady, he even had his paw on Sabers body, if she didn’t hate him so much, she would find it cute. 

“I could bite your throat right now, tear it out and you wouldn’t be able to fight back, you would wake up dying and you wouldn’t be able to stop me.” Sasha thought to herself, but she knew deep down it wouldn’t help anything. She would feel better, but it would make Challenger feel bad, and he might leave her. For the first time in her life, she felt like she found someone that truly loved her and someone she could truly love back. Sasha walked away. Lycan opened one eye and watched her go, he smiled and closed his eye again.

Sasha got to the edge of the alley, the streets were full of humans walking around with their usual lack of interest in the world around them. She didn’t go right to the edge, cause a lone canine in the streets would land her in a pound somewhere. She just sat in the shadows and watched and thought. She was deep in thought, could she trust Lycan, he would have killed Challenger if it wasn’t stopped. She knew that Challenger was strong, but Lycan was a different kind of fighter, he was a street fighter, just a dirty fighter. She never heard that someone was walking up behind her. 

“Good morning.” A female voice said.

“AH!” Sasha yelped, more out of surprise then anything, She looked beside her as the female wolf in the pack sat beside her and looked at her.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” She said.

“No, it’s ok. I’m sorry, I never even heard you. I was lost in thought. I’m sorry I can’t remember you name.” Sasha said

“I’m Lace. I’m sure you would rather be alone. I’ll let you be.” Lace said and made to get up, but Sasha shook her head.

“I did, but it would be nice to have someone to talk to.” Sasha said. 

“You shouldn’t hate him.” Lace said after about a minute of silence, Sasha turned her head and looked at the wolf who was simply looking out into the street.

“What?” Sasha asked.

“You shouldn’t hate Lycan.” Lace said. 

“I’m not sure what to think.” Sasha said. “He seems to have a gentle side, but can I really forgive him for what he did?”

“He’s very sweet and caring. Trust me I know.” Lace said	

“You have to say that, he’s your alpha.” Sasha replied. 

“I was a lone wolf, I was living off the streets, day by day. One night, I gotten myself into a small fight.. well scratch that, I was in a large fight with another stray, some German Shepherd He almost killed me, Till Lycan showed up, he beat that dog and took me into the pack. He cleaned my wounds, brought me food and stayed with me till I was well enough to walk on my own and get my own food. I was a complete stranger to him, but he helped me.”

“Sounds nice, but why did he attack me so easy?” Sasha asked. Her voice was skeptical.  

“Please don’t take it wrong, But we have been having a lot of problems with a group of humans that are making it their business to try and kill every one of us. They have even somehow recruited some animals to help him… we had one show up just the night before you and Challenger did.. I guess he was still a little on edge.” Lace said. She fell quite and looked down at the ground, Sasha could see there was something on her mind that she was either to afraid to tell or wanted to be asked to say what was on her mind.

“You have something else to say don’t you?” Sasha asked.

“Yes.. I know we only met, and I know you have no reason to trust me or believe me, but I feel I must tell someone and it only seems fair to tell a stranger. One who has no reason to judge and no reason to spread my story around.” Lace said.

Sasha cocked her head to the side a little .“Go on.” She said.

Lace looked past her and into the alley, she could see Lycan a little and took a deep sigh.

“I love him, Sasha. And no, it wasn’t from the day that he saved me, the more we we’re together the more I feel in love with him. I have my doubts that he knows it, even though we have mated a few times, I don’t know if it was out of love or just friendship. I believe that he thinks my heart belongs to Trance, but both Trance and I know that we are the only ones in the pack who don’t enjoy both sexes. We are together most often, we are the best hunters, not to toot my own horn or nothing, but we are. It’s only to be expected that it would look like we are mated, I know he lust for someone else as well, as burn for my alpha.” Lace fell quite and looked at Sasha. Who seemed to be almost lost in thoughts of her own.

“Don’t ignore your feelings. Take it from me, you have to play on those feelings.” Sasha said, her voice was soft and distant as if something that Lace had said stirred up old feelings and memories that she had long since forgotten.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” A male voice said from behind them. Sasha spun around to see Ace walking up to them. 

“No, it’s ok. ” Lace said. “We are just chatting.” She looked at Sasha, in her eyes she pleaded to Sasha not to say a word of what she heard. Sasha nodded her head in agreement.

“Oh, telling stories are you. You always have the best tales.” Ace said.

“She was telling me about how Lycan saved her and brought her into the pack.” Sasha said.	

“Lace wasn’t the only one that Lycan saved. I too was saved by the alpha.” Ace said as he sat down in front of Lace and Sasha. Pretty much every animal here owes their live twice over to Lycan. He never had any reason to help other then we were in trouble, he has never asked for anything in return.” 

“In fact it was us that started to call him alpha.” Lace added. “He never once used the title until it was the bunch of us that gave it to him, at first he wouldn’t accept it. He thought of us more as his family then his pack, but we wouldn’t let it alone so he finally gave in and accepted that he was our leader.”

Sasha sat in silence for a few moments. Her mind wondered back to the previous night, the before, the during and the after. She thought about how he had attacked her and how he had attacked Challenger. She thought about how after the battle and they were all back together, he had bandaged Sabers leg even though his own paw was broken and in much more need of care. 

She thought long and hard, well to her it seemed like a long time. Her mind raced with so many thoughts and ideas. She finally closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. 

“I’ll start again, I’ll try and look at him through new eyes.” Sasha thought to herself. I know what’s it’s like to live in the streets. He’s a fighter and was only trying to help the ones he cared for. But if he messes up once I’ll kill him myself.”

“Is this a private party or can anyone join in?” Challenger asked as he walked up and sat beside Sasha. 

“Good morning sweetie.” Sasha said as she lovingly nuzzled Challenger. “You know you’re always welcome to join in. How are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m doing alright. How are you feeling?” Challenger asked, as he nuzzled back and licked the side of her face.

“I’m.. doing alright.” I’ve just been having a nice talk with Lace and Ace here. 

“I hope they aren’t spreading rumors about me again.” The wolves turned to see Lycan standing and looking at them.

“All good things as always alpha.” Lace said smiling. 

“Good morning Lycan.” Sasha said.

Challenger turned his head and looked at her. He was kind of surprised that it was her that asked. Even Lycan seemed to be taken back a little by it.   
	  
“Good morning Sasha, I hope you slept well.” Lycan said and took a few more steps towards them, when Sasha didn’t take an offense stance or anything he sat next to Ace. “Good morning Challenger, Ace, and Lace. The pack seems to be waking up. Once everyone is up, we’ll get moving.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Colin?” Ace asked.

“Who is Colin?” Challenger asked.

“I am.” A strange male voice said from the entrance of the alley. Challenger and Sasha turned their heads. There stood a human male. Challenger stood up and lowered his head to the ground. 

“Still yourself Challenger. This is a friend of ours.” Lycan said. Challenger sat back down and looked at Lycan confused. 

“This is Colin. He helps us to get around the city in day light. He also helps in collecting some food and helps us to find shelter at night. 

“But, a human? I didn’t think humans were allowed to know about us?” Sasha asked.

“Yes, that is true. But Colin isn’t a normal human. He found me. I was walking around one day, trying to find a good place to for my pack to stay that night. I was sitting in some brush trying not to be seen when Colin walked up behind me, and started to speak to me. He said to me that he knew about us, he knew that I could understand him and that I could reply with more than just barks, and whines. He offered to help me and whoever else I knew, and he’s been with us ever since.” Lycan said. “I never asked how he knew and he never offered the information. We just accept it.”

Both Sasha and Challenger looked at each other and then back at Lycan and Colin.   
“So, what is the plan for today Lycan?” Colin asked.

“We need to get Challenger here back to the park.”

“Oh, Callaway park right?” Colin asked. “Challenger…eh? I think I’ve heard that name before for some reason, but I can’t really think where.”

Challenger cocked his head to the side and looked at Colin, he smiled. 

“Well, let’s sit and plan what route we are going to take.” Everyone walked into the center of the alley and sat in the circle. Lycan sat down beside Sasha, who looked at him and nodded. Challenger  waited for Sasha to snarl or bare her teeth at the fact that Lycan was sitting next to her, but she simply looked at him and didn’t do anything but look back into the circle.

“Ok. They are doing work down on Jubilee road. But the construction has been closed off for today, cause they are waiting for a landscaper to come in and do something. So there is going to be no one on the street.” Colin said. “That will bring us out close to the park at least. But I have a feeling I won’t be able to walk in with a group of dogs and wolves.”

“Yes. We can find shelter till the night fall.” Lycan said. “Can we get to this road through the back alleys or are you going to have to walk us?”

“Um.. walk us?” Sasha asked.

“Yeah, Colin puts us on leashes and walks us though the city, no one even takes notice of us.” Lycan said. 

Challenger gave a very icy glare at Lycan " I am so not wearing a collar or leash! "  Challenger narrowed his eyes pouting a little 

“I think you would look hot with a nice leather collar around your neck” Sasha said and looked at challenger and nuzzled him.

“Only if you have the other end of the leash.” Challenger said. 

“Would you two like a room?” Ace asked. 

The group laughed, even Sasha chuckled.

“Okay, let’s get back to the situation at hand.” Lycan said. “So Colin? What do you think, free range or are we going to make these two hot under the collar so to speak?”

“I don’t think we’ll have to use collars for this.” Colin said laughing. “We should be able to get there through the alleys.”

“Ok, then let’s get ready and head out.” Lycan said. 

The pack along with Challenger, Sasha and Colin started their long journey. A few times they had to stop and wait for a bit of a clearing in the crowds of people so they could run across streets and into other alleys. Finally they came to Jubilee road. Colin was right, it was completely disserted. They sat in the shadow of a large building for a few hours just to make sure that it was completely empty and to let the sun start it’s decent and end the heat of the day. As they sat They chatted a little. Lace sat close to Sasha, she still had a fear in the back of her mind that Sasha would blurt out her little secret that she told her this morning. They sat in silence for about 20 minutes, It was Sasha who broke the silence.

“So Lycan, tell us a little about yourself. You know,  Just to make sure that that no one was spreading lies this morning.” Sasha said. Challenger once again looked at her, in his mind he wondered why the sudden interest that Sasha had with Lycan, he then caught out of the corner of his eye, Lace who for a moment looked a little nervous, as soon as Sasha started to talk to Lycan, as if there was something she was afraid Sasha was going to say.

“What is there to tell, I’m just a normal wolf who is trying to make a living.” Lycan said. 

“Come now Alpha.”Ace said. “You know there is more to it than that.”

Lycan looked up into the day bright sky and gathered his thoughts. He looked back down and looked each of the animals and Colin in the eye before saying a word.

“Your right Ace. While we wait for the heat of the day to lower, I’ll tell you my tale.” Lycan sat and looked at everyone. The pack, Challenger, Sasha and Colin all sat in front of Lycan. They all looked like kids waiting to hear a scary ghost story. 

Lycan took a deep breath.

“It all started 8 years ago. I was living with a nice family in a rich part of town. I was a pet to their son. They did a lot of work to get a wolf as a pet, cost them quite a lot actually. I was very honored that a human would spend so much money on me. It was a wonderful life. After about 1 year of living with them, they decided to adopt another pet. It was a female Husky. We became fast friends. 3 months later, we finally learned the reason why Crystal was adopted. She came into heat, naturally I started to draw close to her, and we mated. She became pregnant. The family was overjoyed. When she gave birth, she weaned them, cared for them, when they were considered old enough to eat on their own, the family took them away and sold them. A wolf husky hybrid is a good animal on the animal trade market, and well if you look at me, I’m no normal wolf, my markings are unique, and Crystal was a very unique husky, our pups were very beautiful.” Lycan stopped for a second.

 “From that point on, when the pups were given away, Crystal fell into a deep depression. Every time she came into heat, we were forced to mate, we tried our best not to impregnate her, cause we knew that if she was to have pups they would be sold. We tried to mate only when we were in anthro form. After about 2 years, and her becoming pregnant a few times and having our pups sold Crystal got more and more depressed. One day the family took me to the vet, because I was suffering from a cold. When we got home.” Lycan stopped. He closed his eyes, Sasha saw a tear fall from his eye. “I’m sorry, when we got home. I knew something was wrong, I could smell it in the air. We walked inside the house.. there laying in the living room, was Crystal, she passed away when we were gone. That night I cried, from when I turned from anthro to feral form I cried. After about 4 days the family brought home a new husky. That is when I realized what I was to them, I was only a breeding animal. When the night fell I ran from the home. I ran for days, without stopping, It was on the 3rd night that I was lying in an alley, I was staring up at the sky, I hadn’t eaten in days, and I was waiting for the on come of death to take me away. It was then That I heard Ace in trouble. He was being hunted by some humans. I really don’t know why I did it, but I got up saved Ace from them. It was like my whole life had new meaning. Even though Ace and I have never done anything in the way of Sexual contact, I think we are closer than I ever was to Crystal. From there, we roamed the town finding and helping those who need help.” Lycan looked at Challenger and Sasha.

“With that I really do say my deepest apologies for attacking you last night. I feel like I’ve let myself down, and worse I feel like I’ve soiled the memory of Crystal for doing such a terrible deed.” Lycan said and lowered his head to Challenger and Sasha in a subordinate manner.

To Everyone’s surprise it was Sasha that got up and walked over to Lycan. She placed her head under his muzzle and lifted his head to meet her eyes. There were tears in her eyes. The story touched her heart closer than anyone there would ever know. What Sasha said next, caused a lump in Lycan’s throat to appear and it caused Challenger to smile and feel a great pride in her. Sasha laid her head up against Lycan’s in a friendly manner.

“I forgive you.” She whispered into Lycan’s ear.

Lycan chocked back his tears and closed his eyes.

“Thank you, thank you so much. Those are the sweetest words that anyone has ever said to me.” Lycan said as he pressed his head against Sasha’s. 

The two wolves stood like that for a minute, then Sasha took her head away and looked into his eyes, nodded and walked back to Challenger who was sitting there smiling and proud of his love, she did the one the hardest thing in the world, forgive the one who hurt you.

“Well, shall we get going. We can’t get Challenger back to the park if we’re sitting here.” Lycan said as he got up and composed himself. The rest of the pack got up as well and they started to walk down the street, no one said anything for a while, no one really knew what to say. Finally Lace walked up beside Lycan who looked at her and smiled and nuzzled her friendly.   
“I never heard that story before. It was very moving.” Lace said. “Do you ever think of her?”

“Now and then, but that was my past, and now I live for those who are around me.” Lycan said. The two of them were a little ahead of the others, and no one could hear what they were talking about. Challenger and Sasha were busy looking around at all the building that were being fixed, and the rest of the pack were just walking and not really saying much. Most of them had never heard the story that Lycan told before. 

Lycan looked over at Lace, he could see there was something on her mind. He moved a little closer to her.

“What’s on your mind Lace?” Lycan asked.  
   
“I.. well..”Lace struggled to find the words. “Have you ever thought that you could fall in love again?”

Lycan looked head and didn’t say anything. To Lace it seemed like Lycan took forever to say anything again.

“Alpha, I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean.” But Lycan cut her off, before she could finish her sentence.

“There is one, whom I have feelings for. But I’ve been to afraid to say anything to her. You see, I believe that she has given herself to another, and I would never step between them.” Lycan said never looking over at Lace.

“Well, maybe you should ask if she and this other are actually together. Because you know that two can be together, without actually being mates.” Lace said.

“Really?” Lycan asked. “So just pulling two names out of my head. You and Trench. You spend a lot of time together and I’m sure you’ve… had some more intimate times. Are you two mates?”

“No. We are just close friends.” Lace said. “My heart belongs to someone else.”

“That’s good.” Lycan said. He leaned in close and nuzzled Lace tenderly. “Cause I do believe I love you.”

Lace almost tripped as the words fell out of Lycan’s maw.

“WHAT?!” Lace blurted out. 

“I’m sorry… maybe I shouldn’t have..” But Lace cut Lycan off. 

“NO..no… I just wasn’t expecting you to say what I’ve been feeling about you for a long time.” Lace said. 

Lycan smiled and gave her a little lick. The rest of the crew that was behind them, were all looking at each other and smiling. Lycan looked back at them. 

“Alright you lot, no making fun. I see it in your eyes Ace, get those thoughts out of that mind of yours.” Lycan said. “Can’t a guy express a love interest anymore without an audience?” He turned to Lace and winked who in turn smiled and winked back.

The rest of the walk Lace stayed very close to Lycan, who made no complaints. He nuzzled her now and then and told her stories. They both laughed a lot and really enjoyed each other’s company. The pack stopped for a rest, the street was a little longer then they had first thought, Plus the heat of the day bouncing off black pavement was making the walk seem even longer. As they sat and waited for the heat of the day to break, Challenger told Colin the story as to how he ended up in the streets. Colin sat and listened with great interest. 

“It’s so odd. I’ve been in Callaway park so many times. I never thought of anything like that was going on there.” Colin said. “It’s just amazing how so much more goes on behind closed doors, that most people are completely blind to.”

Lycan looked up at the sky then back at the pack.

“It’s time we get moving. Night should fall soon.” Lycan said. The group got on the move again. It wasn’t long before Lace was walking up beside Lycan again. Night fell and the cool air caused the hot pavement to steam a little. It created a very low lighting mist. 

The group got to the end of the street, they stopped and looked ahead of them. There, with a low glowing light hovering above it, was Callaway park. Challenger stood with a small breeze blowing through his fur. In his eyes, he was lost in thought. Sasha walked up beside him and nuzzled him gently, he nuzzled her back mindless. He knew that somewhere in there, Salvator was mistreating the animals. He growled a little. 

“Are you ok?” Lycan asked.

“Sorry. Just thinking about what is going on in there.” Challenger said. He placed his paw on Lycan’s shoulder  and smiled. Challenger walked away joined Sasha. 

Lycan sent a small group to find food. Lycan sat on the still warm pavement and leaned back against a building, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He felt someone slide down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. He opened his eyes and turned his head toward the comforting body. Lace was smiling at him, her silvery fur glinted in the light and her eyes sparkled. 

“How are you feeling?” Lace asked. 

“It’s been a crazy couple of days.” Lycan said. He slipped an arm around Lace and she cuddled in close to him. She placed a pw on his chest. She could feel his heart beating, it was slow and steady. She nuzzled her head into his neck. Lycan returned the gesture by rubbing his muzzle over the top of her head. 

“What are you thinking about?” Lace asked.

“Too much stuff.” Lycan said. “Challenger, the pack, you and I.”

Lace looked at him and smiled, She started to look around, they were all alone, everyone seemed to be gone off to do their own thing. She looked back at Lycan  and grinned.

“Now what’s going through your mind?” Lycan asked, when he saw that grin cross her face.

“Just thinking that you should relax some. You’re going to stress yourself out and then what good would you be to me?” Lace said smiling. 

“Got any ideas?” Lycan grinned.

“Maybe.” Lace said and got up on her knees. “Lay down on your stomach. You need a good massage.”

Lycan cocked an eye brow and smiled.

“What? Were you thinking of something else?” Lace said. “Now, lay down!”

Lycan did as he was asked and laid on his stomach, folded his arms and laid his head down on them. Lace straddled Lycan at the hips and placed her paws on his shoulders, she began to work her paws in small circles working the pads of her paws into his fur and down into the muscle. His shoulders were tense and firm, Lycan let out a long soft murr as he felt her warm paws on his shoulders. 

“My goodness your tense.” Lace said. “Don’t I relax you?” She leaned over and started to lick at one of the tips of his ears. She felt Lycan shiver under her and she giggled. She continued to massage his shoulders, slowly working her way down his back. 

She could feel his muscles tense and relax under her touch. Lycan was strong and would put his own life in danger to save anyone in his pack, but Lace couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he was so venerable right now, that she could do anything to him right now.

“That feeling good is it?” Lace asked, but all Lycan could do was reply with a soft murr and something that sounds like “Uh ha.”

When her paws reached the small of his back, and where she was straddling him, she began to work her thumbs up his spine slowly.

“Oh god.” Lycan said. “That’s the place, right there.”

Lace ran her thumbs up the length of Lycan’s spine and back down again. She moved her body down a little ways, so she could see his thighs and rear. She massaged at his lower back just above his tail base, Lycan murred and lifted his hips a little into her paws as she rubbed him. She moved her paws up his sides and racked her claws down through his fur. Lycan squirmed and giggled.

“Eeeeek. That tickles.” Lycan said.

“Sorry.” Lace snickered, and moved her paws down and started to gently rub his rear. “That better?”

“Mmhmm.” Lycan said. He moved his tail up, it had been laying between Laces legs and it slide along her vulva as he moved it, she shivered. Lace gave Lycan a small smack on the butt.

“You naught alpha, that was no accident.” Lace said

“I’ll never tell.” Lycan said. “It just slipped that’s all.” Lace slipped her paw down between Lycan’s legs and rubbed at his sac.

“Oops.” Lace said. “My paw slipped.”

Lycan looked back over his shoulder and grinned at her. Lace shifted as Lycan rolled over on his back and got up; he sat up against the wall again.

“Well that felt wonderful.” Lycan said. Lace turned around and looked at him; her eyes fell on his half erect member and smiled.	

“I can see.” Lace said as crawled over on all fours. “Although it looks like I didn’t get all the tension out of your body.”

Lace leaned, down and look a long slow lick at Lycan’s member. Lycan let out a slow breath and made no attempt to stop her. Lace lapped at the wolfs member as it swelled and hardened under her tongue. Once Lycan was fully stiff, Lace started to slide her tongue up his body moving her body up along as well; she reached her face and looked into his eyes, before kissing him. As she deepened the kiss, she positioned hips above his member and started to rub her slit against his hard member, not allowing it to enter her; she just caressed him with her heat.  
	  
Lycan wrapped his arms around her and held her chest close to him; he let his tongue slide into her maw, along hers. The feeling of her moist heat against him was sending waves of pleasure over his body. Slowly Lace rocked her hips back and forth, rubbing his length between her legs; her passion for him grew with every movement along his member.

Lace broke the kiss and looked into Lycan’s eyes. Those steel cold blue eyes that could look into your soul were full of love and passion. Lycan burned for her as she did for him.

“My alpha, how long have I waited to feel you inside me.” Lace said, her voice was soft and tender. She slide her hips forward and reached a paw down and grabbed Lycan’s member, she lifted her hips up and lifted Lycan’s member up, pressing the tip of it against her, she took no hesitation, she slide down along the length of him, taking him deep inside her body.

They both took a deep breath, Lycan, the sudden feeling of her warm walls sliding down along him, and Lace, the length and girth of his member invading her body. She took his full length in her and sat still for a moment, letting the moment cover her body.

Lycan started to shift his weight to be able to thrust his hips, when Lace placed both paws on his shoulders and pushed him against the wall and held him there. 

“No way, I’m going to ride you the way I want to.” She said, and growled at him in a playful but dominating way. Lycan allowed himself to be controlled; he didn’t put up any resistance. Lace started to slowly move her body up and down, sliding along his member. Relaxing as she went down and then tensing her muscles as she lifts herself off him, squeezing his shaft.

Lycan moved his paws up her body, feeling her soft fur and feeling the muscles work as she milked his member. Up along her sides he slide his paws and up to her chest, where he cupped and started to massage her breast. Lace moaned with joy as she bobbed up and down. Everything around her seemed to be alive, it was like being reborn a new, she hadn’t realized that she had stopped un tensing her muscles and had sped up her motions, until Lycan grunted.

“OH.. GOD!... LACE…UGGGG” Lycan thrust his hips upward and released his orgasm inside her. Lace stopped moving and allowed Lycan to fill her body with his hot seed. She enjoyed the feeling with each shot, his member pulsed. Lace looked into Lycan’s eyes and smiled, she kissed the side of his cheek. 

“That felt really good.” Lace said, she gasped as she slipped off his member and stood up. She hard Lycan get up and step behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close to him, his still hard member pressed up against her.

“That was only the start.” Lycan said and pushed Lace against the wall, fast but somewhat gently. Lace yelped in surprise as she wasn’t expecting the move. Lycan moved a paw to his member and slipped it between her legs and slide it back into her moist slit. “Now, let’s take this a little slower this time.”

Lycan began to slowly lick and nibble on Laces neck as he slowly thrust in and out of her. He entered her fully before pulling back almost to the point that he was out of her before pushing back in. Lace spread her legs, and moved her tail to give Lycan full access to her. Lycan moves his paws up to her shoulders and held her against the wall as he lovingly mounted her.

“Oh alpha! You really know how to make a girl feel loved.” Lace moaned. She loved the feeling of being held against eh wall and mounted. Lycan started licking and nibbling her ears and the tips. Lace gasped and moaned, she started to feel waves of passion coming over her body, she growled softly. Lycan replied by growling deep in his throat, soft and slowly, he bit down on her neck, and thrust his hips upward a little harder. Lace moaned loudly and whined as Lycan started to get a little rougher with her.

Lycan racked his claws down along her back; she growled and pressed back against him. Humping against his thrusting.  Lycan’s paws slipped to her sides and grabbed them, he held onto her and he pounded into her. Growling and baring his teeth. 

“You like that don’t you bitch?” Lycan snarled. “You like it rough, you like it hard.” He thrust his hips harder and faster.

“Oh god yes, my alpha. Do it to me hard.” Lace whined. “Oh LYCAN!” Lace shook as she growled her way through an orgasm. Lycan felt her inner walls tense up, but Lycan was still humping her, and she wined and moaned, knowing that her alpha wasn’t going to give up yet.

“Mmm…that’s what I like. Good little wolf, take all of your alpha.” Lycan picked up the pace of his thrust a little more, he moved one paw up to her breast and started to massage one of them again, Lace shivered, her body was sensitive and alive. Lycan started to lick at her neck. Lace was whining deep in her throat. Lycan whispered in her ear.

“Do you want me to fill you again?” Lycan asked. Lace just whined and nodded. She couldn’t say anything. 

Lycan growled and really started to slam his member into her hard, Lace howled as he forced himself deep inside her, but she wouldn’t give up the feeling for anything. Then Lycan bite down on her neck hard and thrust his hips hard against her, pushing the full length of his member and knot inside her and for the second time, he let his orgasm fill her, Lace howled again and moaned as she felt her own second orgasm rock her body again. Lycan howled through his maw as he bite on her neck. Once his seed stopped he let go of her neck and found he had broken the skin a little, he licked her clean and both of them fell to the ground, their legs giving out from under them from the sheer power of their orgasm.

Both Lycan and Lace lay on the ground, breathing heavy and not saying a word. Lycan pulled out of her and groaned and rolled on his back. Lace rolled over and laid next to him and placed an arm on his chest, his heart was beating hard as was hers. Lycan looked at her and kissed her gently. 

“Oh my god..” Lace said. “Forget what I said earlier.. That was the hottest thing I’ve ever had happen to me.”

Lycan smiled and tried to catch his breath.

“I love you.” Lycan said and laid his head back. Lace smiled and moved her head to his chest and closed her eyes. 

“I love you to.” Lace said. 

The two of them fell asleep.

When Lycan woke up, he was laying alone. Lace was talking to Sasha and the two of them were giggling. Lycan rolled to his feet and walked over to them. 

“I always get nervous when girl talk and giggle.” Lycan said. 

“Don’t worry hon.” Lace said. “It’s nothing bad.”

“Yeah. That makes me even more nervous.” Lycan said and smiled as he walked by them, after giving Lace a nice hug and kiss.

Lycan walked over to Challenger who was having a nice talk with Ace and Colin.   
“Good morning Lycan. Did you sleep well?” Challenger asked, as the wolf approached them. 

“As much as I could I guess. So what’s the good word?” Lycan asked. 

“Not much. Challenger here is just worried about the animals in the park.” Colin said. “I really can’t blame him, He’s been telling me stories about Salvator.”

“Makes King look like a sissy.” Ace said. 

“King?” Challenger asked.

“Some big shot want to be.” Lycan said. “Thinks he’s all that.”

“Sounds like Salvator. Thinks everyone is below him and he rules all?” 

Challenger said laughing. “So was he given the name King, or did he take it himself?” 

“No one really knows.” Lycan said, shrugging his shoulders. “Just some Pit bull that showed up in the streets one day, and started wrecking havoc.” 

“Maybe after we’re done with Salvator, we should come back and clean up the streets so to speak.” Challenger said, they all had a good chuckle. 

“Hey now, no making plans for any more battles. After this fight with Salvator, all I want to see it friendly fights.” Sasha piped up. “Or I’ll kick all your asses.”

“Yes dear. And I believe you WOULD kick our asses.” Challenger said. 

“And don’t you forget it.” Sasha smiled. Lace and Sasha went off and talked some more. Challenger watched them go and then turned to everyone else. 

“Colin, I have something I would like to ask you to do, but I’m not really sure how to ask it without sounding weird.” Challenger said.

“Well. Just try coming right out and saying it, I’m a human talking to a 7 foot wolf who can speak. I think we are safe to say we can get by anything “weird”.” Colin said.   
Challenger thought about it for a moment and then laughed. 

“You know, I never thought about it like that. OK. Would you mind going into the park and look at the animals? I want to make sure that everyone in there is alright.” Challenger asked. Colin smiled. 

“I would be more than happy to help you out. I’ll go first thing in the morning when they open.” Colin replied. 

“Thank you. OH, there is one that I am particularly concerned about, his name is Aiden, he’s a black panther. He was in a way my student and I fear that Salvator might have focused on him more than the others.” Challenger had a genuine concern in his voice, which made Colin, Lycan, and Ace. Feel bad for him, he truly was worried about them, and it must have been killing him to know that he was so close, but he didn’t know what was going on. 

Colin walked over to challenger and placed his hand on the wolfs strong shoulder. Challenger looked at him and smiled. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll go make sure they are alright.” Colin said.

Colin waited for the park to open. He walked into it and started to walk around looking like a normal visitor, not someone who was on a mission to find and talk to one of the animals and let them know that Challenger was coming back. And to do all this without anyone hearing him. Everyone talks to animals, but when he is having a real conversation, he might be dragged off.   
	He walked up to the wolf enclose and watched a little bit, mostly so that he could see if they looked healthy and report back to Challenger. They all seemed to be doing alright from what he could see. He walked through the park and got to the lion’s exhibit. He gazed at them, his eyes fell on a large male lion who just looked like he thought he was king of everything. Colin knew at once that it was Salvator that Challenger told him about. He crossed his arms and leaned on a wooden “barrier” that they had set up and looked at Salvator, he first looked around to make sure that no one was looking at him and when Salvator turned his head and caught his eye, Colin moved his hand up so that Salvator could see it and gave him the finger.   
	Salvator looked at him, he narrowed his eyes and snarled. Colin gave him a wicked little smile and walked off. Salvator watched him go and then a thought hit him and he smiled a little to himself and laid back down.   
	After about 20 minutes of pretending to be a guest of the park he made his decision as to what animal he was going to talk to. He noticed that the horses were all standing around the fence, cause there were people feeding them from one of the “feed” machines. Colin looked them over and then saw one that was kind of standing off to the side, a golden haired stallion with a silvery mane. Colin popped a quarter into a machine and got a hand full of feed and walked over to the horse. He stopped and caught the attention of him. Once he was looking at Colin, Colin didn’t do the normal “here horsy.” That most people do, he actually made a come here gesture with his hand. The horse came over instantly, he knew that this human wasn’t normal.   
	The horse came over and Colin put his hand out with the feed, the horse nibbled at it and Colin lowered his head down and whispered into his ear.   
	“No one is looking; I don’t think anyone can hear you. Speak softly. What is your name?” Colin asked as he rubbed the horses head softly, acting normal.  
	“Trojan.” Trojan said as he lifted his head and shook it a little, and then went back to eating.   
	“I know this stuff probably taste like crap, sorry. But I have a reason to be here. Tell a few people, but don’t make it to public. Challenger is coming back to the park.” Colin said. 	  
	Trojan got excited at the mention of Challengers name and didn’t mean to but he bite Colin’s hand. Colin winched and Trojan whinnied in apology. Colin looked around and saw someone looking at him.   
	“Well, they say to keep your hand flat, guess it’s my fault.” Colin rubbed his hand and looked at Trojan. “It’s ok.”  
	Trojan came back and let Colin rub his head again. Trojan started to nose around Colin’s shirt and hand to make it look like he was looking for more food.  
	“Tonight.” Colin rubs behind Trojans ears and then took off. Trojan trotted off, he was so happy to hear that Challenger was coming back.   
	The word spread quickly, everyone was careful not to breathe a word to certain animals that everyone knew would go running to Salvator. Colin walked around the park for about an hour in total before heading back to everyone. When he got back Challenger almost knocked him over.   
	“How is everyone? Do they look alright?” Challenger asked as he jumped up on Colin. He got himself under control quickly and sat down and waited for Colin to answer.   
	“Everyone looked well. I spoke to a horse, named Trojan. Everything should be ready to go tonight.” Colin said.   
	“What about the panther I asked you to find, Aiden?” Challenger was particularly concerned about him, He wasn’t sure if Salvator knew that Challenger was teaching him to fight or not.    
	“Yes I saw him, he seemed to be limping a little on his back left leg, but he looked good over all.”  
	Challenger tried not to jump to any conclusions, but couldn’t help but feel deep in his heart, that the limp was caused by Salvator.  
	“We wait till night fall, and then we act. This will be a rough night. We should rest now.” Lycan said. Everyone nodded and agreed.   
Colin left and went to his house and slept, the pack, Challenger and Sasha all took a small nap. But Challenger found it very hard to sleep. His mind was everywhere; he lay next to Sasha and watched her sleep for a while, before finally drifting off himself.   
When night fell, everyone moved to a small alleyway across from the park. They had started their nightly shut down and the last of the park guests were leaving. The lights went down to half power and the air stilled as if in anticipation of the nights events. Challenger stood, his arms folded in front of him, he stared into the parks darkness, knowing that tonight, it would end. Either he would settle his score with Salvator or Salvator would finish him off, either way, it ended this night. Sasha walked up to him and slipped a paw around his shoulder and hugs him.  
“We’ll all be behind you.” Sasha said in a tender caring voice. Challenger leaned up against her and nodded his head.  
“I know, and I’m very grateful for that. Tonight it all ends. One way or another.” Challenger said, his voice was far away, distant.   
Sasha took a paw and moved Challengers head to look her straight in the eye.   
“If you get hurt and die, I’ll kill you.” Sasha said, she cracked a smile and it made Challenger smile back.   
“So anyone know how we are going to get the guards away from the gate so we can sneak in?” Lycan asked as he walked up beside Sasha.   
“Not really, I’ve been trying to think of something.” Challenger said.   
“I think I can help with that.” Colin said as he walked around the corner. Sasha almost screamed, because she didn’t hear him coming and it took her by surprise.  
“What do you have in mind?” Lycan asked. Colin smiled. He stood in front of Challenger and held out his hand.   
“It was a pleasure to meet you Challenger. I hope that we can meet again sometime.” Colin said, Challenger took his hand and shook it. He then turned to Sasha, he extended his hand again, but Sasha brushed it aside and gave him a hug. Colin returned the hug gladly. “We’ll, it’s my time to shine.”  
Lycan cocked an eye, and Colin winked then ran off down the street, everyone looked at him surprised. About 40 feet or so up the road he ran across the street and then started to run back toward the park. When he was about 15 feet from the gate, he started to shout.  
“God dam nit.. Someone help! Someone come quick.. Oh my god!” Colin was yelling and flailing his arms around. One of the park guards poked his head out from around the gate and looked what all the commotion was about. Colin ran up to him and grabbed his by the shoulders; he took the guard completely by surprise. “YOU! Grab everyone you can, someone is trying to cut through the back of the park and they are going to let the animals out, lions running through the streets, horses shitting on the roads, wolves eating, everything. Come quick, follow me.” Colin started to run away from the gate, it took a few moments for the guards to follow him, after the one guard looked at the others, and shrugged, there was no alcohol on Colin’s breath, so they figured he was telling the truth. Plus they didn’t want to take the chance.  
Everyone waited for about 5 minutes, to make sure that everyone was completely gone, before proceeding. Challenger went first, then Sasha, and followed closely by Lycan. They got to the gate, when Sasha looked back and saw only Lycan, and none of the rest of the pack. She stopped and looked at him. Challenger stopped and turned.   
“Lycan. Isn’t everyone else coming too?” Sasha asked. Lycan looked back at the pack who were standing and watching. And then turned back to Sasha and Challenger.  
“No, they are staying here. Someone has to carry on what I’ve been doing. And it will be easier to try and get three of us in, instead of a whole pack. In time we can get them all in, two extra wolves in an enclose won’t be noticed, but.” Lycan stopped talking.   
“I understand.” Sasha said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to get her in the park.”  
Lycan nodded, Sasha held out her paw, Lycan looked at Challenger who nodded at him. Lycan took her paw and she squeezed it. Lycan smiled, it was just what he needed, it was amazing how such a simple action can instill such confidence and bring such a calming feeling. Lycan get go of her paw and smiled.   
“If we kept holding hands, someone might think we’re a couple.” Lycan laughed.  
“She would eat you alive man.” Challenger snickered. Sasha turned around and smacked him in the shoulder.  
“Oh I would, would I?” Sasha said, giving Challenger a mad face, but she couldn’t hold it long. “We had better get going, before we get caught.”  
The three of them walked into the park, as soon as they entered it, Challenger could feel a tense air surrounding them, the park was far to quite. They walked through the paths, none of the animals were in their habitats, and that worried Challenger some, cause some of the animals would usually stay back and make it look like there were still animals around for when the guards did their rounds, but every one of them was empty. Challenger lead them to the wolf habitat. They sat down in a small circle.  
“It’s very quiet, it’s much to quite.” Challenger said once they sat down. “It’s like all the animals are at the ring. I wonder what’s going on?”  
“So what are we going to do?” Lycan asked. “I don’t think the run in a beat the hell out of Salvator, would work.”  
“Would take him by surprise.” Sasha said.   
“Yeah, but wouldn’t work.” Challenger said. “I think.. well… dam nit! I wish I knew why all the animals were gone, or at least get it out of my mind to think.”  
“They are all in the pit, awaiting the arrival of the great liberator.” A male voice came from behind them, Lycan was on his feet and his teeth and claws barred, before Challenger and Sasha could even get up, once again, Challenger is amazed at the sheer speed of the wolf. Challenger knew the voice before he even looked around.   
“Settle Lycan, he’s a friend.” Challenger said, Lycan calmed and stood still. Challenger stood and turned around; there standing before them was Trojan. Who ran over and took Challenger into his arms in a large hug.   
“It’s so good to see you back.” Trojan said as he let Challenger go. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”  
“It’s fine, guess we’re all a little tense right now. Come sit with us, I’ll introduce everyone.” Challenger said, they all sat back down. Trojan sat between Lycan and Sasha, he felt a little nervous, and sitting between two wolves he didn’t know, wasn’t helping. “Trojan, this is Lycan.”  
Trojan turned to Lycan and extended his hoof; Lycan took it and shook it with pleasure.   
“Sorry about the whole looking like I was going to attack you thing.” Lycan said.  
“Don’t worry about it, You are wicked fast though.” Trojan said. Challenger couldn’t help but laugh a little, seems like he wasn’t the only one that thought that.  
“This lovely young thing is Sasha.” Challenger said as he put his arm around Sasha and gave her a squeeze.  
“Pleasure to met you.” Trojan shook Sasha’s paw.   
“What did you mean, by everyone is waiting?” Challenger asked.   
“The news of your return spread quickly, a lot of the animals thought that it was just a rumor that was being spread to try and bring some joy and hope to everyone, but there are a few of us that knew different. I knew you would come.” Trojan said, he lowered his head. “Things have been hell since you left. Salvator has turned the fights into nothing but sexual dominance to pleasure his own needs.   
Challenger growled low in his throat.   
“Does Salvator know I’m coming back?” Challenger asked.  
“It’s hard to say, I think he’s to pre occupied with trying to be the “king” of us all to really give a care about what all the animals are talking about.” Trojan said.   
Challenger got to his feet, looked up at the night sky and took a deep breath.   
“Then let us go give a warm welcome to his royal highness, and de thrown the bastard once and for all.” Challenger said.   
Lycan, Sasha and Trojan all got their feet.   
“YES!” They all said in unison. Challenger looked at each one of them in the eye, he could see it, the lust for battle sparkled in each one of them, even in the gentle eyes of Trojan, he saw the want for revenge. He knew that this fight was going to be hard, and there was every chance that the end result might be death for one party or another, but he thought to himself, if this was the night that he should die, he will give Salvator a fight he would never forget.   
“Trojan, you go on a head, wait for us. Well be there shortly.” Challenger said. Trojan nodded and gave his friend a hug before taking off for the arena. Challenger closed his eyes, took another deep breath and then opened them and looked at Lycan and Sasha. “Let’s get going.”  
Without another word, the three of them started to walk toward the arena, Challenger in the lead, Followed by Sasha and Lycan. Sasha couldn’t help but be both afraid and never more in love with Challenger as she was right now.   
When Trojan got back to the arena, Salvator was currently in the ring with another young male lion, who was trying hard to get out from under Salvator, who was currently on top of him, seemingly trying to mount him.   
“I give in!” the young lion screamed. “Please don’t… it hurts.”  
“Shut up and take it like a man. You’ll never be able to control a pride if you act lion such a wimp.” Salvator laughed and continued to dominate over the little lion.  
Challenger, Lycan and Sasha were all standing in the shadow of the trees, Lycan was holding onto Challenger who seemed like he wanted to just rush in and beat Salvator to a small furry pile. Salvator was laughing as he used the little lion.   
“Some day you are going to pay for what you are doing to us.” The young lion yelled as Salvator grabbed him by the throat.  
“Oh really.. are you going to stop me?” Salvator sneered and laughed again. Challenger looked at Lycan who nodded and let him go, if there was a time for a hero to appear it was now.  
Challenger stepped out of the trees, his heart was racing, his fists were tightly clutched, he had to do all he could to keep himself in control.   
“No.” Challenger said in a low calm tone, that he never thought he was going to be able to pull off. “I’m going to stop you.”  
All the animals turned and looked at him. It was like he has walked out of a dream. Salvator looked up at Challenger, he had completely forgotten the young lion who was under him, his eyes fixed on the large golden wolf.   
Challenger met Salvator's eyes, for what seemed like forever they just stared at each other, the tension in the air could be cut with a knife. It was Salvator that spoke first.  
“Welcome back pup. Didn’t think you would ever make it.” Salvator said with his usual dry grin.  
“Shut it.” Challenger snapped.  
Salvator laughed.   
“you're brave to come here all alone.” Salvator said.  
“Who said he was alone?” Lycan said as he and Sasha walked out and stood beside Challenger.   
As all the talk was going on, the young lion managed to get away from under Salvator who had loosened his grip and ran over to Challenger and wrapped his arms around the wolfs waist and shook. Challenger placed his paws on the lion’s shoulders and pushed him gently back a little. He looked down and saw tears in the lion’s eyes as he looked up at Challenger.   
“It ends tonight young one.” Challenger said in a gentle tone. He lifted his head and looked at Salvator. “One way or another. It ends tonight.”   
Salvator smiled and got to his feet, he laughed and placed his arms on his sides. Challenger gently led the young lion over to Lycan who took him and moved him out of harm’s way. Sasha placed her paw on Challengers shoulder. Challenger placed his over hers and looked at her. She could see it in his eyes, all the hate, all the rage, all the loathing of Salvator. Challenger could see in Sasha’s eyes, that she was afraid, very, very afraid. She nodded and let go of his shoulder, she didn’t want to, she wanted to hold onto him forever. Lycan walked over and placed his own paw on her shoulder and it helped a lot. She knew that she would have a least someone to hold onto while her beloved settled a score that was well needed.   
Challenger returned his attention over to Salvator who was still standing still with his paws on his hips and smiling his little sarcastic smile. Challenger steps up to Salvator face to face,   
"It's me you're afraid of Salvator. Ever since I came to this park, you have been afraid of me" Challenger said, his eyes never leaving the lions  
"You're winding me up aren't you" Salvator snickered and snarls slightly.  
Challenger stepped a bit closer his muzzle almost touching Salvator’s.   
“You going to kiss me pretty boy?” Sal remarked.   
"Prove you're not afraid.... Fight me, just you and me... C'mon " Challenger said, ignoring the lions attempt at humor.  
Salvator snarls. his canines bared. Challengers optics narrow and Salvator is also met with gleaming white canines.   
"If you kill me I want your reign of terror to end on this park, you will leave all the residents in peace. I want your promise on that... " Challenger said, a awed hush fell over the crowd. "And if I kill you”.... Challenger began but was cut off by Salvator.  
“You’re hopeful.” Salvator remarked, sneering. Challenger stepped back and took a fighting stance.   
“LET’S FINISH IT!” Salvator said and struck out his right hand, Challenger however was already waiting for him to move and was out of the way of his paw before the lion could strike him. And the fight was on.  
Challenger and Salvator started to walk in a small circle. Each had their eyes fixed on the others. The sound of the crowd cheering was nothing but a soft rumble in the back ground, neither of them really heard it.   
Sasha was holding onto Lycan. She didn’t want to watch this, she knew that Challenger could beat Salvator hands down, and so did Lycan. But they both knew that it wasn’t them that need to know that, it was Challenger himself, and they were afraid that he wasn’t sure about himself.   
Challenger watched the lion very closely. He watched how he moved, how he stood. This was no wet fighter he was going up against. Challenger knew that Salvator knew how to fight, and he was a dirty fighter. He would break his own rules, if he had any. Challenger wasn’t the only one watching, Lycan was also watching the lions moves. He knew right away, from the way he moved his feet, and kept his arms low.. this was a street fighter. Challenger was going to have to be careful.   
“Be on your guard, bro.” Lycan said in a soft voice, almost a whisper mainly to himself. “Be on your guard.”  
As if scripted in a play. Both of them made a move together. They collided in the center of the area. Challenger brought his left paw up and smashed it into Salvator’s side, Salvator brought his right paw up and cracked it against Challenger head. Both of them stepped way and stood still. This wasn’t a fight that was going to be won by sheer strength alone. They were going to have to be cunning. They started their little circle dance again.   
This time it was Salvator that was going to get the upper hand. Someone came screaming out of the trees and tried to attack Challenger. It was a leopard, one that was very loyal to Salvator. Challenger turned to face the newcomer, that’s when Lycan seemed to appear out of nowhere and with one swift blow with his arm sent the leopard flying back against a pile of garbage cans, and knocked out. Lycan gave a fast glance at Salvator and snarled. He walked back to Sasha. He turned around just too late to let out a cry of warning. Challenger had lost his concentration for a moment and Salvator made his move.   
Salvator came running up and with both his paws together in a tight ball, he came up underneath Challenger muzzle and CRACK the sound, Lycan was sure was heard in the alley by his pack. Challenger stumbled backward Sasha screamed and made to go to him, But Lycan grabbed her, she looked for a moment like she was going to attack Lycan, but then just held him.   
To Challenger everything went fuzzy in front of his eyes. He stumbled back and almost lost his footing, if it wasn’t for someone who stepped in and grabbed him. Challenger waited for his vision to clear, and he saw before him, holding him steady was Aiden. The panther that was basically his student.   
“Aiden.” Challenger said with a smile. He was happy to see him. Aiden smiled and tapped Challenger on the shoulder. Challenger could see it on his face, he was worried about him.  
“Go get him coach.” Aiden said. Challenger nodded and straightened up. He turned around and looked at Salvator. There was a small trickle of blood running down his maw. He wiped at it mindlessly. His lip was cut open, but he didn’t care. That was cheap blow and he knew it. He wouldn’t let his guard down again.   
“What’s the matter little pup? Did I give you a booboo?” Salvator laughed.   
Challenger smiled and spat in Salvator’s face. The smile that was on the lions face faded quickly as the ball of spit and blood ran down the side of his cheek. He rushed Challenger again, but this time the wolf was ready for him. He moved gracefully to the side and brought his left arm down as Salvator went rushing past him. The point of Challengers elbow his square on the back of the lions neck, sending him face first into the dirt and rolling to his side.   
“Taste good?” Challenger sneered.   
Salvator rolled to his feet and spit the grass and grit from his maw. This time it was Challenger who made the strike. He wasted to time. He ran in quick and agile. Salvator tried to move to his side but challenger didn’t give him the option. He was on top of him in a heartbeat and with a balled fist, hit square in the middle of the big lions chest. Sasha cheered and Lycan raised a fist in the air and yelled words of encouragement as Challenger started to lay a holy beating on Salvator, hit after hit and kick after kick, Challenger hit Salvator with what seemed like a never ending joy.   
But one left wouldn’t make it through. Salvator managed to block the wolfs attack and open palm smashed it into Challenger chest, sending him back a little. Salvator got to his feet and ran up putting all his weight behind his right fist and CRACK! Again.. Sasha this time didn’t wait for the attack, she already had her face buried in Lycan chest fur, but her ears saw everything. She heard the loud, wet popping snap of Challengers ribs as the lions fist hit their mark. She heard Challenger winded yelp of pain as he fell to his knees and the gasping breath from the animals watching it. She felt Lycan tense up, and swallow down a scream himself, as he wrapped his arms around her and held her in comfort.   
Challenger looked at Lycan and their eyes met for only a second. But it was enough to have an entire conversation. “Keep her safe.” Was what Challenger’s eyes said. “I will guard her with my life.” Is what Lycan’s eyes replied.   
“BEHOLD!” Salvator said as he threw his arms in the air. “This is your great hero of the times, on his knees before the king.” Salvator turned and looked at Sasha. Lycan immediately put his body in between the lion and her. Salvator smiled. “Are you the protector of the heart?”  
“I protect my friends. Do you know what those are lion? It’s people who will do anything for you, WITHOUT having to be forced to do it.” Lycan snarled.   
“I don’t force anything to do anything they don’t want to.” Salvator said. At That Lycan burst out laughing.   
“Yeah right, I’m really happy to see that you have deluded yourself into believing that that’s true. Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.” Lycan said. Salvator made a step towards them, and Lycan tensed up.   
“DON’T.. Touch them..”Challenger said as he got to his feet slowly. There was a tear running down his face, the pain in his chest was immense. He was sure that at least a rib had to be broken; He had to fight careful now. One more hit and he would be gone. He managed to stagger to his feet. Sasha looked out from behind Lycan and tried to smile when he looked at her. She was proud of him, more proud that she could ever be. But she was also very afraid. She knew that he was hurting badly.  
“Don’t know when to stay down do you?” Salvator said, he moved toward Challenger, who backed away from the lion, not in fear, but just didn’t want to be to close. “Here little puppy. I have a treat for you.” Salvator lunged at Challenger, who managed to move out of the way in time, but he put his left arm over his chest, the sudden move tensed the muscles in his body and caused him a lot of pain. Salvator turned and attacked again, he knew that Challenger was in pain, and he was going to use it to his advantage.   
The lion moved forward and swatted at Challenger, who blocked the attack away with his right arm, and winced. He kept his left arm in front of his chest as much as he could, he tried as much as he could to stay on the defensive.  Salvator ran up and tried to side kick Challenger, who managed to knock his foot away and get the lion off balance a little, then he administered a kick of his own, directly into the lions side. It wasn’t a hard kick, because he could bring in the strength to do it, but it was enough to show that he still had a fight in him.   
Sasha looked on, when he saw Challenger kick Salvator, she smiled and cheered. She knew he was hurting, but she knew that he wouldn’t stop. She had eased the grip on Lycan’s arm that she had. In any other circumstance, Lycan would be very happy to have a beautiful female holding onto him so tight, and standing so close to him, but now was not the time to think of those kind of thoughts. Lycan was busy watching the fight and watching the animals around them. They already had one try to turn this into more than a one on one fight, and he wasn’t going to let that happen again.   
Aiden had walked over and joined Lycan and Sasha. He watched with great interest as Challenger fought. Aiden knew that if anyone could defeat Salvator it was Challenger. Trojan also had joined them, all four of them cheered on their hero.   
When Salvator took notice of the small group that was gathering to cheer on Challenger, he started to get a little nervous. In his mind he had every ability to win. He had already hurt the wolf badly, and put him on a defensive measure. But with this group might give Challenger a thought that he might be able to win, and that’s when he thought he would become dangerous, if he thought that he had support.   
Lycan picked up on the fact that Salvator was starting to get a little fidgety. He looked at Aiden and Trojan.   
“I think that he might try something else, I want you two to go and stand, one on one side of the ring and the other either on the top or the bottom, just to make sure we have most of the area covered that we can move quickly if Challenger needs us.” Lycan said in a low tone. Both Aiden and Trojan nodded, and were off right away. Either of them would do whatever they could to help Challenger. Lycan couldn’t help but smile. It seemed the big golden wolf was well loved no matter where we went.  
As soon as Aiden and Trojan were in their placed, Lycan relaxed a little. Sasha could feel Lycan tensing up and relaxing a lot. She looked into his eye and smiled. Lycan smiled back and gave her a small hug, with one arm. “he’s going to be fine.” That hug said. “do your worst.” Lycan thought to himself.   
As if hearing his thoughts. Salvator stopped moving, he let out a roar and lunged at Challenger quick and fast, but never made to strike him. He wanted everyone’s attention on him. Lycan and Sasha quickly found out why. Suddenly two large draft horses stepped out of what seemed like nowhere. They grabbed Sasha and Lycan. Sasha screamed and Challenger tried to run over to her, When he was almost there, he felt a paw on his shoulder. Everything that happened next seemed to go in slow motion.   
Challenger was spun around and was looking face to face with Salvator, who smiled and brought his left paw up and into the wolfs rib cage again. Challenger howled and yelled as the blinding pain caused his vision to blur. He started to stagger again, and fell to one knee. He looked up and saw too late that Salvator was bringing his right fist down. It connected square on Challenger jaw line. It didn’t break it, but it broke the skin and all Challenger could taste was blood. He could hear Sasha yelling, and Lycan spitting out curses, but he was dizzy and disoriented.   
Sasha reached out for him, he was kneeling almost right in front of her and Salvator came in and brought his knee up and cracked it right under Challenger maw. Challengers head went flying backward and from mouth sprayed blood. Sasha stood in horror as she watched her lover slump over to the ground. She looked down at her paw and saw nothing but specks of crimson red, She and Lycan were both covered in Challengers blood. The whole area was dead quite. No one dared speak a word. Sasha feared the worse, she looked at Challenger, her love, her… she was sure he was dead, tears started to run down her face, but her voice was completely silenced, she had neither the will nor the energy to scream or even let out one single cry. Lycan was also in a deep state of shock, he stopped fighting against the grip of the horse and stood motionless. The only thing he could do was move his paw over and takes Sasha’s and hold it tight.  
Across the ring, Aiden although being a black panther, felt like he went white. His legs gave out from under him and he fell to his knees. Even as he touched the ground, there were tears already rolling down his face. He didn’t yell, he didn’t scream, he just kneels there and looked on, as he watched a trail of Challengers blood run down the cement flooring, flowing almost right toward him.   
	When Challenger  fell to the ground he was sure that he was going to die there. His body was racked in pain and he knew he was bleeding badly. He couldn’t hear his lover, he couldn’t hear Lycan, and he couldn’t hear the crowd. All he could hear was Salvator’s voice as he stood over him.  
	“Some protector of the people. That’s what they call you around here did you know that pup? They said you would be the one to save the park.” Salvator said. But to Challenger his voice was distant and fading with every word. “You are week and pathetic.. you…. Never…”	  
	Salvator’s voice faded away into nothing, only the darkness was what kept him company now.  
	“Hey! Hey pup, this is no time to sleep.” A male voice said, it was dominating and sure. It was strong and somehow every gentle. And very familiar. “Time to get up sleepy head.”  
	Challenger opened his eyes. He was still in the ring, but it was all different. No one was moving. There was no sound. He thought he was going insane. He closed his eyes again.  
	“Get up boy.” The voice was harder this time. Challenger opened his eyes and rolled onto his back and looked for the source of the voice.  
	“Who’s there?” Challenger asked. “What’s going on?”  
	“Well, well, it’s about time. Get on your feet. I know you can do it.” The voice said, it seemed to come from everywhere around him.   
	Challenger rolled to his side, he expected to feel pain and discomfort, but felt nothing. He got to his feet and looked at his paws, his chest, his legs. There was no marks on him, no blood, he was completely healed.   
	“Hello pup.” A male wolf, with tawny fur walked out from the crowd. He was well built and stood about 3 inches taller than Challenger. His eyes were a golden yellow, as brilliant as Challengers.   
	Challenger made no move to attack him, he felt no threat off him.   
	“Do I know you?” Challenger asked.   
	“You were very young when we last saw each other Challenger. I would be very surprised if you remembered me.” The wolf said, as he walked toward Challenger. He walked past him and stood next to Salvator, who was standing looking down at where challenger was laying.  
	“What’s going on here, did you do this? Did you stop time and heal me? Am I dead?” Challenger asked, he was very confused.   
“No. This is a place where every true warrior can go. This is all within your own mind. You have all the time you need to take to make your choices, and decide what you are going to  do next. Well look at this lion, man you really know how to pick a fight don’t you.” The male wolf walked around Salvator and looked him over. His eyes then fell on Sasha, he smiled and walked over to her, she was reaching out as if to run to Challenger. The wolf walked around her and stopped behind her and started to look her up and down along her back.   
“Hey now, she’s mine.” Challenger said.  
“I know, but I can’t help but look. You really have done well for yourself. Now comes your real test. What are you going to do about him?” The wolf asked pointing at Salvator. “He’s stronger then you are, he’s faster than you are and he is going to kill you if he gets the chance. But you have something he never will. A iron soul and someone to love.” He tapped Sasha on her shoulder.	  
“I don’t know if I’m strong enough.” Challenger said.  
The male wolf looked at Challenger; his stare was firm and steady.   
“As soon as you think your weak, that’s when you become weak. Remember that. What do you see when you look at this lion?” The wolf asked.   
“I see someone who isn’t worth the life they have been given.” Challenger said.  
“You see someone who you would like to kill don’t you?” The wolf asked.  
“Yes.” Challenger lowered his head, he was ashamed to admit that he wanted to kill Salvator. It wasn’t they way he was brought up.  
“There is no need to be ashamed child. We all have the feelings of hate, what we must learn it to never let those feelings cloud our judgment. It’s easy to get lost in the blood lust. But a true worrier knows that a win though the death of your opponent is an empty victory.” The wolf said and leaned on Salvator’s shoulder. “You must learn to draw the strength from those around you.” He walked over to Sasha, and put an arm around her.  
“What would you do for this young one?” The wolf asked.  
“I would die for her.” Challenger replied without hesitation. The wolf smiled  
“You truly love her, and you must use that love to fuel your strength.” He then walked over to Lycan, who looked like he was moving to Sasha. “What about this one?”  
“His name is Lycan, he is my friend, he helped in the streets. Sasha and myself owe him a lot.” Challenger said. “I owe him my life.”  
“Then don’t throw away his gift to you, by losing to this lion.” The wolf said. “You still have doubts don’t you?  
Challenger lowered his head. Suddenly the area around him went dark; Challenger looked around and saw nothing but the tawny wolf standing in front of him. Then images started to fade out of the darkness. Images from his past. He saw some of the fights when he was in the park, he saw the battle in the streets with Lycan, and he watched as he made love to Sasha for the first time that night. His heart filled with joy at the sight of her face. With each battle he watched, he could see what he thought to be a fine mist surrounding him.   
“That is the spirit of the warrior that surrounds you, Challenger.” The wolf said. “It shows that you are true and pure.”  
“How do you know so much about me?” Challenger asked. He walked over and sat on a large rock and held his head with his paw. The tawny wolf sat beside him and placed a paw on his shoulder. Challenger couldn’t explain it, this wolfs paw felt right. Not in a way that it was a lovers paw or a friends paw.. it was something else, he couldn’t explain it or even understand it.  
“Let’s just leave it at the fact that I know. You have all the strength within you.” The tawny wolf said.  
The scene suddenly went back to the park again, this time everything was moving, but it was like it was after the fight. Salvator was standing with his foot paw on Challengers lifeless body, Sasha was crying and there were two large cats holding Lycan back who was yelling and baring his fangs. Salvator was laughing and looking down at Challenger.   
The sight of this caused Challenger’s blood to begin to boil. He felt as though he might explode with the anger that he felt building deep inside him.  
“Yes, yes that’s it. Hold onto the power, that isn’t just anger you feel but the souls of a thousand warriors before you giving you the strength to do what must be done. Look, those lines of mist that are coming from your love and your friend. That is the power they give you, and see, the same mist comes from the animals of the park, they are all here for you. You have many friends. You have more power than you think.” The wolf said as the scene returned to where it was when challenger first opened his eyes. “Now it’s time for you to go back, retreat from your mind and return to do what you must do.”  
Challenger felt his legs start to give out from under him and he started to fall back to the ground, the tawny wolf grabbed him and lowered him down gently and leaned over him. He gently caressed Challengers muzzle, but not in the way a lover touches their partner. He whispered into Challenger’s ear as he started to drift back off into darkness.   
“Remember, I’m always with you. I love you.” Before Challenger fell back into the darkness the last words he heard were words that he would never forget. “My son.”   
 “Father?” Challenger said to himself as he started to come to. Challenger blinked his eyes, and what came to his ears brought his whole world crashing down.   
“DON’T TOUCH ME!!!!!” Sasha screamed. Challenger moved his head and looked up, all he could see was his love, covered in blood and being held by a large horse. That was when everything came rushing back to him, and he remembered where he was and what he was doing. Salvator was walking toward Sasha and smiling.   
“Get away from her you jackass.” Lycan yelled as he struggled against the horse, but the grip was to strong.  
“Oh please, like I would ever listen to you. But mind you, you do have a nice looking body, think after I’m done with this little bitch, I’ll have some fun with you.” Salvator laughed.  
“I’ll kill you if you touch me.” Sasha said. But Salvator took no notice.   
Challenger bared his teeth, he slowly started to raise his body off the ground. He fell the first time, but the managed to push himself off the ground. His arms were shaking and weak. He lifted himself as his drying blood formed an almost outline of his body on the ground. He worked his way to his knees and lifted his head slowly. He turned and saw Aiden who was kneeling and trying to stop the tears. Challenger just nodded and turned back and looked at Salvator, although he didn’t know he was being watched.   
Challenger slowly tried to get to his feet, but his legs just weren’t there yet. He tried once more, knowing that he had to stop Salvator from getting to his love. He felt a paw on his left shoulder, he looked and it was Aiden. Challenger smiled the best he could, fighting the pain, he then he felt a paw on his right shoulder. He turned his head and it was the young lion that Salvator was dominating when challenger stepped in. This brought a small tear to challengers eye. They both slipped a paw under Challengers arms and helped him to his feet.   
Sasha recoiled as Salvator finally placed a paw on her. To her his paw was like the icy cold touch of death. “GET OFF!!!!”   
Challenger bared his teeth again and started to walk up behind Salvator.   
Sasha saw Challenger and she smiled widely she was going through all sorts of emotions shock, and a sudden rush of happiness that the love of her life was not dead.  Salvator picked it up as meaning something else.   
“Well now little lady, looks like your big man is down for the count, guess I’ll have to step in and take his place.” Salvator said. He made as if to lean inward to give Sasha a kiss, when he felt a paw grab his shoulder. He turned around to see who dared to touch him, when he came face to face and eye to eye, with cold steel emeralds that were looking at him. “What the?”  
“You have 5 seconds to get away from her.” Challenger said. “five.” Challenger hauled his fist back causing almost unbearable pain to his side and smashed Salvator square in the jaw. Salvator went reeling back toward Sasha who brought her legs up and drove them directly into the lions back causing him to fly forward past Challenger, and go face first back into the ground. Challenger then turned around and looked at the two horses. “Let go of my mate and my friend.” He barred his teeth.  
They looked at each other and let Sasha and Lycan go, and backed up. Sasha went running to Challenger and took him in her arms and hugged him tightly.  Despite his broken ribs, and incredible pain  he hugged her back just as hard. Sasha didn’t care that she was getting even more covered in blood. She just didn’t want to let him go. But Challenger kissed her tenderly and pushed her back gently. " Honey.... I have to finish this.... " He looked at Lycan who nodded and took Sasha into his arms, Sasha knew that Challenger had something to finish, and she would let him. But before she went with Lycan, she whispered into Challengers ear.  
“I thought I lost you......” Sasha said with tears forming in her eyes. Challenger looks to her, fighting the pain that was hitting his body. A small smile formed as he whispers back reassuring her with his words. " You will never lose me Sasha. I promise." And with that he gave her a small wink.   
Challenger turned around and walked up to Salvator who was just getting back to his feet. Salvator snarled as blood dripped from his maw and nose.   
“You ass..” Salvator started to say, but Challenger cut him off with a strong right hook to the jaw line.   
“Shut up.” Challenger said, as he caught Salvator with his left arm and smashed his right fist into his rib cage, breaking a few ribs. Salvator roared yelled in pain and holding his chest. Challenger let go of his arm and let the lion stagger backward.   
Salvator looked up at Challenger and growled loudly. He lunged forward and tried to punch the wolf in the jaw again, but Challenger deflected his paw and wrapped his arm around Salvator’s.  
“Aiden’s limping....... Were you the one that caused that?” Challenger asked. His voice was calm but still evident of fighting pain, the slight gasps he would make and winces.   
“Yes, it was just in a fight, it was bound to happe..” But Salvator didn’t have time to finish that sentence.   
 In one quick move, Challenger brought his fist up under the lions elbow. Despite the sheer pain that racked his body he executed the hit perfectly.  The snap cut through the air, Salvator’s arm bent in the opposite direction. Salvator looked at his arm for a moment, in disbelief. Salvator let out a scream that was almost ear piercing. He grabbed his arm and fell to his knees. Challenger walked up to Salvator who looked up at the wolf, his eyes grew large and full of dread it started to sink into his mind, that he was going to lose this battle.   
“That was for Aiden.” Challenger snarled.  
Aiden smiled as he watched his mentor. He knew that Challenger had love for all the animals, and that his fight was truly for them. He couldn’t help but feel proud to honor such a wolf. He gave without thought of himself. And he truly cared about him.  
“Who…who are you?” Salvator asked. “You’re not the wolf I removed from the park.”  
“You know who I am, but you have no right to even speak my name.” challenger said, he placed his paw under Salvator’s chin and lifted his head up to look into his eyes. Those emerald green eyes that looked into Sasha's with such love and tenderness, held a cold steel edge.”  
“You, can’t… do this…” Salvator said.   
“Watch me.” Challenger said. He brought his fist down across Salvator’s jaw, Salvator felt a large sharp pain as his jaw line snapped. Salvator’s head snapped to the side as a large amount of blood sprayed out onto the ground. Salvator’s vision started to blur and he felt like he was starting to pass out. The crowd went wild. They cheered and jumped around. Challenger stood still, holding his side, and wincing, it hurt him badly to dish out the final blow to Salvator, his fist was dripping with the lions blood. Challenger got down on one knee so he could look the lion directly in the eye's. Both Fighter heavily covered in blood. Fighting the pain Challenger snarls " You're finished"  
Challenger grabbed Salvator by the throat, he dug his claws into the lions neck and started to squeeze. Salvator chocked and coughed, blood spurt from his broken maw. He tried to claw at Challengers arms, but he was too weak. The animals were cheering him on. “Kill the bastard.” “End it now.” Some of the animals chanted. Sasha and Lycan stood, holding paws and thinking the same thought. “Remember who you are.”  
As Challenger squeezed the life out of Salvator’s body, he closed his eyes and saw the face of his father.   
“My son, you are stronger than this. Don’t allow yourself to become him. You know, deep down in your heart, that if you kill him, you kill part of yourself. Don’t walk down that road. You have someone to love and even more. I love you my precious son. Don’t make my mistake.” Challenger opening his eyes, there were tears running down his cheek. He let go of Salvator’s throat and the lion flopped to the ground and panted for breath.   
Challenger bent down and got close and whispered into Salvator’s ears.  
“Leave....... never return to Callaway Park....... This is your first and last warning. I will not allow you to hurt the ones I love...." Challenger now coming to the point of he was barley standing the pain kicking in more by the minute. " I will not allow you to hurt the innocent...... You have till dawn to get out.” Challenger got to his feet and turned around, he finally took notice of all the animals. They all suddenly started to clap and cheer. Sasha and Lycan were clapping and whistling. Challenger takes a step toward them and his eyes roll back in his head as a sudden wave of pain covers over his entire body. Challengers body was at its limit and couldn’t carry on, Lycan saw that Challenger was going to fall and was already there to catch the large wolf before he hit the ground. He held Challenger up as Sasha ran up and helped Lycan hold him.   
“Good thing your fast.” Sasha said as she looked at Lycan.  
“Just lucky I guess.” Lycan said.   
They each took one side of Challenger and put an arm around him and held him up. Challenger winced as he was hauled up and gritted his teeth. They took a few steps very gently when Sasha looked back and saw that Salvator had gotten to his feet, he was swaying but standing. She stopped.  
“Lycan, hold him for a moment.” Sasha said as Lycan took challenger into an embrace and held him steady, Sasha turned and walked toward Salvator, Lycan helped Challenger turn around and they both watched in wide wonder at what she was up to.  
Sasha walked up to Salvator and put her paws on his shoulders, and held him steady. Salvator looked at her through a haze of pain and tears, but in his eyes was a mixture of hate and love.   
“Are you ok?” Sasha asked. Both Lycan and Challenger had looks on their face of both surprise and wonderment. They both looked at each other. Sasha smiled and leaned in a little, it looked like she was going to kiss him. Challenger made as if to move toward them, but something stopped him.   
Sasha brought her knee up and cracked Salvator square in his balls, the lion yelped in a high girlish voice and fell to the ground like a stone, whining and crying.  
Sasha looked down at him, and spat on him.   
“As if I would ever kiss you.” Sasha said. The crowd went wild and laughed and cheered. Sasha walked back to Challenger who had a massive smile on his face. Lycan was laughing and trying not to shake Challenger too much. Sasha took Challengers other side and they turned and started to walk away. Challenger looked at Sasha and smiled  
Sahara walked up to Challenger.   
"Challenger, I’m so sorry, I was forced into it, but you have set me free." Sahara said, Challenger narrowed his eyes, and turned his back. Sasha stepped in front of Sahara and brought her paw up and across the lioness face. Sahara stood there shocked.   
“You can leave with him, I have already heard your sob story once." Challenger said his back to Sahara. "You both have till the rise of the sun." Sasha grabbed Challengers arm and they both walked away, leaving Sahara standing alone, and disappointed.  
“Sasha.....It's over.. it's over... " Challenger hugs her tight, crying, from the pain and the relief of the pressure. " Sasha begins to cry to holding him tight. 

"You're my champion Challenger... I am so proud of you honey. " Challenger just closes his eyes and hugs her close, tears rolling down his face. 

	"Sasha I made a promise to you... A promise I would never fight again.. I seen how much.” Challenger says. “It hurt you to see me....hurt, bleeding... I can’t see you hurt like that again, so I take that promise now,........ I will never fight again Sasha. I just want to be with you... " “We are together forever, I belong to you, " Challenger smiles and hugs her close to him. He is in pain, and still dripping some blood. Challenger notices that he is staining her beautiful coat " I.....I'm sorry honey... I didn’t mean to mess your coat...." But Sasha wouldn’t stop hugging him.

"And you belong to me  no one will ever separate us.” Sasha said. Challenger leaned in and kissed her softly. She began to cry. “Challenger, my love, my mate. You are my everything.” Sasha pulled back a little and placed a paw on his chest just over his heart. “And I know that you are going to make a wonderful father.”  
Challenger stopped in his tracks, and looked at her, with questioning eyes.   
“You.. you mean?” challenger couldn’t get the words out. Sasha smiled and nodded.   
“Yes, my love. I’m going to bear your pups. You’re going to be a father.” Sasha burst into tears and hugged challenger closely. Lycan backed off a little, he was shocked at the news, he was over taken by feelings of happiness and joy, and thoughts of dread of what might have been should Challenger had fallen. When Challenger and Sasha stopped hugging, Lycan walked up to Sasha and took her into a big hug. Lycan looked at challenger and smiled. He extended his paw to shake Challengers, but Challenger pushed it away and took Lycan into a large hug and cried on his shoulder. Lycan held on as long as he could, but the tears started to roll down the street wolves face as well. He knew that Challenger had given all and more in that fight, and his reward is the knowledge that he is to become a father.   
“Thank you for keeping her safe.” Challenger said as he hugged his friend.   
“I would do anything for you two.” Lycan said as he hugged challenger back.   
When they were done, there were two wolves walking up to them.   
“Challenger, you saved us all. My name is Luke, and this is Daniel. We would like to offer you the title of Alpha of the wolves of Callaway park.” Luke said.   
Challenger listened. As Sasha held him up. Lycan had backed up a little. This was Challengers moment. He didn’t want to get in the way.   
“My friends. Luke and Daniel. I would like if I said I wasn’t honored that you would want me as your alpha. But I must decline your offer.” Sasha looked over at him with a surprised look. “You see gentlemen…” He put his arm around Sasha’s shoulder and held her close. “I’m going to be a father. That’s all I want to do.” Challenger then looked at Lycan. “That is the one that you should offer to the Alpha. He knows it well and I would be more than call him that.”   
Lycan stood, his maw hung wide open. Challenger motioned for him to come over, but Lycan’s legs were nailed to the ground. He couldn’t move, he finally managed to un lock his legs and he walked over, slowly to challenger who put his other arm around Lycan’s shoulders.   
“This is your alpha.” Challenger said.   
Luke and Daniel looked at each other and then looked at Lycan.  
“What do you say, Lycan?” Daniel asked.  
“I would be… I… I am honored. And I accept.” Lycan said. Luke and Daniel smiled and shook Lycan’s paw, and walked away to let everyone know. Lycan stood there still In shock. Challenger slapped him on the shoulder and he turned around.   
“Well done. Alpha.” Challenger said. Lycan let out a little laugh. He was the alpha of a pack of wolves, he didn’t know, in a  place he didn’t know. Sasha walked up to him after making sure that Challenger was ok to hold his own for a moment and hugged Lycan.  
“Thank you for staying with me, though that fight. And don’t worry. We’ll always be here to help you out.. uncle alpha.” Sasha smiled. Lycan smiled as well, he had almost forgotten that she was with pups.   
Lycan thought he heard someone behind him, and turned around to see who it was. When he was jumped on and knocked the ground. He was surprised and it took him a few moments to realize that it was he mate, Lace. 

“WHAT the? Lace? How?” Lycan couldn’t seem to finish a full sentence. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight to him.

“Hello my lovely alpha. I’m so proud of you. You big strong wonderful hunk of wolf.” Lace said. 

Lycan blushed a little and acted all shy and bashful.

“Awwww..come on… you’re going to embarrass me in front of my pack.” Lycan said. 

Lace smirked and stuck out her tongue.

“Yeah, like your that bashful hon.” Lace said and helped her love to his feet. 

“Lace, how did you get into the park?” Lycan finally asked. 

“I helped her.” Trojan said, as he walked up beside Lace.

“Trojan, how can I ever thank you?” Lycan said.

“Well… a hug would be a nice start.” Trojan laughed.

Lycan smiled and wrapped his arms around Trojans waist and hugged him really tight. Trojan almost thought the wolf was going to snap a rib. But he loved it.

“Wow.. that was a hug. No damn wonder you love him.” Trojan said. 

Lycan laughed, he went back to Challenger and all of them walked back to wolf enclosure.

When they got back, There was a human female standing , with her back to them. They all stopped in their tracks. Challenger lifted his head slowly, his vision was a little blurred, but he recognized the human right away. 

“Claire?” Challenger yelled out. Claire turned around quickly at the sound of his voice. Sasha, Lycan and Lace all looked at each other with looks of confusion. Challenger limped forward toward her and gave her a big hug. He whined from the pain In his body, but to see his old friend again was worth the pain. When he turned back to Sasha, Lycan and Lace, they were looking at him. Sasha had a look of great surprise on her face. 

“Think you have some explaining to do.” Sasha said. 

“Oh, I’m sorry hon. Sasha, Lycan, Lace. This is Claire. Remember I told you about her. She is the one that saved my life.” Challenger said. Claire’s arm was behind him, despite her size, she was holding him up. 

Sasha’s face was still looking a little disgusted, but then it all came flooding back, she remembered the story Challenger told, about how she kept him company and stayed with him as he ate to make sure he got his food. She started to smile and tears started to run down her face. She started to walk towards Claire and opened her arms. Claire left Challenger, with his help pushing her forward, and the two only females in his life embraced and hugged. 

Sasha was crying by the time she was hugging Claire, it suddenly hit her that if this human hadn’t been so vigilant, that he love would probably have died. For that she owed Claire more then she could ever repay.

“Thank you so much, Thank you for saving him, Thank you for bringing him to me.” Sasha said, between her tears. She hugged Claire tight. When she finally let her go, Claire was also crying. She wiped away her tears and smiled. 

“I take it your Mrs. Challenger then?” Claire said and the two of them giggled a little. “And your welcome. I was more than happy to do it. He turned out to be one of my best friends.”

The two females looked back at Challenger. Lycan  and Lace had gone to his aid to help him stand up. The two of them dried their eyes and walked over to them. Claire extended her hand and shook Lycan and Laces paws. They were all happy to see her. This was the one that had saved their friends life.  
“Now, let’s get you all fixed up.” Claire said and she bent over and grabbed a black bag. She opened it and took out a few rolls of bandages. 

Lycan smiled and they helped Challenger over to a rock so that he could sit down and rest while Claire bandaged him up. As Claire wrapped his chest and arm. Sasha held his paw. 

“Claire, what are you doing here?” Sasha asked. “Sorry, that probably came out wrong.”

“No, it’s ok. I understand what you were trying to ask.” Claire said. She tied off the bandage around Challenger chest, He winced. “Sorry.” 

“It’s ok.” Challenger said through clenched teeth.

“That’s right, show us you’re a big boy and don’t cry.” Lycan said and laughed. Challenger’s emerald eyes fell on Lycan, half closed, they held a. “I’ll beat you up.” Look to them. Lycan blew a kiss towards him and Challenger just rolled his eyes. 

“Now now boys. You be good.” Sasha said. “Sorry Claire. Men are impossible.”

“It’s ok.” Claire said giggling. She sat back and started to tell her own little short tale as to how she ended up waiting for them.

“I was in the park already, doing a little cleaning up in the quarantine area. I noticed the very day you had disappeared Challenger. I was so worried. I asked around and no one in the park knew anything. There was no plans on shipping you away to anywhere else. But I was here, well cleaning and thinking about you. When I heard something going on. I heard shouting and yelling. I followed the voices, and well.. I came across the fights you told me about. I saw Salvator, he was so rough and mean to that little lion.. and then.. I saw you.   
You walked out of nowhere.  I have to admit I almost ran out of the woods and ran to great you, but the look on your face was, so serious. I’ve never seen you without a smile and it was scary. I knew that this was going to be big, I ran away to grab my medical kit. I knew you could beat him, I knew you would be able to win, but in my heart.. I was just ready to jump in there and beat that damn lion with my med kit.” This made Sasha giggle a little, she loved the thought of Claire running out and hitting Salvator with her bag, the look on the lions face would be priceless.   
“Sorry, please continue.” Sasha said.   
“When that asshole hit you, and you fell..my heart sank. I almost ran out to you. I had to clamp my hands over my mouth, to muffle my cry. I prayed to every god to lift you back up. You couldn’t be dead. And you, Sasha.” Claire extended her hand and Sasha took it. “My poor heart went out to you. You looked so lost, and so sad. I just wanted to run up and hug you, tell you it would be ok, he was going to be ok. And then you Got up, You big wonderful wolf you stood up and you showed him.  Challenger despite his pain managed a small chuckle, being called a big beuatiful wolf. "   There was no way claire I was going to be sperated from my love so easily "  Challenger said. You are THE only wolf. I thought it better to come here and wait for you to come back. I knew you were hurt and you would need some help.” There were tears rolling down her cheeks, Sasha kneels beside her and wiped the tears from her face. She hugged Claire again and even nuzzled her gently.  
“Thank you so much, all of you. You have all changed my life so much. I make this promise to all of you, you will never have to go through this again. I am retiring from the fights.” Challenger said and took a hold of Sasha’s paws. “All I want to do is spend my life with my beautiful mate, and the wonderful mother of my pups.”  
Claire’s eyes lite up and she smiled.   
“Sasha, are you with child?” Claire asked.   
“Yes, I’m going to have Challengers pups.” Sasha smiled looked at Claire. Lycan and Lace held paws and smiled at them, and Claire smiled.   
Challenger was in pain but the news he had dreamt of for so long, to have a son. a family over powered it, and the big golden wolf grinned with pride.   
“Congratulations, to both of you. You would make a great father Challenger and Sasha, I don’t know you yet, But just looking into your eyes, I see the love and cherishing soul of a true mother.” Claire said. “Well, let’s get his big boy all cleaned up and fixed, or else he won’t be much good to anyone.”  
Challenger smiled gently, he was in so much love right now, his dreams had come true he looked to sasha and gave her a nice smile. He had began to pick up a bit, and Sasha was still all over him like never before.   
Sasha smiled and all four of them helped to bandage up Challenger and get him cleaned up. After he was all bandaged and clean, they sat around and talked for a while, Claire finally got up and excused herself, after a lot more hugs and even a small kiss from Challenger on the cheek. Sasha didn’t mind this, mainly cause she even kissed Claire, and thanked her once again for everything she did and what she is doing.   
Claire was going to take some paper work tomorrow and forge some things that said that Sasha, Lycan and Lace were brought into the park a while ago and were just let into the compound that morning.  
The news spread quickly, of both Lycan’s rise through the ranks and of Sasha’s impending birth. All the animals congratulated them., and thanked them for saving the park from Salvator. That night Salvator left the park, unseen, but with a knife of hate in his heart, for Challenger, Sasha and Lycan. The next day, Lycan was introduced to the rest of the wolves, and no one in the park seemed to notice that were was a new wolf in the enclosure.   
The following night fell, and the night air was cool and relaxing. Challenger and Sasha were laying in the cooling grass as the stars shone bright in the night sky. there were no fights tonight, the park was quite and calm, everyone was relaxing and sleeping easy. Sasha was laying close to challenger and rubbing his chest softly.  
"I love you very much." Sasha said. "You really would go to the end of the world wouldn't you?"   
"I would take on any foe I needed too, to make sure you were safe." Challenger said.   
"Can I ask you why you didn't kill him?" Sasha asked. "Not that it really makes a difference.”  
""The pain of living his life is much better than the release of his death." Challenger said. "I wanted him to suffer for life."  
"A true hero.............. My hero, my Champion " Sasha said and yawned. "I think it's time to sleep."  
Challenger smiled at being called her Champion he liked it, the sound of it, he smiled gently, nodded. " Yes we need our rest especially you my love. After all you're carrying our pups. " Challenger grins   
Sasha laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Challenger gently kiss's the top of her had smiling " Good night my love."  She drifted off to sleep with Challengers arm around her and one of her paws on her tummy, where her young pups grew. Challenger gave his loving mate a kiss on top of her head and smiled. He  looked up into the sky and saw one star glow brighter than ever  
"Look father.. I made it... are you proud?." Challenger closed his eyes and drifted off to most satisfying sleep he ever head. But just before the darkness took him.. he heard a voice..  
"Yes I am my son. You did good……. You did good. I love you my son.  
Challenger smiles gently his love of his life in his arms, " I love you too Father "  
The end…