Chapter 8: Red Flag


While Kate and Garth were out speaking with Humphrey and forming a plan, Lilly was hanging out with her parents. She had nowhere else to be at the moment so she just stayed in their den and talked to them while helping out with anything they needed. So far it had been a usual day, Winston only had to assign this evenings patrol group before his day as leader was done. He enjoyed seeing his and Tony's pack working together with few issues, they didn't need to control everything as much as they used too. The alphas understood what they needed to do each day and stayed on schedule, while the omegas brought an end to any fights and helped fix problems. It was nice that he and the other leaders could sit back and focus on their lives instead of always thinking about the pack first.

Lilly began to wonder what kind of ideas Kate, Garth, and Humphrey were coming up with out there, honestly she couldn't see an easy way to tell everyone. But she hoped that they would able to come up with an idea that she can along to go along with. All she wanted was to be able to stay here in Jasper and not be forced to run away, she couldn't bear to part with this place she's called home all her life. All of her family and friends were here, but if it's what her and her sister needed to do then she would go along with it. Things may be hard to deal with having to find a new place to live that was safe and provided what they needed to survive, but given time she would learn to accept it and focus on living her life with Garth to the fullest. It was starting to get into the late afternoon hours as Lilly continued to visit with her parents, they talked mostly about life and what she had been up to in the pack. However their conversation was interrupted when Hutch entered the den saying that he wanted to speak with Winston.

"Yes, what is it Hutch?" Winston replied

"Our afternoon patrol found the scents of Kate and Garth leaving the west side of the territory, it seems they haven't returned yet either." Hutch said standing in front of him.

He eyes widened at the news, why would his daughter and son-in-law leave the territory without telling him? "Are you sure it's their scents?" He asked not believing it.

"Positive"

"Why would they leave the territory?" Eve asked to no one in particular, just as confused as her husband was.

He just shook his head trying to think for a minute, trying to figure out where and why they would need to leave the territory, and without permission at that.

"Sir, would you like me to go out and search for them?" Hutch offered.

"Yes, take another alpha with you and follow their scents to see where it leads, when you find them please bring them to me so that I can speak with them." Winston answered

"Yes sir" He replied before turning and exiting the den.

As soon as Lilly heard what had happened she began to fear what might happen when Hutch finds them, the hiding would be over as soon as they got back here. However that was the least of her worries because now she had to come up with an excuse that would make her parents think that she knew nothing about this. She just hoped that they would be prepared for what was about to happen once they arrived back home.

"Winston do you have any ideas as to why they would leave?" Eve asked sounding worried

"I don't know why Eve, they never said anything to me" He replied

Lilly just sat and listened, debating on whether or not she should tell them the truth already but the empty feeling in her stomach told her not to. She couldn't deal with being the one to face their initial reaction, and she didn't even know how she would tell them, so instead she said nothing and waited for them to ask her, which came in no time.

"Well this is nothing like her or Garth, what of something happened to them, like a rouge attack or worse?" Eve said

Winston shook his head "I wouldn't jump to such conclusions honey, I'm sure they are fine wherever they are. Besides the patrol would have smelled the scents of other wolves if that was the case, just stay on the bright side."

"If you say so, I just don't want anything to hurt our daughter."

"She will be fine, Garth is there protector her." He said before looking at Lilly who sat silently looking down at her paws. "Lilly do you know where they are?"

She looked up at her father "No dad, I talked to her before her hunt early this morning by the stream but she never said that she would be leaving the territory or anything."

He sighed "Okay, I guess we'll have to wait and ask them ourselves, until then how about we go out and get some dinner?"

"Alright" Eve agreed with Lilly nodding

They all got up and exited the den before heading down to the feeding grounds where a few other wolves had gathered to feast what there was to eat. They all forgot about the news they had received and focused on eating and continuing their conversation from earlier, which had been about whether or not she had been seeing any guys. Of course she said no, saying that she wasn't ready for love yet, her parents understood and replied saying that she had plenty of time in her life to find someone special. Deep down she didn't like having to lie about that, having to lie to her parents in general was hard enough. She was always truthful and up front with them, telling them about any problems she was having, but having to hide her secret relationship from them has been a challenge. At least they continued to buy it and never pushed asking questions about where she was or what she's been up too.

As they ran out of things to talk about Eve's mind eventually went back to thinking about what her daughter and Garth might be up too. Her husband had ruled out the idea of being attacked so what else could be the reason? Yeah they might have just left to walk alone or explore something but she knew Kate would have told them about it before leaving. However she remembered the fact that she tended to disappear from time to time and her reason for it was always around the same thing. She had noticed that Kate liked to go out and be on her own ever since she returned from being captured by humans, it wasn't a bad thing but she always wondered why there was a sudden change in her.

Then things began to click in her mind, what if this wasn't the first time she and Garth had left the territory and that she had been hiding something from them. As far as she knew Garth hadn't been doing anything suspicious so her mind focused on Kate rather than him. There was no way Kate would hide something from them, her relationship with her daughters was strong since they always talked to each other about any problems they had. What could be so bad that would cause Kate to hide it from them, but she probably was digging too far into it. Perhaps this was the first time they left the territory and didn't feel the need to tell anyone because it wouldn't be for that long. Hutch never said how old the scent trail was so they may have just planned to be gone for a couple of hours then come back thinking no one would notice or mind.

Winston noticed Eve was kind of zoned out as she starred off into the distance so he matched her gaze and found that she wasn't staring at anything of interest, he decided to check and see if she was okay. "You alright honey?"

She shook her head and came out of her thoughts to see Winston and Lilly looking at her." Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine, just thinking is all"

He nodded and went back to finishing his dinner.

"Winston do you think Kate's hiding something from us?" She suddenly asked a few moments later.

He looked at her confused "What do you mean?"

"Well you know how she tends to disappear from time to time ever since she returned home?"

"Yeah I have noticed that, but she usually says she was just out on her own." He replied, not knowing what she meant by it.

"I've been thinking that maybe there's a connection between her leaving the territory today and all those times she's out alone."

"I don't think so, if that was the case then why would Garth be with her? Like I said before they are fine and probably just wanted a change of scenery."

"Yeah mom you're just thinking too much, besides why would she hide anything from us?" Lilly agreed

"I know, but to me it feels like we're missing something" Eve continued

Lilly became nervous, it seemed that it was only a matter of time until her mother would be able to put the pieces together. It didn't take a lot of thought to notice that there was a connection between Humphrey leaving the pack and Kate suddenly spending time by herself out in the woods. Then again Lilly and Garth never noticed it until Kate told them, but at the same time they were never suspicious of it like her mother was right now. Like before she just watched to see how this was all going to play out, if she didn't have to say anything then she wasn't going to.

"Well then you can talk to her about it when they get back, but for now let's just focus on other things, please." Winston stated.

"Oh alright"

He believed that his mate was just thinking too much and jumping to conclusions. He wasn't worried at all, but the end of the day he knew this will all be resolved and figured out, at least this has lightened up his day and kept it from being just the same old stuff. Lilly relaxed and decided I change the subject to help her father keep mother from jumping to even more crazy conclusions. Things went back to normal as they headed back to their den to wait for Hutch to return with her sister and Garth.

Meanwhile Hutch had picked Vik to go out on the search with him mostly because he was the first alpha he saw when he left Winston's den. Hutch thought nothing of all of this and figured that it wouldn't even be worth going out to search for Kate and Garth since they probably were just out for a walk, but orders were orders and he had to report any scent trails crossing the packs borders. Vik felt the same way but tagged along since he had nothing better to do and he usually enjoyed talking with Kate so it would give him someone to talk to on the way back. As the two alphas left the territory and followed the scent trail they found that it just continued to go farther and farther west and never turned.

One mile went by, and then two, Hutch and Vik couldn't figure out why they would go so far away and not just loop back around. The unclaimed forest was not the safest place for pack wolves to be in afterall, lone wolves and predators could be anywhere looking for a fight. However they no longer needed to continue walking west because up on the next hill were the two wolves they were looking for, and they were walking right towards both of them. They sat down and waited for Kate and Garth to notice them as they began climb the slope below. Kate happened to look up at the right moment to immediately notice the two wolves sat ahead of them, upon closer examination she recognized them as Hutch and Vik, but the feeling she had was far from welcoming.

"Oh no..." She suddenly said, interrupting what Garth had been telling her.

Garth looked ahead as well and noticed what she said oh no about, it caused his heart to sink because there was only one reason to alphas from their pack would be out here. "Oh boy, I guess our time is up..."

"Don't worry, we'll just say we were out enjoying the views, they'll believe it for sure." Kate said confidently, but deep down she began to get nervous.

"Hey you two, so what brings you all the way out here?" Hutch said casually as they stopped in front of him and Vik.

"We were just out enjoying the forest and talking about things, why is something wrong?" She replied.

"Well other than the fact we found your scent trails leaving the territory, no" He answered.

Kate was surprised that they were able to follow their scent trails considering they were walking through unfamiliar forest which could mask the scent. "I'm glad that you guys cared enough to search to us, but we were going to be back by sundown anyway." She said.

"Yeah, nothing major" Garth agreed

"I figured as much, but your father ordered that we should come search for you two, so you can tell him all about it when we get back." Hutch said before turning around and starting to walk away along with Vik.

Kate's eyes widened at hearing that her father knew she was gone, she quickly looked at Garth who looked just as worried. "What are we going to do?" She whispered before they both followed behind the two alphas.

"I don't know just tell your parents what you told these two, but if that fails then stick to what we all planned and I'll follow along." He replied lightly.

She nodded her head, if there was a good time to be caught it was now because she, Garth, and Humphrey had already planned on what they should do. However as they headed back home she hoped that they would be able to keep it under wraps until the actually time came to tell the pack.
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A/N: Oh no it looks like I'm going to leave you hanging! That's alright I'm sure we all know what's coming next, but I won't say for sure until the next chapter, so it looks like you will have to wait and see. Also I uploaded a new short story the other day for Valentine's Day called 'Couples Retreat' so if you want to take the time to check it out that will be fantastic! Or if you want to be a rebel then don't do it, haha, cya in the next chapter.