The Lone Wolf

Chapter 10: Master of the Yukon Wild April brought the breakup. With groaning booms like heavy artillery, the ice on the Yukon buckled, split, and began its thundering race to the Bering Sea. On the high greening ridge above the river, where the sun warmed the rock outcroppings and yellow buttercups pushed through the melting snow, Kazan stood sentinel beside the she-wolf and their newly born litter of four blind, squirming cubs. Down in the valley, the human settlements clattered with steam whistles and picks, but up here in the timber, where the spruce trees whispered to the northern wind, Kazan was undisputed king. He lifted his massive head to the spring sky and gave voice to the wild—free, unconquered, and eternal.