The aftermath of Humphrey’s death was a harsh one for the Western Pack. Of course, his Friends and family were hit da the worst of the grief, but every lupo in the pack felt some level of sadness. It was only natural, as they had Lost one of their own.

In the days and weeks following, things slowly began to settle down again. Humphrey’s sacrifice had brought the Rogue Lupi back to the pack and one of Humphrey’s old Friends had come up from the Southern Pack.

Lilly gave birth to three pups only a mese after Humphrey’s death, which she named Jax, Jonas, and Martin. Jax and Jonas were omegas and Martin an alpha, although all three of them were rambunctious for the time being. It seemed like everything would go back to normal again. About a mese after Lilly gave birth, Winston retired and made Kate the pack leader. But then Lilly had an experience that turned her world around.

About two months passed since the birth of Jax, Jonas, and Martin. Garth had left on a hunting trip with a few other alphas, leaving Lilly alone to watch the pups for a few days. They were still playful and rambunctious and were a bit of a chore for Lilly, but Kate helped out where she could.

One day, Lilly decided to go out for a walk da herself in the forest a couple of miles outside the valley. She figured some alone time to clear her head wouldn’t hurt. She didn’t plan to be gone long, so she left Jax, Jonas, and Martin in their tana, den near the edge of the pack.

As the afternoon came to an end, Lilly decided to start heading back when she suddenly felt something snap shut around her front leg. A massive shock of sharp, piercing pain shot through her paw and up her leg. She looked down and saw a strange object with metallic teeth gripping onto her paw.

Lilly tried to pull away, but the object was connected to a chain that was securely fastened to a nearby tree. She kept trying to free herself, but every time she pulled, the sharp teeth dug into her skin, causing her even più pain.

As time passed, Lilly eventually gave up and laid down to try and sleep as best she could. Night fell and the temperature dropped, but all Lilly could think about were her pups and if they would be alright. She hoped Kate would take care of them for her.

Lilly woke up the successivo morning cold and hungry. She noticed a freshly dead moose nearby, but it was just out of reach. She could tell from the way it smelled that it had died very recently, probably not long before she had woken up. It had multiple deep gashes on its side and she figured it must’ve escaped a group of hunting Lupi before bleeding out.

A couple of hours passed when Lilly heard and smelled something approaching. She lifted her head and her ears twitched forward. It wasn’t long before she saw what was coming toward her.

It was a human, carrying a large bag on his back. Unbeknownst to Lilly, it was Kenya’s former owner, Lucas, who was simply out camping and had stumbled upon her. He slowly approached her, having noticed her leg caught in the trap. As soon as he started moving toward her, Lilly started growling at him. In her eyes, humans were always bad news.

Lucas stopped once she bared her teeth at him and stayed where he was. He wanted to help her but didn’t know what to do if she wouldn’t let him near her. As he tried to think about what to do, he noticed something about Lilly. She was clearly nursing, which meant there must’ve been pups nearby.

Lucas left to look for the pups and was gone for a couple of hours. He eventually found Jax, Jonas, and Martin in their tana, den and luckily, there wasn’t anyone around to see him put them in his bag. He then headed back to where Lilly was laying.

When he returned, Lilly suddenly caught the scent of her pups and looked up when she saw Lucas coming toward her. He slowly kneeled down and reached into his bag, pulling out Jax, Jonas, and Martin one-by-one. He set them down and they happily ran up to her. Lilly lovingly nuzzled them with her nose as they playfully jumped on her.

Lucas looked over and noticed the dead moose out of Lilly’s reach. He walked over to it and began cutting off large slabs of meat from it with the hunting coltello he had brought. Lilly watched him work, making sure to keep her pups close to her side. She was still very wary of the human, but also a little curious of his behavior. In her experience, humans would a kill a lupo whenever they came across one so she was confused about why this one hadn’t done so yet.

After Lucas had gathered enough meat from the moose, he brought it back over to Lilly and cautiously tossed some over to her before beginning to set up his tent out of the reach of the chain. Lilly sniffed at the slabs of meat Lucas had thrown to her before slowly starting to eat them.

Night fell again and Lucas started a campfire on which he cooked one of the pieces of meat he had kept for himself. As he ate, he intently watched Lilly and she intently looked back at him. She needed his help still, and he wanted to help, even più now knowing she had pups. But he still didn’t know how he was going to get her to trust him. But he knew one thing; he wasn’t going to leave until she was free.

As the night wore on, Lucas put out the fuoco and climbed inside his tent to go to sleep. After the flap zipped up, Lilly continued to stare at the tent for a moment before calling Jax, Jonas, and Martin to her and going to sleep as well.

Lucas woke up suddenly the successivo giorno to something wet on his face. He sat up and wiped his face off. He finally opened his eyes and was surprised da what he saw. Two of the pups were sitting in his tent, happily looking up at him, tails wagging, tongues out, and smiles on their faces. He tried to figure out how they had gotten into his tent when he noticed a hole that Jax and Jonas had clawed into the side of it.

Lucas unzipped his tent and brought them back outside before starting his day. The pups ran back over to Lilly and Lucas made himself some breakfast, giving some più of the moose to Lilly. He then sat down fairly close to her, just outside the area where she would normally start growling at him. He sat there and simply started talking to her. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t respond. He needed to be slow and calm about his approach. He needed to mostra her that he wasn’t going to hurt her. All day, he just sat and talked to her, telling her about himself, about his camping trip so far, and just random stuff to try and ease her nerves.

For the successivo three days, Lucas sat and talked to Lilly, each day, slowly inching closer to her. His plan was slowly working and over the course of these three days, Lilly began to domanda her view on humans and if all of them really were bad. This one clearly wasn’t. He seemed like he really wanted to help her.

With each giorno that passed, she began to feel più comfortable around him, and gradually let her guard down until one day, she let him sit right successivo to her as he talked. That night, he didn’t even go into his tent to go to sleep. He just laid down successivo to her and fell asleep on the ground.

Lilly looked down at him curiously. He was completely helpless out here. He was at her mercy and he had taken that chance. If he had been willing to trust her with his life, perhaps she could do the same with him.

Lucas woke up in the morning to Jax and Jonas licking his face again. He sat up on the ground, a little sore but otherwise fine. Lilly looked over at him with a somewhat happy expression her face.

Lucas stood up and looked over at the moose. What meat was left had started to turn and no longer looked to be very edible so he went off looking for something else to catch for Lilly. He wasn’t gone for very long, but during that time, Lilly thought about how she could convey to him that she finally trusted him now.

He eventually came back with a couple of rabbits and looked over at Lilly. When their eyes met, he noticed a slight wagging of her tail. He set the rabbits down and casually walked over and sat down successivo to her. She didn’t seem to care.

Very slowly, he reached out and touched the superiore, in alto of her head, starting to gently scratch at it. Still, she didn’t move, instead continuing to simply look at him. Lucas then slowly took his hand away and moved down to her paw.

He gently grabbed onto the trap, but she jerked her leg back a little as it still clearly hurt. Lucas grabbed the trap again and slowly managed to pry it open, allowing Lilly to finally take her paw out. Luckily, the teeth hadn’t broken the skin and there was no sign of any kind of infection o break in the bone. However, her paw was still very sore and a bit swollen.

Lilly stood up and gently applied what little pressure she could onto her paw. She stood still for a moment, wondering what to do next. At first, she thought about simply leaving with her pups and returning to the pack. But then she realized that they all needed to know what she had learned about humans.

She walked up to Lucas and gave his hand a grateful lick before heading off with Jax, Jonas, and Martin in the direction of the valley. She had a bit of a limp, but it would go away with time.

After walking for a moment, she stopped and looked back at Lucas, sitting down and waiting. He looked back at her, a bit confused. He moved toward her a little and in response, she stood up and took a few più steps into the forest, still looking back at him.

He finally understood that she wanted him to follow her, for whatever reason, so after packing up his things and removing the trap from the tree, he started following Lilly through the woods.

It wasn’t long before Lilly arrived back in the valley and was hurriedly greeted da Garth and Kate.

“Lilly!” Garth shouted as he ran over to her.

The two lovingly nuzzled each other before Garth started asking all the domande that were on his mind.

“Where have te been?” he asked. “I’ve been so worried about you. te just disappeared and then the successivo day, the pups were missing and I-“

“Don’t worry, Garth,” Lilly detto sweetly. “I’m alright.”

“Lilly, you’re okay!” Kate shouted, running up to her and giving her a quick neck hug. “You were gone all week. We were all so worried. Where were you?”

Before Lilly could answer, they noticed Lucas behind her and started growling at him.

“Lilly, look out!” Garth shouted.

“No, wait!” she replied. “It’s okay. I brought him here.”

“What?” Kate asked.

“I got my paw caught in a trap and he helped free me,” Lilly explained.

“Okay, but why did te bring him here?”

“Because I need te guys to see that not all humans are bad,” Lilly said.

Kate and Garth slowly backed down, trusting what Lilly had said. Lucas stayed in the pack for a little bit before turning to go home. As he was leaving, Lilly followed him to the edge of the forest. When he entered, he turned around and looked back at her. She howled a goodbye at him before turning to head back to the others. While it would be a long time before Lilly saw him again, she never forgot the unexpected kindness he had shown her during their short time together.