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Humphrey's P.O.V.

The afternoon slowly waned into the evening as Kate and I sat silently on the slab podium and watched the pack's alphas slowly trickle into the den as we all awaited the arrival of the Official Party. Though sidelong glances were cast between all who entered and those who already occupied the den, no words were exchanged. After all, there were no words to describe the horror that we'd found that morning, nothing that could ease the tension in the den or bring comfort to those who loved him. There was only despair and dread as the memory of what we'd found that morning still burned fresh in all of our minds. Beside me, my mate sat stoically, but I knew that her poise was nothing more than a show of strength for those who entered our home. Though they didn't always see eye to eye, in recent months, he had grown to become one of her closest friends, and for him to meet such a brutal, bloody end... I couldn't even imagine the pain that she felt.

I turned my eyes out over the sea of solemn faces which surrounded me, but my eyes quickly flashed over to the mouth of the den when a familiar voice called the room to attention. Quickly, we all rose to our paws as Winston, Eve, and their trusted Beta, Hutch, entered the den.

"Carry on," Winston said flatly as he made his way to the podium before the crowd.

The wolves before us settled back onto their haunches as the Official Party came to a halt by our side. Winston made brief eye contact with Kate and, able to sense his daughter's pain, he placed a gentle paw upon her shoulder before he turned to address the crowd of alphas who sat before us. He cleared his throat as he ran his eyes over the sea of spectators.

"I'd like to begin tonight's meeting with a moment of silence for our fallen comrade," he said, hoarsely then lowered his head.

The den fell deathly quiet as all in attendance closed their eyes and bowed their heads. Then, after about ten seconds had passed, Winston lifted his head.

"Thank you," he thanked and everyone lifted their heads once more.

"I think we all know why we are here tonight," he began as he ran his eyes over the crowd, "Candu's murder marks the second in the span of two weeks, and..."

As he spoke, I allowed my eyes to slowly drift over the crowd and I remember feeling this indescribable sense of eeriness wash over me as I gazed upon their bleak, exhausted faces. Though they tried their best to mask it, I could see that they were scared. What started with caribou and rabbit corpses had quickly devolved into a sinister game of terror and torment, and now with two members of our pack slain, and no leads to help bring their killer to justice, what we had all previously been too afraid to consider had become bitter reality: Nobody was safe. Any one of us could be next, and there was no way to know who would be targeted, where or when.

"...don't know much, but the 'Artist' appears to be an opportunistic killer who hunts in the cover of darkness and preys upon those who are alone. So for the foreseeable future, we will be enforcing a mandatory curfew for all non-essential pack members. Additionally, from this point on, all alphas will be assigned a partner, and no omega will be allowed to leave their dens without an alpha escort. No exceptions."

This drew a few soft, disgruntled groans from the audience, and I honestly couldn't say that I blamed them. Nobody wanted to have to take time out of their day to babysit me or any other omega, nor did they want to have their freedoms limited in such a manner, but at the same time, I was relieved beyond words to know that my mate would return home before dark every day and never be out and about on her own.

"Humphrey, Kate," Winston said to us, "as the future leaders of this pack, you must learn to be effective delegators, so I will be counting on you two to brief the omegas about these new mandates and address any concerns that may arise. Is that understood?"

"Yes, alpha," my mate and I answered simultaneously, though inside I had my reservations about it.

So far, I had done everything in my power to show the other omegas, and my friends especially, that I was on their side, that I was still one of them. After all, in spite of the social progress we had made over the past few decades, the trust between the omegas and the alphas was still very strained, and I didn't want to have to be the one to tell them that we would be stripping them of several of their liberties. Though it may have only been a nagging sense of paranoia, as these new mandates were issued for the express purpose of keeping them safe, and the freedoms we needed them to sacrifice seemed very menial, I couldn't shake the fear that they may be viewed by those who were old enough to remember the apartheid or its affects as yet another way for the alphas to oppress them. After all, time had proven over and over again that the demand for small sacrifices of freedom in exchange for security would inevitably grow until the only right that anyone had left was to remain defenseless against the will of their government. Up until that point, to the omega, the alpha was the face of tyranny and oppression, but with me as the representative of both alphas and omegas, I knew that I walked a thin line.

If mine was the face that they associated with oppression, and the faith that they vested in me was to become frayed, I shuttered to imagine what would happen. After all, radicalism was not exclusive to the alphas, or to the Traditionalists. Though many of the radical omegas were old heads, they still had a fairly strong influence upon the easily impressionable, and upon those who felt as though the system had always been, and always would be designed to keep them down. I just hoped that the abolishment of the Purity Law, and the progress that I represented would be enough for me to convince them that we had not begun to regress into old practices and ideals.

Kate's P.O.V.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

My father used to say that to me and my sister when we were young and the ever-changing world in which we grew up would leave us baffled, but I never really understood what he meant by that until my mate and I stood before the omegas that evening. The news was met with backlash, as I fully anticipated, but I never imagined that they would turn on Humphrey so quickly. My mate was meant to act as the bridge between our two classes, but instead, he was seen by them as nothing more than a turncoat. In their eyes, he had sold out his identity and his culture for a seat at the table of privilege and now that he had tasted the fruits that that life had to offer, he had forgotten where he came from and become nothing more than yet another oppressor. This, of course, was far from the truth, but the events of that briefing made me realize that, in spite of the strides we'd made in both civil rights and social equality, we were no different on that day than we were thirty years ago.

Alphas were still alphas, and omegas were still only as free and equal as the alphas allowed them to be. Though the Purity Law had been abolished and it seemed as though we had finally torn down the walls that divided us, the long, ugly history and the distrust that it bred still remained. I wished in that moment that I had understood all of this as a pup. If I had, perhaps I could have seen the world beyond the myopic lens of my own life and gained the perspective and wisdom I would need in order to heal the wounds that history had inflicted upon them and truly bring our two classes together. But the sad reality of it was: In spite of my life-long friendship with, and marriage to, Humphrey, I had subconsciously, and perhaps even purposefully separated myself from him. It was possible that at one point I had even placed myself above him and henceforth perpetrated the very social and civil divisiveness we were trying to dissolve.

I hated to think that I at one point had been so ignorant, but I suppose I was merely a product of my upbringing. Like the others who grew up around me, I never questioned the caste system we had established. I never stopped to consider the struggle that our separate, but equal citizens faced on a day to day basis. Rather, I simply towed the lines of tradition and lived my days blind to the injustices that surrounded me, because I just assumed that that was how things always had been and that that was how they always would be. But then again, having grown up on the side that most benefitted from the system we had in place at that time, I had no reason to suspect that it was flawed, because, as far as I knew, it worked and everyone was happy. If only I could have known just how wrong I was...

Humphrey's P.O.V.

Their harsh, angered words and their pointed glares burned in my mind as the dinner which my mate had fetched for me lied untouched before my paws. Kate sat across from me and silently worried away at what little meat remained on the bone from which she had previously picked chunks of flesh as she tried to ignore the awkwardness which lingered in the air of the den like the foul stench of death. Neither one of us had spoken a word since the briefing finally drew to a close, but as time wore on, it became increasingly hard to ignore the elephant in the room. Without the appetite to eat, I simply batted the meat before me gently with my paws until finally Kate's voice cut through the silence.

"Humphrey, are you..." she began, hesitantly, but then faltered as our eyes met, "are you gonna eat that?"

She lifted her eyes to me once more, and as our gazes intertwined, I could see the questions and concern which burned within her, but I was in no mood to talk. Hell, even if I was, I had no idea what I would even say, so without a word, I pushed my meal across the ground to her then rose and moved slowly toward the back of the den. Silence enveloped me as I then sat down and stared emptily at the wall. Though I could not see her, I could feel her gaze upon my back. I tried to ignore it, but as the silent minutes dragged on and her eyes continued to bore deeper and deeper into me, I eventually sighed, softly and lowered my head.

"If you really wanna know, no," I said, bitterly and then turned my eyes to the wall once more, "I'm not okay. This has been one of the worst days of my life."

I heard a gentle scrape of paws behind me as Kate rose and slowly approached. Without a word, she traversed the distance between us and once she drew near to my left shoulder, I heard her finally stop. There was a brief moment in which the entire world around me appeared to freeze in place and then I felt her lay a gentle paw upon my back and then begin to gingerly run it through my fur. At her touch, I softly sighed and turned my head to her. Beneath the blanket of silence, our eyes met as she took a seat beside me and she offered a soft, comforting smile. As I gazed into her warm, loving eyes, I could feel them begin to lead my anguished mind to a place of peace and comfort. Ordinarily I would gladly give in and allow myself to drown in the tranquil pools into which her stare would place me, but the lament which consumed me proved to be too great and I lowered my gaze once more.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Kate asked me as she arrested her paw upon my back.

"There's nothing to talk about," I replied, hoarsely, "What's done is done. My friends hate me, and unless we can bring the Artist to justice, many of them will probably die hating me."

"They don't hate you, Humphrey," Kate comforted, "they're just scared and confused, like we all are."

"Did you not hear what they said?" I demanded, flatly, "I mean, I can take a little crow from the general public. I'm used to that at this point, but Salty, my best friend in the whole fucking world, told me that I should kill myself, and honestly, I'm starting to think that he's right."

"Humphrey, please don't talk like that," Kate said, sternly, "I know that these past few months have been hard, but you're stronger than this. I know you are."

I sighed as I lowered my eyes.

"Honestly, I'm not so sure," I replied, morosely, "I thought I could handle this, but I don't think I can ever be as strong as you need me to be."

A silence fell in this moment as my mate sat behind me and listened.

"I thought I belonged here, Kate," I continued, "I thought that we were changing things for the better, but ever since we got married, things have only gotten worse."

In this moment, I could feel the anger that I had repressed since the day we recovered Janice's body from the scavengers begin to boil in my stomach.

"Every decision we've made, every compromise we've reached in order to try to bring everyone together has only driven us farther apart," I growled, "and now, thanks to my mistakes, we have a fucking serial killer in our pack!"

As these angered words left my mouth, I lashed out at the wall with my paw and split the skin to the bone, but to the pain and the blood, I took no heed. A silence filled the air in the den as I lowered my head and tried to fight the tremors which raced across my body. I could feel Kate's eyes upon me in this moment, but she remained silent and simply comforted me with a gentle paw.

"I should have just listened to them," I finally continued as I felt sadness begin to consume me, "I should have known that a life with you would never work out, but I was too stubborn to listen. And now Janice and Candu are dead, and it's all my fault. I have to live the rest of my life knowing that they died because of me."

"Humphrey, their deaths were not your fault," Kate comforted as she slid around to my side, "there's a great evil that exists in this pack. One with no form and no true identity; a generational, fatal, disease that has plagued us since the dawn of time. It cyclically spreads through our world, unchecked, unchallenged, begetting itself and destroying everything in its path. We allow it to convince us that we are to blame, but in truth, we are nothing more than weapons that it uses to exact its destructive will upon ourselves and each other."

She paused for a moment as my gaze upon her seemed to make her falter.

"The Artist may have spilled their blood, but that senseless hate that we inherited from our forefathers is what really killed them," she continued, though less sure of herself now, "just as it does to any who try to stand in its way."

I lowered my eyes and stared silently down upon my wounded paw for a moment.

"If that's the case, then does any of this truly matter?" I asked her, distantly, "I mean... if hate is our birthright, then, is it even possible for us to realize the better tomorrows that we envision? Or are we doomed to lose ourselves to our ideals because we've somehow convinced ourselves that we actually CAN be better... that we even deserve better?"

A silence fell and in this moment, Kate deposited a gentle paw on mine.

"Look, Humphrey, I don't claim to have all the reasons, or the answers," Kate began, "but what I do know is this: Change starts with one, and even though nobody ever could have predicted it when you first came here, YOU are the change that we need and the change that we deserve. I know there are a lot of wolves in this pack and beyond whose hatred of their fellow man has made it difficult to see the good that you've done, but I promise you, Humphrey: We are not doomed. Sure, things may be so dark right now that a better tomorrow seems impossible, but those brighter days that we seek will come in time. All we have to do is keep our heads high and keep pushing. Please don't give up on everything that we've worked so hard for."

As her wise words echoed in my mind, I lifted my eyes from my paws and returned them to the wall before me once more. A silence fell in the air between us as we sat together in the back of our den. So many thoughts and emotions tore the fabrics of my mind asunder in this moment that I didn't know what to think or how to feel, so I ultimately decided to retreat into the comforting embrace of what I knew to be true. In those days of violence and hate, my mate and I were lost in the depths of hell, but at least we were there together, and so long as we had each other, we could face anything. A soft smile finally formed upon my lips and I lifted my eyes to my faithful mate who sat by my side like a beacon of light amid the turbulent sea of darkness into which my mind had drifted, and as I basked in the gentle glow that she cast upon me, I allowed my ship to rest upon her gentle shores and I pulled her into my arms.

"Thank you, Kate."