As the group of ten made their way toward the north, they passed by some old pine trees that stood beside a bumpy dirt road. Humphrey began to get the feeling that he had been here before. He stopped for a minute to study the surrounding area. "Humphrey, what is it?" Kate asked. He began panting, as a memory from the past rose up.

An amber furred wolf was playing with a baby gray wolf. Their names were Humphrey and Zelda. She was his older sister .

"Come on, Humphrey," Zelda barked playfully, tempting him with a long stick to play a game of tug of war. "You know that to become an alpha, you must have the will to fight." With a mighty tug, she yanked the stick from his mouth.

"Zelda," whined Humphrey, "you mean." His sister looked at him with a frown, but a smile quickly followed "I'm mean, but it's my job." Humphrey started to cry, but Zelda tickled him with her tail until he started to laugh. Just then his little stomach growled. Both of them looked at each other. "Hungry! Hungry!" Humphrey whined.

This was a problem for Zelda, for she was not allowed to leave Humphrey alone when there were humans about. But her baby brother was hungry. Luckily, there was a rabbit hole nearby so she could get him a rabbit snack before they had to go back to their pack. "Humphrey, be a good pup and stay right here," she said with a firm, but gentle tone. Humphrey licked his sister's nose. It was his way was saying yes to her. Zelda walked off, but a nearby human hunter had seen the pup and planned to capture him and take Humphrey to a zoo.

As Zelda dug away at the rabbit hole, she suddenly heard her little brother's cries for help. She turned and saw him being loaded into a box on the back of the truck. "Humphrey!" she cried in horror, running as fast as she could, but the truck was pulling away. "Zelda! Mommy! Daddy!" Humphrey cried. The box had a small hole in it so he could see his sister. Zelda finally caught up to the truck and jumped onto the back.

"Zelda!" Humphrey cried happily, as he saw his sister climbing toward him. "Humphrey, don't worry, big sister is..." that was the last thing Humphrey heard before there was a loud bang. His small ears rang and his vision blurred, but not enough to prevent the sight of his sister flying off the back of the truck and lying completely still in the middle of the road. "ZELDA!" he cried, as tears ran down his cheeks.

As the truck took a sharp turn, the box Humphrey was in tumbled off the back and landed in the stream that would later take him to the western pack. "Zelda," he cried out once more, hoping that his sister would come and get him, but it never happened.

Humphrey's eyes were full of tears and Kate tried to comfort him with a hug. "I remember what happened to my older sister, Zelda. She died trying to save me," he choked. Garth joined in the hug. Soon everyone came up and hugged him except Angel. She felt sorry for him, but it was not her custom to cheer an omega up. "Humphrey," Shaky said, "Your sister was so brave that she will always live in your heart."

Humphrey felt better, because Shaky was right. Zelda would always be in his heart and now he had another sister, Lilly. "Thank you, all of you," he said. "I know that my old pack is now only half a day away." Everyone looked at him hopefully because they would be able to rest and meet his family.

Paddy and Marcel flew over. "We saw the northern pack and it is full of alphas and omegas. It's just past the stream after you go over that hill," Paddy said, flapping his wings excitedly. "However, there is one thing you will not like," Marcel sighed sadly. "What is it?" Humphrey asked, hoping that it had nothing to do with his parents. Marcel looked him in the eye. "We saw Thatch on the outskirts of the pack. He most likely was counting the number of wolves in the pack."

The group hurried to the stream, and almost ran into a hunting group of the northern pack returning from a successful hunt. Humphrey called out to them, "Hello there!" The hunting party turned and saw a number of unknown wolves standing at the edge of their territory. The lead alpha walked to the edge of the stream opposite to Humphrey. "Who are you? What pack do you come from?" he demanded.

"We come from the west," Humphrey answered, "and our pack is the united pack of the east and the west." The lead alpha scoffed at him, "Any wolf can claim to be from the east or west, but to claim that those two packs have joined together shows you are a fool or a trickster." Garth stepped forward, showing his teeth in a threatening manner to the other alpha. "My name is Garth; my father is Tony and he is pack leader of the east. You will show respect to my brother-in-law, Humphrey." The hunting party gasped in shock. Another alpha stepped forward; she looked at Humphrey from a distance.

"Come here, let me see if you are Humphrey," she demanded, ready to test his scent. When Humphrey crossed the stream, the female sniffed him all over and joyfully exclaimed, "Humphrey! You are alive and have come back to us at last!" The female turned to the alpha who had questioned them. "Black, go back and tell my mate that our son as returned." Humphrey's eyes opened wide with shock, as Salty, Mooch and Shaky rushed up to their friend's side. "Alright Humphrey," they cheered.

But Humphrey didn't hear them because his mind was on one thing right now-his mother. "Mom?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper, "is it really you?" His mother pulled him into a tight hug. "Yes, it is," she replied, trying very hard not to cry because she had not seen her son in over two years.

"Come, I will take you to your father and he will be so happy to see you," she said. Kate walked beside Humphrey until they saw the biggest alpha ever. "Terra, is it true that our son Humphrey has come back to us?" he asked. Terra looked at Humphrey with a joyful smile. "Yes, Clark, he has returned and will soon lead our pack."

"What!?" Humphrey and the others said in unison, unable to believe what they heard. "What is the matter with you?" Terra asked. "Humphrey, you should have no problem with this responsibility, because you are an alpha, just like your mate here," she said looking at Kate. Kate began to really worry now. What would they do if they found out that he was an omega? So she decided to lie about Humphrey's rank.

"Oh, yes, he will have no problem with me at his side," Kate said, with a fake smile. Terra and Clark both smiled back. "He seems to be a little on the small side for an alpha," Terra said, which gave Kate an idea. "Nothing a big feast won't help," she said. Clark like the idea. "Good, we will have a big feast, then we will see what our alpha son knows," he said, rushing off to gather all the pack members.

Salty looked at Kate with a frown "Kate, why did you lie about Humphrey being an alpha?" he asked, Kate looked at him. "I feared that if they knew the truth, Humphrey might be cast out on his first day here."

"Then what are we going to do?" Garth asked. "I mean, we can't keep on saying he is an alpha, because the pack will find out sooner or later." Angel agreed with him on the matter at hand. Lying only led to more lies, but she didn't want to see Humphrey get rebuked by his own family. "I guess we will just have to play along until they find out," she said, sitting next to Mooch.

This was not going to end well, but they all had to hide the truth for now. Angel was in her own bind because she knew about Thatch's plans and so far had said nothing to the others. The reason she had not told them was because she was afraid of being driven off—or worse, killed.