(written on January 1st, 2020)

Prologue

December 20th, 2009

The Northern Hemisphere was on the brink of being gripped in ice. In the huge human country of Canada lay a mountainous land, a beautiful nature reserve between Alberta and British Columbia. It was Jasper National Park, and within Jasper was an area simply known as the Valley where most of the park's wolves lived. Animals roamed freely. Everything was hunting or grazing among the gleaming lakes.

The Valley had its own unique landscape. In one area at the top of a hill, where the sounds of a waterfall could be heard, four young wolves were pushing a log into position. They were trying something none of their kind had ever tried.

"It's time to ride the slide and taste the wind!" their leader, Humphrey, shouted.

"Humphrey, you are totally genius!" replied his best friend, Salty. He was considered the most laid-back.

"Come on, let's do it." The four pups got on top of the log and pushed against the ground with their hind legs.

"Air wolf!" Salty shouted excitedly. All of them brandished their arms and paws and shook their heads with their tongues hanging out. They then realized that they hadn't pushed hard enough. The log was teetering.

"Guys, guys." Humphrey tried to let them know that they were still stationary, but the log immediately descended before he could finish the sentence. "We're not moving! Ahhh!" The pups felt the air rush past them. It was an experience like no other. Humphrey, a grey wolf who had quickly become a leader of his group of friends, was surprised he hadn't thought of riding a log down a slope sooner.

Meanwhile. . .

A mile down the hill, a very different wolf played around. It was Kate, and she was on a hunt.

"This caribou is mine!" she growled. The tan pup chased her prey through the thick forest. Her skills had improved since the Great Games that occurred a few months ago.

"Kate, I'm not a caribou! I'm your sister!" Kate ignored Lilly's pleas. She managed to catch up to her. "Gotcha! Heh, heh, heh!" Her sister wasn't amused.

"Omegas don't play like this!"

"You can't escape the greatest Alpha ever!" Kate replied boastfully before slamming into a tree that stopped all her momentum.

"Huh, well, I just did," said Lilly, relieved for the time being. Kate then shook her head and resumed her chase.

Later. . .

The males were starting to get worried. The ride was fun, even for the timid Shakey, but their speed seemed to only increase. As a result, the ride became unpredictable. The log shook side to side in an unnerving fashion. It didn't take long for Mooch to crack.

"We're gonna die!"

"Keep it steady! Keep it steady!" Humphrey tried to boost their confidence and make them take control of the situation, but things looked bad. Even he had to admit that. "What was I thinking?" The log swung around wildly as they careened down the uneven slope.

Suddenly, the log went over a huge bump that knocked every wolf except Humphrey off. "That was great! We're flying today, guys!" With less weight, Humphrey could maintain control. He quickly learned to use his hind legs to steer, and after that, riding became a breeze. "Whoo-hoo!" The log flew over an area of trees. Humphrey looked ahead and saw someone familiar jump into the air in front of him, going directly towards him.

"Humphrey?"

"Kate?" They looked straight into each other's eyes. Humphrey felt something he hadn't felt in a while.

Humphrey jumped from the log, abandoning it, and opened his arms. The two pups collided and plummeted straight to the ground together. "What are you doing up here?" he asked while they fell.

"I'm practice-hunting for our lunch," she replied proudly.

"Oh, good 'cause I'm about to lose mine." He proceeded to fill his mouth with his stomach contents.

"You are? Eww."

"I'll try to swallow it," he assured.

After his lunch went back down, both of them landed in the shorter grasses. They suffered no scratches or bumps, and they giggled. It was a funny moment they just had. On cue, her father called.

"Kate!" The two pups turned to a boulder where the pack leader stood with his pronounced chest. He was the definition of noble. "It's time to go," he informed.

"I'm coming, Dad!" Kate wasted no time.

"Where're you going?"

"Alpha School. It goes 'til spring." The amount of excitement in her voice made Humphrey worry. He knew somewhat what Alpha School was, but he couldn't believe it was starting today. Since the Great Games where they met, both of them played together on a regular basis. They were good friends. Who could split them apart?

"Spring? But that's like... a whole winter away." He thought at least he could accompany her on her way to the training grounds, but her father promptly put a stop to it. The large dark grey wolf towered over him which quickly put him into submission.

"I know you're Kate's friend, Humphrey, but by next spring, she will be a trained Alpha, the future leader of the pack." They all lived in a pack known as the Western Pack, but across wolfkind, wolves were divided mainly between two ranks: Alpha and Omega. They were considered opposites. Both of them had their own roles in society, but wolves of opposing ranks couldn't be in a relationship beyond a friendship. Kate was an Alpha, and Humphrey was an Omega. They had separate destinies. "No doubt you'll be a clever Omega," her father added. "Learn to keep the peace."

Humphrey couldn't accept it. He liked Kate a lot, too much. He couldn't lose his only female friend. They had been through so much. He looked between her father's legs as she continued to walk away. The swaying of her hips put him in a trance. Her father knew what he was doing by separating them, but it had to be done. It was Kate's future. Not long ago, he made a deal with his rival. He couldn't let them be friends, even if he wanted to.

He brought Humphrey out of his trance by blocking his view. He faced the Omega, trying to teach him to know his place. "And Humphrey... remind us all to have fun."

"But... but..."

"Alphas and Omegas can't ma—" He then realized he was talking to a pup. "Err... Um... How do you say it?" Humphrey responded by randomly tilting his head with a bittersweet smile that helped regain the pack leader's focus. "That's our custom, the law of the pack." Kate's father turned around to join his daughter. He couldn't look back. It was the law. Meanwhile, Humphrey's smile turned into a frown, but it only lasted a few seconds. His Omega friends ambushed him playfully.

"Wolf pile!" they cried. They playfully jumped him, his fun side returned, and he began to forget why he was upset. Kate could hear them playing. She giggled at their profound innocence.

"Silly Omegas..."

Humphrey then gave one last look at his best friend, tilting his head once more.


(written on January 12th, 2020)

Chapter 1: Spring

March 20th, 2010

"Let's ride, boys!"

Over the winter, Humphrey gained his adult look. For someone exiting adolescence, he was handsome and mellow, and he had gained more confidence.

"Wahoo!" Salty shouted. They got on the log. Humphrey was in front followed by Salty, Shakey, and Mooch. They had practiced countless times throughout the cold period. When the snow first appeared, the experience was horrible. Known as the Great Blizzard, it killed many wolves. The Omegas sought to suppress their grief, distracting themselves by doing what they did best: playing hard. The cold season was ending. There was no space for sadness. When it came to logsledding, also known as logboarding, they quickly became experts.

This time around, the snow on the hills had melted, and they wanted to try their new skills on rougher terrain. They hadn't logsled on heated dry ground since the fall. There was one thing all of them knew would come with a warmer environment. No snow meant no soft crashes. They were entering the big leagues.

Things started off promising. All the Omegas did their thing, and the enjoyable rush returned. By this point, each of them had a role. Humphrey was their eyes. He kept a lookout for any obstacles in their way. Salty was the processor. Humphrey would announce the situation, and Salty would take the information and decide on a course of action. Sometimes, Humphrey would recommend a course of action, and Salty would simply do it. He was also the main steerer. His long legs always obliged. Shakey didn't do much when logboarding aside from assisting Salty. He was the wolf who managed everything else; he was the brains of the operation. Shakey kept track of weather conditions, scouted for suitable slopes, and always thought of new techniques. His small size didn't allow him to do much on the log. Mooch, who was much older and bigger than the rest of them, was the emergency wolf. Since he sat on the back end of the log, he could use his size to slow the log down if needed.

"Angle left! Thirty degrees!" Humphrey recommended. The wolves behind him leaned left. The log then went over a few bumps that made it shake a bit. They needed to regain control. "Salty, give us some sail draft!" Salty stood on his hind legs and spread out his arms.

"I think I taste the wind," said Salty, trying to be amusing. "Err... Nah... Just a bug." He spat it out.

They then approached a ledge that would surely send the Omegas to the moon.

"Hey, Mooch! Get ready! Lower the boom!"

Mooch was way ahead of Humphrey. He stretched his back end until it protruded from the back of the log. He then slammed his butt against the ground while making sure he didn't fall off. The force dramatically lowered their speed. The log proceeded to shoot from the ledge in a much safer manner. In the one second in mid-air, the Omegas made various poses that took a great deal of skill to do.

"Alright!" Mooch exclaimed.

Once they were back on Earth, Humphrey thought there was something they needed to improve.

"Hey, guys, we really need to work on the—" A boulder suddenly came into view. "BRAKES!" His friends were confused.

"Brakes?" they said in unison. Why did they need to work on that? They all looked ahead and shared Humphrey's concern. In no time, the log hit the boulder, and every wolf was flung forward. Humphrey landed on the ground, Shakey landed on Humphrey, and Salty landed on Shakey.

"Wolf pile!" a voice echoed. A second later, Mooch squashed them

"Oof! Get your butt outta' my face!" said Shakey.

"What did we hit?" said Salty. He then shook his head.

Humphrey stood up and looked at his surroundings. The grass was green. The birds were chirping. The butterflies were flying. It meant only one thing.

"Spring!" Humphrey walked to a nearby ledge to get a better view of the beautiful lands when he saw someone that made his heart race. "Woah. Look who's back from Alpha School." Within a box canyon, a grown-up Kate was moving stealthily. There, in a shaded part of the canyon, was a group of grazing caribou, the first caribou the Omegas had seen in a while. Humphrey, though, was purely focused on Kate, which caught the attention of his friends.

"Forget about it, Humphrey," said Salty. "Kate's an Alpha now. And you're... you're an Omega." His friends knew of Humphrey's crush too well. He talked about her endlessly. But his friends concluded that it was a lost cause. Omegas couldn't be with Alphas. It was the law. They could talk to each other and eat with each other, but under no circumstances could they do either on a romantic level. Humphrey could see that the other Omegas were trying to talk some sense into him.

"We're friends, okay?" Humphrey assured.

"Exactly. Just friends," Mooch replied sternly. "End... of story..."

"You better set your sights over there," said Salty. He gestured to two she-wolves who happened to be a few yards away. Two squirrels were holding twigs covered in berries. The two wolves were haphazardly eating them, not the squirrels but the berries! The squirrels were feeding them. How ironic. "Reba and Janice, the vegetarians," Salty said proudly. Humphrey wasn't amused. Omega females never held his interest for long. There was something about a take-charge Alpha that made him smile.

"Okay," he replied sarcastically before he turned his attention back to the canyon where the hunt was underway. He could see that Kate wasn't alone. Other Alphas were assisting her, and they were closing in on the walking piece of meat. "Looks like we're eating caribou tonight, boys."

Mooch then nudged Humphrey and motioned the Omegas to look elsewhere.

"Hey. Hey." On the other side of the caribou, two mysterious wolves were approaching slowly.

"Eastern Pack wolves," said Salty. The Eastern Pack was the Western Pack's longtime rival. Seeing Eastern wolves in the Western Pack couldn't mean good things.

Meanwhile, out of earshot of the Omegas watching her, Kate could smell the Easterns nearby. She instantly knew things were going to get messy. She made sure to alert her companions.

"Psst! Can-do. Hutch. We've got company."

Kate wasn't in the mood for unwanted company. All her training had led to this hunt. She had been practicing endlessly in Alpha School after the Great Blizzard. This was her first real hunt with no help from a supervisor. This was it. This was her. She took pride in her work. She took things very seriously. Her party had been tracking the caribou for over an hour. She was ready to pounce. Humphrey could see from above that, despite the setback, she was in control. Or at least she was…

There was a growl as Eastern Alphas went after the caribou from the other side. The caribou freaked out and ran toward Kate's party. They ducked. The caribou almost trambled them with their sharp hooves. Just like that, her rite of passage was a misfire. Kate stamped her paw in anger as the Eastern wolves ran past them.

"Great. There goes dinner," said Mooch.

"And there goes Kate," Humphrey added, focusing on the tan she-wolf.

Her party decided to follow the caribou alongside the Easterns. They may not want to fight, but Kate was eager to win.

They all chased after the caribou. The caribou and the Easterns then went around a vertical wall of rock where the Westerns couldn't see them. Suddenly, Kate, Hutch, and Can-do stopped in their tracks. The Easterns came into view again. They were going in the opposite direction, towards the Westerns. They appeared scared out of their minds. Meanwhile, the ground began to rumble. Humphrey could see the danger. "Holy—"

"Caribou!" Kate yelled. It was a stampede! Hundreds of caribou, enough to feed the whole pack twice, were angrily running towards them. Wolves were powerless to stop caribou in large numbers. "Scatter to the sides!" Kate ordered. While the other Westerns did so, Kate managed to climb her way out of the canyon. But it became clear that the two Eastern wolves had no idea what to do. They were about to be killed. "Ooo! Settle the score later," she told herself. Begrudgingly, Kate was going to save them.

She jumped from the cliff edge and landed on the back of a caribou. She quickly hopped from back to back to back, passing by the Omegas who seemed to be greatly impressed by her flawlessness. She reached the front end of the stampede, then jumped with her forelimbs spread out to catch the two Easterns. She landed on them and hugged them tightly before rolling to the side where the three wolves could take cover behind a log.

The stampede passed without anyone getting hurt... at least physically.

"Are you alright?!" asked Hutch.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kate replied with annoyance in her voice. The Easterns had ruined everything.

As soon as Kate stood up, Can-do aggressively confronted the Easterns who were revealed to be Scar and Claws. They were the same age as the Westerns. The rivalry between East and West extended into Alpha School as well. Scar and Claws were well-known troublemakers.

"Hey, what's your problem?!" yelled Can-do. "You stupid Eastern dog! That was our hunt! You can't just snake it out from under us!" While Kate hated the Easterns, she didn't want a fight to break out.

"Can-do, back off."

"You better listen to the girl," Claws taunted. Can-do then went into fight mode. Hutch, usually a diplomatic wolf, even joined him. Six of the wolves, including four from Kate's party, started fighting, but it looked more petty than actually aggressive, like a bunch of pups fighting over a bone. Nonetheless, Kate didn't like it.

"Hey, break it up! Can-do, Hutch, break it up! Can-do! Hutch! Stop!"

The Omegas smiled.

"Alright, Omegas. Duty calls," said Humphrey. "STAMPEDE!" he shouted. The seven Alphas froze and saw the Omegas make their way to the inside of the canyon. "Kate," he greeted.

"Humphrey?" Kate could barely recognize his appearance. Her old playmate had grown up a lot. Still an Omega though…

The other Alphas, however, weren't fazed.

"I'm STILL gonna tear this snaggletooth fool apart!" growled Can-do. The Easterns growled in return.

"Guys... Lower the boom," Humphrey ordered while enjoying their pointless hostility.

"Humphrey... We don't have time for fun," said Kate. She figured he was too silly-minded to ease tensions. Her old playmate reassured her with a paw gesture, a signal to be patient. Then, out of nowhere, Mooch fell from the sky and landed on the Alphas. In Humphrey's view, the most effective way to break fights was to reset their brains, to get them so distracted by something else that they forget why they're fighting. And nothing was more distracting than pain.

After Mooch removed himself from the scene, Humphrey tried to lighten the mood now that there was order. Some of the Alphas on the Western side were already smiling; Humphrey was entertaining.

"Guys, guys, come on. Don't get your fur in a bunch. You wolves are makin' us look bad. Come on, the caribou are laughing at us." He pointed his paw to the cliff edge where five caribou gathered to shake their rear ends at the wolves. "Now that's a moon I don't want to howl to."

His joke caused everyone except the Easterns to burst out laughing. Even Kate giggled. But their laughter was cut short when a familiar deep voice spoke. It was Kate's father, the pack leader of the West. He stood on his perch with his chest pronounced.

"Western hunt group... get back to the den!" The Alphas began walking away. He turned to the Easterns.

"The two of you... go home." Claws and Scar growled at Humphrey. "Now!" he demanded. The thunder in his voice cowed them. Humphrey waved goodbye as they fled. "Omegas... good job." Omegas getting recognition from the pack leader? It almost never happened. Humphrey felt accomplished. Kate, not so much.

"Great. My first hunt and I blew it."

"Kate. Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate. Don't beat yourself up. You were amazing! I mean, if anyone's hungry, they can eat... umm... uhh... They can always eat..." He signaled his Omega friends to help him. Mooch then stole some berries from one of the squirrels. He passed it to Salty who passed it Shakey who finally passed it to Humphrey. "They can eat... berries! Huh, berries..." He took in a mouthful. "They're really um... nutritious."

"Yeah," Kate replied. "Tell that to a hungry pack." She continued on her way, following her father. Humphrey just spat out the berries. It turned out that they weren't very pleasant. But he was determined to cheer the pack up, so they could get through the food shortage.

"A hungry pack? Challenge accepted, Kate."


(written from December 9th to December 10th, 2020)

Chapter 2: The Eastern Wolves

The heart of the Western Pack resided on a jagged mountain. After generations of wolves, trails of smaller grass had formed on the many pathways. Small canyons and plateaus of various heights were among the magnificent features on the hillsides. There were natural caves too; most of them had become dens for Alphas. Generally, the higher a wolf would go the more likely they would encounter an Alpha. The mountain, especially at the top, was heavily guarded.

As one would expect, the pack leader's den was near the summit. With dusk approaching fast, Kate's party and Winston walked through the labyrinth of rock on the slopes to reach a clearing where the pack leader's den stood prominently. In the middle of the clearing, a giant crevice split it into two sections that were connected by a long trunk. The mountain was nowhere near high enough to have a tree line, so Western wolves could concentrate on the summit. As Kate and her father walked past the numerous high-level Alphas and their families, the effects of the famine could not be understated. Things weren't critical yet, but many of the wolves looked depressed and sad. A number of them were digging in the clearing to find any leftovers. Some wolves were successful, but fights would ensue over the scraps. The overall scene was abysmal.

After going over the log bridge, they made their way up a ramp that led to the den, which was completely made out of stone and had one of the biggest trees in the territory growing on top of it. A she-wolf whose fur color was identical to Kate's sat in front of the den's entrance. She had been happily waiting for their arrival. Today was supposed to be a big day. But after seeing a disappointed look on her daughter's face, her mood changed. Kate entered the den without saying a word to her mother. Her father shook his head as a signal that things didn't go well.

"Ohh..." Her mother realized she had her hopes too high. Winston then gave her the scoop.

"Huh, the Eastern wolves ruined Kate's hunt." Immediately, she bared her teeth and snapped at the air. "Luckily, the Omegas were there to break up the fight."

"Aww..." Her mood changed again. An array of giggling arose within the den, prompting the she-wolf to enter.

A white she-wolf near Kate had her rear end extended, so she could have the tip of her tail dangle above her head. She tickled herself by nudging the tip with her nose and blowing on it. Her mother sought to correct it.

"Lilly."

"What?" she replied playfully.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. Stop playing with your tail..." She then turned to her other daughter. "Kate, you're slouching!" Kate lifted her head and broadened her chest. Her face was still forlorn, but her mother tried to elevate her. "Thank you, honey! Do you see how strong and beautiful you are?"

Lilly sniffed the bare ribcage between her and her sister. Her reaction didn't give anyone comfort. "Any food," said their mother while stepping on a fly, "is a blessing, dear." She turned to her mate who was outside, looking at his pack from the stone ledge. "Winston, come join us for dinner. NOW!" That last word startled the pack leader, so he begrudgingly walked in. "Thank you, honey!" Upon seeing the ribcage, Winston gave immense disapproval.

"Scraps and bones is no kind of dinner! Not for my pack!" It made Kate sigh and apologize.

"I'm sorry, Dad... It's just those Eastern wolves..."

"It's not your fault, Kate," he replied. "When they crossed into our territory, they broke pack law..." Kate felt better with her father's empathy. After all, their rival pack was giving him the most headaches.

"Winston!" someone called. It was Hutch's voice. Kate and her parents exited the den. Next to Hutch was Can-do and a third wolf named Dolph. The small Alpha appeared to be limping. "Can-do was jumped... by a group of Eastern wolves!"

"Ehh, it ain't nothing," said Can-do, trying to regain his pride. Kate's mother examined the two large slashes on his neck and expressed concern.

"Quickly... Bring him into the den," she told Dolph. "Winston, honey, whoever did this... Let's rip his tail off and shove it down his throat." After briefly being shocked by his mate's words, Winston brought his attention to his second-in-command who felt compelled to say something.

"Sir... Are we just gonna let them keep raiding our hunts and—?" Winston stopped him by lifting a forepaw.

"Put our Alphas on alert," the pack leader ordered quietly.

"Already done, sir." Winston took a second to see one of the larger slopes nearby. The Alphas were in their correct positions. "Good job," he replied.

Meanwhile, Kate looked down from the ledge after a familiar wolf engaged in a conversation with a few Alphas who lived nearby. It was Humphrey and his Omega friends. Kate assumed they were having harmless mischief. While, culturally, Omegas were beneath her, she did enjoy their presence. Omegas rarely visited this close to the pack leader's den, but these times needed Omegas more than ever. These times were gloomy, and Omegas were always hopeful. Before following her father, she eyed Humphrey, the apparent leader of the lively group, for a few seconds. She smiled. It seemed her old friend hadn't changed a bit since autumn.

"Guys, honestly, caribou is overrated," Humphrey said to the Alphas. "Instead—now, keep an open mind; I just want you to have an open mind here—we bring you berries!" The four Omegas each displayed a branch of blueberries. The Alphas responded quickly with growls. They took it as a cruel joke about their hunger. Without stressing, the Omegas hid the berries behind their backs. Humphrey then thought of something random to calm them down. "How about squirrels?" he suggested, displaying one of the squirrels that fed Janice and Reba. The Alphas responded by drooling instantly. It made the squirrel faint, which Humphrey didn't intend to happen. "Bad joke." He tossed the squirrel and winced. "Flying squirrels..."

Later. . .

Winston made his way to the ledge that was many miles from the mountain. In fact, he was near the border between his pack and the East. The ledge overlooked a calm box canyon where a competent stream came down from a cliff and split it. Winston proceeded to make a long, dignified howl. It was a summoning howl, the summoning of someone important. As he wanted, the other wolf replied with his own howl. The other wolf had agreed to meet.

The dark grey wolf then walked into the misty canyon and towards the stream. Kate followed him from a considerable distance, curious about where her father had gone. He was in an area she never knew existed, a place devoid of much vegetation. She figured something important and unusual was underway, so she intended to be by his side if things went south. While Winston neared the stream, she hid behind some bushes but kept a good view to see what was going on.

Most of the border between East and West was a large river, but there was one area between the packs where the river was split into two streams, creating a small island. The island was Eastern territory, and Winston was closing in on the west creek. The wolf he summoned would appear on the other side, on the island side of the canyon. And Kate watched him slowly come out of the mist. She gave a gasp in her head.

It was Tony, the head of the Eastern Pack! He was a light brown wolf with an easily noticeable beard, for it was longer and dirtier than Winston's. He and Tony were the same age, but Tony appeared older as he sported more wrinkles and scars. Kate, though, didn't underestimate him. His experience and ruthlessness probably made up for his lack of strength.

"Winston!" the Eastern called.

"Tony! You're looking good!" Kate noticed that her father didn't seem to be frightened at all. If anything, he was friendly.

The light brown wolf then jumped over the creek. When he landed, he awkwardly shook.

"Ow! Heh, heh! My back feels like wood! I got this disk that keeps crackin'... Huh, drives me crazy."

"Yeah, Tony, you are one crazy wolf," Winston replied.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah... Like that little game of tag durin' our hunt. Let's leave the playing to the Omegas..."

"You know there's no caribou left in the East!"

"You got a problem." Winston made sure Tony wasn't aware of the West's own food shortage. Secretly, he hoped his rival wouldn't drag the West down with the East.

"Unite the packs, Winston," Tony said sternly. "It was you who gave the big speech, that your daughter Kate and my son Garth would marry and unite the packs."

"Huh?" Kate was taken aback. She wasn't aware of the speech that Tony described.

"Garth knows his responsibility. Does Kate?"

"Ehh, don't worry. She knows," her father lied. She quickly read the situation and realized she had a duty to carry out. It wasn't a future she planned, but a good relationship between the packs was worth way more than her personal feelings. She always knew that someday something would test her loyalty as an Alpha. If that meant marrying Garth, so be it.

"Gooood," said Tony, looking pleased. "Then she can meet Garth tonight at the Moonlight Howl." The Eastern wolf turned towards his territory. "I won't let my pack starve, Winston. If we have to, we'll fight for the valley..."

"That would be a big mistake," Winston whispered out of earshot. As Tony left the canyon, Kate revealed herself, causing her father to be embarrassed. "Kate! Uhh... Uhh... It's uhh..."

"It's okay, Dad. I understand. It's... it's my responsibility..." Winston then sighed.

"I'm sorry," he replied softly before nuzzling her shoulder. "I never meant for you to find out this way."

"It's okay," she told him again. "Really." She nudged him back. "We should be getting home."

"Your mother will be worried." Kate laughed in response.

"That and I've got a howl to prepare for."

Leaving the canyon, she further processed what she learned. A part of her was terrified and shocked, but another was excited and honored. She would be helping the pack immensely! She would finally end the cold war that had plagued the Valley for generations! Importantly, she would make her father proud. When she really thought about the ordeal, how could she refuse?


(written from February 25th to February 27th, 2021)

Chapter 3: The Moonlight Howl

Humprey's friends began their precious night playing Keep Away by using berries. Salty and Shakey passed a berry back and forth while Mooch attempted to intercept it. Returning from his bath, Humphrey was surprised to see his buddies covered in berry juice.

"Hey, guys, we gotta get ready for the Moonlight Howl!" They couldn't hear over their own rambunctious cheering, so Humphrey tried to get their attention. "Guys... Girls..."

"Girls?" Mooch repeated. It seemed to Humphrey that the Omega in them was in overdrive. They didn't have to act like Alphas, but they had to act like adults. This was their first Moonlight Howl, and the event only happened annually. The wolves didn't need the Moonlight Howl to find mates, but it was their best chance and best opportunity, for it was the only time when all single adult wolves came together in such big numbers. The Moonlight Howl was especially important to those who were fresh out of school. It was the tradition that young wolves from school would start families in the spring. Spring was considered the mating season, and those without partners were ostracized. Humphrey and his friends didn't want to be left behind. Humphrey, in particular, took the event seriously. He knew confidence was key. He believed he would surely woo someone and hoped that his friends would follow his example.

The Moonlight Howl was a grand event. It was so grand that territory was meaningless. It was open to anyone in the Valley, and it took place on a mountain that the East and West shared. For a brief time every year, the entire mountain belonged to everyone, and Easterns and Westerns interacted in peace. If there was any rule, it was an unwritten one that outlawed confrontations regarding pack identity. This particular night was supposed to be one of pure romance and howling. The Moonlight Howl was distinct among other nights in that it was a special time for any wolf or group of wolves, especially Alphas, to howl for fun. Wolves of the Valley knew their soul mates by how well their voices worked together to create a unique sound. It was one of those things that required belief and feelings. Breakups were rare in the wolf world since having a mate was regarded as a lifelong commitment. It was said a couple would know immediately if they were meant to be by howling together, so the Moonlight Howl involved a lot of wolves mingling and attempting to find their match, and their match... had to be within their own ranks.

Later. . .

Humphrey gave looks of encouragement after his friends finished bathing in a large puddle. The Omega figured they had the swagger they needed before they traveled to the mountain.

"You are... cool. So let me go ahead, prepare the girls for your arrival, and you guys meet me there."

"Game on," said Salty.

"Ooo, Girls," Mooch repeated again as Shakey barked excitedly.

"We don't want them to be, you know, surprised by how awesome you look," Humphrey added.

"Totally," Salty agreed.

Meanwhile. . .

In the pack leader's den, Lilly was helping her sister get ready. Not long ago Kate had told her about the responsibility she had. Normally, Alpha business never interested her, but this Garth character was intriguing. They had met him before, but rumor had it that he was exceptionally handsome now. Tony was said to be very proud of his son. Garth was supposedly the beating heart of the East, the good side of it anyway. Unlike most Eastern Alphas who tended to strike a nerve with Winston, Garth was mysteriously well-behaved, at least from what anybody in the West knew about him. Perhaps Tony trained him to be a model citizen, Kate thought. Knowing the ego of the Eastern leader, Garth was probably trained to be the best Alpha in the Valley. Kate gulped as Lilly straightened her mane with tree sap. She believed this Alpha would be intimidating, but whatever her feelings, this whole thing was in the name of peace. She didn't have a choice. Still, she doubted that her future mate would be any trouble. When the packs unite, he will be pack leader, and Kate was sure Tony had prepared him for every eventuality. As harsh as the Eastern was, he wasn't a savage. Garth will be a match for her. It was destiny.

"So are you nervous about marrying Garth?" Lilly asked meekly.

"Not really," Kate replied. "Besides, I have to. It's my responsibility... for our pack and for our home."

"Well, I hear he's really hot," Lilly whispered. Her tail was restless. Lilly had a piece of her hair over one of her eyes, but for the time being, she pushed the lock back to see her sister's fur better.

"Well, maybe you should marry him then," Kate teased in response. The lock of hair dropped back down, and Lilly collapsed, hyperventilating. "Calm down." Kate rubbed her head gently. "I'm just kidding. You're an Omega, and he's an Alpha. You know that's forbidden." The white she-wolf nodded slowly and took a deep breath.

"Right... I knew that." She regained her position. "Now let's finish getting you ready!"

"Yes... Lilly?"

"Yeah?"

"They teach you about relationships in Omega School, don't they? You have any advice?"

"Umm... well... There's nothing an Alpha like you can't figure out."

"You're right. I need to do this for myself. No Omega stuff for me. This isn't like the days when I used to play with Humphrey. No, I'm a real Alpha now."

"Yeah... no Omega stuff..."

A few minutes later, Lilly placed a purple flower on her hair which meant they were done. The two she-wolves exited the pack leader's den. Outside, their parents had been waiting to see them.

"Aw, Kate... You look so beautiful," said their mother. The tone of her voice then changed. "Now, if Garth gets out of line, take those beautiful teeth of yours... Go for the throat, and don't let go until the body stops shaking." The sudden suggestion of cruelty from their mother shocked all of them despite how much she was known for it. Sometimes their mother frightened them.

Winston cleared his throat to break the awkwardness.

"If my little girl doesn't want to do this, if she's not ready..."

"Don't worry, Dad," Kate assured. "I'm ready." Her father smiled. Deep down, he wasn't totally on board with the arranged marriage, but war had to be avoided at all costs. It eased his conscience with the fact that his daughter seemed eager to do this archaic duty. Under regular circumstances, this wouldn't be encouraged, but these circumstances were not regular. At least, Winston thought, the unification of the packs would be a huge deal. Although not pack leader, Kate would have her mark on history. That legacy was something her father could look forward to. Now was the time to accept the future.

"Come on, Lilly," said Kate.

"Okay, okay," she replied nervously.

Later. . .

Moonlight Howl Rock was alive. After the gibbous moon rose, dozens of wolves howled on the hillsides. There were competing choruses and lots of chatter. By the time the Omegas arrived, a decent number of couples had formed. Generally, the more bold and popular wolves found their future mates first. Their combined howls became the envy of the night. The bolder wolves were mostly Alphas, making Omegas like Salty, Shakey, and Mooch look mediocre by comparison. Ironically, Omegas were the ones who were directly taught about relationships. One of an Omega's duties was to teach Alphas how to be good mates. They were supposed to be the romance experts, but the Alphas performed better when it came to speaking to the opposite gender; thus, they often had much better success at finding mates. The truth that every Omega had to realize was that, no matter what, the Alphas always win.

"Your fur... It looks fantastic tonight." Salty, Shakey, and Mooch were hiding behind bushes, looking at each female that walked by. Eventually, they spotted two Omegas that caught their eyes. Sweets and Candy were among the most popular females.

"Omega alert," said Shakey. As his name would suggest, he began shaking uncontrollably with excitement. He decided he was gonna make a move, so he became the first to expose himself, but the other two had the same idea. Mooch got in front of Shakey but was quickly dismissed by Salty.

"I will handle this," Salty declared. "Hey," he said to them, but the females ignored him. "Hey," he said again but more confidently. Sweets and Candy looked back with curiosity, waiting for Salty to continue. Unfortunately, he didn't have anything else to say. He didn't know he could get that far. "That's all I've got," he said to Shakey and Mooch. The two of them slapped their foreheads, shocked that Salty would slip up that spectacularly. The females' patience ran out, and they continued on their way up the mountain, dismissing them with giggles. It took a moment for Salty to have the reality sink in. "Wow. This is a new feeling."

"I saw the whole thing, guys," said Humphrey who just came back to them. "And um... I cannot believe they didn't just fall all over you. When you yelled, 'Hey," ohh, I thought you cinched it right there." Salty was annoyed that his best friend would hit him while he was already disappointed.

"So you think you can do better?"

"Ahh, please. The next girl that comes up the hill... She's mine."

The four Omegas walked onto a ledge to see who was next. That was when the moonlight made a particular female shine. They were blown away.

"Woah," said Shakey.

"I've never seen her look that good," said Salty.

"Woah," said Mooch.

"Kate is hot," Salty added. He was right, Humphrey thought. Even when shaking her head hair around, she was utterly gorgeous, enough to outshine the white fur of Lilly who was walking beside her. Humphrey slipped into a daydream. He imagined a world where he could be with her. Perhaps it was lust, but there was a connection nonetheless. He just needed her to realize it.

All of a sudden, he realized he wasn't hugging Kate but Mooch instead.

"Ahhh! Woah!" Humphrey exclaimed, letting go of Mooch in no time. The rest of the gang gave worried expressions. Humphrey figured he had to display his feelings elsewhere. "Ehh, umm... Heh, heh. I'll be right back." He turned around, but they all stopped him before he could move further.

"Hey!"

"Woahhh!"

"Where do you think you're going?" Mooch asked rhetorically. They needed to stop him before he got himself in trouble. If there was anything that caused friction between their friendships, it was Humphrey's peculiar obsession with the pack leader's daughter.

"Humphrey, you know the rules. You're not allowed to howl with her; she's an Alpha," the smaller wolf reminded. Humphrey hated getting the reality check from his band. It was hard to swallow.

"We can eat together," said Mooch.

"But we can't... you know... howl... together," Shakey finished.

"Guys, I know. I... I was just... kidding." The three wolves exchanged glances of pity. In a way, Humphrey was feeling the same thing that they were feeling: lonely. They knew inside that, as much as Humphrey could help, they weren't going to get any females anytime soon.

"Cheer up, buddy," cooed Salty. "You still got us."

"Friends for life!" Shakey shouted. The three wolves jumped Humphrey. It was another "wolf pile" routine. All of them rolled off the ledge, falling to a lower level where their momentum flung Humphrey off the hillside unintentionally.

"Woah. Ugly," Salty admitted.

Far below them, Humphrey hit the trunk of a tree. He then plummeted but caught a thin branch in the nick of time. Mere seconds after that, he heard voices that were very close.

"So... do you see Garth?" It was Lilly. She and her sister were right below him!

"Great," said Humphrey. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, so he watched them.

"I'm not even sure what he looks like," Kate replied. "But I'm sure—" Kate and Lilly froze in place. There he was, Tony's son, gleaming under the moon with an elegant pose. Kate had met Garth before when he was a pup during the Great Wolf Games, but he was completely different. She expected a big difference, but nowhere on the level of what actually happened. She had definitely underestimated Tony. The reddish wolf was built. His physique was a paragon for Alphas. And unlike a lot of Easterns, he was scarless and clean. "—we'll know when we see him," Kate finished.

"Hey, Kate!" said Garth from the high place he stood on. He quickly made his way down. Humphrey gasped at what he was seeing. Someone was meeting the one he wanted to be with. He wasn't ready for competition at this moment.

"What..."

Kate attempted to keep her composure.

"Uh, Garth! Heh, heh, heh!"

They were so impressed and speechless that it was hard to not make an inappropriate smile. Lilly apparently couldn't keep her balance.

"Wow..."

"Lilly! Stand up!" Kate whispered aggressively. She didn't want her Omega sister to jeopardize the scene, so she pushed her aside with her shoulder. Garth and Kate then walked towards each other. "Garth! Hello! Good to see you..." Sensing an opportunity, Humphrey decided that now was the time to drop. He landed right in between them. "Humphrey?!" Kate exclaimed. The landing created a cloud of dirt particles which Humphrey took advantage of.

"Ohh, my butt! My butt! Wow. That really hurt." His words were full of pretense. While acting pained, he kicked dirt and sent the cloud to Garth's face. The Alpha began coughing. "You should really do something about that cough." He turned to the other Alpha. "Be careful, Kate. There's something goin' around. Tails and ears are falling off. Literally."

Kate tried her best to hold her laughter in. She now believed he was fooling around. Humphrey then turned back to Garth. "Name's Humphrey." He grabbed his paw and gave a pawshake.

"Garth," the reddish wolf replied. He was clearly irritated. Humphrey also knew Garth from the Great Games, but it was interesting to meet him formally. He took the time to walk around him to have a good look at his foe.

"Wow. You are a... You are a big one, aren't ya?" he admitted, but Humphrey wasn't impressed enough to spare him. "Wow. You're uhh... practically a moose! Heh! Where ya hidin' them antlers?" Not amused, the Alpha fired back.

"Who's the coyote?" he derided. Humphrey gasped. Coyotes were the smaller and weaker cousins of wolves known for being unruly and recklessly wild. It was a direct insult that he didn't anticipate.

"'Who's the coyote?' Oh, I get it. No, that's good... because I'm like—"

"No one important," Kate assured, interrupting him. It shattered Humphrey's insides, silencing him instantly. "Lilly, why don't you take little coyote Humphrey and run along?" She elbowed her sister, breaking her long stare at Garth.

"Oh." Lilly sighed. Garth and Kate then began to leave the area to head for the mountain. Actually pained, Humphrey recognized his failure and turned away from them. Garth was not a dumb Alpha. There was no use in irritating him if it irritated Kate as well. She hurt him. Maybe his friends were right. Maybe it wasn't possible to be close to Kate like the old days. Things had surely changed. "Come on, Humphrey," said a disappointed Lilly. "Let's go eat some of those bitter berries."

Later. . .

Garth and Kate headed for a spot near the summit where wolves who had found their matches hung out. On the way, Kate took a deep breath and attempted to open a nice conversation.

"So tell me about yourself. What does 'Garth' like to do?"

"Oh, well uhh... I'm really into fitness, you know. Heh, heh." The Alpha appeared nervous, which caught Kate by surprise. "Rabbit sprints... Tree squats..." He did demonstrations of both, causing females lying near the path to give affectionate sighs. Already, bad signals were going off in Kate's head. "You know us Alphas gotta keep fit to lead the pack." She thought fitness was important, but his introduction, in her opinion, sounded awkwardly boastful. It was a major turn-off. Garth then continued. "But uh... what really gets me going is..." He lifted his head until his snout pointed at the moon. He was about to howl. Kate thought this was his big chance to redeem himself. Although not much of a howler herself, she appreciated a good song.

Garth opened his mouth and forced his voice out for the whole mountain to hear his extraordinary tune. And out came the most disturbing, disjointed, broken howl anyone had ever heard! Garth was beyond awful!

And that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that he kept going! It didn't seem real. Tony's famous son kept going with his terrible howl as though he was convinced it was good. Kate cringed hard. She couldn't think of anything more abhorrent. She could tell he had range, but for whatever reason, he kept going back and forth between different levels. Kate wondered if he simply had no skill or if his vocal cords were defective. The latter seemed more plausible to her. He was so bad that, when he finished, a blue jay fell from the sky and landed in front of Kate! She then took a brief look at the nearby slopes and other areas where couples were. They all had heard it and had their ears covered by their forepaws. Everyone's faces said the same thing: disgust.

Garth then turned back to Kate. His expression said he was completely oblivious to the catastrophe that had just transpired. "Was it uh... good for you?" Kate didn't have the heart to say everything, but she managed to say the truth.

"Unbelievable..."

Garth chuckled and stepped closer. Kate, however, needed time to process. "Ahh... Umm... You know... Ahh... I just... just... Hold on a sec 'cause I'm gonna be right back. Heh! I need some... water! Some water. Okay? So I'll just... hold on..." Just then, she lost her footing and collapsed. "Heh! Ow..." She chuckled nervously. Garth wasn't sure how to respond.

"No worries... I'll just uhh... keep my vocal cords warm!"

"Heh, heh! Yeah!" she said before running out of his sight.

Later. . .

Humphrey had escaped Lilly and was looking at his reflection in a pond. The Omega was still recovering from what Kate said to him. He felt betrayed, given the long history they had together.

"Oh, he's 'no one important,'" he mimicked. "Just 'take little coyote Humphrey and run along.' Pshh, 'coyote.'" The fact that she said it so comfortably bothered him immensely.

All of a sudden, he heard panting coming from the path that the Alphas took. It was Kate. Humphrey smiled. "Well, now."

Kate stopped at a spot underneath a log and gave a sigh of relief. She hoped she was far enough from Garth. That was when Humphrey appeared upside-down and spooked her.

"Ahh!"

"'Ahh!'" he mimicked.

"Ahhhh! Ugh!" It was another one of Humphrey's antics.

"Where's Barf?"

"It's Garth," she corrected primly. "And we're just taking a little break." She went towards the stream.

"A break?" Humphrey's smile widened as he got down from the log.

"What? Is that so strange?"

"No! No! No, no, no! Are you kidding? I always like to take a break... ten minutes into a howl... Heh!"

"Well, I do..." She refused to look him in the eye. The Omega was annoying. She stopped in her tracks after thinking that she could probably give him a piece of her mind. Garth wasn't any of his business.

"Your uhh... howling partner. He's not a uhh... He's not a stud... Not a stud... but like... It's like 'stud' but umm..." Kate realized what word he was looking for. "A dud! A dud. That's it. Isn't he?" Her ego couldn't take it.

"Ha! Pshh! Nooo! Psh! He is not a dud... In fact... Humphrey... you'd be surprised to find that he is uhh... Ehh... Uhh... Ahem... Ahh!" Humphrey decided to help her out, imitating a typical Alpha's voice.

"Strong!"

"Yes! Yes! Strong! And he's... He's... uhh..."

"Proud!"

"Yes! Yes! Proud. And he's—what's the word I'm looking for? Uhh..."

"An Alpha's Alpha!"

"That is right!" she said proudly. "He is an Alpha's Alpha!" Humphrey then winked. Kate realized he just led her on to say nonsense. "Ooo! Ugh! You make me so mad! UGH!" The Alpha felt a sharp pain.

"Woah. Hey, I was just kidding," said Humphrey. A fuzzy warmth spread throughout Kate's body as she lost control of her mind.

"Huh... You're kinda cute." The Omega was taken aback. He didn't expect such blunt honesty.

"Really? You think... So wow. Okay. Cute..." While Kate started giggling excessively, Humphrey wanted to make sure she meant what she said. "Yeah. That's... Look... Thank you first of all, but do you mean 'cute' in like a rugged, kind-of-handsomely 'cute'?" That was when Humphrey himself felt a sharp pain on his rear end.

"Oww! Again with the butt! These mosquitoes are out of control... Ohh... Heh, heh..."

"I'll meet you on Mars," said Kate drunkenly, "right after I eat the Milky Way..." The sky kept shifting to different colors. The air behaved like a liquid. It was like they were falling asleep underwater.

"Ooo, that sounds good... Save some for meeeee..." Humphrey collapsed right next to Kate who was also knocked out.

"Bag 'em up, boys. We're going to Idaho," said a voice.

"You got it, chief."

"Okay. There we go. Watch out there."

Later. . .

Garth continued to practice his howls on Moonlight Howl Rock. It was past midnight, and he was the only wolf left on the mountain, but the ground around him was dotted with blue jays that had fallen. He had been waiting for over an hour for her to return.

"Kate?" he said, looking around. He started to wonder if she had left him for good.

Unbeknownst to all of the wolves, a red truck exited the park, heading for the airstrip where a white bush airplane awaited to take Kate and Humphrey out of the mountain range.


(written from June 2nd to June 10th, 2021)

Chapter 4: Idaho

The next morning. . .

March 21st, 2010

Ugly sounds and vibrations sneaked into Kate's consciousness. It appeared she lay on an unusually smooth surface, and her immediate surroundings were obscured by the lack of light. She lifted herself from the semireflective bottom when she felt the same unnatural texture on more than one side of her. The way her space was limited suggested that her circumstances were predetermined. But before she could think in greater detail, her hard enclosure randomly jumped, which erased any remaining sleepiness.

"Ow!" she exclaimed after her head hit the wall facing her. "Where am I?" The enclosure was so alien that it only meant the one thing that could also explain the weirdness of last night: humans. The wolves of the Valley knew humans, for they were regularly sighted in Jasper. As all wolves were taught, humans were the meddlers of Earth. Ancient stories existed of humans who came to do various things in the park. They built paths. They built strange-looking shelters. And rumor had it that they kidnapped wolves. But the worst thing was that no one knew why they did anything. The wolves could only assume the worst of intentions.

Kate tried to look into one of the equally-spaced nine points of light she could see near the ceiling, but another jump made her lose her footing. "Ow!" she exclaimed again. Her place was unforgivingly restrictive.

Soon, there was a sound of something striking Kate's container on the left side. It was followed by groaning. The voice of someone familiar was present.

"Humphrey? Is... Is that you?"

"Kate! Where are we?" he asked. His voice was muffled. He was in the same setup as Kate! It was a nauseating sensation. They believed they were on the ground, but their senses said otherwise.

"I don't know..."

"Oh, maybe we're dead?" he replied, being uncharacteristically pessimistic. Just then, there was another jump, larger than the others, that made their containers hit each other.

"Ow!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Nope. Definitely not dead. Well... at least they left us some water."

"You got water?" Immediately upon tasting, Humphrey emphatically spat out the liquid that had been roaming around his body.

"Nope! Definitely not water..." Suddenly, the Omega heard banging sounds of Kate's container moving erratically. "Kate! What are you doing?"

"Trying to get out! Ughhhh!" she screamed. They hit each other again, incentivizing Humphrey to offer a different perspective.

"Ah! Whoa! Calm down. Listen, maybe they're taking us to where there's more food."

"Or maybe we are the food." Just then, the fear of the situation settled uncomfortably in their minds.

"Oh, Kate... You're right... Fight! Fight, fight, fight!"

The two wolves tried their hardest, but their attempts were futile. Their stainless steel kennels continued to rattle on the wooden bed of the truck. Avoiding their destination was impossible. It wouldn't take long for that to be clear, and they would still be tired by the time the truck ceased its movement, which made the vibration stop. They then became rejuvenated once the three rangers engaged in a coordinated action to lay their kennels on the ground. Kate could smell the dirt up close. The absence of the vibration allowed her to hear the native chirping. Something was about to commence. "What's happening?" said Humphrey.

"I don't know, but be ready. This could be our chance."

"Alright. Set 'em free," said one of the humans. The other two each grabbed the faceplates of the kennels and pulled them upwards. Ignoring the blinding light, the wolves took off.

"Whoo-hoo! Look at 'em go," the main human exclaimed.

For a hundred yards, the two wolves dashed through the unknown woods. Kate went ahead of the Omega but stopped abruptly before a ledge. A snowcapped ridge stood prominently in the distance. It was spectacular and refreshing but not familiar.

"Wow," said Kate. "This isn't Jasper."

"Yeah, but it sure does... rock!" Humphrey evaded a flying pebble as he approached the Alpha. It was the strangest thing either of them had seen if being in kennels wasn't strange enough. Then another pebble came their way.

"Quick! Get down!" Kate grabbed the Omega's ear with her jaws and brought him into the grass. They quickly spotted the rocks' origin: a clearing roughly fifty yards away where the grass had been unnaturally trimmed. "What are they doing?" said Kate, referring to two birds, a goose and a duck who were oddly carrying sticks. Three porcupines were watching them closely, seemingly judging the strange activity that was within the wolves' earshot.

"What a smashingly brilliant story this is," the duck narrated. "The golfing goose from the low regions of the Arctic Circle is leading the pack."

"He's using the wrong club," a porcupine loudly commented, visibly annoying the goose that held a stick next to a spherical rock. The yellow duck gasped and responded with passive-aggressiveness.

"Could you do me a favor, Needles, and um... shut the hole that makes the words?"

"Looks like they're playing some sort of weird game," said Humphrey. If there was anyone who knew a weird game if they saw one, it was the Omega.

"Maybe they can tell us how to get home," said Kate.

"Yeah. And if they can't, we can eat 'em."

"Yeah. Follow my lead." Kate was pleased that Humphrey sounded a bit more Alpha-like, but in reality, the Omega just wanted to rid his taste buds of urine.

The two wolves came to the edge. It was more than a twenty-foot drop. The Alpha followed her training. She confidently jumped off, did multiple flips to slow her velocity, and landed as if her paws were made out of feathers. She then continued onward, figuring the Omega had learned from her example. Humphrey was stunned, but he didn't want to lose track of Kate. He awkwardly held his body over the edge until his own weight brought him down. He froze with fear before he could do any flips, and his chest hit the ground directly, causing a noise that made Kate look back. Humphrey tried to act as if he did everything perfectly.

"Yeah, I'm right behind you." Kate shook her head. She knew the truth.

Meanwhile, the goose readied his wings.

"Now you will see, this shot is mine." As part of his technique, he shook his tail feathers before swinging the "club." The pebble was then sent on an unimaginable journey despite the fact that the hole and its accompanying flagpole were directly in front of him.

"Splendid! Wonderful hit, sir!" the duck exclaimed. The rock bounced off multiple objects that were far away, including a log, multiple trees and branches, a drinking fountain, and a portable chemical toilet.

"Just a minute!" said the human inside. The route was so crazy that the porcupines burst into laughter.

Eventually, to their surprise, the rock came back to the putting green and slowed to a crawl.

"It's ugly but a good runner," said the duck. The rock inched closer and closer to the hole. It was prepared to go in, but a woodpecker who nearly got injured by the rock flew in and stopped the progress. With its beak, it pounded the rock into useless bits.

"Ahh! Did you see that?! Did you see that?!"

"I guess the birdie ruined your birdie," the duck joked.

"You mark it 'birdie' because it would have gone in."

"Technically, sir, it might have gone in."

"That silly bird stopped my shot from going in, so I will not take an extra stroke." The duck had been marking the strokes on a tree nearby. The goose grabbed the marking stick and attempted to mark the birdie, but the duck held him back. He was stronger than he appeared. "MARK IT BIRDIE!" the goose shouted.

"Well, it was an obstacle." The duck took the marking stick from him. "And everyone has to play with the obstacles." He then ate it. "You know, we wouldn't want to lie."

"This is not a lie. This is not a lie if you're French."

"Ah, well, French-Canadian. There's a slash, a hyphen, in between there."

"I say French."

"Canadian."

"French."

"Canadian."

"French!"

"Canadian, sir. May I just say, though, that you are a wonderful golfer." The random praise reminded the goose that the duck was on his side.

"Ha! Ha! Merci, and you... are a very good caddie, hm?" Suddenly, the goose heard the duck quivering.

"T-t-t-t-t-t-t-take off!" The duck flew straight up.

"Paddy, what is wrong with you?" Just as instantaneous, the porcupines ran out of sight. The goose then noticed two large shadows overwhelm his own. The particular shapes of them told him everything he needed to know. "Ah, hello!" he said after seeing their faces. "You are two wolves. I have not seen many wolves in these parts, but I am not afraid of wolves. No... I like wolves! Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed sarcastically.

"Good," said the grey one, "'cause we just want to ask you a few questions."

"Ah, yes. Quick! Look behind you!" The wolves fell for the trick. The goose hit Humphrey's head with the club and attempted to flee, but Kate was determined to get answers.

"Grab him!" she told the Omega. He promptly grabbed the goose with his jaws in order to keep him still; however, the goose was also stronger than he appeared. It didn't seem physically possible.

"So you want to face the French Résistance?!"

"That's French-Canadian!" Paddy corrected from high in a tree. The goose was dragging the wolf.

"Oh, my butt! My butt! My butt!" Kate then sighed

"Omegas..."

"This is not a game anymore!" the goose announced

"Don't you wash your feet?" Humphrey muttered. The goose dragged him through many bushes and branches, giving him countless scrapes and bruises.

"How do you like it now, wolf?! You have bitten off more than you can chew this time, my friend!"

"HELP!" the Omega screamed as he was dragged across the lake. The two spun around in the air repeatedly until they crashed into a mud-covered area. At that point, the goose gave up.

"Okay... You have a question?"

"Yeah," said Kate after catching up to them. "Where are we?"

Later. . .

"Idaho?!"

"Ida-who?" Humphrey repeated incorrectly.

"Oui, Idaho, land of mountains, rivers, lakes, and a few billion potatoes." The four of them had moved to a space in front of a building. The goose named Marcel sat in a drinking fountain in order to clean himself.

"'Sawtooth National Wilderness,'" Paddy clarified.

"What are we doing in Idaho?!" said Kate. The duck gave them the likely answer with a smirk.

"Uh, you were uhh... relocated to uhh.. hmm... repopulate."

"Ahh!" Kate yelled with embarrassment, dropping her lower jaw. She knew humans interfered with nature, but this was a new realm of privacy invasion. The Omega was just as shocked. He liked Kate, but the fact that the humans were essentially giving him permission to mate with her came across as disingenuous.

"They want you big wolves to make a lot of little wolves," Marcel added. The two birds began to giggle. Despite the fact that Kate was trained to be celibate, her inner feelings slipped out for a moment, making her blush. Humphrey, upon seeing the humor of the situation, exploited his companion's vulnerability.

"Sounds good to me. Park shouldn't be without some wolves. I mean, only for the good of the park," he said sarcastically.

"So you two are undomesticated partners?"

"Paddy, please. Don't be rude," said Marcel. "So you two are boyfriend/girlfriend, eh? You are an item? Heh, heh." Humphrey began to continue his shtick, but Kate cut him off with a paw preventing him from opening his muzzle.

"Well—"

"No."

"You wolves," said Marcel. "You are funny." The birds could tell what kind of relationship Humphrey and Kate had. The two wolves turned their attention to each other.

"We have to get home now. There's going to be trouble if I don't get back to Jasper."

"Alright. Alright! You're freaking out."

"I'm not freaking out," Kate replied sternly. "I just have to get home."

"Is this about Barf?"

"It's Garth! And it's about responsibilities... so I don't expect you to understand." Tony's words at her father's meeting rang in her mind.

"Huh." Kate was right, Humphrey thought. He didn't understand.

"Can you help me?" she asked the birds. They had moved to the top of a nearby picnic table. "I need to get home fast."

"Alright, Ms. Fast. Where is home sweet home?" Marcel was then engaged in a stretching routine. The duck walked up and down the goose's back and proceeded to forcefully pull his limbs.

"Jasper Park, Canada," Kate answered.

"Jasper park? Get out of here. We love Jasper Park!"

"Yes, yes. We've toured it many times."

"Paddy, please. We've toured it many times."

"I dated a pintail from Jasper once," said Paddy. "She never stopped quacking. Drove me nuts."

"Drove her right to me. Heh, heh. Bound to happen. Bound to happen." Kate felt a sense of relief rush over her. What were the odds that they would quickly meet someone who knew how to get to Jasper?

"So you can help me then? Get home?"

"We haven't played Jasper in quite a while. I think it would be a smashing idea." Earlier, they had explained to the wolves that the game they were playing was known as "golf," and they traveled across the continent to play on various golf courses. Paddy's comment was followed by Marcel's scream of pain as the stretching maintained. But Marcel was okay.

"This is true. So of course I will help. I like you two. You make me laugh. And you didn't eat me, so I owe you a favor."

"Great. How do we get there?" The Alpha was eager to move. Marcel got up, then shook his head.

"You will never reach it on your own. It is much too far, but I know a way." The duck and Marcel dropped down and motioned the wolves to follow them. "Come with me."

Meanwhile. . .

Confusion consumed the Valley. The daughter of the Western pack leader had seemingly vanished during the Moonlight Howl. Garth had notified his father who then first saw the development as a calculated act of defiance, whereas the West reacted with genuine shock and panic, which led to the thinking that the East was responsible. Tensions rose dramatically, but the pack leaders on both sides miraculously urged for calm. Winston and Tony knew each other well, and both of them figured it was probably likely that neither side had anything to do with it. Nonetheless, the specific timing of her disappearance raised suspicions that couldn't be ignored due to their long mutual distrust.

By noon, the box canyon where Wintson and Tony met in secret was covered in Alphas exchanging foul remarks across the stream. It was only when the pack leaders arrived that the other Alphas quieted. Kate's mother and sister came with Winston. They hoped their presence would signify the ongoing stress and sense of urgency that the Western royal family was enduring.

Tony wasted no time getting to his first thought.

"Where did she go?" he questioned with disdain.

"Maybe I should ask you," Winston threw back with the same attitude.

"You know that's not my style."

"My wolf, Can-do, knows your style," he replied, alluding to their latest attack. Can-do growled louder to amplify the message.

"I just want to say one thing," said Kate's mother, nearing the stream. "If any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally rip out your eyes and shove them down your throat, so you can see my claws TEAR YOUR CARCASS OPEN!" If there was any wolf in the vicinity deemed as terrifying, it was her. Her ferocity was enough to make an Eastern lose his footing on the boulder he stood on.

"Mom?" said a high-pitched voice that broke her fierce stare. It was Lilly.

"Not now, dear. Mommy's in a rage."

"Well... since Kate stood up Garth... I could show him around until she gets back." Using her peacekeeping training, the Omega offered a cooperative distraction.

"I wouldn't say 'stood up,'" Garth muttered to himself.

"Garth!" Kate's mother scolded. Garth gulped out of fear and agreed to go with Lilly.

"Sounds good to me!" he said nervously.

"Well, come on, Garth," Lilly happily encouraged. The red Alpha leaped over the stream and walked alongside the white Omega, but he didn't leave completely when Kate's mother gave a snap, causing him to give a short whine. She then turned back to the Easterns.

"Isn't that sweet? She gets it from me."

It seemed to Tony that at least Winston and his company were genuine, but he wondered if Kate had made her own decision to defy the East. He couldn't rule it out. Adding to the pressure, his patience with the West was evaporating. The talk of peace and reunifying the packs had eluded them for years, and he was nearing the point of deciding whether or not to stop waiting even longer for peace to materialize. If the West wasn't serious about peace, he would feel compelled to act from a more aggressive agenda, one that would almost certainly mean war, so the East could finally secure a food source. He hoped, for his rival's sake, that Kate's disappearance was just an accident, but if she wasn't going to return soon, Tony had to act in order to end his famine. He decided to give the West a chance. Lives on both sides were at stake.

"I'll give her 'til the full moon," he declared. That gave them time until tomorrow night, for the waxing gibbous had already settled. Accident or not, he believed he had to act soon.

Meanwhile. . .

"What? What is that?" said Kate. The four of them made it to a clearing in front of a wooden building. There, the same vibration noise presented itself. In front of the building was a truck camper. A small white RV rested on the bed of the black pickup adorned with bumper stickers and decorative paint. The truck was turned on, but humans couldn't be seen. This unnerved the wolves, but they trusted the birds anyway. They knew the ways of humans more than the wolves did.

"This," Marcel explained, "is a truck camper." They approached the Dutch door of the RV where Paddy gave the goose a putter club from the green bag he always carried. The goose then used the tip of the clubhead to undo the latch on the top half, revealing an opening. "Your ride home," Marcel added.

"Quick! Get in!" said Paddy. The Omega grabbed the bottom half of the door that was closed and looked inside. It wasn't the same situation as being in the kennel, but it invoked a similar fear.

"What?! Boxed up twice in one day. What are the odds?"

Suddenly, a loud creaking sound occurred right in front of the building. Two adult humans, a petite female and a brawny-looking male with a thick beard, came into view. They were exiting the building.

"Hide!" the birds urged in unison. The four of them hurried to the left side of the truck camper where they couldn't be easily spotted. They then peeked around the corner to see their movements. The woman wore a pink blouse with a dotted garment around her waist that concealed most of her legs. She also had chained glasses. The man who had tatted arms wore a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a dark green vest. His beard compensated for the lack of hair above his forehead. Interestingly, they looked nothing alike, but they acted in complete harmony as though it was meant to be.

"That right there," Marcel explained again, "is Garn and Debbie Theocarcus. Lucky for you, they travel every year to Jasper right after Sawtooth."

"Day's looking pretty and so is my woman," said Garn as he threw their luggage into the RV and closed the door. Debbie giggled in response. Even their voices contrasted. The wolves couldn't understand their spoken language, but their body language said everything.

Just then, a guitar melody emanated from the truck's radio.

"Oh, this is the song we met to."

"Come here, you! Let's dance."

"Down here," said one of the birds.

"Hurry."

The two humans began spinning around, forcing the animals to take cover underneath the vehicle.

"Now, he was in a motorcycle gang, and she was a librarian," Marcel explained.

"And uh... opposites attract, if you will," Paddy added.

"Exactly. In this case, it was a bookstore that also sold beer so... they met."

The wolves ignored the information they couldn't understand. While Kate focused on a way to get to the door, Humphrey was distracted by the song.

"Come on. We have to get in," said the Alpha. By this time, the humans were dancing on the left side of the truck. The two wolves came from underneath and went to the door from the right side; however, as soon as Kate got a chance to reopen the door, the humans came back around.

"Alright. Here we go."

"You're just a dream."

They walked backwards, shaking their legs and buttocks rhythmically. There was nowhere to quickly hide. The birds held their breath.

"I'm like a little bunny. Aren't I, dear?" said the woman who now sounded exhausted.

Paddy came to the door and reopened the top half with his putter. He and the goose signaled the wolves that their ride was available again. Luckily, they made sure to stay behind the humans' backs, and they managed to reach the door again as the humans went to the area near the truck's passenger seat. Kate jumped but not strong enough to get through the opening. After slipping off, Humphrey caught her with his forepaws. Kate then awkwardly squirmed, and the two of them were put into peculiar positions, which coincidently mirrored the humans. The song had just concluded. Garn held Debbie's upper back as he leaned forward.

"I love ya, Deb."

"Oh, I love you, too."

Humphrey recognized the arrangement and chuckled. It was the one associated with embracing lips.

"Uh-uh." Kate stopped him before he could make a move. It was then when Debbie entered the truck from the passenger door.

"Get inside now. Get inside. Quick," Marcel whispered. The Alpha jumped again and made it. Immediately afterward, the truck began moving, forcing Humphrey to chase it.

"Well, back in a box." All of a sudden, the truck emitted backfire from its two exhaust pipes. It spooked the Omega, and he jumped in earlier than expected.

"Good luck, you two!" yelled Paddy. The two birds flew and followed the truck.

"We will be watching out for you from above!"

"Well, I'll be watching out for you. He will be breathing heavily." Marcel's panting could already be heard.

"Thanks!" said Humphrey. "See you in Jasper!"

Later. . .

The truck camper continued its way through Sawtooth's forests. While Humphrey explored the RV and rummaged through the couple's belongings, Kate lay on a spongey bed looking out the side window. With the trees passing by, she processed potential futures.

"If we have to, we'll fight for the valley," Tony had said. The Eastern's resolve was nausea-inducing. Out there was her home on the brink of being conquered. Her friends and family were at risk of being killed. And she wasn't there at this time to help. Even if Garth had the worst howl, it was her responsibility. She then had a vision of herself standing in the Ceremonial Valley, watching both sides tear each other to shreds. All she could do was watch…

"Humphrey?"

The Omega danced to the radio on his hind legs. His body was decorated with motorcycle gang memorabilia. He had put on a black helmet and nose ring. Eventually, he embellished himself with shades. Kate dismissed it as further proof of Omegas' fecklessness, but her tail couldn't help but shake to the music. She quickly stopped it and attempted to fall asleep. She hoped her current circumstance was nothing but a dream. Perhaps she would wake up in the royal den, ready to marry and put the threat of war behind her. Most wolves married for love. But romance could never be more important than the lives of the pack and the lives of her family. She had to make her pack proud.


(written from December 18th to December 29th, 2021)

Chapter 5: Tails It Is

"So why is this called 'Rabbit Poo Mountain'?" The reddish Alpha was genuinely perplexed. No one would disagree that such a name was ridiculous.

"Because this is where rabbits like to poo," Lilly replied happily as she led the way up the hillside. Garth could only imagine the years of excrement there must have been under his paws. He tiptoed in disgust on his way to a large outcropping. Lilly could not help but giggle before he reviewed his paw pads.

"I was just kidding," she assured him. Rabbits, in fact, had been hunted to extinction in the Valley. Garth knew this and realized he had been tricked.

"Oh, I get it. You're a funny Omega."

The white wolf nodded. Garth had never had a conversation with an Omega without Alphas flanking him. There were Omegas in the East, but he knew none who would have the confidence to do what Lilly was doing, showing a foreign Alpha around their homeland, but it was a fact that Omegas enjoyed more freedom under Winston. Garth was curious about what that meant for his visit. He raised a brow and decided to challenge her. "Okay. Make me laugh."

"Umm!" She took a few steps back and thought hard. It was easy to get her sister to laugh. Could she amuse this foreigner? Garth hadn't seen an Omega who didn't have a joke prepared. It made him more curious. "Umm! What am I?" Lilly did a soft flip, connecting her back to the ground. She then flailed her legs in such a pattern that it was like she was walking on the sky itself, stepping on the clouds that seemed to enrage as dusk proceeded. Garth was stumped. The Alpha in him wanted to ridicule such an unwolflike display, but at the same time, the answer to her question seemed obvious. The trained Alpha was unable to answer it! He was the one who should be ridiculed!

"Uhhh... You got me."

"It's a turtle that fell and can't get up."

"That's pretty good," he admitted.

"Okay. What's this?" Lilly returned to standing on all four paws before making a dramatic drop. Her chest and stomach hit the ground. Her limbs splayed, and she stuck out her tongue.

"Hmm..." Clearly, it was a display of death but of what? Lilly gave the correct answer before he could make the wrong one.

"It's turtle roadkill!" It caught him off guard. He couldn't remember the last time he genuinely chuckled. Lilly, meanwhile, felt a thrill shoot through her. She was hanging out with a hot Alpha, and he thought she was funny! She did her best not to let her feelings show.

"What else can you do?" he asked as she pulled herself back up again.

"I just do turtles," she replied firmly as if her ability to make turtle jokes was a professional skill. She thought that would be enough to disinterest the Alpha, but he surprised her.

"Okay, it's my turn." Garth removed himself from the outcrop. "You wanna see something an Alpha can do?"

"Uhh, would my mother approve?" She couldn't believe she asked such a dumb question.

"Of course!" responded Garth, for no one seemed to be more Alpha than her mother. Lilly gave a shy smile. She tried her best to contain the excitement for whatever she would be indulging in.

"Well, okay then." The Omega went to his side. They began following a dirt path. Every time he glanced at her, she felt a strange jolt. She wondered if he felt it too.

Meanwhile. . .

A search party of high-level Alphas scanned the farthest reaches of the West. They currently looked through the last place that Kate could reasonably go, a shadowy forest arranged with shady beech trees. Among the party were Can-do and the second-in-command, Hutch.

"Keep searching," Hutch said to two Alphas. "We must find her before tomorrow night."

The Western pack leader and his mate were searching as well. It was in a patch of grass that the tan she-wolf finally picked up her daughter's scent. Suddenly, something was found.

"Winston..." His ears perked, and he turned around. He approached the object that captured his mate's attention. It was a purple flower, the exact same one that had been in Kate's hair during the Moonlight Howl. The flower sitting by itself on the ground was a chilling sight that opened up more questions. Did Kate remove it? Or did someone else do so? The latter seemed more likely. They both knew Kate more than they knew anybody else. She would not just run away. During Alpha School, Winston made sure to discipline her, and Kate exceeded his expectations.

"Don't worry, Eve," he assured. "She's the finest Alpha I've trained."

"I'm not, Winston. She's also the finest Alpha I've ever trained."

"Her scent..."

"It's all over here, isn't it? But not in a clear way. It's... fragmented, and there are other scents I don't recognize." In situations as these, the wolves of the Valley always concluded the same thing: the involvement of humans. But Winston and Eve would only feed such a thought until every other explanation could be ruled out. They could not yet bring themselves to believe humans had done something if it was true since the amount of cruelty they were capable of frightened them to the bone marrow.

"I hope we find her in time. I hope it's not too late. My dear friend, Tony, will not budge."

"We will find her, Winston."

Later. . .

Dusk had turned to night. Somewhere between mountain ranges, the truck carrying Humphrey and Kate pulled into a parking lot of a remote gas station. The vehicle proceeded to park in a space between the pump and the front side of the building. Inside the RV, the lack of vibration caused the Alpha to stir.

"We stopped..." She looked out the window and came to a shocking discovery. In her reflection from the glass, she realized the Omega had placed a wig and pair of glasses on her head in addition to a bra on her chest! In no time, she shook everything off and it was after that that she noticed the Omega still awake. Her first thought was to tear into him for fooling around, but her words disappeared. Something was wrong with Humphrey.

"What's wrong with you?" The concern in her voice clashed with agitation. The Omega was whining next to the door. What was he anxious about? He sat unsteady, all four legs close together while his tail fidgeted madly.

"I have to go!" he informed.

"You can't leave! Can't you hold it?"

"No! I can't!" he replied in frustration.

"Well, did you try crossing your legs?"

"Yes!"

"Holding your breath?"

"Yes! I almost passed out!"

"Closing your eyes and—"

"In or out, I am going."

Kate then sighed.

"Hurry up!" Humphrey pushed the bottom half of the Dutch door open and slipped out. He walked gingerly. "Would you hurry?" she urged.

"Whadadadada! I can't go when I feel pressured!"

"Go!" she urged again.

The back of the RV faced an area enclosed by a chain-link fence that separated the lot from the wilderness. Along the fence were metal trash cans and refuse. Humphrey walked to a spot next to a dumpster. He lifted one of his hind legs but quickly put it down after noticing that Kate was watching him. Kate, from inside the RV, sent a message from her body language, making a sarcastic cutesy face that seemed to say, "Aww, what's the matter, little pup?" Humphrey answered with his own silent message. He lifted one of his forepaws and moved it in a circular motion as he gave an ardent nod demonstrating his embarrassment. He was entreating her to give him privacy. Kate sighed again, rolling her eyes this time, and directed her sight elsewhere. Humphrey decided to do his business in a different place while the Alpha wasn't looking, but something that caught his nose returned him to the spot immediately. It was the greatest thing to have graced his nose. It was sweet, sweeter than honey.

When it was found, he embraced it with a long passionate sniff. He remembered Mooch talking about rumors he heard about the glorious tastes of human food. There was one type of food he heard his friend describe as very sweet. What was it called? Cake! "Cake" was the word. And smaller cakes were called cupcakes! "What is he doing?!" The Alpha had been impatient and checked on Humphrey, only to find him struggling to tear apart a cupcake wrapping.

"Geez, the packaging's so wolf-proof!" she heard him mutter. She then noticed to her left the two humans who had been driving the truck. They were inside the novelty store, trying on goofy glasses. Kate kept an eye on them through the large store window, but suddenly, a motorhome pulled in and parked between the two wolves. Kate could no longer see Humphrey.

"Where is he?"

From the left side window of the motorhome, a black French bulldog barked, getting Humphrey's attention. Next to the dog was a chubby human boy eating—of all things—a cupcake! Concurrently, Kate heard footsteps near the front of the truck camper. Garn and Debbie exited the store and were entering the vehicle. They were about to leave the Omega behind! "Come on, Humphrey!"

But Humphrey was engrossed in a competition between him and the child. After Humphrey finally opened the wrapping, they first tried to see which one could take the bigger bite. Being a wolf, Humphrey won easily. Then the boy balanced the rest of the cupcake on his nose. Humphrey then did the same before devouring the cupcake without using his paws or the cupcake hitting the ground. He had pushed it up and caught it in mid-air! When the child tried to repeat Humphrey's trick, icing ended up all over his face.

All of a sudden, a light came from the building. An adult human with overalls carried a trash bag through a door. He dropped it as soon as he saw the wolf. He was less than ten feet away from it! The icing on Humphrey's lips frightened him even more.

"Uhhh, hey! IT'S A RABID WOLF!" he shouted. "Max, bring that gun!" As another human showed up, the motorhome with the child and dog drove away. Kate could now see the danger her friend was in. The human named Max had his shotgun pointed at Humphrey.

"This is it for you, wolf. Any last wishes?" Humphrey was so scared that the urine he was holding finally came out, disgusting Max. At this time the truck camper was driving away.

"Uh, oh." Humphrey thought this was his end. Max began to pull the trigger. Kate had a choice to leave Humphrey to his fate.

"Ahhhhh!" Max screamed. A brown blur rammed into his right arm, shoving him into the trash cans. Humphrey and Kate took off.

"Max, they're getting away!"

"Not if I can help it."

"Ugh, no!" said Kate. They headed for the wilderness but were stopped by the fence.

"We're trapped," said the Omega. They turned around. Max now had both of them in front of the barrel.

"I got you both now."

"Shoot 'em!" his companion urged. The shot was taken. Both wolves ducked. Amazingly, the shot did not hit either of them, but the chain-link fence had been busted. The two wolves took their chance and escaped through the hole. Max's companion was unsure if breaking the fence was on purpose, so he gave a comment that served both ways.

"Oh, nicely done, Max."

The two wolves came to the top of a hill. They watched the truck camper that had taken them from Sawtooth drive onto the road and pick up speed. It vanished in the distance. Kate shot Humphrey a look of disappointment. Because of him, their fast way home was gone. The Omega felt the guilt settle. He would never eat a cupcake again! The sky rumbled. A nasty thunderstorm was about to pass over.

Later. . .

It started raining. Kate kept her disappointed face throughout their hike. Humphrey didn't think it would be good for her to dwell on their misfortune.

"Okay... Thinking with my belly instead of my head. Not a good idea. I get it... I say we build a comfy den—"

"I'm going home."

"Oh, great. You're going home... and it's raining."

"I'm not stopping," she replied adamantly. Humphrey then thought to do what he did best.

"Rain, rain, go away! Get outta here, rain! No one wants you around!" he sang in a purposely bad manner. Kate stopped in surprise. The Omega was walking on his hind legs and dancing around her.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a sneer.

"It's uh... It's a rain dance... to stop it from raining. Duh!" He continued freestyling. "'Cause you're wet, and you really are gonna ruin our day!"

"Humphrey, rain dances make it rain." The Alpha walked away from him as he stopped dancing. Humphrey was surprised at how much negative energy was inside Kate. Perhaps the growing lightning overhead was affecting her emotions. But if he was going to cheer her up, she needed to work with him. He gave in to her last comment and decided to do something sillier.

"Oh! Right! Well, uhh... I'll just do it backwards. Shewahyanoognayerishnyernyer!" He also attempted to put his dance moves in reverse. Humphrey then felt that there was no rain coming from the spot above his head. "Huh. That actually worked." Kate gave a look of dissatisfaction and pointed upward with her left forepaw. With curiosity, Humphrey looked up. A bunch of leaves had been holding the water, and at that moment, they released a gush of rain that hit him directly in the face. "Oof!" The disorientation knocked him down, but Humphrey wasn't one to get upset about his own misery. He chuckled and got back up, but the Alpha was gone. She had left him behind. He frowned. "Kate...? That's not a good idea..." He may have soured her already crappy day, but he didn't think it was right for her to risk him getting lost. "Hold on, Kate!"

Later. . .

The storm grew stronger. It was getting very difficult to travel against the wind, but Kate pushed on. She didn't care if she left Humphrey behind. His presence only seemed to slow her down. She only wanted to go home. She had a sense that her family was in danger. She couldn't begin to think about what would happen if she was too late. Would that seemingly vile Tony kill or imprison her parents? And what would happen to poor Lilly?

"Ugh!" The Alpha came across a ravine. A stream of mud carrying countless broken branches was carving a deep gorge. There was no way around it. Her Alpha training kicked in, and she managed to think of something. Her side of the ravine was less steep and had boulders that offered something stable. She slid herself down the slope with ease. When she came to a thick root sticking out, she used it to launch herself to a platform on the other side which was only halfway up to the top of the ravine. She then jumped, attached herself to a steep wall, and tried to climb it. She got a grip on the rocks sticking out of the wall, but the rock that was supposed to hold her hind legs was not secure, and she slid down uncontrollably. "No!" Kate's heart dropped once the true weight of her situation arrived. A few feet below her was death.

Humphrey had heard Kate's desperate grunts.

"Hold on, Kate! I'm coming!"

He gasped. The Alpha was in trouble! If he couldn't think fast, the river would take her away. "Ah, let me think! Let me think!" Humphrey wondered what an Omega could possibly do. He looked around and discovered a tree branch that went over the ravine. A long thick vine coiled around the branch, and the end of it dangled close to Kate. He had an idea!

"Humphrey!" Kate called. She wished deeply that she did not leave him behind. She needed him now more than ever.

Kate then turned her head upon hearing the Omega whooping. He swung in line with the river. He held onto the vine with just his jaws.

"Don't worry, Kate! It's all part of the plan!" he managed to say with his jaws tightly closed.

"I can see that!" she replied. Her subtle movements caused her to slip a foot closer to the stream.

"Kate! Kate! Grab my tail!"

"Grab your what?!" She couldn't believe this was the plan, but her options were limited.

"Take those Alpha jaws, and grab my—OWWWW! My tail! My tail!" Humphrey felt every sharp tooth through his bushy dark tail. Next, Kate pushed herself off the wall. Now they were both dangling in the ravine. "Kate, wiggle! Wiggle around!" he instructed. In order to get off the vine safely, they needed to swing in a certain way, so they could get closer to either side of the ravine. Kate wiggled intensely, so much so that her body would go upside down, and her tail would touch Humphrey's snout. "Oh, that tickles... Oh, my tail... hurts!" Her tail touched his snout again. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh, who knew I was ticklish there?" But the pain of his tail brought him back to reality. "Ugh, I can't take it anymore!" He lifted his lower body at the same time as the swing brought them closer to the land. Kate let go and landed on her chest. She was safe and at the same place she was before she slid down the boulders. She looked back to check on Humphrey and saw the vine swinging on its own. Not far down the stream, there was a flat bank and, on it, was a washed-up shape covered in mud.

"Oh, no..." Her heart dropped again. "Oh, my gosh. Humphrey! Humphrey!" A muddy thing stuck out that resembled a tail. Kate grabbed it and tried to pull Humphrey out of the mire, but the supposed tail broke free, causing Kate to drop it out of shock. "Ahhh! Your tail..." She lay down on the brink of tears. The Omega had sacrificed himself for her. "I'm so sorry..."

"My tail's actually fine," said a calm voice. Was it a ghost?

"Ahh!" Kate screamed.

"Last time I checked." But it was just Humphrey, Humphrey the Omega. He moved his tail all around to show her he was alright. She found out that the supposed tail from the river was nothing but a branch. She chuckled. The Omega had actually redeemed himself.

Humphrey could tell that Kate was exhausted.

"Come on. Let's get out of the rain."

"Okay," she replied. For some reason, this reply felt different. The wolf with the lower rank had just saved her life by putting his own at risk, and he didn't have to save her. Omegas were always treated terribly. It was the way things were. What Omega would be willing to die for an Alpha? She had wanted to lose him, and Humphrey saved her as if he could never lose her. "Thank you," she added. It was the first real "thank you" she had given to an Omega.

Meanwhile. . .

In Jasper Park, Kate's father sat perfectly still, sitting on the outcrop that overlooked the box canyon where he and Tony often met. He watched the moon and meditated, for the moon was almost full, and the Eastern siege was on the horizon. Privately, he had dreaded this day before Kate and Garth were even born. Back when he and Tony were pups, the rivalry was also very much alive, and since the day he met Tony, he knew the brown wolf to be ambitious and maintain war as a legitimate option for the future. Unbeknownst to everyone except his mate, he loved Tony as a brother and it would break his heart if he had to kill him, but his pack mattered more than his heart. He needed to be a leader and lead his Alphas to unconditional victory. He tried his best over the years to hold back the East, but it was clear that it wasn't enough. It was clear that, by the end of tomorrow night, there would only be one pack to own the two territories.

Shattering the pack leader's meditation, Hutch walked up the outcrop. Winston's second-in-command, Hutch, was incredibly loyal and did not feel sad nor angry to deliver the unfortunate news, for any decision that Winston made was the will of the entire West.

"Sir, we've searched the entire territory. Still no sign of Kate." Winston continued to glare at the moon. Hutch could sense that his news was something Winston had already predicted and mentally prepared himself for. All there was left was a course of action. "Sir?" he prompted. The old wolf gave him the one answer he needed.

"We must defend our territory." Hutch then gave a bow before leaving to notify all of the Western Alphas of the incoming conflict.


(written from January 5th to January 7th, 2022)

Chapter 6: The Mountain Attack

The next morning. . .

March 22nd, 2010

Humphrey and Kate were still sleeping when Marcel and Paddy approached the cozy den the two wolves had found. Since Marcel and Paddy were not fast flyers and it was not the easiest thing to follow the truck through the woods, they had been tens of miles behind. Sometime before dawn, they caught up to the truck whose progress was slowed by the gas station. They discovered that the RV was empty and concluded that the gas station was the only place where they could have safely disembarked. From there, they tracked the wolves to the base of some mountains.

Asleep, Humphrey and Kate rolled towards each other. The Omega opened his eyes and smiled. The nose of his crush practically touched his own, but he would not get to savor the moment.

"Fore!" yelled Marcel. He cast a rock into the hole which bounced off their heads and terminated their drowsiness. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Kate gasped as the birds seemed to think they were nuzzling.

"I say we've caught them at quite the bad time," said Paddy

"No, I say we caught them at a good time!"

"Indeed, sir! Indeed." The birds could hardly suppress their gaiety. Kate was surprised to see them again.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, walking out of the den.

"No, the question is what are you doing here? I give you a first-class ticket home."

"Yes, a straight shot right to the pin," Paddy added.

"And you blow it?" Marcel then noticed Humphrey come near him.

"Yep... Over a cupcake," he answered.

"Ugh, ridiculous dessert. 'A cupcake.'"

"Well, actually, they're quite delicious," said Paddy.

"There has to be another way for us to get to Jasper," said the Alpha.

"Another way? Another way?" Marcel rolled his eyes. "Always 'another way.' W-what am I, a travel agent?" Humphrey stepped closer to him.

"Come on. What, are you kidding me? A great sportsman like yourself always knows a few ways to win the game." Marcel then thought about the golf fields in Jasper. He remembered always hearing a distinct trumpet-like sound that would often mess up his strokes.

"Well, uh, there could be a train..."

"Actually, there is a train," the duck clarified. "It's the Canadian Express and—"

"Paddy, please. It's called the Canadian Express, uh..."

"Yes, and it shoots right by Jasper Park."

"Right by Jasper Park. If you can catch it—"

"You'll be home in no time."

"No time. Very fast."

"Great!" said Kate. "So where do we board?"

"Where do you board? Watch this." Paddy dropped another rock in front of the goose who subsequently shot it towards the ridge.

"On the other side of that mountain."

"Paddy, please," said Marcel. The two wolves looked at each other.

"Come on!" said Kate before they darted across the clearing.

"May I say that was a stupendous shot," said Paddy.

"You may," said Marcel, "and it was pretty good, wasn't it?"

"Indeed, sir. Indeed."

Meanwhile. . .

Lilly watched Garth prowl through the tall grasses near Rabbit Poo Mountain. The Alpha then leaped over the grass and threw a small log in the air with his mouth. Next, he put himself in a wolf's equivalent to a handstand and spun the log around and around with his hind legs.

"Wow," said Lilly. It was her introduction to the world of Alphas. Garth did not enjoy showing off, but it was the only way he knew how to impress her.

Finally, he kicked the log which landed in front of Lilly in a neat little pile.

"Voilà! Dinner for two... It's a new move I've been working on for stocking prey."

"Oh... you're good..." Lilly's tail flapped like a hummingbird's wings. She never thought she would be so enamored of the red wolf.

"Thanks." He approached her. "Now you try." Lilly's lack of confidence began to increase.

"Oh, no. I... I'm not much of a hunter."

"Come on. You'll do great!" he encouraged. "Just do what I do." He made a gesture towards a pine tree within leaping distance. He locked his eyes on the lowest branch that was being weighed down by two large cones.

"Okay," she replied reluctantly.

"Ready?" They both lowered themselves. "One."

"One," she repeated.

"Two."

"Two," she repeated

"Three!" he yelled while leaping. After a brief hesitation, Lilly followed suit but with her eyes closed. Garth caught his cone, and Lilly did not. She screamed past him. Lilly disappeared into the grass ahead where a loud cracking filled the air.

"Ow..."

"Lilly!" Garth called. He went through the grass to see what had happened. "Lilly?" The Omega had crashed into a dead hollow trunk. She managed to free herself, breaking off a piece of bark. The piece stuck to her back as she spun around due to her precipitous release. "A turtle, right?" said Garth, trying to try to cheer her up, but the Omega was too embarrassed.

"I told you. I don't hunt." She began to hide her face under the piece of bark. With his snout, Garth removed it from her body.

"Maybe... this will help." With his snout, he pushed back the lock of hair blocking her left eye. The Alpha became entranced. "Wow..."

"'Wow' what?"

"Your eyes. They're beautiful." For the first time, Lilly's lavender eyes could be fully appreciated. It was as if a new part of Lilly had been disclosed to the world. Garth thought of it as something beyond the ranks. Trapped in her lavender eyes, a radical idea came to his mind, an idea that, maybe, the ranks of Alpha and Omega were not perfect identifiers, that, in fact, the ranks were holding the wolves back from being who they actually were. Such thoughts were dangerous, contrary to the essence of thousands of years of wolf society, yet he was developing feelings for this Omega because of a purely biological attraction, not a preordained one that every ranked wolf was told to have. "Come on. Let's try again," said Garth. He returned to the place where they jumped. He felt that, maybe, he was pushing his luck, but Lilly herself was becoming intrigued by their relationship. She would make sure that lock of hair would never block her left eye again. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, yeah," she replied quickly, trotting towards him. Her hair fell over her eye again, and she paused to blow it back out of the way with a smile.

Meanwhile. . .

Humphrey and Kate were going up the mountain. Yesterday's storm had left fresh powder on the higher elevations. It made walking on the rugged terrain much easier. Although the land was unfamiliar, they did think it was nice to see something different reaching into the sky. The beauty of the range lifted their spirits.

"It sure is pretty out there," said Humphrey

"Yeah," Kate replied. She cleared her throat and decided, for old times' sake, to initiate one of their old games. "I'll race you to the top!"

"You're on!" said the grey wolf.

"Give it up, Humphrey! You'll never beat me!"

For a few minutes, Kate seemed to blast ahead, but then she noticed that the Omega was not following her. Where had that silly wolf gone? "Humphrey?" she called. Suddenly, a ball of snow hit her in the back. She swung around. The Omega was actually ahead of her and laughing!

"Ha! Ha, ha, ha! Omega: one. Alpha: zero."

"Huh." Kate was prepared to change her score. With her Alpha strength, she kicked a plethora of snowy clumps, enough to bury Humphrey completely.

"Okay! Okay! Enough! Enough! Stop! Stop! I get it! I get it! I get it!" When she finished, she greeted the snow mound with a smirk.

"How's that for a girl's throw?"

"Very funny," he replied in defeat. Kate retook the lead up the mountain as Humphrey regained his bearings. "Well, look who's having fun," he commented. The sentence froze her. She would have had to put herself too close to his level for him to make such a statement. Without intention, she made herself vulnerable to him. Deep down, she sensed his feelings for her, but she always viewed them as misplaced. They had been friends since pups, but friends were all they could be. They had no future together, so she was not sure why she let herself have fun. Not only was she an Alpha but a high-level one. Fun was beneath her. She had responsibilities, including some regarding the future of the East and West. Kate then thought about last night when the Omega risked his life to save hers from arrogance. It didn't seem right to dismiss his dedication either. Stuck in these conflicting thoughts, she shut down.

"You know, I should go check on the train."

"Wait! Wait! W-w-wait!" He ran after her but abruptly stopped in the presence of someone's giggles. To his left was a small bear cub sitting on a hollow log. "Oh, hi there."

"Wow, what are you?" The female cub seemed to think the Omega's existence was funny.

"Well, I'm a wolf," Humphrey answered.

"I've never seen a wolf. You are really strange." Humphrey couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh! Am I now?"

"You're totally weird!" The wolf proceeded to playfully chase the cub through the log. At one point it looked like he had her cornered.

"I'm gonna getchya'!" But then the bear jumped through a hole in the log and knocked Humphrey into the snow. "Oh, no... Look out! Ohh, look out..." Kate watched them for a minute and grew a tender look. The Omega's charm captured her. She wondered for a moment if she could ever live without his fun and effortless charisma. Was it truly worth losing that? "Okay, you asked for it," said Humphrey after the bear dropped some snow on his face. He gathered some snow with his paws and threw it. The cub did not expect a direct hit and began crying. The grey wolf tried to console her.

"Oh, no, no, no. Hey, it's okay. It's okay. Shhh... I'm really sorry." He patted her softly on the head. Suddenly, someone's drool landed on Humphrey's snout. The cub retrieved her confidence, playfully growling as Humphrey looked up. "Oh, poo..." Her mother roared, blowing all of the drool away. The wolf was petrified. "Mad... Mad bear..." After a few seconds, he ran for his life, barely avoiding a deadly swat. "Kate! Get the snowballs ready! Mad bear on the attack!"

Near the peak of the mountain, high above the clouds, Kate could see the other side. In the distance, she could see the train already in the process of passing through a narrow valley. She could hear it too. Its horn cried over the perilous slopes.

"The Canadian Express!" she exclaimed. "Humphrey, the train is coming!"

"KATE!" the Alpha heard.

"Humphrey?" She went back to check on him. Humphrey appeared from behind a rock, and they collided with each other, knocking them both down. "What's wrong with you?" Kate managed to ask.

"That!" Humphrey pointed at the cub's angry mother just as she appeared.

"Don't move. We can handle this," Kate assured.

"We can?" Even with the Alpha's abilities, Humphrey wasn't holding his breath for any hope. This was especially the case as two more bears entered the fray, one a darker brown than the mother and one bluish. Both were huge males that flanked the mother.

"Okay... We're in trouble," Kate admitted. There was only one thing the Omega could think of that could possibly help.

"Hey, guys! You guys like jokes?" They stopped and looked at him in bewilderment. "Good. So, okay. So two bears are, uh, eating a clown, and-and one of the bears says, 'Does this taste funny to you?'" For a second, he laughed at his own joke, then the bluish bear swatted his face. The Omega was sent to a wall many feet away. He crashed into it before loosened snow buried most of him. "A simple boo would've sufficed." Kate was shocked that Humphrey was not severely injured. A weaker wolf would have died, but he was not out of the woods yet. While he was immobilized, the bears ignored the Alpha and began cornering him. "Oh, man." This would be the end of Humphrey if it were not for Kate's next action. She was everywhere at once, clawing at them and jumping off their heads. She then climbed onto one of their backs, causing them to roar and be distracted; however, a swat to the stomach brought her down. Before the mother bear could claw at her, she was hit with a wave of powder. "Watch this! One more! One more!" Humphrey repeated Kate's trick of kicking the snow. He went to Kate and nudged her to her feet. "Get up. Kate, get up." The bears continued forcing them back. Both of them were now out of ideas.

"Where are those two? Why must they make this so difficult?" said Marcel. He and the duck were near the tracks, perched on a slope that led into the narrow valley. The train and its trail of smoke had just come into their view.

"I believe the term," said Paddy, "is 'high maintenance couple,' sir."

Thousands of feet up their slope, the bears cornered the wolves on a V-shaped ledge. At the pointed tip of the ledge, a dead tree stuck out. The bears forced them onto the trunk.

"Stuck between the cliffs and the claws! This isn't good!" said Humphrey. As if listening, the blue bear began shaking the roots of the tree in order to free them from the ledge. He intended to drop the wolves!

"Good luck joking your way out of this one," said Kate, but Humphrey was not willing to give up on his zingers so easily.

"What's your name, sir?" he asked the blue bear. It only seemed to make him angrier. "Growl, alright." The bear dubbed "Growl" slammed his paws into the exposed roots. It shook the tree enough that the wolves lost their footing. They now only hung onto the dead branches with their forelimbs. Below their dangling hindlimbs, the clouds had thickened, making it impossible to tell how far down they would fall. Growl prepared himself for one final slam. He stood on two feet and extended his arms. "Do you need a hug?" Humphrey asked desperately. "Why don't we talk?! Can't we just talk?" He gave the final slam. With a huge crack, the trunk bent downward. Growl then lost his footing. His body hit the trunk, and his immense weight broke the tree. The tree, the wolves, and the bear then hurtled straight down. "GOOD TALK!" Humphrey screamed sarcastically.

A steep incline covered in snow existed in the clouds below. The tree came first and bounced off the incline, breaking off many pieces. The wolves came second. They hit the incline softly but slid down at great speed. Humphrey looked behind himself to see that Growl had made it. He was gaining on them! Next, the dead tree that had been rolling collided with a vertical tree sticking out of the snow. It broke into even more pieces which were flung towards Humphrey and Growl. They barely missed them, but one large piece slowly approached the Omega. It was a hollow log that had been cut lengthwise, the perfect logboard! He jumped and landed on it and used his logboarding skills to get closer to Kate who was farther down. Soon, Kate was joined by Humphrey. "Hey! Need a ride?" Suddenly, Growl slid into the space between them. "Jump!" yelled Humphrey, but Kate was hesitant. She had to jump over the bear. "Trust me!" She took a leap of faith and landed on the log on the spot in front of the Omega. "I told you you could trust me," he whispered in her left ear. "Hang a left!" he ordered. The two wolves leaned to the left. A pile of boulders now separated them from the bear. "Go right!" They began sliding through a tunnel. "YEE-HAW!" Humphrey's voice echoed inside. Kate wanted to roll her eyes. To their surprise, when they came out, the bear returned, but he stopped roaring. He gave the wolves a worrying expression. "Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Humphrey. Growl pointed to the area ahead. The end of the slope was close.

"Unbelievable! They have missed the train!" said Marcel. The locomotive streamed past the birds. Suddenly, the bear flew over their heads from the ledge above them. From a different ledge nearby, the logboard carrying Humphrey and Kate shot out and slammed into the ground right next to the tracks. At that exact moment, an open car sped in. The slam caused the back end of the log to hurl the wolves. They landed on bundles of hay inside the car. The blue bear landed on the other side of the train, presumably dead on impact. The birds were shocked beyond words.

"Or not," said the duck.

"Now that was a ride!" Humphrey declared, shaking off the straw.


(written from January 18th to January 20th, 2022)

Chapter 7: Love Train

Parading below the darkening dome, the Canadian Express triumphed over various elevations. A billow of smoke spewed from the blue smokestack and paralleled the connected cars. A series of six steel-bodied boxcars rolled between the tender and the caboose, and in the fourth one, the two wolves pranced about in relief and exultation. One was a goldlike tan, the other a soft assembly of greys and blacks. In the few hours since their near-death experiences, the Alpha and the Omega reenacted their adventure between the bundles of hay abutting the corrugated walls.

"That was so awesome!" said Humphrey. "You with the snowballs! Ha, ha, ha!"

"And you with that little bear in that snowball fight!" Kate reminded. "It was so... cute!" The Omega strode across the moldy wooden floor, waving his head in a dramatic fashion to simulate blows to his face.

"Wham! Wham! Wham!" he yelled.

"But then you with the log!" Kate highlighted gleefully. Her smile barely fitted her muzzle.

"Oh, the look on your face was so good!" he replied. The two of them hurriedly climbed the stack of hay bundles on the back end of the car. "And then we..." Their own weight then toppled the stack, and two wolves reenacted each other's screams when their log had slid off the ledge and flew towards the moving train. They jumped as the stack separated, and they landed in the pile of straw on the other end of the car, seemingly diseased with laughter. While they lay on their backs with their tails curled upwards between their hindlegs, they swung their heads until their reflections were recaptured in each other's pupils. Inside the brown iris was a blushing Humphrey, and inside the blue iris was a chortling Kate. "You know, we make a pretty good team," said the Omega. "Kate and Humphrey! World adventurers! What do you think?"

"I think you're crazy!" she replied.

"You think I'm... Oh." At first, Humphrey took it as a compliment, but then he realized his companion misunderstood. "No, no, I'm telling you, we're onto something here." He stood up and hung his nose over hers. "Hey, stick with me, pup. We'll go places," said Humphrey, using a foreign accent. Kate playfully accepted his silliness.

"Ha! Well, I'll keep that in mind."

Meanwhile. . .

At the Western Pack, Garth and Lilly stood on an outcrop saturated by the moon. Kate's sister had finished gathering the disoriented blue jays that had fallen in the vicinity. Garth was not sure how he could gain confidence in his howl with a pile of nauseated birds next to them, but Lilly had assured him that his true voice was begging to spring out. They just had to uncover it. The red Alpha recalled when he first showed the white wolf his ear-splitting racket. Lilly was not one to be easily displeased with someone's flaws, but her snout-wrinkling wince seemed to be the only appropriate reaction she could muster.

"I know. It's not very good, is it?" Garth had said.

"Well... As my sister would say, 'nothing is outside the borders of improvement.'"

Lilly had to teach him how to control his voice, how to find a comfortable range and project it like water down a channel. Most wolves naturally learn to howl from a combination of observation and instinct, but there were a few who had to be directly taught, and it was possible for terrible howlers to last into adulthood if the wolves surrounding them did not value howling enough to give lessons. That was true for Garth throughout his life. No one taught him to howl, not his father, not Scar or Claws, and no one seemed incentivized to improve his howl despite how bad it was.

After spending some time in the West, Garth found out more clearly how different things were. Not only did Omegas have more freedom, but the overall vibe of the territory was more cheery and accepting, especially with the presence of Lilly. The Omega, without even trying, tore down the tough demeanor that his father had drilled into him. There was, in fact, more of a softer side in him than he originally thought. After revealing Lilly's breathtaking lavender, he decided, with his father now not around, that he would have some fun for once. He loved his father, but as he grew older, he began to see how Tony's stubbornness was holding the East back.

Even before the famine, the East was a dull place, lacking morale and spirit. It was said to be brought on by a curse that came from the death of Garth's mother. Easterns were more superstitious than most, but Garth was different. Near the Dividing River, he would intently listen to the traffic of howls. Eavesdropping on howls was normally considered taboo, but since he was the son of a pack leader in the age of a cold war, Tony did not correct the behavior, quietly encouraging it instead in hopes that Garth would report on something valuable. There were a few things potentially valuable to Tony that Garth did find, but he declined to report them. He did not see the benefit of aggressive policy against their rival.

The arranged marriage had actually been his idea when he heard his father complain about its absence in recent history. He had secretly met with Winston in the middle of last autumn and suggested to the Western leader that Tony would be responsive to an arranged marriage.

"You have no sons, Winston," Garth had said during the secret meeting. "Maybe that's a sign that you should introduce this plan to my dad. It may be the only way we can prevent war."

"I don't know, Garth," Winston replied. "Have my daughter, Kate, marry an Eastern? No offense to you of course. I see now that you're nothing like my dear friend, Tony."

"I take no offense," said Garth.

Knowing his father's inclination towards war, Garth concluded that an arranged marriage was the perfect solution. If the two packs unite with a union of Garth and Kate, the East's problems, including the famine, essentially disappear, and Tony would appreciate his son becoming the pack leader of a grand united pack instead of just the East; however, Winston took some persuasion as he was concerned about his daughter. In order to persuade Winston that Kate would be safe, Garth had to confess his love for Kate as a way to assure the Western leader that their marriage would be genuine. The truth was that Garth was not interested in any romance, but he would do what he had to do to prevent war. After Winston agreed to Garth's plan, Winston decided to make a public speech at the Ceremonial Valley, a bare gorge where the Dividing River originally coursed through. It was disputed territory, so Tony was quickly notified that something important was occurring. Winston addressed a crowd of Westerns and Easterns and formally introduced the idea of a union to Tony. The Eastern leader gladly accepted it, thinking his aggressive policies finally paid off.

Kate, however, was not present in the crowd when the speech was made. Garth heard rumors that she was playing with an Omega at the time, and from the autumn speech to the Moonlight Howl, rumor had it that Winston was too afraid to tell Kate about the arranged marriage. Perhaps, Garth thought, that was why she left the Moonlight Howl. Perhaps she rebelled against her father. If she did leave intentionally, Garth did not appreciate any of it. He worked to make sure war would not happen, and he expected the Westerns to do the same.

But as he hung out with Lilly and felt his heart open, he began to question his plan that Kate's father and his father adopted. If he married Kate, would he actually be happy? Was achieving peace worth more than the sanctity of love? All wolves valued love. That was why wolves mated for life. Their connection with love was so powerful that a male and a female who found each other were often perfect for each other. Few couples experienced relationship problems and even fewer broke up. That was why, when Garth's mother died, Tony became bitter and irritable. If your mate died, it was practically your own death too. That was the power of love. Could Garth sacrifice his love in order to avoid war? He was not sure about that anymore as the white Omega reminded him of the love he would be deprived of should his plan succeed.

Once all the blue jays had been collected, Lilly turned her attention to the Alpha who was eager to howl the correct way. While she had gathered the birds, Garth had been warming up his voice with the instructions that the Omega provided. He was ready.

"Alright," she began. "Take a deep breath... Howl from right... here." She gently placed her right forepaw on his chest. Garth briefly looked down at her arm before smiling to show his appreciation. "And I'll join in," she added. Garth never thought a lower-ranked wolf would be the one to teach him to trill and warble.

He started off slow, letting the sound crawl into their ears. He did not sound bad, and this fact gave him confidence and not just any confidence but the Alpha confidence he had with everything else he did. A feeling was starting to bubble inside him, and when Lilly joined, that feeling bloomed like the last morning when the first rays of the sun escaped the horizon. He decided to risk his voice even more, and instead of following Lilly, Lilly followed him. He winced for a moment as a flock of crows cast shadows on the ledge, but their lack of disorientation gave him even more confidence. The two wolves, by themselves, continued to howl a wordless song, one that was being improvised, but that fact only made the scene all the more special. Their voices happened to blend together so beautifully that they became one voice, one sound invoking love under the sparkle of the night. It even invoked a powerful sense of love from both wolves even when they were not aware of each other's true feelings. Within the magnificent howl, Garth loved Lilly and Lilly loved Garth, but the reality that Alphas and Omegas could not be together prevented them from mentally committing to an actual relationship.

After the song, Garth began playfully singing. His old voice no longer existed. It was already forgotten, a relic of the past. His new voice was one of the best that the Omega had ever heard. Lilly smiled uncontrollably as she saw a new kind of wolf emerge. "See? That's so good!" she complimented. The blue jays that she had gathered were now dancing in orbits around the Alpha's head, entranced by his hackle-tingling music. They even gave him high fives with their wings.

Accompanied by Lilly's joyful laughs, the blue jays spun around him in wavy circles until the cracking sound of a stick splitting into two quickly spooked them away. Garth pinpointed the sound to the forest near the outcrop. He peered through the forest and noticed pairs of dots within twenty yards of his location. It was the moonlight reflecting off of eyes, and they had just arrived. His lips stiffened. His heart nearly froze.

"Oh, no..."

He turned to Lilly and expressed his alarm. "You better go," he whispered gravely.

"But... no one has to know!" she replied in oblivion.

"Please... Go... now!" Lilly then looked between the trees and saw the eyes for herself. It was Eastern Alphas exiting the fog and leading them was Tony. They had crossed into the West, heading for battle.

"Oh, no..." After the Omega took off, Garth walked down the outcrop to meet his father who only shot Garth a dirty look and a low growl.

"Dad?" said Garth. His father watched the Omega disappear into the trees.

"Howling with an Omega, are we?"

"I-I was just—"

"Get with the others," Tony ordered quietly. He could not believe his son would howl with a Western, let alone with an Omega, but he had too many other things to think about, so he could not scold him.

"What's going on?" his son asked.

"We're going to take the valley," he answered menacingly, "and our caribou." Garth gave a quick gasp before watching a contingent of his Alpha packmates growl their way towards him.

Meanwhile, the white wolf continued to swerve constantly as she ran for her life in her pack's own territory. She looked behind for a second to check if she was being followed, and when she turned her head back, a wall of Westerns nearly scared her to death.

"Dad!" she screamed. Winston was leading them, flanked by Hutch and Can-do.

"Lilly! What's wrong?" her father asked.

"The Eastern Wolves! They're coming!" The wall of Westerns bared their teeth. Winston glanced at Hutch.

"Come on!" he shouted. The Western Alphas then darted past Lilly. The Easterns were going to attempt to take the Ceremonial Valley where the caribou herds often frequented. Lilly decided to follow the Alphas. She wanted to make sure her father would be as safe as possible.

Meanwhile. . .

The Canadian Express slowed its speed. It decelerated smoothly on the tracks atop a dyke that split an enormous glacial lake. The right side of the blue boxcar holding the wolves was now wholly exposed to the glare of the full moon. The sliding doors on either side of the blue car were wide open, allowing moonlight to surge through. The wavering light gleaming off the water spellbound the wolf known as Humphrey. The moon, immense enough that it seemed to spill into the lake itself, was calling the Omega. Kate watched the blue shine assert its authority, command its respect. The Omega approached the opening until his toes were mere inches from the steel edge. The rigid sounds of the train overcoming the tracks dissipated. A shadowy Kate gaped at the ethereal outline forming a stunning silhouette on the grey wolf, and when he lifted his snout and embraced the air with dazzling vibrations that seemed charmingly effortless, Kate's insides dissolved, her desires contorted. So thoroughly seized by the precious glint on the right side of his muzzle that she became frightened by its tantalizing existence.

"Humphrey," she said softly. The grey wolf ceased his howling and turned to the she-wolf in the shadows. "What are you doing?" she asked with a nervous titter. There was a hint of fear in her question.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Humphrey did not mean to upset her. "The moon... The moment... I just thought..." Kate was forced to smile at the purity of his innocence. Humphrey took her smile as a sign to drop his own resistance to this tan she-wolf. He received a blaze of courage that most Omegas would either squander or never acquire. They were not in Jasper nor in the great Valley. For this moment, he would not hold back from showing his appreciation for her, but he would not push himself into her either. He would embolden Kate to make her own steps towards him. "Oh, come on, Kate!" he urged. He was almost frustrated by her mixed signals. He waved his head to motion her to come close to him. "Howl at the moon with me," he gently encouraged.

He turned back to the moon and resumed as if the pause was a part of the song, casting his caution to the pleasant breeze. Kate continued to watch him closely, his defined shadow gracefully moving on the wall behind her. Kate's mind began to go inside out. At this moment, there were no silly ranks, no Alpha or Omega, just two wolves, one male and one female, riding in the night's beauty. Humphrey was an authentic and perfect imperfection. She could see all of his fur colors. There were not just shades of grey but delicate marks of light brown staining the matted parts of his abdomen and forelimbs. Even the blue of his eyes had rings of light and dark shades which melted in the starry soup. The sky had simply been made blue by the intensity of the cratered satellite and it seemed to give Humphrey a spiritual blessing. Now there was no doubt that Kate desired Humphrey. That scrawny greyish wolf with the large sturdy nose and thick robust ears simply stole the young soul out of her body. Maybe she could howl with him, let her responsibilities vanish like the spooked caribou when the Easterns ruined her first independent hunt.

Humphrey's song rose to a crescendo, and the grey wolf felt the glee of his life as the tan she-wolf, after chuckling for a second, helped him push the loudest tones. Their song bounced off the surface of the glimmering lake and complemented the great sphere. Their combined voice produced a radiant feeling that slithered down their spines, outperforming the chuffing of the locomotive. Humphrey then satisfyingly observed Kate howl solo with her eyes closed. It was the first time he had heard her howling voice and it nearly brought him to tears. It was as wonderful and marvelous and rich as he knew it would be, and before the train could exit the dyke, he howled with her again and made his sound passionately spiral around hers in the most elegant twists. The song ricocheted off the distant pines, mountains, and constellations, and both wolves felt the ambiance of their surroundings swallow them again once the last trills naively fled to the land of tomorrow.

Later. . .

Paddy and Marcel swooped down on the train. They flew to the open boxcar and immediately saw a sleeping Humphrey lost in his dreams. "Just do it," he mumbled in his sleep. "She howled at the moon with you. Ooo..." He shook his head. "Ah, that was just the moment," he added.

"Bonjour, my furry friend," greeted the goose with the French accent. Humphrey awoke with a start, but he was too sleepy to form a complete sentence.

"Huh? Huh? What? Huh?" Suddenly, the birds took evasive maneuvers to avoid pine trees close to the tracks. They quacked and honked in alarm which awoke the grey wolf fully. "Are you guys crazy?" he whispered in irritation.

"Well, that's up for debate," Paddy replied. The goose then peered into the shadowy corners of the car beside the two openings.

"And where is..." He gasped at the sight of Kate who was neatly curled up near the hay bundles. "Mademoiselle..."

"She's sleeping," Humphrey asserted, "so be quiet."

"Ah, yes, quiet," replied Marcel. He then shushed Paddy. That was when the birds realized the train had entered the truss of a long bridge. They were flying in the truss and had to swerve methodically to avoid more than fifty steel beams in their way. As they did that, they screamed in terror multiple times. They flew back to Humphrey afterward to find him wincing.

"What are you guys doing here?!" Humphrey demanded in a whisper.

"Making sure that you don't forget the run of the course," said the duck.

"Jasper Park," said Marcel. "It is a few miles up. Do not miss it."

"Jasper. Few miles. Got it," Humphrey replied.

"Good," said Marcel. His companion, the duck, noticed that Kate had not moved. Their screams did not wake her. Paddy studied her.

"I've got to say, your girlfriend looks... quite pretty when she sleeps." Humphrey looked at the tan she-wolf for a second before shaking his head.

"She's not my girlfriend," he protested. Suddenly, the two birds collided with a billboard. The grey wolf stuck his head out of the car and looked down the tracks. The birds' heads appeared from the top of the billboard. They were okay.

"You should work on that!" Marcel shouted. Humphrey looked at the Alpha again and sighed.

"Yeah, I should," he whispered to himself. He decided at that point that he would go for it. He should stop holding back. What he was going to do was definitely stupid. It may even kill him, but he did not care. He appreciated Kate too much. He could not be without her. The pack law that kept them apart was dumb. He knew that much. If he could just get Kate to agree, perhaps they could be together under some compromise. Being a high-level Alpha, Kate probably had a considerable amount of sway over her parents, but would her parents yield to them? Not likely. Humphrey was not sure what to do next with his feelings except for one thing. He wanted her to know how he felt, how he truly felt.

Humphrey spent the next hour watching the land pass by. Eventually, after he spotted a billboard with the picture of a moose, a familiar country came into view. The mountains that surrounded the Valley were in the distance. They were within the Valley now. Humphrey gave another sigh. He walked over to the Alpha and nudged her snout.

"Kate... Kate, wake up. Wake up." She opened her eyes.

"Humphrey?" She began to stretch her back. "Where are we?" she asked.

"We're... We're in Jasper," he answered, trying to hide his disappointment. Kate's ears perked at the mention of Jasper. They both walked to the right-side opening and sat down calmly. Kate recognized the forested landscape.

"Well... we're home," said the Alpha. She lowered her ears but mostly kept her own disappointment to herself.

"Yup," the Omega added. "We're home."

They both then turned towards each other and said the same thing in unison.

"There's something...!" It surprised them. Humphrey blushed and decided to let her speak.

"Please... You first."

"Humphrey, I just wanted to tell you, these past couple of days... They've been kind of..." She paused to search for the correct word. "Fun," she settled on. Humphrey could tell that Kate was blushing too. He smiled. "You've been kind of... fun," she added with a subtle nod.

"Really?" he replied sarcastically.

"Really."

"Well, that's... That's great. I told ya, we make a pretty good team. Heh, heh."

"We do," the Alpha replied. She leaned a bit closer to hear what the grey wolf had to say. Humphrey took a deep breath.

"Okay... Um... Well..." Kate stopped him before he could proceed. She noticed his forepaws intensely fidgeting.

"No, no, no. Don't tell me. You have to go to the bathroom again."

"Why? Do you see a truck stop?" He chuckled before continuing. He took a guess that the Alpha was joking. Kate's blushing increased to the point where she could hardly look Humphrey in the face. Her ears pointed horizontally. "I just wanted to tell you, I... I..." Humphrey struggled to express what he needed to convey. The four-letter word eluded him. He closed his eyes and tried his best to force it out.

Kate turned to the opening. She gasped. The train was going through a bare rocky space, and the Alpha could see the Ceremonial Valley in the distance. There were wolves on either side of the gorge, Westerns on the west and Easterns on the east. Both sides were growling furiously at each other.

"Oh, no," she spoke under her breath. Humphrey was still finding his words.

"I... I just wanted to tell you... I..." Suddenly, the confidence came. He opened his eyes and took his chance. "I love..." He stopped at the four-letter word and lowered his ears in sorrow. The Alpha was gone. He looked out the opening and saw her sprinting across the rocks. "Ah, geez," he said to himself quietly. He was too late.


(written from January 21st to January 22nd, 2022)

Chapter 8: United and Divided

The moon brought the wolves together, but it was also tearing them apart. The Ceremonial Valley was anything but ceremonious. Although a battle had not arisen, the cobalt blue sky shook with beastly snarls. Generations of rivalry led to this. On either side of the gorge, wolves rippled the air from their respective shelves, stamping their paws and clawing at the rocks. Insults flew back and forth, crossing the shafts of moonlight illuminating the dry riverbed. The two pack leaders stood on the most prominent rocks, silenced by each other's coarse stares until now.

"It's the full moon, Winston!" Tony boomed.

"I can see that, Tony!" Winston acknowledged. His second-in-command, Hutch, had adorned his shelf with violent claw marks.

"I didn't want it to come to this!"

"But here we are," the Western leader replied. Behind him, Lilly and Eve stood. Lilly, in particular, was filled with worry and sadness. She eyed Garth on the other side. He stood behind his father with the same expressions as Lilly.

"Stop the insanity! Go organic! Stop the insanity! Go organic!" Two Omegas, known as Reba and Janice, jogged down the valley floor, sending the incendiary barks to a crashing halt. "Stop the insanity! Go organic!" Both of them had a squirrel on their back that threw seeds and nuts at the Alphas. Winston and Tony were beyond mystified, and no one understood what they meant by "organic" since they used the term incorrectly. Mooch and Salty believed they confused organic food with non-animal foods—they were not the same thing. Mooch and Salty also looked at the two Omegas with confusion, but their questions were answered when they heard Shakey clapping his paws beside them.

"Oh, yeah! Ah-huh! Ah-huh!" The dark grey wolf shaking uncontrollably wore a necklace of white flowers that were identical to the ones that the vegetarians wore. Soon, the Western Alphas turned to Shakey and growled at him to reject his herbivorous friends. Shakey apparently planned the stunt, and the poor timing of it prevented Mooch and Salty from defending him. He nervously chuckled under the growls while the pack leaders resumed their fiery talk.

"All I asked was for you to follow our customs," said Tony, "unite the packs! But, no! Your daughter had to up and run away!"

"I DIDN'T RUN AWAY!" A thundering shout came from the jagged end of the gorge. A tan she-wolf climbed down. She was followed by a grey wolf.

"Kate!" Winston exclaimed.

"She's back!" said Lilly.

Wolves from both sides met Kate and Humphrey at the bottom. Eve rushed to Kate and caressed Kate's right shoulder with her muzzle.

"We were so worried."

"Where have you been?" asked Winston.

"In Idaho," Kate answered.

"Idaho?" Winston replied. He had heard of some of the northern parts of the United States but knew nothing outside of a few state names. "What were you doing in Idaho?" he asked her.

"We were taken by humans to another park."

"We were supposed to 'repopulate,'" Humphrey added. The Omega waggled his eyebrows at the last word to emphasize the innuendo. Eve's eyes swelled at the speed of light. She angrily pounced on him and pressed her forepaws into his trachea.

"No, no, no, Mom! We didn't repopulate!" Kate assured. "Humphrey actually helped me get home." Eve then froze. Humphrey made a gurgling noise as he nodded in desperation. Eve was shocked that the Omega had not taken advantage of her daughter. She removed herself from his chest and pulled him up before acting as if she never attacked him.

"Oh! What a nice boy!" she praised. The Omega attempted to catch his breath.

"I came back—" Tony then interrupted Kate.

"You came back... to marry Garth." He elbowed his approaching son to increase his attention. They expected a response. Kate stepped closer to Garth, stiffening her lips.

"Yes," Kate answered firmly. Humphrey gasped. She turned to the Alphas who were still on the gorge's slopes. "AND UNITE THE PACKS!" she shouted. The entire valley erupted with the loudest cheers and echoing howls. All the wolves came down and surrounded the pack leaders and their offspring. They danced and playfully jumped in a grand display of unification. The pack leaders themselves exchanged formal nods.

"Good for the pack! Good for the belly!" Mooch remarked before rubbing his bulging stomach.

But Humphrey remained relatively still. The movements and cheers around him blurred into nothing as he stared at Kate woefully.

"Marry? You're getting married?" he asked. Humphrey was stunned. She turned to him with haste. She did not expect the Omega to inquire about it.

"Yes! Um, isn't it great? No more fighting during hunts. No more... scraps and bones at dinnertime! We're going to unite the packs!" For the first time in a while, Kate seemed to be in a state of relief, but the Omega could not see the Alpha he knew in her eyes. He could not recognize her anymore. Just like the incident at the Moonlight Howl, it was as if everything they had done together meant nothing. Their time during the Great Games meant nothing. Their countless play sessions before winter meant nothing. The friendship they reignited on the way back home meant nothing. It shattered him, left him with indescribable pain that ached every bit of his bone marrow. Without her, he had no purpose, no will of his own. It was stupid to think he could be with an Alpha, but he could not help his feelings. She was the part of him he wished he had, the refined star that made the Omega truly mean something.

It was the Omegas that kept the Alphas in check. The Omegas prevented fights, coordinated negotiations, and maintained a pack's overall mental health. Some Omegas were better than others, but the Alphas needed them regardless. Humphrey had hoped that Kate valued him enough to not give what every other Alpha gave Omegas: causal dismissal. He had hoped she saw his devotion to her, but it appeared she did not care. No matter how much love an Omega gave an Alpha, the Omegas were only Omegas, and the Alphas were the Alphas. His love could only die and never flourish.

Suddenly, his Omega friends came to him.

"Welcome back, Humphrey!" said Salty.

"Good job bringing her home!" Shakey remarked. They collapsed into another wolf pile, but Humphrey declined to join them. He observed Kate as other female Alphas pushed her away and enclosed her with polished endorsements and congratulations. And when the last piece of her fur disappeared in the rejoicing crowd, Humphrey's body shrank, and he pointed his snout downward to conceal his quivering breaths. He wanted to be happy for Kate, so he did not allow himself to cry, but inside, a darkness crept, and he let it consume him, for there was no other way to lessen his hemorrhaging.

At the same time, Garth looked back at Lilly and saw her run away, down the gorge with crystal tears. He formed a radical thought as Easterns nudged him farther and farther from her. Perhaps Lilly was worth a war. Perhaps the amazing good in the Omega was something to risk everything for. Was that not the raw power of love?

The next day. . .

March 23rd, 2010

Kate sat on the farthest edge of the stone ledge in front of her parents' den. This part of Mt. Victory was high enough to see the Ceremonial Valley in the distance. Kate and her sister watched Easterns and Westerns gather around a flat boulder called the Speaking Rock. Almost everyone in the East and West was attending.

"Wow. It's uh.. a big crowd," said Kate.

"Yeah. Good times," Lilly replied, trying not to be irritated. She continued straightening Kate's tail with the pinecone in her jaws.

"So I heard you and Garth spent some time together." Lilly then did a quick swing with her neck which briefly tugged some of Kate's tail fur. "Ow!" Kate exclaimed in pain. "Lilly?!"

"Sorry," she apologized apathetically. Kate continued with her comments.

"I'm sure he's perfect marrying material." In anger, Lilly crushed the pine cone to smithereens, but Kate did not notice.

"Well... if you like that sort of thing: big, brawny... and perfect." While the Omega spat out cone pieces, Kate looked over her shoulder and saw something she had never seen before.

"Lilly, you're wearing your fur back!"

"Sorry! I know..." The Omega shook her head hair and hurried to the den before Kate could see her cry. Kate was beyond confused.

"But... I liked it," she said quietly. She wondered what had gotten into her sister. Just then, a stone seemingly fell from the clouds and landed at her feet.

"Right on the pin!" It was Paddy! And the goose was right behind him.

"Marcel! Paddy!" The birds alighted on the ledge where Kate decided to give them a hug.

"When it comes to hugs, we are all French, ehh Paddy?

"Well, I'm English, so we don't... hug!" The duck did not like being squeezed. "But for a first, I'd say that was a good one."

"I'm so happy to see you two!"

"Well, we flew in to see that you made it home," Paddy replied.

"And what do we find?" said Marcel. "Voilà!"

"You're getting married!" they both said awkwardly. The birds exchanged worried faces.

"Yeah! I'm getting married... Who told you?"

"I did," said a male voice.

"Humphrey!" she exclaimed. The Omega was striding toward them.

"Oh, we should be going," said Paddy.

"Yes, yes," Marcel added. The birds took flight. Kate blushed as Humphrey sat down in front of her. She had trouble looking at him directly, but Humphrey did not mind.

"Excuse me. A flea," he remarked. He scratched his head with his right hindfoot and brought out a purple flower, the same kind of six-petal flower that Kate wore during the Moonlight Howl. "A little something for your big day." Humphrey took the flower with his mouth and pushed it into the hair below her left ear.

"Thank you," said Kate.

"Just wanted to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Kate lowered her ears.

"Yeah. I'm thinking about doing a little traveling... You know... seeing where the train takes me... And maybe I'll visit our friends, the bears, our old buddies. See how they're doing. I'll tell 'em you said hi." They both chuckled. Humphrey began to turn away but Kate stopped him.

"Wait. But you're leaving Jasper?"

"Yeah," Humphrey replied. "You know, it's a... lone wolf... thing."

"Well, I know Humphrey, the fun-loving Omega... not... Humphrey, the lone wolf." Kate was almost disgusted by the idea of Humphrey alone.

"So I'll be a fun-loving lone wolf," he assured. The softness of his voice clawed at the essence of her heart, but she had to stay tough. The packs had to unite. There was nothing she could do. Humphrey then turned around. Kate watched him progress across the clearing and over the log bridge.

"I don't doubt that," Kate whispered to herself. She turned back to see the Ceremonial Valley. The wolves down there were almost ready. With one paw, she touched the flower in her hair and gently rubbed it.

From a distant tree, the golf birds watched the grey wolf slowly lope down the mountain.

"You know, Marcel, I am a stickler for tradition, but this one, I just don't understand."

"These wolves are mysterious creatures," replied the goose.


(written from January 23rd to January 24th, 2022)

Chapter 9: A True Love

Humphrey's new life was about to begin. The next train shot through the Valley, and the grey wolf could feel the wind and spot the telltale plume of smoke whizzing through the trees. The golf birds flew next to him, a few feet above his head. They had helped Humphrey time his run, so he could catch the next train. Neither the birds nor the wolf knew where the train led to, but Humphrey did not care. If Kate could not be a part of his adventures, he would make his own adventures and go to a place where an Omega might be treated fairly. Perhaps he need not be an Omega. He could be a lone wolf riding to the edge of the world. He would finally get the golden experience of a lifetime that he always dreamed of, an experience more thrilling than any log down a slope. For a long time, Humphrey thought Kate was the wolf embodiment of that experience, but he now realized that was a mistake. An Alpha such as her could never love him.

"Do you think I can make it?" the wolf asked the birds.

"Yes, sir, and just as you hit the tracks, you should see an open train car," Paddy informed.

"Well, avoid truck stops, bears, and that hideous dessert," Marcel recommended. "What is it called?"

"Cupcakes, sir," the duck reminded.

"Uh, yes, cupcakes. Ugh."

"I will," said Humphrey. "Thanks, guys." The birds then flew in their own direction, leaving Humphrey for the final time.

"You know, you shouldn't be so judgmental about cupcakes," said Paddy. "They really are quite delicious."

"I wouldn't know," said the goose.

The grey wolf raced to the open car that was now in view. He had to time his jump perfectly in order to get inside. He entered a clearing where the tracks curved. When he got within a hundred yards of the train, a flash of light occurred in the open car. In the flash, he saw himself and Kate in their howling postures just like the previous night. His heart quickened, and he slowed down considerably. The memory of the last train ride overwhelmed him. But that had been last night. Things were different now. He shook his head and refocused. After Kate committed to marrying Garth, he concluded that he had to restart his life. Without the she-wolf he cared so deeply for, Jasper Pack would only remind him of the crushing pain. He had to start anew. He regained his original speed and jumped, leaving behind the only home he ever had—and the only love he ever had.

Meanwhile. . .

Kate and Garth arrived at the Ceremonial Valley. The other Eastern and Western wolves took their formal positions around the Speaking Rock which had a pleasing array of flowers surrounding it. As part of the tradition of unifying packs, the pack leaders were required to sit next to each other. Tony moved to the Western side and exchanged nods with Winston. Next, he sat between Hutch and Eve. Kate and Garth stood on the Speaking Rock with their chests broadened, but neither exuded confidence beyond that.

"So... Are you ready?" Garth asked nervously.

"Yes," Kate answered firmly.

"Good," he replied. Garth could tell that Kate was at least a little saddened, but he could not think about Kate when her sister was behind her. Lilly saw nothing but the ground. The Omega was as visibly depressed as she could be. The lock of hair had been pushed back over her left eye.

"Are you okay?" asked Kate, bringing his attention back to her. She wondered what he was staring at over her shoulder.

"Heh, heh, heh! You bet! No problems on this end. Ready to go, go, go." He stretched his back and saw his father make a paw gesture through Kate's legs. Tony moved his forepaw in a circular motion to tell Garth to quickly wrap things up. The red wolf finished stretching and looked back at Kate. "So, you want to start this thing or me?"

"We'll start together," she replied.

"Start together. Yeah." They began sniffing in a thorough manner, putting their muzzles close to each other's flanks. Kate closed her eyes and pictured a different wolf beside her, one with an infectious smile.

Behind the crowd of Western Alphas, a few Western Omegas were watching the wedding. It was Humphrey's friends. The Omega known as Shakey stood on top of Mooch, so he could get a better look at the couple on the flat boulder.

"So, what's happenin'?" asked Salty who sat next to Mooch.

"They're accepting each other's scent," Shakey informed. "Oh! Oh! And now, the nibble on the ears." The Omega watched the two Alphas engage in the age-old wedding rituals. They were only a few of them, but each was considered a sacred step of the procedure. General weddings were common in the spring, but royal weddings were rare, and the hopeless romantics that were Humphrey's friends wanted to soak in every moment of it. "And finally," said Shakey, "they will rub noses to symbolize that they are... mates!" Tears of joy slid down his cheeks.

The two Alphas then faced each other until their snouts lined up. Rubbing noses was the last step. Once they did that, they would be mates for life. The packs would be united and so would the two Alphas. Forever.

Kate looked into Garth's turquoise eyes. He was not in love with her. Was this really right? To spend the rest of her life with someone who she did not love and who did not love her? Their marriage would unite the packs, but could anything really survive and flourish if it was built on something so hollow? They closed their eyes and pushed their noses forward. The crowd began to murmur in excitement, for a prosperous united pack was just around the corner. Meanwhile, Lilly slipped into a sniffling cry. In the millisecond before Kate nuzzled Garth, time seemed to freeze for the tan she-wolf.

She was an Alpha. She had a duty to the safety of the pack. Her feelings were not supposed to matter. Why could she not just forget that low-ranking wolf? Humphrey was an Omega, a nobody. Forgetting him was supposed to be easy. His path led to war, led to a violation of thousands of years of wolf history. Marrying Garth was obviously the right thing to do. But then, Kate remembered the purple flower in her hair. What did that flower mean to her? What was it that Humphrey gave her that brought so much wholeness to her heart? It was fun. That was the word she used on the train. The Omega always gave her the fun she sought, even when she was not in the mood to receive it. But how could fun be so important to her at a time like this when so much was at stake? Then the truth struck her. The ranks of Alpha and Omega were things created by wolves, not nature, and nature did not care about ranks. In reality, there was no true Alpha or true Omega. Society had instituted these roles as a guide for wolfkind, but it could never be perfect since the personality of wolves could never be perfectly classified into two types. Wolves were complex. In other words, wolves were being forced to conform to their rank's stereotypes, and in doing so, they suppress a part of themselves. Silly playful fun was something Kate enjoyed, but she always felt pressure from society to believe that it was beneath her, that she was not allowed to enjoy herself. Kate realized that, unlike everyone else in her life, Humphrey valued every part of her. Enjoying fun was important because it was a part of her, and she could not tolerate entering a world where she married Garth if it meant losing herself. She had an Alpha's duty, but she also had a duty to herself, and she could not tolerate being a pawn for the East and West's relationship if it meant a valuable part of her had to be sacrificed. No, there had to be another way. Kate could not do this. She was in love with Humphrey!

Garth waved his snout to embrace the coldness of her nose, but he felt nothing but air. He waved his paw in front of his face and realized that Kate had backed away. He opened his eyes and saw the truth.

"Kate, what are you doing?" he whispered. Kate was visibly distressed, her face stained with a sorrowful grimace. She shook her head and lowered her ears. A number of gasps could be heard in the crowd. Kate glanced at her parents who became increasingly alarmed. How was she going to explain it?

"I... I can't," she admitted.

"You can't!" Garth exclaimed. He almost jumped in the air with his relief, but he realized in the nick of time where he was. He cleared his throat before correcting himself. "I mean—you can't?"

"What is this, Winston? Why can't she marry Garth?!" Tony grumbled.

"Quiet!" Winston yelled directly in the Eastern's face. He did not want him to cause a panic. He and Eve walked to their daughter to investigate the problem. "Kate, Kate," whispered Winston. "Why can't you marry Garth?" Kate blushed as she attempted to give them something; however, she did not want to lie.

"Because I... I..." She slid into a chuckle. She found the truth to be somewhat funny in the context of the wedding. "I fell in love with an Omega," she answered shyly, but she could not help but smile. She was finally free, and thoughts of the Omega made her feel warm inside. For the first time, she let herself become twitterpated.

"An Omega?!" said Winston. He staggered back while Eve fainted and collapsed next to him.

"Humphrey? That sly dog!" said Salty after hearing the news from Shakey.

Tony then made a laugh halfway between a cackle and a growl.

"Ha, ha, ha! An Alpha in love with an Omega! That's against pack law!"

"Dad!" said Garth as he walked over to Lilly. He raised his head proudly. "I also am in love with an Omega!" he declared. Lilly gasped and made the biggest smile before Garth embraced her. The red wolf's nervousness disappeared. Kate was amazed. The pack leaders were astonished, but the Eastern leader was much farther from being pleased with this turn of events.

"What?!" Tony exclaimed. "What have you done to my son, Winston?!" Winston was too astonished to form his thoughts.

"An Omega and an Alpha?! An Alpha and an Omega?!" He turned to his mate who was recovering from her sudden loss of consciousness. "Eve, help me out!" But Eve just passed out again.

"This is madness! This isn't our custom! This isn't our way!" Tony insisted. He could only see one solution out of the turmoil. The Eastern Alphas behind him began to growl and enter their attack postures. "TAKE THE VALLEY!" he commanded. The Easterns howled their war cry and charged. The Westerns did the same. Kate's blood chilled as her worst nightmare came true. Wolves battled each other on the valley floor. Kate watched in horror as everything she imagined unfolded around the Speaking Rock.

"I just love weddings!" said Shakey. The Western Omegas formed a tight group to keep away from the violent fights and the clouds of dust caused by them.

Then Kate noticed something beyond the wolves. It was down the gorge, a dust cloud billowing in the distance. A rumbling sound accompanied it that grew louder and louder. The Alpha could make out a mass of dark shapes approaching them quickly. It was a caribou herd, by far the largest she had ever seen! They had probably been skittish already if they smelled so many wolves in the area. The growling and howling must have spooked them!

"STAMPEDE!" she yelled, hoping it would break through the fight noises. "STAMPEDE!" she yelled again.


(written from January 24th to January 25th, 2022)

Chapter 10: Kate's Requiem

"EVERYONE, RUN! RUN!" yelled Winston.

"TO THE SIDES OF THE VALLEY!" Tony added.

The wolves dispersed, running to whichever side of the gorge happened to be closest. The pack leaders made sure they were last to leave the area, so no wolf could be left behind. The stampede entered the wider part of the gorge and trampled the Speaking Rock. As the pack leaders tried to make their way to the western side, one of them faltered to a stop and screamed in pain. Winston looked back and saw his friend, Tony, stuck in place with his butt in the air. He ran back to him to see what the problem was.

"It's that darn disk in my back!" Tony explained. Winston gave a hard thwack to his lower back with one paw, pushing the old Eastern's shoulders back up.

"Come on!" Winston urged. As soon as the grey wolf turned around, a caribou collided with his face. The way to the western side was gone. Tony looked to his left to see a similar thing on the eastern side. The pack leaders were now forced to run in the same direction as the stampede, down the gorge.

Meanwhile, high on the western slope, Kate looked down and saw the pack leaders' dilemma.

"Oh, no! They're trapped!"

The wolves on the western slope began to run in the stampede's direction to keep up with the trapped wolves below. The wolf known as Kate was running alongside a ridge when a grey blur came out of the nearby forest and nearly crashed into her. "Humphrey!" she exclaimed. Her heart skipped a beat. She did not think she would see him again.

"Kate!"

"You came back!"

"I couldn't leave," he replied.

The Alpha allowed herself a second of bliss before gesturing to the gorge.

"We have to help them!"

"Look!" said the Omega, pointing his nose at a log sitting on the slope. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah," Kate responded, running past him. "Where are those bears when we need them?"

"Faster, Tony! Faster!" yelled Winston. The front edge of the herd was forming a crescent shape behind the pack leaders. Soon, they would be engulfed by the herd. Once inside, the caribou would show no mercy.

"Go left!" Humphrey ordered. The log slid down at the fastest speed it could. "Roll right!" he ordered again. Kate leaned accordingly. She sat in front of Humphrey again, but she began to take over steering. "Whoa! You're getting good at this!" he remarked.

"I had a good teacher," she replied with a smirk. The log suddenly slowed down as they slid over bare rock. "They're too far ahead! We'll never make it!"

"Hold on!" Humphrey warned. He spotted an upward ledge jutting out over the valley. Kate let the Omega steer again. Humphrey made a hard right lean before they went over the ledge and shot up fiercely. The two wolves gripped the log tight.

"Look!" said Winston. Twenty yards ahead of the stampede, the logboard hit the ground at an angle. Humphrey and Kate's momentum hurled them from the crash site, but the log itself was mostly intact. The pack leaders jumped over it and nestled in the shadows. As Humphrey and Kate expected, the pack leaders used the log to shield themselves from the hailstorm of sharp hooves. Humphrey and Kate exchanged smiles after groaning in pain. They then slowly crawled on their elbows and knees as caribou after caribou galloped above their heads. The entire area was engulfed by a thick cloud of dust. There was no sky, only the color of brown being slashed and punctured hundreds of times per second. Humphrey and Kate could barely see the log as the dense center of the stampede arrived. They were totally exposed to the hooves, but it was the risk they took to help Winston and Tony. They looked at each other again and ignored the intense thunder in their midst. Their eyes locked as they inched forward.

"World adventurers," said Humphrey.

"I told you we'd make a good team," Kate replied. The Omega was charmed.

"Did you say that? I thought I said that." He then turned to the log that was now within jumping range. He made it to the spot next to Winston when a loud grunt came from the she-wolf. Winston and Humphrey's hearts collapsed like a landslip. A caribou had struck Kate's forehead, knocking her out. The force of the impact pushed her back by three feet.

"KATE!" Humphrey cried. Without thinking, he sprang back into the caribou storm and laid his body on top of hers. It was not long before hooves struck his face and his splayed legs. Winston and Tony decided to help by growling at the incoming caribou as they rushed around the log. The pack leaders prevented more caribou from striking the Omega.

Luckily, fifteen seconds after Kate was hit, the last of the stampede passed through. The brown color in the air faded and the sky reappeared. Much of the gorge's green fields were reduced to bare soil. A heavily breathing Humphrey removed himself from Kate's body. The Alpha was lying on her right flank. "Kate! Kate?" said Humphrey. The Alpha did not wake. The wolves who had escaped to the slopes cautiously approached the scene. By this point, the dust cloud disappeared completely. "Please, Kate," the Omega cooed, his voice trembling like a rippling pond. "Please, you can't do this..." Winston and Tony walked over to Humphrey's side with expressions of grief. The Omega lightly nudged Kate's left cheek with his snout. There was no resistance or response. In addition, the Alpha was not breathing. Her chest did not expand nor contract. She was simply dead. The Omega looked at her bruised and nicked body as a whole. Although injured, her frame was as attractive as ever, but there was no Kate inside. He was staring at a beautiful carcass, and that fact made him weep. The wolf he desired most was gone. The other wolves watched him hug Kate's body. The Omega placed his right arm on top of her flank and buried his muzzle in her neck fur, putting his mouth close to her ears. Next, he uttered the words he wanted to say to her on the train. "I love you."

The Ceremonial Valley had become so quiet that everyone heard him say it. Nobody had ever seen an Omega lovingly touch a dead Alpha. They had never seen a connection between an Alpha and an Omega that was so powerful. It was believed that Alphas and Omegas were so contrasting that genuine love between them could never be possible. Many who attended the wedding had thought Kate and Garth's admissions were fake or part of some plan full of pretense, but Humphrey proved that their admissions were real. The love was real. The ranks were nothing more than society's labels. They only had as much power as the wolves gave them. Love itself was not bound to any rank or pack identity.

Humphrey returned to a proper sitting position and lifted his snout to the sky. The wolves in the vicinity listened to the lone howl that was pure sorrow and heartbreak. They were too sad to admire the Omega's extraordinary howling skills. Every tone in the song seemed to mourn Kate passionately. Winston decided to join him. He was soon followed by Lilly and Eve. Then, suddenly, the gorge was filled with a sorrowful chorus consisting of almost every Eastern and Western. Even Tony eventually joined after realizing the error of his ways. The love that Humphrey displayed was undeniable. Although Tony took the longest to see the truth, he did not shy away from it. He accepted it and let his old voice give Winston and Humphrey comfort. The song was Kate's requiem. Winston howled next to Tony, Lilly howled next to Garth, Can-do howled next to Scar, and Hutch howled next to Claws. The pack identities of East and West vanished.

Suddenly, Humphrey felt a soft wind at his forepaws. Kate had exhaled! Her eyes opened. She was alive! But even though he had tears, the Omega was not too surprised. She was a tough Alpha. "Kate!" he exclaimed. She winced in pain as she lifted her chest from the trampled soil. The howls ceased, and the gorge became quiet again.

"Humphrey?"

"I thought I lost you," he replied. The Alpha looked around the Ceremonial Valley to see Easterns and Westerns in every direction who were grinning at the fact that she was alive.

"Is everyone staring at us?" she asked curiously. Humphrey scanned their surroundings.

"Well, um.. no, not... not every... Well, yeah. Now they are." Kate decided she did not care. She produced the biggest smile she could.

"Aw, darn... 'cause I wanted to tell you something." The Alpha normalized her sitting posture and whispered directly in Humphrey's left ear where the other wolves could not hear. She whispered the words she had been feeling for some time but had not dared say. Humphrey's tail wagged.

"What?" he replied with a chuckle. "Huh, really?" The Alpha gave a single nod.

"Ah-huh."

"Okay, well... I wanted to tell you something too." The Omega then whispered directly in Kate's left ear. Along with wagging her tail, she chuckled multiple times as she listened. Winston made his own chuckle as he watched his daughter.

"Maybe this can work," he suggested. He turned to Tony. The old Eastern was pleased but appeared hesitant to give his approval. He was not sure he could break tradition. Eve then walked closer from behind him and gave a low growl, giving Tony the final push. He took a deep breath before speaking.

"Alright," the Eastern leader delivered.

"Garth!" Lilly exclaimed. She charged at her partner and knocked him to the ground. The two of them subsequently rubbed their noses, eliciting celebratory howls from the Easterns. Tony lengthened his smile. He was happy for his son.

Meanwhile, Humphrey and Kate nuzzled for the first time, making the Westerns give their howls of joy. All the wolves began to dance and cavort. And why not? The packs were united at last. There would be no more fighting over food, no more squabbling over territory. They were all one big pack now. And—Kate turned and touched noses with Humphrey—they were in love!

She lifted her muzzle to the sky and began to howl from pure joy. Humphrey joined her, and their twined voices washed across the other wolves and over the valley itself. They were an Alpha and an Omega in love, and nothing could be better.

THE END