Chapter 4: "We're at War"

“No!” Kate yelled.

Viggo turned and faced the group, smiling evilly.

“You know, it’s true what they say,” he said. “If আপনি want something done right, আপনি really have to do it yourself.”

Viggo’s men began chasing Humphrey and the others back into the forest.

“Accepting defeat is the most difficult, but necessary part of competition,” Viggo shouted after them.

Claudette tried to drive the humans back out, but at that moment আরো humans arrived from the east while the Crimson Pack cut off their escape in the west, effectively trapping the entire pack within the valley.

Humphrey and the others retreated into the forest and headed toward the Northern Pack again. Humphrey wanted to go back and get Viggo, but Adam was trying to talk him out of it.

“Come on, let’s sweep the area!” he yelled.

“Humphrey, there’s no way we’ll get within half a mile of the valley,” Adam said. “He’ll have secured the borders and brought in reinforcements দ্বারা now. আপনি know Viggo had this entire thing planned out from the beginning.”

“AHHHHH!” Humphrey yelled in frustration.

Kyle came through the trees and stopped when he saw Humphrey.

“Humphrey?” he said. “You’re…alive? How?”

“There’s no time, Kyle,” Humphrey replied. “As good as it is to see you, we need to regroup and figure out what to do.”

He then walked over to Kate, who was busy grieving the loss of her parents.

“Kate,” he said, sadly, “I am so sorry-“

“Humphrey, don’t,” Kate interrupted, tears still in her eyes. “Don’t even think about blaming yourself for this. It wasn’t your fault, and no one here blames you.”

“Kate, I let this happen,” he said. “I fell for Viggo’s plan, I let Kenya get taken and now Winston, Eve, and Tony are dead and Viggo has the entire pack as his bargaining chip.”

“But none of that is on you,” Kate continued. “It was Viggo. He manipulated us. He tricked us, drew us away from the valley so he could sneak in.”

“I’m just so worried about everyone that we left behind,” Humphrey said. “I thought দ্বারা leaving Claudette in the valley, I was keeping her নিরাপদ and now she’s in আরো danger than any of us.”

“I’m worried about everyone, too,” Kate replied. “Garth and Lilly just হারিয়ে গেছে their parents too, but they don’t even have time to grieve. They’re too busy being terrified out of their minds.”

“We really have no idea what we’re up against. It’s all such a big mess now.”

“You’re right,” Kate said, “it is.”

“That’s not helping,” Humphrey said.

“But আপনি also know that if there’s a mess, we clean it up, together,” Kate reassured him, “you and me.”

“We did it once. We can do it again,” Adam said.

“No,” Humphrey cut in. “No, we’re not going anywhere. No one is going anywhere. আপনি guys do what আপনি do really well. I saw আপনি retake the valley from Viggo and Robert. You’re a really smart group and I’m proud of আপনি all. But Viggo, he manipulated all of us. Like we were just a bunch of inexperienced pups. If we’re going to have any chance in this fight against him, we can’t just go rushing in. It could get Garth, Lilly, Claudette, অথবা any one of the others killed. It could get one of us killed.”

“And we still need to get Martin back,” Jax added.

“We need to worry about one thing at a time,” Kate said. “We’ll figure out some way to get Martin back, but first we need to figure out how to get Viggo out of the pack.”

“So, আপনি just want to leave Viggo to hunting and killing নেকড়ে at will?” Kenya asked. “You want to do nothing?”

“I want to do the right thing,” Humphrey replied, “and that’s going to take some thinking. But what I do know, is that as of right now, we’re at war.”

The group relaxed for a few hours and most of that time was spent catching Humphrey up on most of what had happened in his absence. He was about to catch them up on what had happened to him when they suddenly heard gunshots nearby. The group ran toward the southern side of the territory and noticed several of Viggo’s men approaching.

“Who was supposed to be out on patrol?” Humphrey asked.

“Steven,” Kenya replied.

“I was?” Steven asked, running up to them. “You never told me that!”

“Where were you?” Kenya asked.

“Sleeping.”

“We have to lead them away from here,” Humphrey said. “They came looking for us, they’re going to follow us.”

Humphrey and the others retreated into the woods while Kyle and the Northern Pack covered their escape. It wasn’t long before Viggo’s men turned and went back to the valley.