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Kate's P.O.V.

I don't know why the case suddenly began to click for me, but- and I hate to say this, I think it had something to do with Humphrey's departure to A-School a couple days prior. I think that without him around to distract me, I could actually take the time to really sit and think as I went through my daily grooming routine. That little bit of personal time where I would reflect upon my day, my stresses, or any open cases usually yielded some rather groundbreaking results, and that morning was no different. When the notion that I should pay our liberated neighbors to the north another visit came to me, I nearly dismissed it, because it seemed rather redundant at that point. After all, we had already conducted interviews with their leadership and came up empty, but I could not shake the thought that Charlie was somehow the key to the entire case.

The thought came to me as I submerged my body into the lake near my home. The water was cold and it caused my body to shiver, but I would regularly shock my body in this way so that I could relax my muscles and remain limber for fights, hunts, or in order to blow my husband's mind in the sack. It was miserable, of course, but the results were well worth the suffering in every aspect of my life. Anyway, not my point. The point is: On that day as my body shook from the water's icy bite, I found myself wishing that I had slightly thicker fur to better insulate myself and maybe make that part of my routine just a little bit more bearable, and that's when it hit me.

Charlie had been flayed prior to being dumped in the field and we were never able to recover his hide, but there was still enough pelt there that we were able to piece together a decent fur sample. Now, I know it sounds gross, but a key part of evidence collection in an unidentified wolves case is to remove a section of their pelt so others who may have known the victim may see and smell it, and maybe be able to identify its owner. I remembered that his fur had struck me as odd, because I had never seen fur so thick on any wolves in my home, and it wasn't until a more experienced detective who was also a seasoned combat veteran linked the thicker coat to the cold and unforgiving climate that he experienced in his campaign up north.

"Hides so thick you could barely get your teeth in 'em," he recalled as he regaled us with stories from his days as a spec ops tactician.

It was for that reason that we went to the North in search of answers the first time, but their records reported no missing wolves, so we were forced to pursue other options. But as I stood up to my neck in that frigid water, I found myself wondering: What if there was something they weren't telling us? I mean, we dismissed it at the time, but in that moment as I thought about it, I realized that it would make sense. Even though we had successfully freed them from their ruthless dictator, we had caused a great deal of civil unrest and, in spite of the fact that they were still a sovereign territory, we had been acting as an occupying force there for several months. It was clear that they wanted us out of their affairs, and they were not too fond of our efforts to impose our Western ideologies on them. So tensions and distrust were to be expected, and as I considered it from that angle, the more likely it seemed that they would deliberately withhold information from us. It was then that I decided that it was worth another look, so I cut my routine short and prepared to make the journey north.

Humphrey's P.O.V.

I'll never forget Zero Week for as long as I live. My instructor, Miles, was a tough, pitiless bastard who would not settle for anything less than absolute perfection from his troops. He drilled us from sunup to sundown, and any infractions on military bearing, facing movements or personal appearance would be met with harsh punishment. I remember on one such occasion, a young recruit performed a left face as opposed to a right, and because of that little blunder, we were sentenced to a ten mile march in the middle of the night through unforgiving marshlands. That was only one of many of the grueling punishments we endured, but if I took the time to tell you about the hell we went through under that man's command, we'd be here all day, so I'll move on to the other titular character in my A-School experience.

It was during Zero Week that I also met the wolf who would become one of my greatest nemeses. He was a young, violent recruit named Gage, and he made his distaste for me well-known from the day we were assigned to the same unit. From the jump, I knew that he would be my greatest challenge in my A-School experience. It wouldn't be the grueling punishments, the training, or the physical and mental fatigue. It would be him, and it wasn't long before I realized just how right I was. We were at odds nearly every minute of every day, and, even though I was not a violent wolf by nature, he would constantly try to pick fights with me, or with those who would defend me, and while some were more patient than others, eventually we- yes, myself included, would grow weary of it and we would try to settle our disagreements with teeth and fangs. It was usually a wash, who would come up victorious.

I like to think that I won some of those fights, and I know on more than a few occasions I got my ass handed to me, but in spite of the violence, and the erosion of both conduct and discipline among the recruits, neither of us were assigned to another unit. In fact, Miles had a rather peculiar approach to these fights. Unless he felt that a student was in danger of serious physical harm, any time a fight would break out, he would not step in or try to break it up. Rather, he would simply sit off to the side, wait for it to end and then administer punishments based upon who had won or lost. I still can't figure out why he chose to handle those fights in such a manner, because the tensions between us were never resolved by fighting. In fact, it seemed that with each physical altercation, the bad blood between us only continued to curdle and coagulate. It was uncertain what the tipping point for us would be, but it was all coming to a head, and unless we somehow managed to resolve our differences, we knew that it would likely only end with one of us dead.

Kate's P.O.V.

A frigid wind caused the fur on my back to bristle as I sat outside the den and my body trembled as it struggled to ward off the unseasonably cold, mountain air. I cursed bitterly beneath my breath and wrapped my tail tightly around my paws, but I lifted my eyes when a soft scrape of paws entered my ears. Beside me, I saw the Northern Pack's Head Detective and I immediately rose to my paws to greet him.

"Detective Gaites," I greeted as warmly as the oppressive cold would allow.

"You look cold," he replied, bluntly.

His terse, inhospitable response caught me off guard and I immediately felt my confidence begin to deflate.

"Oh, um, I mean... a bit, yeah," I stammered as I struggled to recompose myself, "like, hello? Mountains, don't you know it's only autumn?"

He afforded me no response. Rather, he only stared silently at me with intense, blue eyes that seemed to pierce my body to my very soul.

"Eh-heh," I chuckled, nervously as I averted my gaze to a point just behind him, "yeah..."

His icy glare narrowed as his face fell into a look of deep annoyance.

"So, you are here to waste my time?" he inquired, impatiently, "is that it?"

My eyes widened.

"What? No!" I spat, quickly, "I-I just have a few follow-up questions for you is all."

He rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he replied, dismissively, then silently motioned for me to follow him into his den.

I gladly accepted his invitation to be out of the wind and followed him hastily inside.

"So the information I gave your detectives the last time you were here wasn't enough?" he asked me, passive-aggressively.

"Oh, no. You've been very helpful," I replied, quickly, "and I appreciate your time and your cooperation. I just wanted to be thorough and make sure there wasn't anything that my detectives may have missed."

"If you say so," he huffed, "so, what would you like to know?"

"If I may, I'd like to review any missing wolves reports that you may have filed in the last six months," I replied as I worked to steady my nerves."

"As I told your detectives before, we don't have any missing wolves reports on file for that period of time, because we haven't had any alphas go missing in almost two years," he replied, pointedly, "so I don't know what you expect to achieve here."

"Oh..." I replied, dejectedly as I lowered my eyes, but as his words replayed in my mind, a realization flashed into my mind and I lifted my gaze to his once more.

"Wait," I asserted, "You said you didn't have any alphas go missing in almost two years."

"Yeah," he said, sarcastically, "I don't recall stuttering."

"Well, what about omegas?" I asked him pensively.

"What about them?" he asked me, dismissively.

"Did you have any omegas go missing in the last six months?" I inquired.

"You know what? Come to think of it, I guess we did have that one omega disappear on us several months ago," he recalled, "Called itself Elias, I think?"

The purest excitement washed over me as his words entered my ears, but I knew better than to let myself get excited, so I maintained my professionalism and mentally composed myself once more."

"Was he missing when we came here last time?" I probed.

"Probably," he replied with a shrug, "When were your guys here last?"

"About 3 months ago," I answered.

"Ah. Yeah," he said, flatly, "It was gone already, yes."

I cocked my head slightly, confused.

Wait. If he was gone already, then why didn't you report him missing?" I pressed.

At this, he chuckled derisively as he lowered his eyes.

"Look, Princess," he began condescendingly, "in case you didn't notice, we do things a little bit differently than you 'wokes' out there in the West. I'm sure it just destroys your bleeding heart to hear this, but omegas are not citizens here," he continued, "They're property, and its owner didn't seem to care that it ran off, so we just wrote it off as a minor loss of assets and moved on.

I had never been more disgusted in my life. I had heard rumors of a backwards, ignorant society from those who had been deployed to the North, but I always assumed they were wild exaggerations. I know that in the West our history with omegas was not exactly pretty, but I liked to think that we had taken major steps toward rectifying our mistakes, and I figured that others had gotten with the times and followed suit. I never imagined that in this day and age a place such as that could actually still exist.

"Well don't you think his family would care?" I asked him with a hint of venom in my tone.

"It didn't have a family," he replied, apathetically, "it randomly turned up here about a year ago so we just kinda threw it up on the auction block with the others."

His refusal to speak about omegas as wolves infuriated me, but I swallowed this anger and continued my interview.

"Okay..." I began through the bottom of a collective breath, "do you remember what Elias looked like? Can you give me any details at all?"

"I don't know," he stated with a shrug, "Kinda scrawny? Reddish fur? It's hard to say. I don't pay very much attention to the underkind."

I suppressed a growl as that awful slur churned my stomach.

"Something wrong?" he asked me, sarcastically.

It was at that point that I realized he was trying to get a rise out of me, but I refused to give him the satisfaction and pressed on.

"Not a thing," I replied as I produced the leaf that enveloped Charlie's fur sample then opened it.

"Is there any chance at all that this was him?" I inquired as I placed the pelt on the ground before him.

He lowered his nose to it and sampled it with a quick sniff.

"Smells like one of ours, so probably, yeah," he said, "What happened to it?"

"HE was murdered by an unknown attacker around 3 months ago," I answered as I felt my frustrations begin to mass, "and we have reason to believe that whoever killed him is responsible for the murder of two more citizens from my pack."

To my surprise, the news came as a shock to him and his entire demeanor changed.

"Oh. Shit..." he said, blankly.

"Yeah," I replied, firmly, "so if you have any information at all about the day he disappeared that would be greatly appreciated.

"Okay. Yeah." he stammered, "Sure. Um..."

"Oh, and just one more tiny thing," I interrupted.

I knew that I had swayed the conversation in my favor and I was not about to release any of the power I had just obtained back to him.

"What's that?" he asked me.

"I am the future leader of the Western Pack and you will give me the respect that I am owed," I demanded, sternly, "Further more, as you might well know, my husband is an omega, and if you disrespect him, then you disrespect me," I continued as I stepped closer to him, "So as long as you are in my presence, you will refer to them as wolves. Not property. Understand?"

A hint of fear flashed briefly in his eyes, but he quickly moved into damage control and tried to regain his hold on the situation.

"And if I don't?" he replied, smugly.

A pitiful bluff.

"Then I'll be sure that you learn the taste of your own manhood," I said, darkly as I glared into his once powerful eyes.

Oh, don't act so shocked. I am my mother's daughter, after all.

"Are you threatening me, omega-lover?" he challenged.

Another pitiful bluff.

"Nope," I replied, plainly as I ran my eyes down to his pathetic, little sheath.

I chuckled, derisively, which drew his eyes below his waist.

"Threats are for sad, little eunuchs like you," I mocked as I took his penis into my paw and tightly squeezed.

He yelped in pain and tried to pull away, but I held him firmly and pressed my nose forcefully against his.

"I'm making you a promise," I sneered as I tightened my grip.

His eyes flashed up to meet mine and he winced and shifted nervously.

"So, here's what's gonna happen," I growled in a heightened whisper, "You are gonna tell me everything that I want to know. When you speak of Elias, you will refer to him by name, and when we are finished, you will thank me for the valuable lesson I have just taught you. Nod if you understand."

He gulped and nodded quickly.

"Good," I said, brightly through what I'm certain must have been a very unsettling smile as I released my grip on his meat, "I'm glad to see that we understand one another."

I stepped back and took a seat as the shaken alpha trembled before me and nursed his afflicted area.

"Now," I began as I wrapped my tail around my paws, "From the beginning, Mr Gaites..."