A/N: A quick chapter before the wedding begins
Humphrey's POV
"Humphrey get up" I could hear the sound Kate's voice in my sleep, I opened my eyes to see her lying next to me. "Is something wrong?" I asked still half asleep, in my mind it felt like it was nighttime still so I thought something was wrong with her. "You could say that, I just can't fall back asleep" She replied, I fully woke up after hearing that. "Why not" I asked, there was a little bit of light illuminating our den from the sun that was getting closer to rising. "Well I had this odd dream and I guess I can't sleep after waking up from it." She said. "Do you want to talk about it?" I offered, seeing if letting it out would help her. "Nah I faintly remember it anyway. I was going to get up and go for a walk but I wanted to wake you up first." She said. "You want me to walk with you?" I asked thinking she was going to ask that next. "Sure, but I was thinking of training you some more before the rush of the wedding gets started. Might as well since it's early and I can't sleep." She said.
"Do we have to? I kind of just want to relax until the packs are united" I said "Well do you got anything better to do?" She asked. I knew she had me there "Fine, let's go" I said, If I was going to be trained it would be best to get it done quickly and be done with it. "Good I was thinking I was going to have to drag you out to the valley." She jokingly, I laughed knowing she would do just that if tempted. "Oh really?" I said raising an eyebrow and getting up "Really" She replied with a smile getting up as well. I followed her outside into the early morning, the air was cold and the sun was almost rising over the mountains. I didn't see a single wolf outside besides us, they must all be asleep still from yesterday's events. They didn't need to be up early anyway, Winston had given everyone the day off due to the wedding that would be happening later today. We had most of the day to just Kate and I and I wouldn't have it any other way.
We walked through the quiet forest as we headed to the valley for today's hunting session. I didn't know what she had planned for today, possibly some more attack and defensive moves maybe. I didn't care, I was spending time with Kate and learning how to hunt so it wasn't just her doing it. I actually didn't have to train anymore since we were now living back in Jasper but I insisted. I wanted to be able to provide and protect not just her but also a whole family if in the future we decide to have one. I was neutral to the whole idea of being a parent, if that's what she wanted then I'm up for it. If not then it wouldn't be a big deal, I supported the fact of it just being Kate and I for our whole lives. Between the two of us there is ten happy years ahead, plenty of time to not rush into things. The slope of the valleys wall fattened out as we entered the tall green grass that covered most of the valleys floor. I could feel my fur get wet slightly from the dew on the blades of grass. It was cold but as soon as the sun would come up I would warm right up.
As if on cue rays of golden light shined onto us as we arrived at one of the many rocks that scattered across the valley floor. Just like the previous training day back in Wilmore Kate stood on top of the rock with me sitting below. However this time the golden sunlight made her fur shine beautifully, looking like some kind of goddess. I don't know how she managed to always look stunning to me all the time. I must have been staring at her longer than I thought because she looked at me oddly. "What?" She asked looking right back at me "Oh!" I said coming back to reality "Sorry it's just that the sun makes you look so amazing" I could see her cheeks redden just a bit as she smiled. "Thank you" She said before focusing on the task at hand, training me. "Now as I was saying, today I am going to show you how teamwork can help a group bring down more prey. It might be just you and me but teamwork is still important if you're going to be an alpha here, after all you will be paired with a group of wolves with me not being there most of the time." She said. I gave her my full attention as she gave her lesson, I had to admit for not teaching before she was really doing a good job.
"Communicating with other wolves while stalking prey has to be done through signals, you can't speak so someone who is across the way from you. There are two ways to do this and I don't expect you to remember these straight off the bat." I nodded my head before she began to show me various signals that surprisingly weren't done with your paws as I expected. All the signals where made by using your tail or twitch of the ear, most were pretty simple but remembering what goes with what is the hard part of it. "Yeah I'm sure I'm going to need to be reminded about those a lot." I said "That's alright, you got plenty of time to learn" She said. After some time of listening to her tell me more ways of teamwork we got back to practicing some more pouncing. With Kate being the prey and me the hunter, we didn't move much just went in circles as I pounced onto her. Of course she dodged most of my attempts only making me get back up to try again. After my seventh successful pounce out of many I began to hear a quiet laugh before hearing a voice.
"What are you two doing?" We looked over to see Winston just walking up. I was already off of Kate and sat down beside her "Hey dad, I'm teaching Humphrey how to hunt" She said getting up in a sitting position as well. "And why's that?" He asked "Well I began to teach him back when we were 'running away', he felt bad that it was just me doing all the hunting and wanted to learn how. So I began teaching him and so far he's had one kill." She said. "I would eventually like to become an alpha as well if that's possible sir." I said "If that's what you want then of course, I'll give Kate every other day off from alpha duties so that she can train you. And please you can call me Dad or Winston you know after all you are my son in law now." He said. "Okay, dad" I said, that felt so weird to say to the head alpha but he was right. "Good I'll leave you two to train in peace now, oh and Kate Lilly wanted to see you before the wedding starts, she will be in our den." He said before turning and heading back to the den grounds "Alright, thank you dad for everything" She said as I watched him walk off "Anything for my daughters" I could hear him faintly say since we was far away now.
"This is great, I get half of my normal duty time just to spend time with you" She said leaning against me "Yeah" I said smiling. "Right then back to what we were doing, training you to be an alpha." She said getting right up in an instant. The next three hours was nothing but constant activity of various hunting moves, most of them I already knew from last time but practice makes perfect. After those hours of doing training Kate decided that would be enough for today and I was glad to hear it. I was already tired from what we did and it wasn't even that strenuous. But she did tell me that once I was an alpha I would become adapted to t and not be so tired. It's was around noon meaning the wedding was only a few hours away, and after that would come a huge party between the newly united packs. After that things would resume to normal although Kate and I still had to get married as well and I was thinking of maybe asking her tonight after the howl.
We walked into the den grounds to see everyone up and having fun considering it was a free day for everyone. "Alright I'm sure Lilly wants to see me so what are you going to do while I'm gone?" Kate asked me as we passed the head alpha's den "I'm just going to head back to our den and take a nap, all that training has worn me out." I said. She laughed "Sounds good I'll join you after I'm done with what Lilly needs" She said. We both said goodbye and shared a quick kiss before heading our separate ways. I was a defiantly ready for a nap it would keep me awake later on since I'm sure the moonlight howl will run late into the night. Arriving in my den I laid down on the floor and closed my eyes, for a while I didn't fall asleep but after some time I dozed right off into sleep.
I awoke not much later to see that Kate had come back while I was asleep and was curled right up against me. I smiled, I was one damn lucky wolf to have her as my mate. It might seem like I only love her for looks but that's only a bonus. Her life style and good energy is something that always puts me in a good mood. She's smart, strong, caring, fun, and responsible, luckily I had managed to get the fun back in her. Thanks to the time we spent getting home from Idaho I slowly reminded her that having fun was just as important as being responsible. As much as that doesn't make sense it's true, who wants to be a strict by the law alpha all the time? I looked outside to see that it appeared to be mid-afternoon and knew that I should wake her up if we were going to see the wedding at sunset.
"Hey Kate, wake up" I softly said nudging her, she began to stir out of her slumber before opening her eyes. "Yes?" She asked seeming to forget why we need to get up "The wedding will be happening soon so we should get up" I said. She got right up after hearing what I said "Alright, your right the sun is around two hours from setting" She said looking outside to where she could see the sun above. "I'm not sure about you but I'm going to wash up in the river before we head over to my dad's." She said "I think I'll wash up too, after all we got a moonlight howl to go to after it" I agreed wanting to look sharp as well. "Yeah that should be fun howling with you again" She said smiling. I smiled too before we exited our den heading to the river to wash our fur's for tonight's activities.