An amber eye overlooked the deep forest beyond the Cascades. Every detail, every single bush and tree that could be seen from that height was reflected in that shifting ring of gold. But one thing was missing. The forest was so dense, seen from this height, that all the life down there was hidden from this shining light.

"They have to be down there," Kate said in disgust. "If only we could see them!"

"I know," Humphrey said, standing beside her. "How inconsiderate of them not to put up a sign around here saying 'Pack Central Down Here, Enemies Enter Through Back'."

Kate turned to Humphrey and smiled. While she seemed to have little time for laughter these days, Humphrey always had a way of brightening her dower mood.

"I don't care where they are," Garth said as he walked up beside them. "All I know is that Lilly's down there and finding her is all I care about."

"Don't worry, big guy," Humphrey said, "we're going to get her back. As long as me and Kate are on the case, there's no one who is going to keep us from bringing her back safe and sound. Isn't that right, Kate?"

Kate did not answer.

"Kate?" Humphrey asked again. "Earth to Kate?"

Kate suddenly turned her head as though she had heard Humphrey for the first time. "We had better get going," she said, "We have to find them and get in before anyone knows we're here."

"As soon as I get my hands on those Cascade wolves, I'll tear 'em apart," Garth said. "Just thinking about all the things they must have done to her by now, it just makes me want to…."

Garth brought his paw down hard on a twig, splintering it. He did not even notice the pain as little pieces of wood embedded themselves into his paw.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get your chance soon," Edgar, his rust-colored subordinate, said behind him. "I too can't wait for the chance to tear out some throats."

"Where were you when the war was going on the first time?" Humphrey asked, having not recalled seeing Edgar then.

"I could ask you the same thing," Edgar retorted gruffly.

"We don't have time for this sitting around!" Can-do said as he came before them. "If we're going to go stomp a new one on those foreign devils, we should do it now!"

Hutch followed him and quickly grabbed his shoulder. "Can-do, we don't really need your attitude right now. This operation is going to require delicacy, tact, and cunning."

"Are you saying I'm not delicate?" Can-do yelled, probably loud enough to wake the dead. "That I'm not tactful? What gives you ideas like that?"

Hutch looked at him with something like pity. "I haven't the slightest clue," he answered tartly.

"Guys, if I may say so," Shakey said as he followed, "I don't know if it's best to rush in. Maybe we should get a feel for the area and try to determine the pack's routine and scope first."

Though he knew Humphrey well, speaking around the other pack leaders was something Shakey still found filled with difficulty.

"You know, Shakey's right," Humphrey opined. "There are times for jumping in blindly, like when you're about to do some log-sledding down Dead Man's Curve. And then there are times for caution, like when you're walking into the lion's den of the largest pack in the known universe."

Kate shook her head. "They're wolves, not lions, Humphrey. Besides, we will be getting a feel for the area and the scope of the enemy when we go in."

Humphrey tilted his head. "Now, call me crazy, but didn't somebody once say something about 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread'?"

"But he talked about about man, not wolf, so we're good," Shakey said helpfully.

"Not helping your own case," Humphrey whispered to him despite the fact that everyone else could still hear.

"While I do think Humphrey and the other Omega's hesitance is a bit extreme," Hutch said.

"Cowards," Can-do muttered under his breath. "Just like all Omegas."

Hutch ignored him and continued, "I do believe that some caution is necessary. Ma'am, if you or Humphrey or Garth would be captured, I shudder to think what would happen to you and to us. You are our natural leaders and will still be needed despite all we have lost. But Can-do and I can risk ourselves without the same consequences. Please let us lead the mission to find Lilly and the Cascade Pack while you stay here and plan our next move."

At this, Garth jumped into Hutch's face. "What? Lilly is out there somewhere, suffering, in pain, being beaten and tortured and I can't bear to think of what else by those monsters! She needs me! And you would have me just sit it out? Any kind of fool could see that she's my mate and I'm the one who should rescue her!"

"I could see that," Edgar noted.

"What did I tell you, any fool," Garth said. "But you want me to just leave her to her fate?"

"Pardon me, sir," Hutch said respectfully, upset that he might have insulted his superior, "but I don't want to forget about Lilly any more than you do. We will find her, sir, and then we will end all that she has had to go through. I promise you that."

"There's an old saying in the East," Garth muttered as he glared darkly at Hutch, "A Beta's promises are like caribou committing suicide; too good to be true."

"Hey, I like that," Edgar the Beta said.

"But I need to be the one to save Lilly," Garth continued. "She's my mate and she's counting on me! Don't you understand that, she needs me!"

But before he knew it, he was no longer staring into Hutch's face. Rather, he was staring into Humphrey's. The Omega had jumped between the Alpha and the Beta. "Hey, hey now, Garth, Hutch didn't mean anything by it. We all know how you love Lilly. You love her almost as much as Kate loves me! But you won't do any good for her if you go and get yourself killed down there. How do you think she'll feel if, after waiting so long for you to save her, the first thing she sees of you in months is your bloody, mangled corpse?"

Garth backed away and gave pause. Slowly, he nodded. "You're right, Humphrey."

Humphrey sighed in relief. But his relief soon turned to horror when Can-do decided to speak up. "Hmph, I doubt she's got much hope after she was kidnapped under his watch at home."

Garth felt like a dagger had torn through his heart. Nobody beat themselves up more for the events of that day than he did. He should have been there, he knew, for her. He should not have slept soundly while she disappeared from Jasper forever. He should have heard, he should have awakened, he should have known.

As he backed away from Can-do's burning glare, the first moments of awakening to find Lilly missing played over and over in his head. As Humphrey discovered in amazement that he did not have to die breaking up a fight between two very volatile wolves, Garth turned away from the group and tears began to tear down his cream snout.

But something was wrong that day, he knew. He knew Lilly must not have gone willingly. She must have been kidnapped. She loved Garth too much to ever leave him willingly. But wouldn't she have screamed? Did she scream, scream his name, and he had not heard it? Could he, somewhere deep in slumber, have chosen not to hear it so he could gain his much-desired rest? And did she watch in heartbroken horror as he slept on, uncaringly, breaking his promise to always protect her? Did she cry for love betrayed as he peacefully allowed her to be brutally hauled from his life forever?

But he should have heard. He always heard her voice, no matter what. Had he been buried six feet under he should still have, like Arthur's knight, heard her cry from a thousand miles. And there should have been scuff-marks upon the cave-floor. There should have been blood, even; if not her attackers' blood, then at least her own pure sanguine. He knew how Lilly had never acted in anger or violence her whole life, but Garth also knew that, when defending herself or him, even she must be willing to put up a fight.

So what was wrong with this picture? Garth did not want to know, for he knew that if he knew, it could unravel the narrative of kidnap, of lovers cruelly parted and a damsel in distress waiting for her shining knight to rescue her, the comfortable story which had allowed him to survive the harsh months without her.

While Garth found himself in reverie, the discussion had continued without him.

"So Humphrey agrees with Hutch's plan!" Kate proclaimed.

What? No!" Humphrey said, his eyes wide with that peculiar realization that he had, in trying to stop one mistake, made an even bigger one. "All I was saying was we need to be cau–"

"Hutch, you're plan's approved," Kate said. "Take Can-do and Edgar with you."

"What?" Can-do and Edgar shouted together.

"I don't want that cur with me!" Can-do said, waving a fist at Edgar.

"Tiny doesn't deserve to be in my presence," Edgar said, waving his own fist at Can-do. "If he's going to treat me like that, I'm not going!"

"You two are going together, and that's an order!" Kate said sternly.

Humphrey smiled as best he could. "Dysfunction, the main ingredient in any successful team! But Kate, shouldn't we–"

"No, Humphrey," Kate responded. "We've made our decision together and now we have to stand by it together."

Humphrey looked away. It was times like these that he knew Kate had him beaten. What more could he say to her? It was just like during the war. All the times of trying to say, "Kate, maybe we shouldn't go about blindly fighting the Cascade pack. Kate, maybe we should listen to their side of the story. Kate, maybe we shouldn't be okay with our wolves taking innocent lives." But she had always cut him down. She had always chosen to cut him down. He, like Lilly, had spent the whole war powerlessly watching from the sidelines as things got worse and worse. Sometimes, he wondered if she had just run away, just run away to escape all the needless bloodshed. He knew he wished he had the courage to do so.

Then Humphrey saw Shakey shaking out of the corner of his eye. He had an idea. "Okay," he said, "if we're really going through with this, I think Shakey should go as well."

Shakey's head bobbed up and down like he was a bobble-head statue. "M-m-m-me? Why me?"

"Yeah, Humphrey, why Shakey?" Kate asked incredulously.

"He's too short to do anything useful," Can-do muttered.

"Almost as short as you," Edgar said with a mean chuckle.

"Wait, wait, everybody," Humphrey said as he motioned with his paws for them to calm down. "Just listen to me for once. I think we can all agree that Shakey's the smartest one here and he'd probably be the best at figuring out how to overcome any, ahem, obstacles you might encouter. I mean, if you guys are really going to charge in like this boneheads first, you need someone who can recognize when it's a trap you're rushing into. That's why Shakey should go."

"B-b-but Humphrey," Shakey protested, looking at Humphrey as though his best friend had just joyfully put at hit out on him, "I-I-I'm not cut out to be part of a rescue operation! I'm just… I'm just Shakey!"

Humphrey walked over and put his foreleg around his little buddy's shoulder. "Come on, Shakey, you said we need to be more cautious. And who knows better about that than you? You'll be able to keep the A-Team here out of danger. Which will come mostly from each other, so why worry? Besides," he winked as he said the next bit, "I think there's more inside of you than you realize!"

"Really?" Shakey said in amazement. No one had ever tried to say he was worth something before.

Humphrey nodded in a fatherly manner. "Yep, and you just need the opportunity to bring it out!"

"Um, um, um," Shakey said shakily, as though trying to recite a mantra, "I guess if you really think so, I guess…. I guess I could go with them."

"That's three guesses in one sentence," Can-do observed spitefully. "I guess he's not really sure!"

"Almost as many guesses as you!" Edgar taunted.

"That one didn't even make sense!" Can-do barked back.

"Yes it did," Edgar retorted. "You said 'three guesses' and then you said 'I guess'. Well, three guesses plus one guess equals four guesses, chum!"

Can-do was stunned silent by this offbeat way of making the weaker argument the stronger.

"Garth, any objections?" Kate asked.

Garth did not answer, as he was still too lost in to past to know what was occurring in the here and now.

"Okay, it's unanimous," Kate said. "Get ready to leave immediately. Hutch, can I speak to you for a moment?"

Kate and Hutch walked a few paces away from the group. Finally, Kate stopped, looked Hutch in the eye, and spoke in a hushed voice.

"You know what you have to do, right?" she said. "If you find Lilly, you remember what we discussed, yes? We're absolutely counting on you here. We've lost too much for someone to mess this up."

Hutch nodded solemnly. "Don't worry, ma'am. I know what you need from me. And I'll never betray that confidence, no matter what happens."

"I always knew I could rely on you," Kate said. "But don't share it with anybody else until absolutely necessary."

"What about Garth?" Hutch said. "Don't you think he deserves to know?"

Kate looked passed Hutch to where Humphrey was now vainly trying to break Garth from his reverie. She turned back and sadly shook her head. "He's suffering too much as it is, the poor fool. He doesn't need to have this to worry about right now, too."

Hutch's eyes locked with Kate's. "I understand, ma'am. What you command I will carry out. No matter what. That's my promise, my vow."

Kate nodded and walked back toward the group. Hutch followed. They all knew that, before nightfall, they would either have won something back or lost everything.

Hutch has a mission.

Perhaps the most vital mission a Jasper wolf has ever had.

Shall he succeed?

Read on.