Prologue

A thick summer night blanketed Jasper National park as two wolves and their pups lay on the cool dew laden grass. They each savored the moment, taking in every sound and smell. Even though the sun had long ago set the air was still warm and slightly humid. The pups began to wrestle intensely breaking the calm silence.

"Knock it off you three this is no time for that." the mother ordered attempting to break up the play fight that continued and escalated. "If you don't stop this instant I'm not telling you a bed time story." she threatened. The pups froze their eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. They quickly apologized and settled down in the grass not wanting to miss a story time opportunity.

"That's better, now what one would you like to hear tonight?" she questioned giving a warm smile.

"The one about your brave friend, who saved you and dad!" they all screamed at once.

"Okay okay, I think your old enough to hear that one." she said pausing. "Where to begin, well it all started on a night much like this, warm and at the height of summer..."

Chapter 1 : AN UNLIKELY PAIR

Soft moonlight filtered down through the trees as a young white and grey wolf picked his way cautiously down a sloping hillside. On any other day he would have taken the long, less dangerous way but today he was in a hurry. He bristled with anticipation, tonight was going the greatest of his life, or at least he hoped. As he approached the bottom of the hill he spotted a white wolf heading towards him.

"Humphrey!" she shouted trying to get his attention.

"Hey Lilly! Are you heading up to the Moonlight howl?" he questioned enthusiastically bounding towards her smiling.

"No Humphrey I'm going to visit my pet turtle." she countered sarcastically tying not to laugh.

"Your one funny omega." laughed Humphrey. Both wolves continued down the well-worn path towards the howling rock weaving in and out of the undergrowth. The sounds of the forest reverberated off of the towering trees. Jasper is beautiful this time of year thought Humphrey as he struggled to keep up with Lilly. The two wolves arrived at the base of the Howling Rock, which rose impossibly high above them.

"I guess I'll see you up there Lil." stated Humphrey. "Have fun!" He added making his way up the side of the rock leaving his friend behind.

"Bye Humphrey." whispered Lilly. She gazed around the crowd of other wolves looking for her older sister Kate. Instantly she found her chatting with a large group of alphas on the other side cliff, her golden yellow coat shining like a diamond. Lilly did not approach instantly though, she waited until it was only her sister and one eastern wolf.

"Lilly what took you so long?" questioned Kate as she hugged her sister. Lilly hung her head low, she hated standing next to Kate. She was beautiful and Lilly saw her self as not even close to that, and because Kate was an alpha she exuded authority and power. Something she knew Humphrey was attracted to. The red and white eastern wolf introduced himself as Garth, Kate's howling partner. He had the ideal build of a alpha male, brawny and muscular with emerald green eyes.

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This was the most wolves Humphrey had ever seen at the moonlight howl, yet he still had not found a girl that caught his eye. His mind wandered back to earlier when he was with Lilly, he felt bad for just leaving one of his oldest friends there all alone. But She had been acting weird lately, almost as if she had taken a liking to Humphrey. Yea right he thought she's would never go for a wolf like me. Suddenly he was knocked onto the rock hard ground by a yellow blur.

"Got you Humphrey! Alpha one, Omega zero!" shouted Kate triumphantly.

"Hey I wasn't ready!" he responded as he spit out rocks and dust. "Kate um, I've been meaning to ask you someth-." but before he could finish a voice cut him short.

"Who's the coyote Kate?" a red and white wolf said in a mocking tone. She quickly introduced the two wolves.

"So Barf, I mean Garth." Humphrey corrected himself, but too his satisfaction saw the anger in Garth's face. "Kate tells me you're her howling partner." his voice almost giving away his disappointment, Humphrey's heart sank when she had first told him. He had hoped he would be the lucky guy that would get to howl with Kate. She seemed different to Humphrey, normally she would have loved the barf joke but instead it actually ticked her off.

"Humphrey can I talk to you alone for a minute." Kate sternly commanded pulling him behind a large outcropping. "What is your problem? Why are you trying to ruin this for me?" she demanded.

"Kate calm down, I'm just trying to watch out for you." he replied in a playful tone.

"Well Hum-phrey, for your information I do not need the help of one useless omega." Kate said with distain in her voice as she walked away, leaving the disheartened wolf to deal with the sting of her words.

In the distance Lilly watched as her sister pulled Humphrey aside. Even from far away she could tell Kate was mad and he was trying to calm her down. Kate always seemed to be getting angry at Humphrey, even for just being his own fun loving carefree self. Then suddenly just before Lilly thought she was going to rip his head off Kate turned a stalked back towards Garth. Humphreys head hung low as he began his decent down from the howling platforms. Lilly followed him to the river giving him enough space to be alone.

As Humphrey sat by the crystal clear water his ears perked up at the sound of pawsteps coming from behind him.

"Don't listen to anything my sister says, her opinion doesn't matter." Lilly pleaded as she sat down and nuzzled him. His heart skipped a beat, this is new he thought to himself.

"But what if Kate is right? What if I am just a useless omega?" he wondered sadly.

"It doesn't matter what she thinks Humphrey, what matters is how u see yourself" she replied smiling. Humphrey smiled back and turned to face her. He was met with two luminescent lavender eyes gazing at him.

"Wow" he gasped barely able to form words.

"Wow what?" she crooned innocently.

"Y-your eyes." he stammered. "They're beautiful." she giggled and moved in closer their noses almost touching. He could feel her heart beat, smell her scent which was similar to pine cones and hear her soft breathing. Sure the two had been close, being friends since they were pups, but they had never been this close before. They were lost in each others eyes, frozen in time for what seemed like an eternity.

"Thanks for believing in me Lilly, I think your the best thing for me." Humphrey whispered in her ear. He leaned in and softly kissed her cheek, she smiled at him and giggled. "And maybe." he continued. "We can howl at the moon? Since neither of us had the chance too?" he suggested meekly as he gave a huge smile. But before she could respond a voice called out from the trees.

"Lilly! Time to go home! Mom is going to kill us!" it was clearly Kate.

"Humphrey I'm so sorry." Lilly said, sadness filling her voice as she walked away. "But I promise tomorrow night we will howl together!" Before Humphrey could say goodbye she had already disappeared into the night leaving only her sweet scent.