20. Night of the D'Tyoni

Kacey was quite ecstatic about scouting ahead with him; perhaps, a bit too ecstatic. Like Kala, she was literally all just energy encased in the body of a she-wolf. Humphrey hadn't been more annoyed by a grown wolf in his entire life. As a pup, it was forgivable; they were younger and liked to have fun, using up that energy that they had stored within them to their fullest. When a grown wolf was acting like a pup, however, it was simply seen as immature and quite a nuisance. Humphrey simply tried to find condolence in the fact that the entire reason they were going in the forest was so he could get rid of her for good.

She, of course, was oblivious to his motives and gleefully padded beside him. He could have easily kicked her out of the pack on a whim, but if he did so, Kala would find out and never forgive him. This was the only way to get rid of her; when he returned without Kacey, he'd tell them that she had slipped on ice and fallen off of a cliff. He intended on killing her, but he didn't intend on using his claws and fangs to take her life. Instead, he would push her off of a cliff or another high area, somewhere that she would indefinitely die from. He felt sorry for her, but he knew that if didn't kill her, she'd either track them for the rest of their lives, seek revenge, or she'd keep being a lone wolf and a potential danger to them. This was the only way he could go about getting rid of her, and he was fully prepared to do so. As they climbed the next mountain, Humphrey could hear the farewell howl of his daughter.

He grinned and turned back, returning her howl with his own. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him, no doubt, and she kept the memory of his mate alive. In the past, he had seen her similar appearance and voice as a bad thing, something that would forever haunt him; now, he could see that she was who she was, and that he shouldn't try to change her or wish that she would be different. He loved Kala and he was proud to be her father. He was eager to get this over with so he could go back to the pack and spend time with her again.

That was another thing Kacey did that was incredibly annoying to him: she spent time with Kala, taking his time away from her. Selfish as the thought was, he simply couldn't help wishing that she'd stay back and allow him to spend time with his daughter. He ended the howl and began to walk back up the slope when he heard Kacey's howl. She was saying her goodbyes to Kala as well; he seethed in anger; she was no friend of his daughter, and she had no place in the pack or right to associate with Kala.

He waited impatiently for her to end her howl. Finally, she smiled and pranced back up the slope towards him. He turned around and led the way up the mountain, Kacey falling in step beside him. She was an odd she-wolf, definitely acting strangely around him. This was no simple happiness of doing something aside from leading the pack; he knew that if he'd sent her to scout ahead by herself or with any other wolf, she wouldn't have been this overjoyed. She was happy about being with him, not about scouting ahead.

Angered by this, Humphrey stalked ahead, keeping a tail's length distance from her. She initially tried to get closer when he pulled away, but after the third time, she got the message and backed off. Still, he felt her eyes boring into his fur as he took the lead. He let his anger simmer, trying to get his mind off of the annoying she-wolf. He tried thinking of Kala, but found that thoughts of her only led back to thoughts of Kacey which, in turn, led back to his awareness of her following. He silently thought to himself that it would all be over soon enough, but it still didn't change the fact that she was annoying and needed to just bug off.

Kacey, however, did not seem to notice that his attitude had turned hostile towards her. Rather, she was enjoying the company of Humphrey and thinking her own private thoughts. Humphrey was just happy that she was keeping her mouth shut for the moment; the last thing he wanted was for her to start talking and make things even more annoying than they were. For hours they trekked ahead, over and along the mountains, consistently heading towards the ocean. Finally, they stopped beside the mountains, looking out over a large circular formation of the mountains. Within the formation was a large, lush valley of grass, a lake resting to the far right. It appeared to be at least three leagues across the valley. It would easily take the pack less than two days to reach the ocean; he could hear it just over the mountains ahead.

He began to walk down, but Kacey looked increasingly nervous as they did. He paid her no mind, continuing his descent into the valley. She opened her mouth to say something, but Humphrey silenced her with a growl. She whimpered as they walked downward, her crying growing louder and louder as they neared the valley. Humphrey unsheathed his claws, scraping them across the rock as they went down, his jaw clenching as he listened to her whimpers of distress. What could that stupid she-wolf possibly want that was so incredibly important? He decided not to ask, knowing that she'd just become more annoying the instant that she opened her mouth. No, it could wait. The last thing he wanted to hear was her voice before he killed her, anyway. Finally, they reached the valley and Kacey's whimpering had become irrevocably unbearable. He growled and looked back at the she-wolf. She was cowering in fear on the mountain face, looking nervously at the valley ahead.

"What's wrong?" Humphrey demanded. Her eyes locked with his and for a brief instant, she actually stopped whimpering. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, she began to whimper again. He repeated the question and waited expectantly for her response. She looked about frantically, her jaw quivering and her tail tucked tightly between her hind legs. Something terrified her, but she wasn't saying anything. "I don't have time for this, Kacey; unless you're going to speak up and tell me what's wrong, we're going forward!"

"NO!" Kacey screamed. He was taken off guard by the force of her exclamation, surprised by her outburst. "The D'Tyoni live here!" He looked about the valley, searching its landscape. He saw no caves in the mountains, no holes in the ground. There was not a single scent, marking, or a sign at all that anything else had lived here, much less the D'Tyoni. There were the incredibly faint traces of animals that had passed through in the past, but aside from that, there was nothing.

"I don't see anything," Humphrey dismissed in exasperation. "I don't scent anything, feel anything, or have the slightest indication that there's anything living in this valley at all. Now come on, we're getting to the other side of this valley before morning." With that, he began to walk into the valley. She moaned and whimpered for a while, Humphrey ignoring her and walking into the valley. Finally, she gave in and reluctantly padded after him. She quickly reached his side, her eyes darting about wildly.

The two wolves walked through the valley, nothing coming out to meet them. Humphrey was beginning to think that Kacey had something wrong with her, perhaps extreme paranoia or hallucinations. If this was so, then it would be a mercy to kill her; she was a danger to everyone if this was the case, and she needed to be put down in that kind of a scenario. Still, nothing came out. After several hours, the sun began to set over the mountains and they had traveled halfway through the valley. As the darkness enveloped the sky, Kacey began to whimper and cry again, fearfully staring around the valley and the mountains.

Humphrey sighed at her reaction; how was he supposed to get anywhere if all she did was whimper about nothing all of the time? The lake wasn't far off; perhaps he could simply drown her and finally be done with it. After all, she was just getting more aggravating by the second and he would surely be driven insane if he didn't just kill her now. He unsheathed his claws, ready to pounce on her and kill the lone wolf. He could simply divert the course of the pack away from her corpse so Kala would never have to know that he killed her. Yes, that was what he'd do. It was a fool-proof plan; it was something that upon looking back at Kacey, he knew that he would never be able to bring himself to do. The fading sunlight once again illuminated her brown fur, giving the sun-cast hue of a tawny pelt covering her. The only thing that would keep him from thinking that Kacey was his mate was the dark pink irises of her eyes. She was stunningly beautiful, a she-wolf that could have very well rivaled Kate in physical appearance. Not quite, but possibly.

She looked so frail, so innocent, so scared to be in the valley with him. All of her earlier excitement had vanished, replaced by insatiable terror. He had plotted and planned to kill her, and now he knew that he could not follow through with it. He couldn't just murder the she-wolf in cold blood; there would not be in the world that would look kindly upon the actions of murdering an innocent wolf. He felt the overwhelming drive to comfort her as he would comfort Kate, but he resisted the urge and refused to do so. He sighed and looked at her in pity.

"Look, would talking about something get your mind off of this?" Humphrey asked her. She looked at him nervously and slowly nodded her head, her eyes bearing gratitude for breaking the uncomfortable silence between the two. "Alright, what do you want to talk about?" She thought for a moment, struggling to keep her mind off of the valley and the D'Tyoni. Obviously, this was not something easy for her to do, for she thought for several minutes as they walked and still had not come up with a subject to talk of.

"I-I," she began, stuttering. "I don't really know. Can you think of something?" Humphrey grunted in confirmation, thinking about something that would keep her mind off of the dangers that were obviously not present in the valley.

"What was life like in your pack?" Humphrey asked her. He didn't so much care about what her life was like; he just wanted her to stop whimpering. He'd pretend like he actually cared about anything she said, nod and tell her he was fascinated when in actuality he wasn't even listening to anything she was saying. She thought for a bit, her mind finally diverted from the D'Tyoni and the valley itself. She breathed deeply and then exhaled, ready to talk.

"It was hard," she told him. "We abode by the Law of the Ancient Packs, so Omegas had to do a lot of the same things that Alphas did. We were still able to have fun if we wanted, but we would be harshly punished if we didn't get done what we needed to get done, like hunting. We wouldn't name pups until they were three moons old to make sure that they were actually going to survive. I was never even named; I came up with Kacey by myself."

"Sorry to hear that," Humphrey said. He pretended not to care, but at the same time, he did feel sympathetic towards the she-wolf. What kind of a parent didn't name their pup?

"It's okay; like I said, no one really liked me in my pack," Kacey replied. "We always had trouble with the wolverines, too; they wouldn't ever leave us alone and sometimes they'd raid the territory and take pups while they slept. It was a nightmare to live there, and I spent three moons there. My father would abuse me constantly, ever since I was three moons old. He would take me to his den and I would come out every night wanting to die." She let a tear fall from her eye from the painful memory. Humphrey, too, felt sorry for her. He knew that she probably didn't want to talk about it, but he had to ask about her father's abusive behavior.

"Did he-?" Humphrey began.

"Rape me?" Kacey finished, clearly reading his mind. He was almost about to call her out on doing so, but thought better of it; after all, she didn't know who Sam was. She shook her head sadly. "No, luckily he didn't do that. He would beat me all of the time, but he saved rape for my mother and my older sisters. He was going to do so when I turned two, though; that was when he began raping my sisters. The humans attacked us a moon before I turned two, though; I was out trying to find a log sled when it happened."

"I'm sorry," Humphrey murmured truthfully. "I had no idea, Kacey…I'm sorry; you didn't deserve to have to go through that." She shook her head and flashed a weak smile to him.

"Thanks for listening, Humphrey," she thanked him. "You're the first wolf I've ever met that would do that." He nodded, and they continued in silence. The sun set over the mountains, the valley quickly darkening as the sky turned a blue-grey hue. Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath them. Kacey yelped in fear and curled up in a ball on the ground, her tail covering her face as the rumbling continued.

"What's wrong?" Humphrey asked, wondering where the rumbling was coming from. She lifted her tail and looked at him fearfully.

"D'Tyoni," she whispered. His eyes widened and realized the crucial fault he'd made; suddenly, a massive creature burst from the ground, looking out over the mountains ahead. Humphrey crouched down, peering at the creature. It was a D'Tyoni; Kacey had described it perfectly as what it was: a massive, black scorpion. Its tail easily peaked twelve feet tall, its back well over four feet above the ground. Large pincers snapped and clicked as it skittered about. It hissed and scented the air, its antennas probing the world around it.

Humphrey and Kacey crouched far behind it, surveying its movements. More D'Tyoni burst from the valley, some beginning to fight with one another, tearing each other apart with their pincers and stabbing one another with their poison-barbed tails. Humphrey and Kacey crept forward, getting away from the massive creatures that stalked the moonlit valley.

One burst up directly in front of them. Humphrey quickly slammed Kacey's jaws together to keep her from screaming in fear. It looked about, the two wolves pressing their bellies to the ground. It turned about and walked over them, back to the group of D'Tyoni ahead. They watched as it left, oblivious to their presence. Humphrey was astounded that they managed to leave no trace of their existence in the valley, especially when they were so large of creatures.

"They only come out of their holes when they sense something moving above them," Kacey whispered to him. "That's why I was trying to warn you!" He nodded, hating himself for being so foolish as to have let something so stupid get in the way of his objective. How could he do something like this? He could get himself killed by being in this valley and Kacey was supposed to be his guide through the mountains! He shouldn't have shut her up back at the base of the mountains; he should have listened to her warnings!

It was too late now, though; now, they had to run and hope they could reach the mountains before the D'Tyoni did. As soon as they were far enough away from the creatures, they broke into a harried sprint for the mountains. The adrenaline flowing through their veins gave them the energy they required to reach the mountains and the quickly escaped the valley, coming across dunes just beyond the rocky peaks.

They let themselves rest, panting for breath as they stood atop a large dune. Suddenly, a D'Tyoni burst through the sand, hissing at them. They evaded a swipe of its poisonous tail, narrowly dodging its frenzied attacks. It dove into the sand and burrowed deep into the dunes. They looked about frantically, searching for the D'Tyoni. Finally, it burst from the sand below Humphrey. He flew into the air and was batted by its tail into another dune. He slammed against it hard, groaning in pain.

The D'Tyoni scampered towards him, snapping its pincers as it approached. Humphrey tried to run, but his leg was stuck in the sand. He heaved and pulled, trying to get free of it as the creature bore down upon him. He slammed his eyes shut, knowing that he was about to die. The blow did not come, though; he looked up to see Kacey holding on to the D'Tyoni's tail, biting down on the flesh in between its shell-like hide. It screeched in pain as she bit harder. It swung its tail to and fro, trying to shake her off of it.

She held fast, though, and blood began to flow from its tail. Humphrey took advantage of the distraction and yanked his leg free of the sand. He ran forward, trying to help Kacey. He howled at the D'Tyoni, trying to draw its attention from Kacey. It screamed and snapped its pincers at Humphrey. He dodged the sharp appendages and leapt at its face. He dug his claws into its face, blood spurting from it. The D'Tyoni hissed and clicked its mandibles, as he tore out one of its eyes. It screamed in fury and pain and swung its tail about. Kacey still hung on until finally, the last two feet of its tail fell free, Kacey hanging on to it. It screeched, blood flying from its tail and face. It batted Humphrey away and knocked Kacey down the dune.

She landed heavily on the sand, still hanging on tightly to the poisonous barb. The D'Tyoni launched itself at her and Humphrey saw it envelop her. As soon as it hit the ground, he heard a sickening splat and the D'Tyoni screamed once more. It slumped to the ground, blood pouring from its underbelly. Humphrey saw the D'Tyoni shift, ready to move if the creature attacked him again. However, it did not get back up; it was simply pushed to the side, the poison barb embedded in its chest. Kacey stood up, covered from paw to ear in a thick layer of black blood.

She spat out it out and Humphrey rushed to her side. She looked at him gratefully as they treaded through the dunes towards a nearby river. She leapt in, washing the blood from her pelt. Humphrey did the same, though she had far more blood on her than he did. She padded out of the water, her fur glistening beautifully from the water droplets in her fur. He admired her beauty for a brief moment as she shook her fur and began to groom it back. They approached one another and Kacey smiled weakly.

"Well, I guess we both know what it feels like to be covered in blood, now," she remarked. He laughed and, out of pure instinct, leaned in and pressed his nose and lips to hers. She looked at him, startled for a moment, but then quickly gave in and returned the kiss. In truth, he was just as surprised and shocked by his actions as she was. He knew not why he was doing this, nor did he know what caused him to so much as think of doing this, but he didn't care. He just continued to kiss her, glad and thankful that she had survived the encounter with the D'Tyoni and grateful for her saving him. The two wolves stood there, half submerged in the water and weary from their battle with the D'Tyoni, kissing one another.

Humphrey heard the sound of sweet laughter from somewhere; it was not Kacey's laugh, it was not his own. He knew that laugh, and he immediately knew that they were being watched. Kate was watching the two-and she was happy by what she saw.

**A/N: Well, there it is! I had a half day today and I'll have another one tomorrow for the exams (new school district over here, I didn't know it was going to be a half day) so I was able to write this today! So, what's going to happen next? Humphrey just freaking KISSED Kacey! What's going to happen now? Thanks to Dawn Walker Wolf, Alexander, imjustlikehumphrey, the dark shadow, and MoonTrekerAF for reviewing my last chapter! Until next time!**

**-The Dishonored Wolf**