Here's Chapter 2 of "The Great Year." Much like the last chapter, this one serves to set things up for what is to come. The actual main plot will begin in a chapter or two. It should be interesting.

Also, this is not connected to this story, but I wanted to mention it anyway. DLW just completed his story "Alpha and Omega: The Week After" earlier this week and I'd like to recommend it to anybody who has not read it yet. It is one awesome and powerful tale and I do not think you'll regret checking it out.

But as for now, read on:

Lilly sat out on the cliff of her new den, set in a small peak of the Cascade Mountains overlooking the wide forest. It was now official. She was mated to a wolf other than Garth. Now, for the first time in months, she was able to cry alone.

She thought back to how this had all happened. As they approached the pack's home territory, the pack leader, Conn, had had her brought to him. He had looked her up and down in all her muddiness and said, "Look at you! Don't you have any concept of cleanliness at all? Don't you care about your own appearance? I can't have my new bride looking like that!"

Lilly turned her face away while the whole crowd around her burst into laughter. She tried to be strong as jeers of "What a slob!" came from the onlookers. Never mind that she had been one of the most consciousness wolves in Jasper where bathing was concerned and it was they who never allowed her to clean herself. But she would be strong. She remembered how practically every day after she had married Garth, Kate had told her that she could no longer be just a funny, playful Omega and now had to be strong for the pack. This was not her pack, but she knew she still had reason to be strong.

"I can't have her looking like that!" Conn repeated. "They'll wonder what we invaded the north for anyway if we bring back something as revolting as that. Glaucon, Adeimantus, take her to the nearest stream and get her clean!"

What followed was more unpleasant humiliation as the yellow wolf, Glaucon, and the grey wolf, Adeimantus, had taken her to the nearest clear stream. Their idea of bathing her was to dunk her violently and repeatedly under water until the dirt and muck had all come off.

Splash! Lilly felt the freezing water engulf her completely. It poured into her eyes and mouth and nose and ears, making her feel like she was about to be crushed by the influx. It filled her lungs and made her begin to choke and gag. And then she was pulled out. A moment of sunlight and warmth – though the breeze made Lilly just as cold as she had been under water – and then: Splash! Another minute of drowning before being pulled up again. Temporary relief and then: Splash! Again and again.

Lilly had at first tried to resist this, not so much deliberately but as a natural survival response. But the two wolves were much bigger and stronger than she, so it made no difference how much she flailed. Soon enough, even her survival response was dulled. She just prayed that soon she would be clean and, not for the first time in her life, cursed the misfortune of being born with white fur.

During one of these moments, Lilly heard Glaucon express to Adeimantus confusion as to why it was taking so long for her fur to become clean.

"There is no way it should be taking this long!" Glaucon said. "It never takes me this long to clean myself!"

Lilly could at least take comfort in the fact that Glaucon apparently used the same method to clean himself and was not specifically signaling her out for punishment. But given his smell, she could tell that he was not nearly as proficient in self-grooming as he thought.

"Ah, she's just being stubborn," Adeimantus responded. "She's staying dirty just to spite us!"

Lilly yelped uncontrollably, causing a torrent of water to flow into her lungs and gag her, when Adeimantus kicked her side.

"That ought to teach her!" he said proudly.

Somehow, perhaps as a result of her prayers, Lilly was at last made clean and white again by the rushing water. At which point, she began to catch her breath, but had no time as she was soon jerked away by the two brutes.

She had then been marched into the heart of the territory, just like a prisoner in a Roman triumph.

"Come out, everyone!" Conn shouted. "After a year and a half, we have finally returned victorious! The Jasper wolves have been defeated and their hubris has been humbled – and we bring a prize to prove it!"

He shoved Lilly forward as the few wolves who had remained at home came out to see the victorious army in triumph advancing. Lilly squirmed as she felt their mocking eyes fall upon her and their happy cheers cut her to the bone. Despite this, however, Lilly's lavender lights immediately focused on a strange sight; another white wolf, a male long and slender. His blue eyes locked with hers for a few moments. He smiled furtively at her, causing her to avert her eyes in embarrassment. Beside him stood an older golden-brown wolf, female, who cast upon her an evil eye. Lilly shuttered as they exchanged looks.

Soon after had followed the farce of a wedding. It had brought back memories of the happiest day in Lilly's life, when she had married Garth. But now those memories were just painful to her as she was forced to go through the exact same ceremony with someone else, someone she did not love, and someone she was sure hated her. They went through it all; the accepting of the scents, the biting of the ear, and the rubbing of noses. But it was different this time, transformed utterly from a symbol of hope and love to one of mockery and despair.

Yet, however, that was somehow not the greatest humiliation Lilly had to endure that day. For, just as they were about to rub noses, Lilly pushing hers forward shakily and nervously to meet the big one of Conn, there was a loud shriek. Lilly felt herself pushed to the ground as the old female wolf she had seen before, the golden-brown one, burst in between them.

"A curse, a curse, a curse on the Cascade Pack!" shouted she madly. "Do you know not what you do? You are sealing your own fate, you fools! The white wolf shall be the doom of you all! The white wolf shall be the doom of you all! Doubt it not!"

"Oh, shut up, Sybil!" Conn said, pushing her out of his way. He then offered Lilly a paw to help her up. But Lilly still wanted to appear strong. So she forced herself to stand and go through with the last part of this perverted ceremony.

The celebrations followed, though they were more celebrating victory in war than the actual wedding. It made Lilly sick to hear the proud insults directed at her friends and family – insults not worth repeating here – or the gloating over Tony's murder (Glaucon and Adeimantus soon fell into a good-natured argument over who had delivered the killing blow). In one of the day's few fortunate events, Lilly had managed to find a small corner to hide herself in until the wild revelry was completed.

Then she had been taken to Conn's den for the night. Naturally, this was the moment Lilly had been dreading since the marriage ceremony had begun. But much to her surprise and the small amount of relief fate still allowed her, Conn did nothing to her when they arrived and instead immediately curled up by himself and went to sleep.

Briefly, a crazy idea floated through Lilly's mind. He had left her all alone with him and had now gone into a deep sleep. It would not be difficult even for her to sneak up quietly to where he lay and….

Lilly quickly shook the thought out of her head. There would be no more violence, ever. After all, was that not the reason she had given herself to Conn in the first place?

So, instead, Lilly had walked out onto the cliff as the other wolves retired to their dens and the forest became quiet. She looked out and saw the wide expanse of trees before her, covering the whole of the valley floor in darkness under the shining moonlight. At the edge of the forest, Lilly could just make out the features of a river by the moonlight reflected therein. Somehow, it did not seem so frightening in the darkness. Instead, it seemed magical, enchanting, perhaps a little dangerous but all the more beautiful for that.

She wished Garth was there to share it with her.

And that was what caused Lilly to cry.

What is next for Lilly?

Read on.