The sound of laughter and talking could be heard as Kate walked into a clearing the omegas used as their hangout spot, surprised to find that most of the packs omegas were there at the moment. They never paid attention to her as she walked past a few of them, most were busy either playing games or talking to one another. She jumped onto a rock so that she would have a better view of all of them.
"Hey, can I have your attention please!" She called out over the chatter
Some who heard her call out stopped what they were doing and looked up at her, soon everything stopped and all eyes were fixed on the alpha.
"Thank you" She smiled "Now I have come here today because your leaders, and a few others, have noticed that you guys are not performing your job in keeping the peace. So what's the problem?"
They all looked around at each other but no one ever said anything "Come on guys, if you don't perform your job than our pack will not function properly, it's important that we fix this." She continued
Finally a wolf stepped forward and cleared their voice before speaking, she looked at them and realized it was one of Humphrey's friends. "Well Kate ever since Humphrey left us there hasn't been another wolf to lead us like he did." They said
"Is that all?" She replied looking at the rest of the omegas, some nodded in agreement.
She smiled seeing how this was going to be an easy problem to fix, but to the omegas they really did feel lost without having Humphrey around. "It is sad that Humphrey had to leave us, but he has his own life to live and he choose to go see the world as a lone wolf." She began noticing some of them look down at the ground.
"However just because he's not here anymore doesn't mean that you guys can just stop doing your job, he may have lead you in a way but you are all more than capable of still keeping the peace." A few of the omegas began to realize that she was right but Kate continued on until she was sure they all understood what she was trying to say.
"For instance, when you broke up a fight, who told you how to go about doing it?" She asked to all of them
"Well I just went with what seemed right." One replied.
"After Humphrey taught me some things I could break up fights with no problems." Another said being one of Humphrey's other friends.
"See, you're all capable of doing your job on your own, sure Humphrey or someone else was there to help you out with things, but still you all can do it without him. I'm sure if Humphrey were to come back and see how you guys just abandoned your duty than he would be disappointed." They all began to smile, seeing how she was right.
"She's right guys, we can't just sit around after losing an omega brother, our pack still needs us." One of them called out receiving nods from the others.
"Yeah we must keep the peace!" Another called out
"There you go! Just keep that in mind and the next time a fight breaks out I want to see the omegas be the ones to take care of it, not the alphas. Now you're free to go back to playing your games and such." Kate said, her work here was done and after being sure they all understood she left the rock she sat on and headed back into the forest.
'Well that went well' She thought to herself as she headed towards the feeding grounds, the sun would be going down soon and she could use a good piece of caribou before going to sleep. Along the way she began to think about the omegas and how much Humphrey's presence had an effect on them. She always thought he was the leader of his small group of friends, which made sense, but there was far more to it than just that. How she wished he could be here and see how lost they became without him, it probably would have been a shock. She would have to tell him about it the next time she heads back out there, which would have to be tomorrow because it was already too late into the day.
After coming and going from the feeding grounds, Kate made a stop by her parents den to let her father know the result of her meeting with the omegas "Hey dad, hey mom" She greeted while strolling into the den.
Winston and Eve sat next to a pile of scraps which must have been the remains of their dinner, they both smiled and looked at Kate as she sat down in front of them. "So how did it go sweetie?" Her mother asked
"It went well, like I said, just an omega problem" Kate replied
"And what was the problem?" Winston asked
"You were right about Humphrey being the reason why, turns out they kind of felt lost without him, but after some coaching I made them see that they are more than able to perform their job without him."
"That's my girl, I'm glad that now things can resume as normal with them." He said
"Thanks dad, let's hope that they're the ones that break up the next fight."
"I got no doubt, they are pretty good at what they do, as long as they believe in themselves I guess."
"You didn't happen to see Lilly there while speaking with them did you?" Eve asked changing the subject.
"No I didn't, why?" Kate responded
"Weird because I haven't seen her since she left early this afternoon." She said sounding concerned
"I'm sure she's fine honey" Winston stated
"Yeah mom, you know her and how she likes to be alone sometimes." Kate added
"I know, I just worry about her and you sometimes, you've both grown so fast and you're already married, it's just a lot for a mother to take in I guess."
"That's just part of being a parent, it's hard to let someone go that you've raised from just a little pup." Kate smiled
"One day you'll know just how hard that is when you have a family, but just wait a little bit before starting one okay?"
Kate just shook her head and continued to smile, her mother was just being her mother again, always short and to the point. "Don't worry mom I don't think Garth and I will be ready for that kind of responsibility for over a year of two."
"Good, we don't need the grandparent title just quite yet."
They all laughed, having a family was something she did want one day, however unknown to them it would never be with Garth. She could see herself and Humphrey having pups and enjoy raising them together, regardless whether or not it was allowed. But things like this would be far into the future, hopefully in a time where everything was the way she and Humphrey wanted it to be.
"Well I'm going to head back home for the night, maybe see how Garth's day went before heading to sleep." Kate said
"Alright we'll see you tomorrow then, have a good night honey." Winston said before she exited the den.
"You know Winston, I think she's taking this whole thing pretty well." Eve commented after she left.
"The marriage? Yeah your right, I'm glad she's happy with it." He replied
"I still feel bad for both of them, but I talked to her last night and she said she and Garth were starting to get along better."
"That's great, as long as they can make it work out everything will be great for the whole pack."
Kate's short walk back to her den ended but she was surprised to not find Garth back home already, normally he was always home just after sundown from his alpha duties. Her suspicions rose yet again at how strange he's been lately, not only has he come home looking exhausted but now he wasn't home at his usual time. She shook her head as she laid down on the floor, perhaps she was just thinking too much, but then something came to her mind. Why was it that both he and her sister were gone at the same time right now? What if there was something going on here that she was not seeing, and then it hit her, what if Garth and Lilly were doing the same thing she and Humphrey were doing?
Again she shook the thought from her racing mind, she shouldn't jump to such conclusions, especially ones to that extent. It was just a coincidence, there was no way her sister could secretly be seeing Garth behind her back… right? She decided to ask him about his whereabouts once he got back home, he was probably just out with some friends or something, and as if right on queue Garth entered the den.
"Hey Kate" He said after sitting down near her
"Hey Garth" She replied looking at him, there was a brief silence but there it was again, he looked like he had just run across the territory. "You sure look tired"
"Yeah it's been a long day for me, running around all day."
"I bet. Anything fun?" She asked, keeping conversation.
"Well I went to see my dad today before having lunch and heading to my duties, after that I spent some time with my friends."
"That does seem busy" At least she was right in assuming he was with his father this morning. She felt like she was digging too much into her suspicions, in reality she didn't want much to do with Garth considering they haven't become good friends like everyone else thinks.
"How was your day?" He asked
"It went good, had a successful hunt before I helped my dad by giving the omegas a pep talk." She replied
"Why what happened?"
"Well you remember Humphrey right?"
He thought for a moment before remembering "Oh yeah, that omega that got taken with you to Idaho, didn't he leave the pack or something?"
"Yeah he did, I guess he wasn't done exploring the world, anyway ever since he left the omegas started feeling lost without him since he was like their leader. So I had to make them see that they could still preform their job without him being there to lead them, long story short the problem is fixed I hope." The more and more she had to act like she didn't care about Humphrey the more and more she hated herself for doing it, but it's what she had to do in order to protect them both.
"That's good, I didn't realize there was something wrong with them, they seemed fine from what I've seen and heard. Then again I'm usually around the eastern omegas." He said
"Say you didn't happen to see my sister Lilly around today did you?" She asked after another silence
"I think I saw her with some other wolves earlier in the day, but lately, no I haven't, why?"
"My parents asked me the same thing when I saw them so I was just wondering if you knew."
"No I don't, sorry."
She looked at him carefully just to see if he was lying, in the slight chance her suspicions were right, but she didn't see anything that indicated so. "That's okay, I'm sure she's around the territory somewhere."
Garth let out a yawn after that "Well I'm gonna head to bed, see you in the morning Kate."
"Alright, good night Garth."
With that she laid her head back down on the floor while Garth got comfortable on the opposite side of the den, falling fast asleep. Kate began to feel stupid for thinking so much, nothing was going on that she should know of, and everything was fine. She quickly cleared out anymore thoughts within her mind and fell asleep as well, looking forward to a bright new day in which she could see Humphrey again.
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A/N: Hmm looks like the plot may be thickening, what do you think, is there something going on that Kate doesn't know about? Well that's to be found out in the next few chapters, until then there will be a time jump between this and the next chapter. Not sure how long this story is going to become but I'm aiming for around 10 chapters if not more. Thanks for reading and cya later!
