*AN- Hey guys, so it has been ages since I've updated this and I feel really bad for that. HOWEVER, since it's my birthday I thought my present to you guys would be a chapter for this, and my other story 'How It Was Back Then' both in the same day. Enjoy!

*Dexter's P.O.V.*

I woke up with the worst feeling of vertigo I'd ever experienced. My memory felt foggy at best and for a second I nearly vomited. Thankfully the sensation faded as fast as it came, but it was still unnerving. I hadn't had any berries so I wasn't hungover. Was I getting sick? No, I just needed some water, yes that was it. At least that's what I told myself.

As I practically tripped over my own feet to get out of my den I found myself on extremely muddy ground. There must have been a horrible storm the previous night, though how I'd slept through it I didn't know. There were large limbs lying all over the place, even some trees had been uprooted. It had been a long time since I'd seen damage like this.

"Damn," I swore under my breath as I literally fell to the creek bank near my den. As fast as I hit the ground I dunked my head under the cold water and swished it around before taking in a large gulp. Although refreshing, it didn't help me feel any less ill. The last few days felt like such a blur, trying to remember specific details just sent my head spinning. I began to wonder if maybe I'd caught something. Going to ask Eve probably wasn't the best idea given what had happened yesterday, and the other healers would most likely be caught up in the season. So I opted for the number one cure all, berries.

I still had duties to attend to so I didn't eat very many. Whether through the numbing effect they had on me, or if the sensation coincidentally faded when I ate them, I felt much more grounded afterwards. Amazing what a couple fermented berries could do for someone.

I was on hunting duty for today, which I was thankful for because I knew right away we wouldn't be very busy. Most prey wouldn't be out so soon after the storm, and even if it was hunting it wasn't much of an option. Our day would instead be spent cleaning debris out of the hunting grounds. I know it seems odd, but keeping the field clean was an essential part of a safe, successful, hunt. The grass in the field was so tall it could easily hide a large branch or rock, something a wolf running at top speed wouldn't want to trip over. Twisted and broken ankles as well as pulled muscles were the best-case scenario. You were likely to end up trampled if you fell.

I made an effort to be the first at what we called the 'staging area'. It was the last few meters of trees leading into the actual hunting grounds. Here we could scope out prey, discuss tactics, and break into teams with little risk of being spotted. I wanted to arrive first so I could get an idea of how busy we'd be.

Much as I'd guessed, there wasn't a single caribou out. Even if there had been, the field looked like an absolute warzone. Cleaning up would take all day, maybe even two days. Normally I would have gotten started right away. I'd always been the type to take initiative and start something, even if it wasn't asked of me. But today was different. Rather than get started, I found a nice spot and stretched out onto my back. Whether I was just being lazy or somehow rebelling against Winston, I didn't know.

It felt like an hour before another wolf finally showed up.

"Morning sir," Leon said as he approached. "Some storm we had last night. Me and Percy could hardly sleep."

"Yeah I woke up feeling awful. Good news is we won't be doing any hunting, instead we'll be spending all day cleaning up that mess out there. Who else is supposed to be helping out," I asked rolling over and sitting up.

"Rachel and Candu I think. Think the season is keeping duties to a bare minimum," he said with a wide yawn.

"Yeah, makes things more of a pain in the ass. Well, we should have plenty of food to do us until tomorrow. Hopefully we can get this mess cleaned up by then. I don't like letting the pack go without fresh meat for too long. Plus I'd like to think at least one of us has a mate to get back to," I teased.

"O-oh, w-well yeah, I guess you could say that," he mumbled through a heavy blushed.

"Easy there son," I laughed "I know all about you and Percy, word travels fast in the pack. Nothing wrong with it at all. Come on let's get an early start."

I motioned for him to follow me. Together we strolled into littered remains of the hunting grounds. Almost immediately I came across a branch that would've tripped someone. I grabbed the end of it in my jaws and drug it towards the right side of the field where a massive cliff stood. I stuffed it as close to the rock wall as I could to keep it as out of the way as possible. The whole time I thought about the talk I'd had with Mina, and her last words to me.

Was it really a way to get back at Winston? Or just her telling me to move on? Ever since we'd known one another she knew I was an oddball, being more attracted to omegas than alphas. It was unusual for an alpha, given that they often found the others as irritating or physically less attractive. But I found those qualities charming. Whether that was from growing up with an omega for a mother, or I'd inherited it from my father I didn't know.

Personally, I found the whole 'alphas and omegas can't be mates' thing to be childish. It was an old legend that was taken too seriously. It was all because the pack founders feared the north would wage war against us, because at the time we knew nothing about them. To be honest they could have cared less what we did with our laws. But I guess it was an old law that would die hard.

An hour passed and there was no sign of either Rachel or Candu. The longer I waited, the more frustrated I got. I know it was the season and all, but they should have shown up at some point. Rachel was more understandable since the heat directly affected her, but Candu had no excuse.

Thankfully Leon and I could pull double our own weight, and I mean that in a workload sense. Progress was still unbearably slow despite the effort we were putting in. When another hour passed by a combination of exhaustion and frustration washed over me.

"Alright Leon, let's take a break," I suggested as I tossed aside another branch.

"Yes sir," he flopped to the ground and sighed. Poor guy had been doing a lot.

"Come on, let's go get something to drink. Doesn't look like we're getting any help," I walked over and helped Leon to his feed. He seemed overjoyed by the prospect of water. "Also, you know you don't have to call me sir, right? I'm not your superior. Call me Dex."

"Alright, Dex," he gave a smile. "I'd say for just the two of us we've done a good amount of work."

"That's for sure. We don't even need the other two anyway," I joked.

"It's strange, I've never known them to slack off on their duties before."

"Well this is Rachel's first heat so I wouldn't be so harsh on her. Season affects the ladies more than it does us after all. Candu, however, he doesn't have much of an excuse. You and I are out here after all, and I'm sure we'd like to get laid just as much as he would. If it were up to me we'd do three-fourths of the work and leave the rest for him. But I know it probably wouldn't get done," I must've sounded pretty bitter, maybe more than what was called for, but I couldn't stand the thought of him laying around in total relaxation while me and Leon were out busting our asses.

"You don't think maybe he got hurt in last night's storm do you," he asked. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind, but I suppose it was a possibility.

"Maybe we should run over to his den and find out," I said definitively as we reached the stream by the hunting grounds.

"We should. Would be something to find him sleeping," Leon chuckled as he dunked his head into the water to cool off. I nodded and yawned widely.

"Day's hardly started and already I'm yawning. I'm getting too old for this," I sighed rolling onto my back. "Then again, maybe being locked up by the humans for a year has me used to not doing anything."

"What was it like, being captured by the humans," he asked.

"Not as bad as you'd think. They're nice, least the ones I was with were. When they found me, it was a couple of days after I'd been attacked. Damn bear drug me off to god only knows where. I slept in a hole for what seemed like days. They took me to some place and patched up my wounds. They had a big area fenced in, guess to keep us from escaping."

"There were others there too?"

"Yeah, but they wouldn't have made it out here. Humans keep them there so they're safe. They'd feed us every day, give us water, talk to us. They weren't like hunters at all. The only problem with it was the boredom. There was nothing to hunt, not that we even needed to, no need to patrol the area, nothing but sit around. Kept me there for a little over a year it seemed like, guess just waiting to see if I could still handle myself," I rolled over to stand and stretch my legs. "Let's see if we can find Candu."

"Sure," he agreed, taking another quick drink of water.

"Any idea where his den is?"

"Yeah, it's not too far from here," he motioned for me to follow, so I did. As we strolled my mind drifted back to what we'd seen yesterday when Eve drove Winston away. I wondered where the old coot had wound up. It didn't take much to figure out what had gone down, he'd told her about their daughters arranged marriage. She took it about as well as anyone would expect. Tiberius had us leave while he went to talk to her, guess he was sort of like a father figure to her. He never said how their talk went, and even told us to leave when he went in the den. It'd been a long time since he'd been that serious.

"Something on your mind," Leon asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over us.

"Oh, it's nothing," I'd always heard Leon was good at reading one's emotions, but I'd never actually experienced it. To be honest, it was kind of creepy.

"You sure? You seem awfully distant. I'm a healer you know, you can tell me if something's bothering you. I will keep whatever it is confidential."

"Just lost in thought it all. I've got a lot on my mind lately. Still trying to cope with the loss of Mina I guess," I admitted.

"Hutch's mom?" Leon guessed to which I nodded. "I only ever saw her one time, when she brought Hutch to alpha school. She seemed sweet."

"She was. I miss her a lot. I never thought the last time I'd see her I'd be protecting her with my life. It's almost hard to go to sleep without her beside me," I felt odd discussing my feelings normally, let alone to a random wolf I hardly knew. But Leon seemed trustworthy enough, he was a healer after all.

"I'm sorry. I'm always around if you ever need someone to talk to. Just-"

"Shh," I demanded suddenly as I caught the faintest whiff of an unfamiliar scent. I needed the silence to make there weren't any sounds accompanying the smell. But I couldn't hear anything.

"What is it," Leon asked, sniffing in the same direction I was.

"It smells like, an eastern wolf," I said, hoping I was wrong.

"What would an easterner be doing in our territory?"

"I don't know. Let's hope maybe they were tracking something and lost their way. Come on, Candu can wait, we need to check this out." I said, starting to follow the scent trail. Leon followed suit, a few feet behind me in case of an ambush.

The scent was definitely that of an eastern wolf. Female, I could smell her heat. But I couldn't for the life of me understand what a rival wolf would be doing in our pack. Everyone knew it was against the pack rules to cross the border like that, at least without consent from the pack leaders. As far as I knew, we weren't expecting any visitors.

"We're getting close to Candu's den," Leon informed as we made our way up a small hill in a valley. The area was peppered with debris from the storm. Maybe she'd lost her way.

When we came to the entrance of the den, we found two of the wolves we'd been looking for. Our group member for the day, Candu, who was knot deep in who I can only assume was the wolf we'd been smelling.

"F-fuck," he panted when he saw us.

Immediately we back down the hill, our faces both blood red. Walking in on a pair mating was certainly the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to me. But at the same time, I had questions I needed answers to. But did I dare even go back up there?

"Guys, I can," Candu said, looking down at us but I held up my paw to stop him.

"No, no. Just…stop," I said, trying to wrap my head around what I'd just seen. "One: Who is she? Two: What is she doing here? Three: Why are you skipping on duties to mate with an eastern wolf? Four: Why are you mating with an eastern wolf in the first place. Finally: Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"

"Dexter please, let me explain," he pleaded.

"Well," I said sitting firmly down "better start explaining."