Did he have any choice?
Chaska drovedown a winding country road, Naomi in the seat beside him, Old Man and Winona in the back. Ahead on his right, he saw it—a large wooden sign that read Wind River Wolf Sanctuary. “Here we are.”
He and Naomi exchanged a quick glance.
The day had finally come.
Chaska parked near a red-brick ranch-style house and climbed out, Naomi and the others joining him.
“This way.” Winona led them toward the house.
A blond woman in jeans, cowboy boots, and a white T-shirt stepped outside. “Hey, Winona. It’s great to see you again.”
Winona introduced the woman to the rest of them. “This is Heather. She runs the sanctuary. Heather, this is my Grandfather, my brother, Chaska, and my sister-in-law Naomi.”
Heather shook hands with each of them. “Great to meet you.”
“Heather and I met online years ago. She runs the sanctuary. They offer a home to wolves and wolf hybrids.”
Heather gave them a quick overview. “We’ve got about seven hundred acres and, at the moment, twenty-two wolves and wolf-dog hybrids. They have lots of room to run, some natural game to eat, and full-time monitoring and care.”
“I brought Shota’s crate.”
Heather smiled. “Great. Let’s go see him.”
Winona nodded, a forced smile on her face. “Yes. Thanks.”
Heather loaded them onto a muddy UTV, talking as they drove through the property. “A lot of people don’t know what they’re getting themselves into when they adopt a wolf. Maybe they’ve always had big dogs, but wolves aren’t like big dogs. There’s a part of them that stays wild. I’ve seen them tear through drywall and rip crates apart in minutes. We take in wolf hybrids at risk of being euthanized and wolves that can’t live in the wild.”
Like Shota.
Chaska wasn’t sure how his sister was holding it together. She loved Shota like a mother loved a child. She’d hand-reared him, cared for him around the clock, saved his furry life. For her to give him up was both incredibly brave and utterly selfless.
She had agonized about it these past few days after Heather called to tell her that Shota had bonded with a female named Aput. Wolves were pack animals, and though Shota was attached to Winona, she wasn’t a wolf.
“I can’t be there with him all day every day like packmates would,” she’d said. “If I ever find a boyfriend or have children, I’ll have to worry about Shota’s reaction. He’ll have so much more room there than he does here. He’ll be with other wolves. I’ll be able to move out of the house, get my own place, get out of your hair.”
Naomi had taken her hand. “You’re welcome to stay here. It’s your home, too.”
But Winona was determined to do the right thing for Shota—and for herself.
As Old Man had said, “Sometimes, doing the right thing means doing the hard thing.”
That’s why they’d all come.
They were here to support Winona while she said goodbye to a dear friend.
“I’m going to stop on this rise.” Heather pulled a pair of battered binoculars out from under her seat. “They’re over there.”
Winona took the binoculars, looked in the direction Heather had pointed, her lips curving in a tremulous smile. “Oh, she’s pretty! She’s pure white. They’re playing.”
“They bonded through the fence almost immediately. Aput—that’s an Inuit word for snow—has been by herself for a while. She’s an alpha female to her core. She took to Shota right away. I put them in together to see how it would go, and they just clicked.”
Winona turned, handed the binoculars to Chaska, tears on her cheeks.
He held them up, looked in the same direction Winona had.
There they were—romping, chasing each other. Then Aput dropped to the ground, lying on her side in a gesture of submission. Shota wagged his tail, nipped her, licked her muzzle.