Alpha and Omega: After Realization

Chapter 14: Part III- The Flower Begins To Die

Time seemed like it was standing still as Humphrey paced back and forth at the slope of the pack den as he waited impatiently for any news on how Lilly was doing, after bringing her to the den in a very weak state with blood dripping from her mouth. Jack was standing at a short distance from Humphrey as he stood watching him silently until he finally walked up to him and spoke.

"Humphrey amigo please, you need to stop worrying, everything will be alright and Lilly will be fine in no time" said Jack.

Humphrey didn't respond to Jack's words as he kept on pacing worried and fearing the worst for his love, with Jack sighing softly as his words fell on deaf ears. Suddenly they both heard the sound of running footsteps, which did get Humphrey's attention, as they turned their heads in time to see Garth running through the crowd of wolves towards them.

"Hey guys, is everything alright?!" spoke Garth as he ran and came to a halt in front of them.

Humphrey then changed his posture as Garth came up to him and Jack, with Jack shaking his head a bit to Garth.

"I'm sorry Garth...we don't know much at this point, Krystal and my mom have already been taking a while in checking Lilly to see what's wrong...we're just waiting for any news" stated Jack.

Garth was about to speak when his attention was drawn to the top of the slope towards the den, which caused Jack and Humphrey to focus in the same direction now as well. They saw Eve coming down the slope from her den with her head slightly hanging down, and his only made Humphrey's heart sink a bit more than it already was. Eve finally came down to the slope and called for everyone's attention at once, and once every wolf was before her in silence, she began to speak.

"My lovely wolves...my dears...I bring you news about our lovely Lilly...a strong omega who always has a smile on her face...I'm here to say that my Lilly...our Lilly..."

There was a silence for a moment as Eve lifted her paw and wiped away tears that began to fall down the side of her eyes, with a low growl escaping her lips as well.

"Our Lilly...is dying"

The entire pack went dead silent as every wolf didn't speak, but some turned to speak quietly to one another. As some of the pack talked with each other in whispers about Lilly, Eve again wiped tears from her eyes and resumed speaking again.

"Now now, please, at the moment me and our friend Krystal will be doing all we can to heal and save her...so I please ask that all of you keep her close in your hearts...and pray that she will stay with us...thank you dears"

As Eve finished speaking with the pack she turned and began to walk back up to the den, and as she did the wolves now began to talk among themselves more as to Lilly's health and condition. Jack was beside himself and his eyes wide with worry and fear, knowing that he had come to know his young sister and that he now might lose her so soon. A shiver went down his spine a bit as he shook his head, concentrated his thoughts on the positive and turned to face Humphrey.

"Amigo...I..."

By the time Jack had turned to Humphrey, he was no longer there, leaving Jack confused and turning around to see where he was.

"Humphrey? Humphrey bro?" asked Jack.

"Jack, over there"

Jack turned around in time to see Humphrey in the distance as he was now running away towards the south and into the forest.

"Humphrey!"

Jack couldn't even start moving after him as he only stared and watched Humphrey run off into the forest, now out of sight.

"Where's he going?"

"Follow him Jack and you'll see, I think he has something in mind that could help"

"I hope so" said Jack quietly to himself.

Jack gave a silent sigh as he now straightened himself and began to run after Humphrey, and even though he could no longer see him he knew it wasn't too hard to know in which direction go. As Jack ran off towards the south, from a distance within the crowd of wolves was Paola eyeing him as he ran out of sight, her eyes narrowing and showing a smirk on her lips.

"Hmmmm, well then, looks like this will be easy with that little omega distracting some attention for now" she said softly to herself.

From behind her a male white wolf came up to her to her side.

"When would you like to start ma'am?" asked the male wolf.

"Soon, not now but soon, we'll wait a little longer and see how things play out until then" replied Paola.

The male wolf only nodded in silence and stepped back into the crowd to talk among the other wolves, with Paola only looking around with her ever serious eyes and expression. From inside the den where Lilly was, Krystal had already called her other two daughters Esmeralda and Celestial together to a corner near the entrance.

"Mom...I feel like something's not right" said Celestial in a quiet and shy tone.

"Don't you think you should do something about Paola now than later?" added Esmeralda.

Krystal only sighed in response and looked at her daughters, her eyes gleaming a bit as she closed her eyes, breathed in and out, then began to speak.

"I will do something about our dear Paola...but you both have to remember we don't solve things with violence or by force...not unless I'm forced to...so for now we'll just keep an eye out and our ears open...right now...I have a bigger issue to take care of"

Krystal turned her attention to the back of the den, her eyes now on Eve as she was tending to Lilly, who was laying down on the ground in complete silence with only her slight breathing showing that she was still with them. Celestial and Esmeralda both nodded without a word said and took their leave from the den, with Krystal now returning over to Eve's side to help her with the healing process.

"Anything at all Eve?" asked Krystal.

"Still nothing...she hasn't even moved an inch since she got here...oh my dear Lilly, what could be wrong?" said Eve.

"And what of your mate? Will he be back soon?"

"I hope so, I sent Winston and some of our medical wolves out to find only the best herbs and healing roots we know of...I just hope that one of them can do the job"

Eve was beside herself, as was Krystal, in trying to not only heal Lilly but also in trying to figure out as to what exactly had caused her to be like this. They were both worried, their thoughts distant from the rest of the world, that they didn't even notice when Garth had come into the den without a word. They both then looked toward the strong alpha, with Krystal now walking up to him.

"You must be Garth, Lilly's mate right?" asked Krystal.

"Yes ma'am" replied Garth as he fixed his posture and stood up right to her.

Krystal only offered Garth a warm and friendly smile as she nodded to him.

"Then you have your right to be here more than anyone, please, come in and see her"

"Thank you ma'am" replied Garth.

Garth nodded to Krystal as she had now let him know he can be in the den, with Eve giving her own nod of approval to him. Garth walked past both of them and made his way to Lilly as she remained in her unconscious state, with her breathing being silent and slow. Meanwhile, Jack was now traveling through the forest to the south of Jasper, with a slight fog now engulfing the forest. Jack was still searching for Humphrey after he had run off in the direction he was now heading, hoping he hadn't let the news about Lilly hit him too hard.

"Humphrey's okay Jack, he's not going to do anything crazy, if that's what you're thinking"

"I know I can trust my amigo Humphrey, but I want to check on him, I'm just hoping he doesn't go into a depression" stated Jack.

Soon enough though, Jack started to hear the sounds of a struggle.

"Please, just let me through"

"Not gonna happen omega"

"Humphrey" said Jack upon recognizing his voice.

Jack started to run forward more into the light fog of the forest and after taking many steps in his run, he finally was able to see Humphrey, standing before another wolf who seemed to be an alpha. The light brown, alpha male was standing in front of Humphrey and appeared to be blocking his way forward.

"Please, this is an emergency and I need to speak to Anna right away" said Humphrey to the alpha wolf.

"Anna? Like the pack leader has time to listen or even talk with an omega like you" responded the alpha.

Jack overheard as the alpha spoke to Humphrey and gave a low growl, and was only a few steps away, but before he could get any closer there came another voice from the distance.

"Something wrong Matt?!"

The alpha wolf instantly straightened himself and took a step back from Humphrey, with Humphrey shaking a bit from the voice, a female voice at that. Jack stopped in his tracks at hearing the voice as well, now giving way as a gray and white female wolf was now walking forward towards them now, her eyes a shade of teal as her eyes expressed her seriousness.

"Something wrong here Matt?"

The female's voice sent a slight shiver through the alpha wolf as he nodded at her before speaking.

"Ma'am, this omega was asking to enter the territory...a-and well...also asked...to speak with you" he replied.

The alpha female wolf gave a small glaring eye at the male as she then looked at Humphrey, looking at him for a moment before revealing a small smile out of the corner of her muzzle. She then returned her gaze to the alpha wolf, replacing her slight smile with her serious express once again.

"Matt, you can go back to your duties, I'll personally deal with this, understood?" she ordered.

"Yes ma'am"

Not another word was said as the alpha nodded and was showing a nervous face as he turned to leave them alone. As he walked out of sight behind them, the female then returned her eyes to Humphrey and like a few moments ago, gave a small towards him. Humphrey could only smile back at her as he stepped forward a bit closer to her and lowered his head to her as if to show respect.

"I-It's...it's been a while...ma'am" said Humphrey.

The female wolf kept her smile even as she now sighed and gave a slight giggle at Humphrey.

"Humphrey! You know I don't like that coming from you, I'm your sister for goodness sake"

"Sister?!"

Both Humphrey and the female turned to look back, as they now saw Jack standing a small distance away with his mouth open in shock.

"You know him Humphrey?"

"Y-Yeah...this is Jack, he's my brother in law...we recently got to know him"

The female only looked at Jack with a smile to reassure that he was okay in being present, as she then walked started to walk up to him and present herself.

"Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you Jack, I'm Anna, and also Humphrey's older sister"

Jack nodded and lowered his head to her in a bit of respect, with Anna only giggling a bit in response.

"This is why I don't like being the pack leader...I always have to see others bow and show respect...please just talk to me like any normal wolf, I don't need any high respect or such thing" said Anna.

Jack lifted up his head and returned her polite expression as Humphrey now came to join them in discussion.

"Sis...I know it's been a while but I really want to ask for your help" said Humphrey.

"Humphrey, you know I'm always here to help my favorite bro...and yes it has been a while..."

Anna turned to look at Jack with her still remaining warm smile.

"Jack, I don't want to seem too mean with what I say, but do you think you could give me and Humphrey some time to talk in private? I want to catch up with him on old times and then see what he needs help with, that okay" asked Anna.

"Oh, well no it's okay...I respect you two having some family time together, no worries" replied Jack.

Anna smiled and nodded to him as she turned to Humphrey, indicating with her head for him to follow her now.

"We'll try to not take too long in our talk Jack dear, but bro and me have some things to catch up on, it's been way too long...we'll be at the den in the territory so we won't be too far okay?" added Anna.

Jack only nodded in agreement once again as she and Humphrey turned, starting to walk off into her territory side by side and shortly disappearing into the light fog, with Jack being able to notice that as they walked he could see Humphrey speaking, accompanied by Anna giggling softly.

"That's sweet...I haven't seen Humphrey and his sister so happy...it's been a few years since they've talked with each other"

"Wait? You knew he had a sister? Since when?"

"I've known her since I've known Humphrey, but just like Humphrey I haven't spoken with her in a long time...a bit longer than Humphrey, but I know her Jack"

Even with the fog still lingering among the trees and the sun starting to lower down, Jack was already falling into a pit of boredom, having now stayed waiting on Humphrey and Anna for what almost seemed like forever. Jack was laying on his back looking up at the sky or at least as much sky as he could through the fog covering.

"Where are they already? It's been so long" stated Jack as his mouth opened wide as he yawned and stretched out his body.

"Don't complain Jack, you know how it is, Humphrey and Anna haven't seen each other in so long that they must have wanted a long time to talk and catch up"

Jack let out yet another sigh as he listened to his friend, but he immediately stood up as his ear twitched at the sound of footsteps. He rolled over onto his feet to look up and see what was going on, as he now started to hear what sounded like talking and a bit of laughing as well.

"Oh Humphrey, you still never seem to lose your touch with jokes"

"Well it's not all me...after all I did have someone show me the ropes in that department"

Jack was now baring a smile as he saw Humphrey and Anna now walking back towards him, both in a family friendly conversation.

"Looks like even the time they took still can't stop them from talking about old times" said Jack to himself.

Finally Humphrey and Anna made their way to Jack, with both smiling and their eyes shining with joy.

"So, everything go okay?" asked Jack.

Both Anna and Humphrey nodded in unison, with Anna then clearing her throat a bit before she spoke.

"Sorry we took a while, me and Humphrey started to talk and then it just...took off from there, we had so much fun talking about old times and laughing...that's my apology to you, I didn't mean for it to last so long" said Anna.

"Oh no, don't worry at all...family time is always a good thing, no matter how long...but we do have limited time though with all respect" added Jack.

"I know, Humphrey told me everything and we'll go right now...we'll wait until everyone else have left the den and then go in...I need to check Lilly to see what exactly she has"

Humphrey didn't say a word as his sister spoke, but Jack was already a bit confused at Anna's suggestion.

"Uh...well I don't see any problem in that...but why though? Wouldn't talking with Eve about this be best...she is her mom" asked Jack.

"I know, I know...but me and Eve don't really have a good relation...not since I left the pack a few years ago...and she didn't do anything to Humphrey...but I wasn't on her good side after..."

The three of them were silent for a moment before Humphrey finally spoke up.

"Well then, let's get going, it'll be night soon and by then everyone should have left the den"

"Alright then...let's go, Lilly needs us" stated Jack.

The sky turned a shade of orange red as the sun set down and then finally became dark as the stars started to take their place in the sky, with the night settling in. Back at the den, Eve and Krystal were now walking out through the entrance with their expressions seeming negative and low.

"What could we be doing wrong? What could it be?" asked Eve.

"Please, don't be upset Eve, there's still hope in finding out what is wrong...let's just leave her to rest for now and we'll check on her again tomorrow morning" reassured Krystal.

Eve had a few small tears in her eyes as she nodded in agreement with Krystal, and they continued on their merry way down the slope. As they now walked out of sight from the den, Humphrey peeked from behind a boulder near the slope, watching as Eve and Krystal disappeared out of sight.

"Okay, all clear"

Humphrey walked out from his position followed by Jack and then Anna, as they walked and tiptoed their way up to the den quietly, with Humphrey poking his head in to see if anyone had stayed behind.

"Anyone left lobo?" asked Jack.

"Nope, just Lilly...still there...not moving" said Humphrey.

With Humphrey's saddened tone, Anna took it as a signal to walk into the den without a word, as she made her way over to Lilly. She leaned down toward her and looked her over, then giving a few words.

"Hmmmm...I have to say bro...you have a beautiful girl here...I'd never thought I'd see the day when another omega is as pretty as her" said Anna.

Humphrey responded with a slight smile and a hint of blush as Anna complimented his lovely omega and also him as well. Anna circled Lilly slowly, keeping her head down low and sniffing her, taking in her scent as she tried to kept on circling around her at a gentle pace. Humphrey and Jack stood side by side watching her sniff Lilly as she still remained in her unconscious. After Anna had gone around Lilly a total of seven times, she finally stopped and walked over to them, sitting before them and letting out a deep and low sigh.

"Well?" asked Jack.

"What is it Anna? Is she okay?" added Humphrey.

Anna looked at both of them as she inhaled slowly and then exhaled.

"From the way she's in and what you also told me...and also checking her to make sure...she has parvovirus" said Anna.

"Parvovirus?" asked Jack again, his face in a bit at a loss.

"Yeah, parvovirus...it's a disease that rarely happens in us wolves...usually causes internal bleeding and damage to organs, but it looks like she's only had some minor blood loss and that's why she's unconscious" stated Anna.

Humphrey now walked over to Lilly, taking in her sight and condition as she lay on the ground silent and breathing slowly. He leaned down and nuzzled her cheek softly, also giving her a gentle kiss as well.

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Humphrey in a whisper.

Anna looked over at her brother as he stood close to his mate, her eyes looking down slightly but then giving a small smile.

"For the parvovirus...yes there is a cure" said Anna.

Humphrey immediately lifted his head and darted his eyes to Anna in a flash, hearing her now say that there was a cure for Lilly to save her life.

"There is?! Where?!"

Humphrey frantically walked over to his sister as she stopped him gently with her paw, along with Jack as he put a paw on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Calm down Humphrey, please...yes there is a cure...but before I say anything I do have to ask this..."

Anna looked in Humphrey's eyes deeply and focused, her eyes shining similar to those of her brother.

"How far are you willing to go to save her?" asked Anna.

Jack then let go of Humphrey as he calmed down, with Humphrey remaining quiet as he gazed into his sister's eyes. He remained silent as he turned his head back to look over at Lilly, seeing her laying down and so weak, imagining being with her and keeping her happy for the rest of his life. He then returned his eyes to his sister as his eyes now seemed confident and strong, and gave a nod to her.

"As far as this whole world has to give...I'll go to the edge of it"

HOLY OF ALL SHIT! DAMN IT'S BEEN SO LONG! SO DAMN LONG!

But in all seriousness, I do want to give a very, VERY deep apology for how long it took for this chapter to finally come to be and be completed, there were a lot of painful events that took place over the last months that I couldn't do much. This included tensions and stress at the house, my laptop needed to be fixed up, we also moved to another place, and also limited time due to work. A lot of work. I once again want to give a deep and heavy sorry to everyone waiting for so long for this chapter to get here and also for the others to come. With things now fixed up and such, I promise, as always, that this will get down and some things will change, but everything will keep on going. Please hang in there folks, please, I'm not done yet, not yet. I'm not going anywhere until this is done and done right. See you again, hopefully soon, for Chapter 15 and beyond.