Chapter 33: A New Wolf

Humphrey's P.O.V.

"I'm sorry Kate."

I was still in my own mind when a wolf started yelling.

"Get up! We have to go. NOW!" he said.

The voice seemed very faded. At first I thought that it was coming from one of my memories, but I soon realized that it wasn't. As soon as I became conscious that it was coming from 'the outside', I awoke.

In the panic I was in, it didn't take long for my vision to clear. Nor did my memory.

"You son of a b****!" I screamed at him. It was none other than the imposter that mimicked my brother. "How are you still alive?!"

He seemed to quickly realize the situation he was in. "I know that this is strange to you, but you have to listen to me. We must go now!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" I yelled as I got into a fighting stance.

Athena quickly got involved, "Stop!" she commanded of both of us. "Ares, what is this about?"

It didn't take long to hit me. This wolf was the Ares that I let tend me just a little bit ago. "This is Ares?!"

"Yes, he is my brother. Now let him speak." Athena told me.

I coughed at this new information. "H-he's your br-brother?"

"Yes, now let him speak!" she replied back annoyed. She regained the previous eye contact she had before with Ares, showing him that he had her complete attention.

"We have to go now. I can't explain, but it's for the good of both of you." he explained.

I gave him a quick answer, "I'm not going anywhere with you without a good reason."

"And if that reason regards Kate?" he asked.

He knew me. Even though it was only a few days that I spent with him in the clearing, he was able to know what breaks me. He knew that I would break if there was any situation involving Kate. And I knew that he was doing that, but i couldn't take anymore chances.

"That's good enough for me. Let's go."

We ran right after I said that. He didn't say where we were going, but we still followed close behind him. Without warning, he came to a sudden stop.

"Athena, you have to stay here. If anyone asks for us, you need to tell them that you don't know." he told her. It was apparent that I wasn't part of this conversation, so I kept quiet.

"Where are you going?" she paused. "If who comes?"

"I love you Kristan. To this day, I regret leaving you. It all would have been better if I stayed with you."

"Ares, you know that we aren't supposed to use those names anymore."

"Just listen to me. I will come back for you. Don't trust anyone. They all lie. Don't tell anyone where we go."

"But where are you going?"

"It will easier for you not to tell if you don't know."

"But Ares…"

"I love you don't forget. And don't forget that I regret what I'm about to do."

"Ares?" she asked with complete fear and worry in her eyes.

"Goodbye." he whispered to her. I was close enough to hear it.

After that, he quickly lifted his paw a struck her across the head, knocking her unconscious immediately.

I quickly came into a rampage. "What the f*** was that for?!" I asked him.

"She can't know what I'm about to tell you. But I need to know if you can handle the truth either."

I could feel my heart racing as he spoke. I didn't want to know. If it is so bad that not even Kristan can know, I don't want to know. But I still managed to squeak out an answer, "I can handle it."

He sighed, "Your brother, Zane. He is incharge of this whole thing. I take orders from him, as does my sister. But I can follow him no longer. He has gone too far."

"What? What has he done?" I pleaded for the answer, despite the shock of everything he just told me.

"I can only give you a brief explanation for now. Zane is your brother, and he is a true-blood of the gift. Your mother, and your father, both were true-blood. That makes you and Zane true-bloods; true-bloods are the strongest of the ability. You and Zane are the strongest wolves in existence."

My mind was swirling with all of this new information. It was mind-numbing, so I sat there staring at him, with dumbfounded facial expression.

"Zane has lost it. He's been trying to avenge your mother's death by finishing what she started. I understand his reasonings, but his methods are too extreme."

"And that is?" I asked.

"He's forcing wolves to work for him. Most of our pack is made up of females. He used his powers on them. They don't know better, and he's going to get them all killed when he goes up in a real battle."

"What can I do?"

"You are a true-blood. You and him are the last two in existence. You are the only one strong enough to stop him."

I sat there, he was standing the entire time, but about halfway through his explanation, I felt my legs weaken. I could feel all of my legs getting weak. For this being a brief explanation, it was very long.

He seemed to notice the daze I was trailing into. "Humphrey!" he yelled at me. "Stay focused! I know that this is a lot to take in, but you have to listen to me. The fate of all wolf-kind literally depends on us!"

As he spoke, we both voices in the distance. None of the few I've heard before.

"Humphrey, we have to go now. I'll explain more later."

"Who is it?" I asked.

"It's more wolves from my pack. They must have discovered that we left. We must move now."

I had no idea of where we were going. We were running for hours upon hours. I had never gone this direction before. From where the sun was in the sky, I noted that we were going north. We lead us through an area that somehow brought us around Jasper without getting noticed. A path that I wished I knew about when I first came here.

Much like he did earlier today, he suddenly stopped. I was completely out of breath, I had no idea how I was able to keep up with him for those seemingly-endless hours. He was standing up straight, not looking exhausted in anyway.

"How the hell are you not tired after all that?" I asked while I dropped to the ground.

He just shrugged, then he continued what he was saying from the exact point he left off. "You are the only hope left for every wolf in the world. I know that you think that you are meant to kill, but that is not true. Like everything in life, you can choose what you do. You can overcome this. Your ancestors and what they've done doesn't define you. You define you."

He stared at me for a moment after his small speech. It didn't seem like he was going to continue until I spoke, so I decided to just say something. "Well, that was a great speech and all, but that doesn't explain much to me. I can't believe that I'm even listening to you. I should kill you for what you did to Kate back in the clearing!"

"I understand. If you did anything to my sister, I would have killed you in seconds. I love Kristan. She's the only family I have left. I know that you love Kate as well. I also know that it's two different types of love, but it doesn't mean that the amount of love we give is any less."

I intentionally rolled my eyes at him. "When we were in the den, you said that all of this had something to do with Kate."

He gave out a long, deep breath of worry and sadness before he spoke again. "This all must be hard for you. I'm surprised that you haven't lost it by now, after all I have told you."

"What about Kate?" I demanded.

"All you need to know right now is that you can't trust anyone. Not even Kristan nor Kate."

My mind still felt numb from earlier, even though it has been hours since. I still couldn't think straight, but I could think enough to question him. "Why Kate. What happened to her?"

"Zane is too powerful. But he's desperate, desperate for you. I don't know entirely why, but he is doing everything in his power to make you join him."

"What does this have to do with Kate?" I asked, but already know the horrid answer.

"Zane, he's messed with her mind. I don't know how else to explain this but…"

"But what?!" I ordered the answer out of him.

"He's forcing her to kill you." he said then flinched as if he expected me to attack him. Instead, I dropped to the floor, instantly putting my paws over my eyes. Then the tears came.

"How could he do this. How does this make me want to join him?" I attempted to say as my voice crackled from my crying.

"He assumes that once you are forced to kill her in your own protection, you will have no more to keep you connected to the Jasper Pack."

"I would never kill her. I would let her kill me before I harmed her in any way."

"I know you would. I figured that out after I saw how you were willing to kill everyone from the Jasper packs just to save her."

"Yeah, well you had her in your control at the time as well."

He grimaced as I brought that memory back to him. Almost as if he too felt pain from the actions taken on that day. "I regret all that I've done to you. I was forced by Zane to do it though. It wasn't part of my own decisions."

I was still crying, but I somehow managed to continue the conversation. "What do you mean?"

He gave a sort of grunt, signifying that he'd rather not talk about it, but he did so anyways. "My sister, Kristan, I know that you knew her as a pup, then she one day vanished."

"Yes?"

"She was one of the Betas of your pack. Because she was eligible for the task, Winston sent her to start patrolling the area. Winston was planning on expanding the pack's borders, so she was sent to do the first survey of the new land and to run a few patrol laps around it before returning back to Winston. She never did make it back."

I felt myself getting sucked into the story as he told it. "What happened to her?"

"It so happened that the area she was sent to survey was the area that Zane was starting his pack. I had joined him years before that, but that day, I lost my faith in him." He took a short pause for breath then continued. "Without going into too much detail, I discovered her in the bushes around our clearing. Being her brother, I convinced her to follow me, so she could meet Zane. Zane then changed her. He changed her memory, he changed entire thought process."

"She was a new wolf" I muttered, not meaning for him to notice it.

"Yes, quite precise actually. That was when Zane made her change her name. He made her call herself Athena. A pairing name to my own that he gave me."

I became curious at his last sentence. "What is your name then?"

"Oscar. My real name is Oscar. I would prefer you to call me by that name for now on."

"Okay." I answered his request.

"That is why we can't trust either of them. Zane could have forced her to tell him if I told her where we went, that's why I couldn't tell her."

"Where are we anyways?" I questioned.

"We are north of Jasper. I couldn't risk being too close to Zane. When I was a pup, before Kristan and I arrived at your Jasper pack, we used a den out here. It was mainly for me after she joined your pack. I'm hoping that it is still here and uninhabited."

I train of thought was mainly focused on Kate right now, but I still listened and spoke to Ares, or Oscar, as much as I could. "Why didn't you join the pack?"

"I was scared. She was always much braver than I was. She was always much more clever as well. She was able to go right up to Winston and explain our entire story without even mentioning me. She was able to keep me a secret the entire time she was there. She was much better than I ever was."

"She was always amazing." I accidently said.

"What did you say?" he asked with an entirely different expression than before.

"Nothing, it doesn't matter right now."

"Hell it doesn't. Are you hitting on my sister?"

"NO! You know that I love Kate. Nothing can stop my love for her."

"It better stay like that, or maybe I will just let Kate kill you."

"Please don't right now. I need more time to think about this."

He was about to give an objection, but he then closed his mouth. "Come on, let's find the den."

He then walked off. I got up and followed after. I mumbled to myself a small joke from my old self. "This is definitely not how I pictured my world adventures to start." I chuckled at my own joke. Wow, am I really listening to this wolf? I then answered my own question with another question. What other twists does my life have to offer?

Kate's P.O.V.

Zane was right. Humphrey has gone too far. He's constantly trying to kill the pack. He must be stopped. I can't believe that I ever saw anything in him. He is much past the point of redemption.

Zane sent me to go put a stop to Humphrey. I knew this was all my fault. I let him live when we had the chance to stop him. My dad said that we should put him down, Garth said we should as well. But I was just too stupid to see the big idea. Now, any other wolf-deaths are on my paws.

I arrived at the den that Humphrey was supposedly in, but to my surprise, he wasn't there. Damn it! He knew I was coming! That coward! I quickly made my way back to Zane to give him the news of my failure.

"Well that's too bad." He said opening his claws. I knew the penalty of failure, so I was ready to receive it.

Suddenly, a female wolf came running in. "Sir," she started, panting. "Ares and Humphrey left." another pause for breath, "Ares knocked me out before leaving."

"How was he able to overpower you Athena?" Zane asked curiously.

"Ares tricked me. He was going to bring me along with him. He must have knew that I was more loyal to you than him. I volunteer myself to go and capture those two and charge them of treason."

Zane then gave an expression as if he got a sudden idea.

"I grant you permission to hunt them down, but…" He gave a lovely-devilish smile, "...you must take Kate."

"I'm sorry sir, but I lack faith in your reasoning in that plan." she said. I was annoyed that Zane was ignoring my presence, but I still stayed quiet.

"Kate has come to an understanding." he stated. "I also believe that she will be a great asset to this mission."

"But sir…" She started.

"No questions. I am decided. You and Kate will go find Ares and Humphrey."

I could tell that this wolfess was annoyed, but still wise enough not to stand up against Zane. I just stood there, standing straight like Mom always told me to.

"Kate." he said no turning his head towards me. "Humphrey must be killed. You know how dangerous he is."

I couldn't help but respond with a quick, "Yes Master."

"Good, Kate, would you please wait outside while I speak with Athena."

I nodded and hurried myself out.

I closed my eyes, you can run Humphrey, but you can't hide.

There you go everyone. I'm sorry that the wait was longer for this chapter. I got a few reviews and PM's pleading for the next chapter. I honestly started on this immediately after I posted the last one. I was practically done with my first draft when "stuff" happened. My first semester finals are coming up in school for me, and so I have so much reviewing and studying to do. They have kept me busy for the last few days. For the days before that, I have no legit excuse. I apologise for that.

Anyway, what do you think about this chapter? I took a big risk here, so I want to know if you guys like it or not. Please review letting me know, and telling me any other ideas for this new plot-twist.

I can't write too much right now for this A/N, so I'll have to cut it here.

Thank you all for reading, I would love to see what you thought about this, and PM me any suggestions for upcoming chapters. And always read for your own enjoyment.

-Hikers123