Author's Note: I really should decide on which film scenes to skip for the story… they're all just so good!


Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kate growled. It was only Humphrey, the "little coyote." He would want to poke fun at her and Garth, of course.

Sure enough Humphrey asked, "How's Barf?"

"It's Garth," Kate said clearly annoyed at the omega. "And we're just taking a break."

"A break?" Humphrey asked with a slight laugh.

"What? Is that so strange?" Kate fired back.

"No. No no no. I always like to take a break ten minutes into a howl," Humphrey said sarcastically.

"Your howling partner… he's not a… not a stud but like, it's like stud but… a dud! That's it. Is he?"

Of course he would have heard the awful noise… no going back now, Kate thought. Responsibilities… "Aha! No! He is not a dud! In fact, Humphrey, you'd be surprised to find that he's a… he's a…" Kate's mind was blank. All of Garth's wonderful characteristics she had been noticing, were overshadowed by the realization that he possessed the worst howl in all of Jasper Park. Kate cupped her paw over her eyes for the shame of her howling partner.

"…Strong!" Humphrey finished Kate's sentence in a deep, ultra masculine voice.

"Yes. Yes!" Kate agreed. "Strong!" she flexed and looked at her right bicep.

Humphrey trotted over to a log and placed his front paws on it, lifting his tail and head high as he added in that same ultra masculine voice, "Proud!"

"Yes! YES!" Kate agreed with more enthusiasm rushing over to mirror Humphrey. "Proud! And he's… he's…. what's the word…" Kate bowed her head down in deep thought.

Humphrey ran over to a small rock and jumped up on top of it, tilting his head high in the air and saying, "An alpha's alpha!"

Kate ran over to him and again agreed. "That is right! An alpha's alpha."

Humphrey winked, sporting a toothy grin.

Kate growled in anger. She was not even sure what she was angry about. The fact that she could not come up with a single, positive word to describe her future alpha mate? Or maybe it was the fact that she was letting Humphrey control the situation? Suddenly, a sharp, numbing pain pierced Kate in her left hip. The alpha wolf stumbled around, and after that, she forgot everything and blacked out.


The next thing Kate knew, she was being thrown against something hard and cold. It smelled like metal and felt like metal, at least it did when Kate's head was thrown against the side. "Agh!" Kate exclaimed in pain. She glanced around. Everything was dark aside from nine holes arranged in a perfect square that were letting light in a few feet above her head. Kate stood up to try and see where she was. "Where am I?" she asked hoping someone would answer from the dark. There was another bump and Kate was pushed to her side, cramped up against another wall also made of metal. She pushed and straightened herself out. She was inside a box.

Somewhere to her left, Kate heard a familiar voice moaning. It sounded like Humphrey. "Humphrey, is that you?" the alpha asked worriedly.

"Kate!" Humphrey exclaimed. "Where are we?"

Kate shrugged. His guess was as good as hers. "I don't know!"

"Maybe we're dead," Humphrey stated.

The two wolves were thrown around against the metal walls in another large bump.

"Nope. Definitely not dead!" Humphrey groaned in pain. "At least they left us some water…"

"You got water?!" Kate asked as she suddenly realized her own thirst.

"No! Definitely not water," Humphrey whined. It sounded like he hurriedly spat something out.

Kate shook her head. She had had enough of wherever she was and was going to break out. She angrily threw herself against the metal sides of the strange and enclosing box.

"Kate! What are you doing?!" Humphrey groaned.

"Trying to get out!"

"Calm down. Maybe they're taking us to where there's more food."

"Yeah, or maybe we are the food."

"You're right. Fight. Fight fight fight!"

Kate rolled her eyes and continued trying to break out of the box, which was thrown and bumped around occasionally resulting in pain for the young alpha.

It seemed like hours later when the box was finally flooded with light. Kate did not stop to think about Humphrey; she darted out of the box towards the light. Humphrey was over to her right, also running away from the evil metal box. The two wolves kept running, refusing to look back to see whom their captors might have been. They pressed on until they came to the edge of a cliff, where they came to a sliding halt.

In front of Kate was one of the most beautiful views she had ever laid her eyes on. "Wow…" she exclaimed to herself. There was a valley below the cliff, filled with thick evergreen trees. Over to the left, a huge rock ledge lined the side of the valley. There was snow on the higher portions of the ledge. The scene was a lovely lush green, full of life and nothing like the brown and dry scenes up in the Western Pack's territory.

"This isn't Jasper!" Kate exclaimed worriedly.

Just then, Humphrey, who had fallen behind during the mad sprint, caught up to Kate. "Yeah but it sure does… rock!"

The two wolves looked down in the valley. A small projectile was flying up through the air and heading straight for them. Humphrey clumsily tried to dodge the rock while Kate simply crouched down low.

"Get down!" Kate said as she pulled the clumsy omega down into a crouching position.

The two wolves crawled towards the edge and looked to see where the rock had come from. Down in an open grassy patch in the valley, two birds were looking down at the ground. One of the birds, Kate thought it was a goose, was holding some sort of stick in his wings and looked as if he was preparing to strike something. Perhaps it was like the rock that had almost hit the wolves earlier. The other bird, Kate thought it was a duck, was standing over to the side observing the strange stick-bearing goose and keeping his eye at whatever the stick was preparing to strike. A group of three small creatures observed from the side, further back than the duck. They looked like hedgehogs, but Kate could not really tell due to the distance. Then it looked as if there was a disruption. The goose turned to glare at the hedgehogs, and the duck waddled over to say something to the group. After he did this, he turned back to watch the goose and the goose resumed aligning his stick.

"Looks like they're playing some sort of weird game," Humphrey stated.

Kate shrugged. "Maybe they can tell us how to get home."

"Yeah and if they can't we can eat them!" Humphrey smiled.

Kate turned surprised. "Yeah." she agreed. "Follow my lead." Kate stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff. Then she leaped off the side, turned three flips in the air on the way down, and landed perfectly on all four feet. She glanced back at Humphrey and motioned for him to follow. Quietly!

Instead of the soft sound of a skilled wolf landing behind her, Kate heard the rough, loud sound of a clumsy omega crash landing into the ground. She turned to look at Humphrey disapprovingly. But behind her, all she saw was a cute omega, sitting back on his haunches and grinning. "Yeah I'm right behind you," he smiled. Kate shook her head and continued, quietly prowling up to the group of small fowl.

A few seconds later, another rock projectile zipped towards the wolves. Kate ducked down, but Humphrey screamed and clumsily jumped up into the air allowing the rock to fly below him. Kate looked back at him, again with her disapproved glare. "Be quiet Humphrey!" she whispered angrily. "Now follow my lead and don't make a noise. We're sneaking up on them!"

As the wolves prowled closer, they were able to hear what the small fowl were saying to each other.

"…I will not take an extra stroke!" the goose spoke with a French accent and sounded like he was arguing with the duck. Then he pinned the duck against a tree trunk and shouted, "Mark it birdie!"

"It was an obstacle!" the duck argued in an English accent and sprang forward to kick the goose backwards. He snatched something out of the goose's feathers. "And everyone has to play with the obstacles." He ate whatever it was he was holding.

Kate and Humphrey looked at each other, baffled at what the two birds were doing. They shrugged and continued prowling closer.

"We wouldn't want to lie…" the duck continued.

"This is not a lie. This is not a lie if you are French," the goose argued again.

"Well, French-Canadian. There's a slash. Or well a hyphen between them."

"I say French."

"Canadian."

"French!"

"Canadian."

"FRENCH!"

"Canadian sir. May I just say that you are a wonderful golfer."

"Ha ha! Merci! And you are a very good caddy."

Just then, Humphrey and Kate were in plain sight of the duck. The wolves prowled closer as the duck screamed "Take off!" and flew away in a frenzy.

But the goose still had his back turned to the wolves and was oblivious to their approach. "Paddy, what is wrong with you?" he asked curiously.

Then Humphrey and Kate were so close to the goose that he was practically between their paws. They looked down at the French-Canadian as he turned his head to look up at them.

"Ah hello!" he spoke with his heavy accent. "You are two wolves. I have not seen many wolves in these parts but I am not afraid of wolves. I like wolves!"

Humphrey looked at Kate, and then spoke. "Good, because we just want to ask you a few questions."

"Ah yes," the goose nodded and then shouted, "QUICK! LOOK BEHIND YOU!" Then he smacked Humphrey on the head with his stick and ran off huffing heavily, as he was held back by his own extra weight.

"Grab him!" Kate exclaimed.

Then a chase ensued with clumsy Humphrey desperately trying to keep the overweight goose from escaping. Kate could do nothing but roll her eyes in disgust at the omega's incompetence, keeping up as best as she could. The French-Canadian goose literally drug Humphrey around the valley, through a thicket, and down to the stream. Eventually, the incompetent omega and socially confused goose crash landed in a muddy riverbank.

"So… you had a question?" the goose asked with a small laugh.


Author's Note: In the movie, Kate is shown to be in the driver's side crate on the back of the truck. But then when the two wolves are released, she is shown to be on the passenger's side of the truck. I noticed this and chose to stick to the script, switching them around as the movie did. (Detailed writer's award. We have a winner.)

Reviews Appreciated! PMs welcome with open arms.