Hey guys, lanelane2 here, bet you thought i forgot or abandoned this story didn't ya, but i didn't. No way, i love writing it way to much. This is however the final chapter, but its the equivalent of two chapters. If you want a sequel than let me know and i promise i will but until then im only going to be working on my other story. So with that i hope you enjoy the ending and i wish you the best of days.

Until the next story-lanelane2

Humphrey's POV

Humphrey was disturbed by the silence that ensued his explanation of his wound. He looked from the horrified eyes of Lilly and Kate, to the calm and analyzing eyes of Lucky.

"What happened?" Lucky asked. Humphrey pondered whether or not he should tell the kid.

"Well…" He's gonna find out eventually anyways. Humphrey sighed and continued,"I was out hunting by the river not far from here, the one that used to mark the boundaries. I had just taken down this one," He said motioning to his kill. He looked around the room once more, and came to rest on his sons eyes. They were still, motionless, like a calm blue lake. Seeing this he pondered weather or not to continue for a moment, before he decided he should. "You're dad attacked me, he pounced at me and gave me the scratch." He said motioning to the oozing wound, "He pounced on me a second time, and i…" He watched as Lucky's blue orbs flickered, as if a stone had been thrown into the once calm lake. Humphrey stopped, he didn't want to continue, to tell Lucky that he had killed his dad.

"You…killed him?" Lucky asked him. Humphrey noticed that tears were starting to form in the pups eyes. Humphrey hung his head and nodded. He glanced up and caught the horrified looks of Kate and Lilly.

"I knew my father was angry…but…" Lucky fell back into silence.

"Did you try and talk Mark out of it?" This time it was Kate.

Humphrey thought back to the event, "I don't think he wanted to talk."

"What makes you think that?"she asked.

"The last words he said, before he jumped at me the second time, was, "Im going to kill you yet." Humphrey said remembering the cruel and hate filled words Mark spoke.

"Lucky…I'm sorry…" He said, the pup looked up and met his eyes. He did not see hate, or loathing towards him, he saw understanding and gratitude.

"I forgive you, you didn't have any other choice. It was either you or him." Lucky walked forward and gave Humphrey a hug. "And I'm glad it wasn't you."

…

Later that evening, after a hearty meal and an hour of Eve yelling and screaming at him to stand still while she cleansed his wound, Humphrey found himself outside watching Lucky, Sasha and the other pups play.

"Lucky, be careful," He shouted to Luck, and watched as he jumped of a high rock into a mound of bushes, weeds and other things the children had collected.

"Im fine dad," Lucky replied after popping his head out of the cushiony mound.

Humphrey smiled, though Lucky was the wisest kid he had ever met, he was still just a kid. Kids tended to forget things and had an amazing ability to push painful thoughts out of their minds and just have fun, Humphrey, however, did not. So he continued to think about what had happen, running it over and over, trying to see if there was any way that his confrontation could have ended without Marks death, but in the end, he knew that what Lucky said was true, it was either him or you.

"Cute, aren't they?" Said a voice to his left.

Humphrey looked and saw the muscular Garth standing there, instantly his old mind set made him hate the sight of the guy, but he pushed that side out of his head and took on a more optimistic look on it. He's a friend of Kate's, so he's a friend of mine…also He's no longer with her so that also makes him my friend.

"They are indeed," Humphrey said.

Garth walked forward and stood next to Humphrey, "mind if I have a seat?"

"It's a free forest," he said, mocking the retort he had heard from someone in Saw tooth. Garth took a seat and the two sat in silence for a while.

"So…what's it been like out here?" Garth asked. Humphrey could tell he was trying to make conversation but he didn't care, it would be nice to talk to someone new.

"Pretty good, it was hard at first, when I first…ya know…ran off, but after a while I got used to it." Humphrey said.

"Yeah…umm…I am sorry about that," Garth said.

Humphrey looked at him, not understanding what he meant. Garth noticed his look and quickly stammered to clarify. "About the whole ya know, chasing ya off. I'm sorry about the whole wedding…" Humphrey held up a paw to stop him.

"Its…" Humphrey was going to say that it was ok, but was it? Garth was the ENTIRE reason he ran off, why on earth did he deserve forgiveness! Because you're a different wolf than you used to be, he yelled at himself. "Its ok, I was stupid and irrational."

Humphrey could almost see the burden lift from Garth, he really had felt bad about it all this time? He questioned himself. He smiled, thinking about how much he used to despise Garth for taking Kate from him. He chuckled thinking about the story that he had written on his wall back inside about Garth dying awfully, looks like I'm goanna haft erase that one entirely.

Humphrey looked up into the sky and saw that it was getting dark, looks like its going to rain. Just as he finished his thought a big glob of water landed on his nose. He wiped it off and turned back to Garth.

"How about we go inside," Garth nodded and the two began walking inside with the kids in tow. "Im a little interested as to how you and Lilly ended up together, mind telling me the story?" Humphrey asked him, Garth smiled.

Kate's POV

Kate wiggled her paw around a little; it felt better than it had this morning. She could feel the numbing effects of the new herbs her mother had found start to come in. She stood up and balanced her weight, with minimal pain.

"Better be careful Kate, we saw how well that went last time," said Humphrey who had just poked his head through the doorway with Garth and the pups.

Kate smiled, "Hey, I can still take you on with one paw." She said.

Humphrey burst out laughing, "Yeah right," he said as he walked over to stand next to her. She studied his face as he walked. At first, the gash seemed ugly, but now that his fur had been cleaned and the wound closed Kate realized that the scar made him even more attractive. It didn't pull at the sides of his face, it was just there, unmoving but yet a constant remind of a bad memory…kind of like her. He stood next to her and flashed his wonderful smile. "Go ahead, hit me." He said.

Kate quickly lay down on the floor and kicked out at Humphrey from underneath, but Humphrey was faster than she remembered and he quickly jumped out of the way. She rolled towards him, being careful not to smash her paw; she slashed out with her other hind leg and found purchase on Humphrey back leg. She planted her paw firmly and gave a hard shove which knocked Humphrey off balance. Yes! She congratulated herself on her small victory before Humphrey staggered her direction and tripped and landed on top of her.

Humphrey was laying face down on her stomach, heart pounding, his warmth seemed to overcome her. (No this is not a lead into a sex scene don't worry.)

He turned his head and his eyes met hers…she felt something, something she thought she had lost long ago, something that she felt on the way back from Idaho. She searched his eyes, not able to read them in the dark light.

"What do we have here?" Garth said from behind her, as if just noticing the whole battle that had just occurred. "Could you guys please take it to the back room, there are pups here." He said. Even though she could tell he was joking, Kate blushed under her fur. Humphrey quickly stammered off of her and backed away from.

"Haha, indeed there are," Humphrey said very casually. He then turned and looked at her, "and I totally won by the way." He said.

Kate laughed, trying to play it off as smoothly as Humphrey had, but found that her laughter sounded forced. "How about a rematch when my paw heals."

"Deal," Humphrey said shaking his head. Just as he finished, Lilly, Eve and Winston walked in.

"Well, I guess its time for us to go," Lilly said walking in. Kate looked out the door, and saw that it was pouring rain. She then looked at Humphrey, knowing what he would say next even before he said it.

"No way you guys are going out in that storm, you can stay here tonight." Humphrey said. Kate watched as Garth looked and Lilly and Lilly looked back.

"We don't want to impose, I mean you already have plenty of people staying here," Lilly said.

"Imposition, no way! I'd be glad to have you guys stay here he said." Humphrey said.

Sasha pulled on Lilly's leg, "Come on mom, can we stay please!" She pleaded with puppy eyes. Lilly looked at Sasha and sighed.

"Ok, well stay. But we owe you big time Humphrey," she said.

Humphrey waved his paws in the air, "you don't owe me anything, after being alone so long I love all the company I can get. Ill go clean up you're guy's room." Humphrey said before disappearing into the room on the far left.

Kate looked at Lilly and Lilly looked back, Lilly mouthed, why are you not with this guy. Kate glared at her sister, and mouthed back, because he hates me! Lilly rolled her eyes, sure doesn't seem like it!

Kate was about to mouth something back when a bone shattering crack, followed by a bang filled the den. Kate rubbed her ears, trying to get the ringing to stop, but saw an absolutely drenched Humphrey walk out of the far room. Water began trickling down the sides of the cave and made its way outside.

"What happened?" Kate heard her mother ask through the blaring in her ears.

"Umm…it appears I just lost a bedroom." He said looking at the broken log that now covered the doorway to the room.

After a while of everyone muttering about their ears and her mother inspecting Humphrey from head to toe twice to make sure he hadn't broken anything and finding nothing, it was finally decided it was time for bed.

"Ok, so if me and Garth, and the pups have the entry room, and Winston and Eve have the spare bedroom…where are you going to sleep Kate." Kate perked her ears at this, she could see in her sister's eyes that she was planning something.

"I could sleep…uh… in the living room around near the entrance," she said, but after a quick glance she saw that the pups were already asleep and filled half the room. "or not…uh."

Humphrey walked out from his room and stood next to Kate, "She can sleep in my room," Kate saw that her mother instantly didn't like this idea because she began to growl. Humphrey stammered to clarify, "I... Ill sleep at one end and she can sleep at the other." He said. Kate tried to keep a straight face, but on the inside she was screaming with happiness, the man who had once hated her now wanted her to sleep in his room.

Eve's face loosened a little, and with a quick comment from Lilly about there being no other room, Eve finally agreed.

Kate stepped into Humphreys room, it was big, not as big as the living room but much bigger than it looked through the doorway. Humphrey stepped into the room next to her, he pointed to a pile of straw that was his bed. "There's your bed, princess." Humphrey said bowing mockingly. Kate shoved him before limping over.

"Shut up," she laughed. She walked over and sat on the bed, resting her paw with great relief.

Humphrey walked over, curled up in a ball and sat on the floor. She looked at him, he seemed sad almost. "Good night Kate." He said.

"Good night Humphrey," she said. And with that, she laid her head down…but didn't fall asleep. She was to busy thinking about what it would her life be like in the future, thought things were getting better and better between her and Humphrey, she doubted they would ever be the same as they once were. Maybe she would end up with him…she sure hoped she did, but what if she didn't? What if she fell in love with a man that she would never be with.

"What's wrong Kate," Kate thought she was imagining Humphreys voice, but after a few minutes of silence she heard it again. She opened her eyes and saw a concerned Humphrey standing over her.

"Im fine," she mumbled.

Humphrey scrunched his eyebrows. "Are you sure, you're shaking like crazy." Kate hadn't noticed it before but she was shaking uncontrollable, and since she didn't feel cold at all she knew why.

"Im..uh, cold. That's all." She said. Humphrey sat down in front of her. She looked at him and, well…it would be best to stick with my story. She thought as she snuggled up next to him.

"Better?" He asked.

"Yeah," she said.

The two sat in silence for a while, with Kate doing nothing more than thinking about how happy she was about this moment, how long she had waited for this.

Kate decided it was time to tell him, after so long and never telling him in the first place, it was time to tell him, "Humphrey…i…I uh…Love you."

It was silence once again for a few moments before Humphrey spoke,

"I love you to."