Chapter 6: Refugees

By the time the sun fully rose into the sky, the entirety of the Western Pack had reached the borders of the Northern Pack. Kyle ran up to Claudette, confused at what her entire pack was doing in his territory.

“Claudette, Runt,” he said, “what are you all doing here? Winston, Eve, and Tony arrived around thirty minutes ago. They said something was going on in the valley, but they never said what.”

“We were ambushed by humans,” Claudette explained. “It all happened so fast and there were too many of them. We had to get out of there.”

“We don’t have time to talk,” Lisa said, still leaning on Runt. “Stinky and the others are still out there, and they have no idea what’s happened. They’ll come back to the valley and be killed.”

“They headed northeast from the valley,” Kate said. “You might be able to intercept them before they get all the way back.”

Kyle took off east with a few other wolves to try and keep Stinky and the others from returning to the valley. As he left, Fleet came running up to Claudette.

“Thank goodness you’re okay,” he said, the two quickly sharing a hug.

Fleet then looked over at Lisa, who Runt was carefully letting down so she could rest.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“She got shot in the hip,” Runt replied, “but it looks like it just grazed her.”

Runt laid down next to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lisa replied. “I promise I’m fine, Runt. I just need a little rest.”

“I’m sorry,” Runt said.

“For what?” she asked.

“I should’ve been with you,” he replied. “I should’ve tried harder to protect you.”

“Hey,” Lisa said, putting her paw over his, “stop. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“I don’t know what I would do if I lost you,” he said.

“Runt, look at me,” Lisa replied. “We’re gonna be fine. We’re gonna get our pack back and we’re gonna beat these guys. Stop worrying so much. Okay? We’re getting married in two months, we should be happy.”

Runt smiled at her and she smiled back. Meanwhile, Kyle and his small group of wolves were searching the northeastern area around the Northern Pack for Stinky and his team. It wasn’t long before one of the wolves spotted them rushing quickly in their direction. Kyle ran out to stop them.

“Whoa, Stinky, hold on!” he said.

“No time, Kyle,” Stinky replied, hardly slowing down, “we gotta get back to the pack, they’re in trouble.”

“Stinky, it’s too late,” Kyle called after him.

Stinky stopped and turned around.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, confused.

“It all already happened,” Kyle explained. “They’re all taking refuge in my pack.”

A shocked look came over Stinky’s face as he and the others slowly followed Kyle back to the Northern Pack. When they arrived, they saw the woods crowded with wolves from the Western Pack. Stinky and the rest of his team were met with a joyous welcome from the survivors of their pack. Claudette and Runt rushed up to their brother.

“Stinky!” they called. “You’re okay!”

“What happened?” he asked.

“We were ambushed by humans,” Runt explained. “They completely invaded the pack before we knew it.”

“Did you see who was leading them?” Oscar asked.

“No,” Claudette replied. “It was too dark, and we were too busy trying to get everyone out.”

Garth saw Lisa laying down on the ground not too far away from where they were talking. He saw the bloodied fur and the wound on the side of her hip and asked if she was alright.

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Runt replied. “A bullet grazed her hip. It’s just a flesh wound. She’ll be fine as long as she gets her rest.”

Everyone then noticed that not everyone who went with Stinky had come back.

“Where’s Martin?” Lisa asked.

Stinky and the others looked at each other sadly before answering.

“He was inducted into the Crimson Pack,” Garth replied.

“What?” Claudette asked in shock.

“He split from the group to investigate something,” Lilly began, trying and failing to old back her tears, “but when he came back, he had the mark on his face.”

There was silence for a while before Runt spoke up.

“We’re going to get him back,” he said. “We’re going to drive those humans out of the valley, and then we’re going to deal with the Crimson Pack once and for all.”

“Well then we need a plan,” Jax said, with an unexpected tone of seriousness.

“Yes, we do,” Stinky replied, “and we need it fast.”

For the next three days, the refugees of the Western Pack put their heads together, thinking of a plan to retake the valley from so many humans, not to mention their very competent leader. Since the combined packs were so big, there wasn’t enough room in the Northern Pack to accommodate them all and most of the Western Pack dwelled near the borders of Kyle’s territory, acting as a defensive barrier in case the humans decided to come after them.

Martin was always on their minds and something about Jax and Jonas seemed to change slightly. They weren’t messing around as much and seemed more focused on the task at hand. Martin’s induction into the Crimson Pack had apparently become a great motivator for them. Lisa’s hip healed and by the time they were ready to retake the pack, she was back to normal.

The time had come to take back the valley. Kyle and the Northern Pack would be coming along for backup, since the others had been driven off so easily last time. The entirety of the two packs gathered near the southern border of the territory early in the morning, waiting to move out. They all knew this wouldn’t be an easy thing to do, but they had no other option. And if this was the end, then at least they would go down fighting.