Chapter Seven. Kate has just accepted the Yukon's challenge. Now it's time to get ready for it.

We're now getting really close to the part where our heroes actually set out for the north. One more chapter, or two at the most. I know this has been incredibly long for a prologue, but there was a lot of stuff that needed to be set up before everybody could go north.

As a heads-up, this might end up being my longest story. And if you've read some of my others, you know that is saying something. So there's much more story to come after this.


Kate did not sleep again that night. Still afraid to go back to her and Humphrey's den, Kate did what she always did when she needed to clear her mind. She patrolled the pack's borders until dawn. However, she was still miserable when the other Alphas began to awaken and came to take over. No longer needed there, Kate decided to seek another place that would let her be alone with her thoughts. Finally, she decided upon a particular spot.

She made her way through the valley to the secluded field where the Western Pack had buried its dead since time immemorial. She passed many gravesites until she came to the one she was looking for; Melanie's grave. After the accident, Winston and Eve had led a party to retrieve the body and bury it here. Kate had never been there before – since both she and Lilly had witnessed Melanie die, their parents figured the grave and funeral would be too painful for them and left them at home. And neither she nor Lilly had ever visited the grave afterward, for the same reasons.

But Kate just knew where it would be. There was a hill around here where Melanie had liked to play, despite it being at the edge of the burial fields. Kate knew that was where their parents would have buried her.

As Kate approached the hill where, sure enough, there was a small mound marking a grave, she saw something – or someone – she wasn't expecting. A little white wolf, sobbing softly and quietly.

"Lilly?" Kate said in surprise.

Lilly swiftly turned around. Seeing Kate, she quickly wiped her eyes with her tail and began to hurry off.

"I-I'm sorry," she said quietly.

Kate ran beside her and grabbed her shoulder. "Lilly, it's okay… it's okay."

Lilly, not feeling much like rushing anyway, sat back down with Kate in front of their sister's grave. She quickly tried to hide her face and stop herself from crying. But this only made her cry more. Kate wanted to help her sister and she figured the best way to do it would be to put yesterday's argument behind them.

"Lilly, I'm the one who should be apologizing," Kate said. "I never should have yelled at you yesterday. And I never should have said… well, the thing I said. I was just really worked up about everything. But I shouldn't have taken it out on you. You know I didn't mean it, right?"

"I know, Kate, I know," Lilly said, trying to sound positive. But then Kate heard her mutter under her breath, "Doesn't make it hurt any less."

Kate thought about what she should do. Kate and Lilly had never spoken about what happened to their sister or even acknowledged amongst each other that they ever had one. It had always been an unspoken agreement between them, a way of saving them both from guilt and pain. So, Kate knew that Lilly must have been deeply worried and concerned to bring it up at all and she wondered if talking about it was the right thing to do. Maybe she should just let it stay buried with Melanie.

Kate looked over Lilly as the white wolf bravely tried to keep herself together. "Garth said it wasn't my fault," Lilly said as she looked at the grave, "but I… I couldn't sleep so I just snuck out here to think…"

They needed to talk about what happened, Kate decided. Lilly deserved to know the truth.

"Lilly, we need to talk about it," she said. "I know you and me never talked about it before but I think we–"

Suddenly, Lilly sat up straight and became calm. "Let's just forget about it, Kate," Lilly said in a professional-sounding voice. "What happened happened."

Kate admired how much her sister had grown as a leader, but she knew she had to press the issue. "No, Lilly, we really need to talk because it wasn't you–"

But she didn't get to finish her sentence. Suddenly, both Kate and Lilly felt the weight of two rust-colored forelegs land upon their shoulders.

"Miss Lilly, Miss Kate, my favorite pair of sisters," Edgar said loudly.

"Edgar, what are you doing here?" Kate said in exasperation. "This is the Western Pack burial field!"

Edgar slouched away a little. "I know that! And that's why I'm here. It's the one place the loan sharks'll never look. Too superstitious, don't you know? But since I know there's no such thing as ghosts, I decided to hang out until things cool down. Hey, but since you two are here, would you mind lending me some caribou meat to help me get out of debt? I tried to see if there was anything in some of these graves, but there were just some old bones."

Kate stared at him blankly. "Loan sharks? Debt? Grave robbery? Edgar, you're making less sense than usual."

"Edgar's been gambling," Lilly said quietly.

"Gambling, in Jasper?" Kate said in surprise. "There's never been gambling in Jasper!"

"Where have you been?" Edgar said. "How could you not know about the sensation I've caused?"

"I've kinda had other stuff on my mind," Kate answered testily. "But… how much gambling is going on here?"

"Oh, the whole Eastern Pack's hooked on it," Edgar said, "and it's spreading to the Western Pack, too!"

"Wait," Kate said, "you mean to tell me that, while I've been dealing with this northern threat, Jasper Park has turned into a den of depravity?"

"That's the size of it," Edgar said. "But how 'bout that caribou meat?"

"Go away, Edgar!" Kate commanded. "You'll be lucky if I don't have you exiled for desecrating our burial ground!"

"What, I put all the bones back… and I think in mostly the right graves too!" Edgar turned to Lilly. "What about you, Miss Lilly? I can always rely on you, can't I?"

"Sorry, but I think you're too much in debt as it is," Lilly said.

"Well, that's friendship for you," Edgar said. "But hey, what are you two doing in the burial field? Are you also grave robbing?"

Neither of the sisters answered. Then Edgar noticed the small mound in front of them. "Hey, a burial mound, what's that doing there?" Edgar said. "Oh, wait, that's where your sister is buried, right? The one Miss Lilly murdered, right?"

Lilly burst into tears.

"Lilly didn't murder her!" Kate said.

"But you were there," Edgar said, "so you know that…. Unless… Kate, did she get to you?"

"Edgar," Kate began to say, trying one last time to settle this rationally (though for the life of her she didn't know why).

"She did get to you!" Edgar said. "Did she threaten to kill you? Did she threaten to kill Humphrey?"

Lilly's crying intensified.

"Edgar…"

"She did! It's okay, Kate, we can get you and Humphrey into the witness protection program. I bet she said she'd execute him gangland style, just like she did her sister!"

Lilly began to wail. The thought of beating Edgar up badly briefly crossed Kate's mind. But before Edgar got to decide for himself whether Lilly had indeed had threatened to execute Humphrey, they heard another female shout, "There he is! I'm gonna wring his neck!"

Claw and Scar came running along the field. Edgar quickly grabbed Lilly and pushed her in front of him. The surprise of it had managed to get Lilly to stop crying.

"Edgar," Lilly said. "I thought you paid off Claw and Scar."

"Oh, this isn't about his debts!" Claw yelled. "This is about the ones we got after he told us to bet that Hutch wouldn't be able to get a caribou today."

"I heard he sprained his ankle!" Edgar protested. "It was a sure thing!"

"Edgar, you told me you weren't going to do anymore sports betting," Lilly said. Kate was lost as to what this whole conversation meant. Maybe she had been focusing on the Yukon Pack too much….

"Who said anything about betting? I've moved on to sports touting now!" Edgar said proudly. "I don't bet; instead I tell other people how to bet, based on my expertise and experience. And then they pay me when they win!"

"Except we never win!" Scar broke in, thrusting his teeth in Edgar's face and causing Edgar to hide his head behind Lilly's shoulder.

"Claw, Scar, what did I tell you about this?" Lilly said. "If you can't settle your problems with Edgar nicely, I'm going to have to settle them for you."

Claw and Scar backed away a little. "N-n-n-no, that's alright, Miss Lilly," Claw said. "We'll think of something!"

"Good," Lilly said with a nod.

"And besides, this is a burial ground," Kate said, finally thinking of something she could add to this surreal conversation. "You three all need to have a little more respect. I mean, Edgar digging up bodies and then you two yelling about your losses. That won't be tolerated here."

Claw, Scar, and Edgar just stared blankly at her, apparently not about to take orders from the leader of the Western Pack.

"Do what she says," Lilly said quietly.

Claw and Scar jumped back. "Yes, ma'am," they both stuttered out before high-tailing it out of there. Even Edgar put a few paces between himself and the sisters.

"Wow, Lilly," Kate said, "they really respect you! I'm impressed."

"You just have to know how to handle them, is all," was Lilly's sad reply. Kate noticed that she was looking back at the grave.

Kate remembered that she wanted to talk to Lilly about their sister and now that Edgar was apparently scoping out other graves to rob, now was as good a time as any. "Lilly, about Melanie–"

"Lilly, Kate, I've been looking all over for the two of you," came a voice behind them. They looked to see Garth coming their way. Garth's emerald eyes moved from them to Edgar, inspecting a large grave a few feet away.

"Edgar, what are you – forget it, I don't want to know," Garth said and turned his attention back to his mate and sister-in-law. "If we're going up north, I think we should figure out who we're taking so that we can start making preparations."

This snapped Kate out of her previous mood. "What? Oh, right. I've already decided on Hutch and Can-do."

Garth nodded. "I'm thinking about Claw and Scar."

"And me!" Edgar said, forgetting the grave and rushing toward them.

"What do you think, honey?" Garth said to Lilly. "Do you approve of Claw and Scar?"

"And me!" Edgar, now beside Lilly, said again.

Lilly nodded without looking up. "Yeah, Claw and Scar sound fine," she said weakly.

"And me!" Edgar said, now running up to Garth.

"No, not you," Garth said. "Kate and I are only taking Alphas with us. You can stay here with Lilly and Humphrey."

"But I am an Alpha!" Edgar protested.

"Not anymore," Garth said dryly.

"Exactly, and that's the problem!" Edgar said. "See, if your dad had never demoted me, I wouldn't need to gamble! I only do it because I need the excitement, the action, the thrill of life and death! And how else can you get that other than being an Alpha?"

Garth stared at him. "How is it that everything you do wrong is always somebody else's fault instead of your own?"

"Because I'm perfect," Edgar said. "But I need to go to the Yukon with you guys. I mean, the Central Saskatchewan Pack is hosting a major winner-take-all poker tournament and if we could just maybe spend a few days there before–"

"No, Edgar, you are not going!" Garth said, losing his patience. Edgar was giving him a headache again.

Edgar's ears drooped down. "Oh, okay sir. Fine. I guess I'll just stay here and try to keep from having my legs broken."

As he walked away, Kate yelled after him. "And if I ever catch you desecrating our graves ever again, you won't have to worry about the loan sharks! Not if I get to you first!"

Edgar now broke into a run.

"Okay, it's settled, then," Garth said. He was eager to get off the uncomfortable subject of grave robbery and back to the preparations.

That is why he asked, "So, Kate, did you tell Humphrey any of this yet?"

Kate smiled and chuckled nervously.


"I'm sorry, Humphrey, I really wasn't going to push you off," Mooch said as he, Humphrey, and Shakey were preparing a log-sled. "It's just that Edgar offered me all this caribou meat if we won and my belly kinda took over for a second."

Humphrey rolled his eyes. "My hero! It's good to know I can trust you with my life… until someone offers you some food!"

"Humphrey, it's not like that, really," Mooch began to explain. "I mean, I'm almost fifty-percent sure I would have backed out of it before actually injuring you. And besides, you can live with a broken leg, right?"

Humphrey smiled. "Yeah, but could you live when I tell Kate? She's not Eve's daughter for nothing, you know!"

Though Humphrey had meant it as a joke, Mooch seemed to take it seriously. Humphrey laughed as the big wolf ran about a mile back and shuttered. As Mooch finally got up the courage to come back over, Humphrey asked, "Hey, how come Salty's not here?"

"Loan sharks broke his jaw," Shakey said matter-of-factly. "So he can't do any log-sledding until it's healed."

Humphrey shook his head. "Oh, not you guys too! Is everybody gambling?"

"We're not, not anymore," Mooch said.

"Yeah, we don't want to mess with those sharks," Shakey said. "I think I'm going to have nightmares about those two!"

"Anybody I know?" Humphrey asked.

"Oh, do you ever!" his two friends said together.

"Yeah, they're–" but Shakey was interrupted by the sound of someone running through the grass. Suddenly, Hutch and Can-do ran past them.

"Hey, where you guys off to in such a hurry?" Humphrey said. "Meet up with a particularly bad-tempered caribou?"

Hutch looked over his shoulder. "Kate wants to see us. She's chosen us to go up north with her. She's planning on leaving in the next few days."

Humphrey was stunned. Another decision he had not been consulted on. "Oh no, she isn't. Not without me. Not this time," he said under his breath. And before Shakey and Mooch knew what happened, Humphrey ran after the two Betas.


After making his way across almost the length of Canada, the haughty tan wolf had finally reached the incredibly tall mountain that served as his chief's home. He entered the den at the summit and immediately gave a bow.

"Ah, Justin, you've returned," said the golden wolf, still hidden in the shadows of his den. Justin watched him as he ran his large golden tail over a piece of bark. The gold wolf was painting another picture.

"Yes, sire," Justin said respectfully.

"And?"

"Kate has accepted our challenge."

The golden wolf let out a high-pitched, evil laugh. "Excellent! Excellent! Revenge is finally within my grasp! Finally, Kate shall get what's coming to her and her arrogance shall be punished! Would you believe she had the nerve to marry an Omega?"

The golden wolf got particularly angry as he said this last part.

"I know, sire," Justin said. "I've seen the movie too."

The golden wolf calmed down a little. "Yes, but it won't matter. They'll both soon be dead! Here and her filthy boyfriend."

"Um, how do we know she's going to actually going to come up here?" Justin asked, trying to say this in the most respectful tone he could.

"You remember what Kate's like," said the gold wolf. "She always had to be the best at everything. Now that she accepted our challenge, she won't dare change her mind. I've been playing her all along and the fool has no idea she's being played!"

The gold wolf laughed again. Though Justin admittedly did not see the humor in this, he laughed as well, in order to keep his master happy. Then he decided to inquire about the artwork, which he could tell was another painting of Kate.

"So what's this portrait of?' Justin asked, walking closer.

The golden wolf, though he had not finished, stepped back proudly to let Justin admire his work. It was a picture of Kate in the center, with Humphrey on one side and Lilly and Garth on the other. But Kate was the largest and most detailed. They were all beaten up and bloody, and were turned upside down, pinned up by their tails as though they were newly-caught giant fish. Surrounding them were a number of giant Yukon wolves laughing and taunting them.

"I think when it's finished, I'll display it at the entrance to the valley with the words, 'Warm Welcomes to the Wolves of Jasper.' What do you think?"

"A masterpiece, as always," Justin said, knowing that flattery was the best course.

"Justin, you always were my best lieutenant. Not like that rat Benny," said the golden wolf. "I have some special work for you when Kate and company get here. So be ready; it won't be long before our visitors arrive! And then they'll never leave here again!"


What will Humphrey say to Kate? What trap is being laid for them in the Yukon?

Read on.