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After Humphrey stormed off that night, I remember feeling this irrepressible sense of rage toward him. I couldn't believe that he would say such things and then just walk away when I still had so much on my mind that I wanted to say to him in retaliation and for that first hour, I paced the floor or the den, far too angry to sit still. I cursed him repeatedly under my breath and rehearsed exactly what I would say in order to destroy him and come out as the argument's victor. However, after that first hour rolled over and started upon the second, and as my mind continued to mull over everything that had happened that night, my anger subsided and was replaced promptly thereafter with remorse.

How could I have been so heartless and cruel? How could I have possibly hit him any lower than I did that night? Honestly, by utilizing his traumas and his most delicate insecurities against him, I knew that I couldn't have... Then I wondered... How could I have been so selfish? All Humphrey wanted to do was protect me, and I realized that, given the circumstances, he felt as though he didn't have any other choice. Who was I to try and stand in the way of that? Well... honestly as a concerned wife I felt as though I had every right to object to this entire arrangement, but I realized then that I had chosen the worst possible way to make these objections known. As the remorse continued to settle in upon me, I felt it begin to crush me and then finally, when the third hour had passed, the sun had set and he still hadn't returned, my anxieties began to quickly spike.

I had wanted to allow him plenty of time to cool off before he came home, but with each minute that passed after the sun had set behind the mountains, my mind had begun to conjure an endless series of scenarios, each more horrific than the last. As each harrowing scene played inside of my mind and then blended into the next, I could feel the churning in my stomach grow more and more violent and I could feel myself growing closer and closer to a panic attack. I couldn't entirely explain this phenomenon at the time, as I had always prided myself in my ability to remain calm under pressure, but I guess given all that had happened that night, and with the very real threat on our lives forever lingering in the shadows my mind had allowed itself to become convinced that the worst had happened. Humphrey hadn't come back because he couldn't and he would turn up somewhere in the park tomorrow with his guts hanging out in some godawful arrangement. I could not bear the thought of losing him, ESPECIALLY after all that had happened that night. I had to find him. Right then. It was crucial that I brought him home. Post haste. I needed to apologize to him. Immediately.

Quickly, I scrambled to my paws and began to make my way out of the den, however, as I rounded the corner of our den, I bumped into someone and we both went toppling to the ground. With a grimace, I immediately began to pick myself up off the ground once more.

"Humphrey?" I winced.

"Hey, Kate"

Relieved, I immediately rushed over to him and helped him up. However, as I did, the stagger in his step and rancid smell upon his breath seemed to distract me from my previous feelings of remorse and relief.

"Humphrey, you're blind stinking drunk. Where've you been?"

"Oh... just out with the guys, having a few berries and bullshitting about the lives of bachelors and spouses."

As he said this, he righted himself upon his paws. I backed away from him, slightly annoyed by the uncouth nature of his response

"Didn't you think that might be dangerous?" I asked him, though I attempted to hide my annoyance.

He scoffed

"Even if it was, I'm back. Okay? No need to get yourself all worked up over nothing again."

Humphrey then pulled away and staggered his way into the den. When he said this, I could feel anger beginning to rise up inside of me again, because I knew that he was trying to shift all of the blame for our fight onto me. However, with a collective breath, I maintained my composure.

"Humphrey, look. I'm not trying to start a fight, okay? I was just worried about you, that's all." I replied calmly, yet matter-of-factly.

"Well, I appreciate the concern, but sometimes a man needs to be able to make his own decisions," he replied as he staggered to the back of the den and laid down.

"Humphrey I completely understand, but-"

"And sometimes, if he makes those decisions, he needs his mate to stand by his side. Especially if they're tough."

I sighed, frustrated, but even though some of my frustrations were directed at him and his current state, the overwhelming majority of them were directed at myself for driving him to such a state.

"Look, Humphrey..." I began as my sigh reached the bottom of my lungs, "about what I said earlier, I- I'm sorry, okay?... I shouldn't have treated you that way, and..."

I paused as I began to choke up.

"And I know that I hurt you, and that you probably hate me right now, but I want you to know that I love you, and that I fully support you, no matter what you decide to do."

A silence fell and as he continued to lie there with his back turned to me, I could feel my tears beginning to well up more and more.

"Humphrey?" I sniffled.

"I know I'm fucked up," he slurred, clearly on the brink of blacking out.

"Huh?" I asked him, surprised.

"But I hate myself," he continued, seemingly unaware that I had spoken.

Not knowing what to say, I simply remained silent.

"I couldn't protect them, but I'll be damned if I can't protect you."

A short silence fell after he said this, and in that moment, I found myself at a complete loss. That was the first time in my life he had ever even remotely opened up to me like that, and as I sat there and listened to him snore, that sentence kept playing over and over again inside of my head.

"I couldn't protect them..."

Who and what was he talking about? Was this, perhaps, something to do with how he ended up here in Jasper? Was he talking about his biological parents? And if he was, what would he have needed to protect them from? I was pulled away from my thoughts when I heard him softly sniffle once.

"Humphrey?" I inquired as I took a step toward him.

Upon hearing my voice, he pinched his eyelids tightly together and I could see a tear stream down his face. Quickly I lied down beside him and it seemed as though the moment he felt my body contact his, he lost all control of his emotions and he began to openly sob. As I heard his sobs grow more woeful, I pulled his body in close to mine and gently licked him between his ears as he cried into the fur on my chest. I wasn't quite sure what brought this on. I'm sure his inebriated state was a huge contribution, but I worried as I lied there, what sort of buried traumas I had unearthed. I had always known that he was different, but I never really understood why until that night. Of course, I had no way of knowing what truly happened to him before we met, but based on what he said earlier and the way he cried, I had a pretty good guess...

Humphrey's P.O.V.

When I awoke the next morning, I felt as though I had been poisoned. My head throbbed, I felt dizzy and my stomach churned violently as it threatened to spill its contents all over the den. I groaned softly as I opened up my eyes and for a moment all of my energy was spent, so I allowed them to fall closed once more. I lied there on the floor, breathing deeply in hopes that sweet oxygen could at least help to flush out my system, but it proved unhelpful. With a sigh I opened my eyes again and lifted my aching head slowly from my paws.

"Kate," I called hoarsely, but there was no response.

I grunted softly as I pressed myself up onto my haunches and sat with my head held low as I struggled to settled the churning in my stomach. After about a minute had passed, I again opened my eyes and turned my head, and when I did, my eyes fell upon several tree bark bowls full of water which had been collected and sat out by my mate. As I looked down upon them, I felt a mixture of emotions quell up inside of me, but the most prominent of these emotions was guilt. My memory of the previous night was spotty, but I could vaguely remember some of the things that I had said to her while I was lost in the throes of anger and as I stared down at the water that she had so thoughtfully provided for me that morning, I knew that I didn't deserve her.

"Oh, Humphrey." I heard a voice suddenly call, "you're awake."

I slowly turned to her, but when I saw her there in the mouth of the den with breakfast in her maw, I had to turn away.

"Hey, Kate..." I replied somberly.

Kate padded into the den and sat down beside me then dropped the chunk of meat she carried in front of me.

"How are you feeling?" she asked me.

"Like I wanna die," I said, though I didn't allow my eyes to meet hers.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised," Kate said through the cracks of a soft chuckle, "you were pretty lit last night."

I sighed.

"Yeah..."

A short silence invited itself into the air between us, and then finally I spoke.

"I'm... I'm sorry about last night, Kate," I began hoarsely, "I don't know what came over me, I just..."

"Humphrey, it's okay," Kate assured as she placed her paw on top of mine, "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean a word I said."

I lowered my eyes and flattened my ears.

"I know that..." I replied softly, "it's just... I know that you want to protect me and all, but I need you to believe in me, Kate. I need you to believe that I can do this."

"I do believe in you, Humphrey," she assured, "I'm just so scared of losing you."

"You're not the only one," I stated flatly as I again met her gaze, "I'm scared that one day, someone is going to try to hurt you, and I can't let that happen. When we married, I swore an oath to protect you, by any means, and I'll be damned if I can't keep my word."

I noticed a visible change in Kate's demeanor as these words left my mouth, almost as though they resonated somewhere deep within her.

"It... really means that much to you, huh?" she asked me slowly as she lowered her eyes.

"Kate, there is nothing on this earth that means more to me than you," I replied sternly, "I would fight for you until my dying breath."

She blinked away tears as she leaned in close and draped her head on my shoulder.

"Ditto," she said softly as I deposited the side of my face along the top her her head.

Kate's P.O.V.

As we two sat there in each other's embrace, I wished that I could make the moment last forever. However, we were soon disturbed by the sound of a throat being cleared behind us. Startled, we both turned to see my mom standing in the mouth of our den.

"Oh, mom," I greeted, "you scared me."

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she asked us as she invited herself inside.

"No, not a thing," I replied as Humphrey and I separated and I rose to greet her.

We two embraced in a quick nuzzle. However, I could tell from the moment we touched that I was not the reason why she was here.

"That was quite the escapade you had last night, wasn't it, Humphrey?" she asked as she pulled away from me.

I turned to him and watched as he stiffened.

"Wh- um... what do you mean by that?" he responded, nervously.

"Well, I was just out for an evening stroll yesterday when I heard some pretty interesting things coming from the berry patch," she replied in a tone that seemed to grow more sinister with each word that passed her lips, "do you... perhaps have anything you'd like to say about that?"

Humphrey shuffled his paws on the floor of the den as he scrambled for a response.

"I- um... I mean, it's tough to say," he replied in an attempt to use humor to defuse the situation, "I don't really remember much from last night."

To this, my mother softly smiled, though I could sense the anger behind it.

"Oh, well let's see if this will help jog your memory."

She cleared her throat.

"It's only been four months and I'm already sick of her bullshit," my mother began, and as these words hit our ears, Humphrey gulped while I felt my stomach begin to sink, "if I'd known she was gonna be this much of a pain in my ass, I woulda just gone after her sister instead."

After my mother finished this quote, she turned stern, silent eyes between the two of us.

"And that wasn't even the worst of it, but sure got an uproar from your little pals, didn't it?" she asked him pointedly, "seems to me, you lot think my daughters are nothing more than toys, hm?"

"I-" Humphrey began, his voice and body trembling, "I didn't-"

"And what would have happened if somebody else were to hear this?" she lectured, "I know you still think life is nothing more than some game, but you're a future pack leader, and a HIGHLY controversial one at that. What would the traditionalists think if they heard you say this? Do I even need to remind you of what they did to that poor kid who whistled at a female alpha when she walked by last month? We should all be grateful that someone caught them, because if they hadn't, that poor little boy would probably be in the ground right now. So the next time you wanna go off galavanting with your pals, be mindful of what you say or do. Because if the traditionalists don't do something about it, I can assure you... I will..."

With this said, she turned back to me.

"I'll leave you alone now," she said through a cheeky, toothy grin, "I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about."

Without another word, or even a gesture, she turned and padded out of our den, leaving us alone.

Humphrey's P.O.V.

The tension in the air in this moment was so thick that it was almost palpable. I didn't know what to expect from my mate as we two sat across from each other, because I had never seen her this upset before in my life. She flexed her claws into the dirt, every hair on her back was bristled on end and the rage tremors that coursed over her body caused her teeth to chatter.

"Kate, I-" I began, hesitantly.

"I think you need to leave," she stated, coldly, in an empty, dead tone.

I could tell in this moment that she was trying to remain composed, or perhaps she was so enraged that her body was temporarily locked in place by the fury that burned within. Seeking to appease her, I didn't even attempt to argue.

"Where should I go?" I asked her nervously.

"I don't know and I don't care," she replied in bitter indifference, "but wherever you go, I think you should seriously consider wether or not you want to be a part of this relationship anymore, and I'll do the same. Now get out."

I didn't even say a word as I slowly picked myself up off of my haunches and began to make my way toward the mouth of the den. As I walked, my stomach churned even more violently than it had when I first awoke that morning and about half way down the ramp that led to my home, I hung my head over the side and emptied my guts onto the ground below. I picked my head up and wiped my mouth, but then my stomach heaved again and again I hung my head over the side of the ramp. The third heave brought me to my stomach and I continued to regurgitate everything I had until finally there was nothing left and I simply lied there with my head draped over the side of the ramp.

"You goddamn idiot..." I mumbled to myself, "stupid, fucking idiot..."