Chapter 11: Eastern Meeting

While Kate and Humphrey continued towards the river, Winston, Eve, Garth, and Lilly were already there waiting for them to arrive. Winston was anxiously pacing back and forth along the river bank while thinking about what he was going to say to Tony, the others sat close kwa and watched him while buried in their own thoughts. This continued for several dakika until finally the sound of rustling bushes hinted the arrival of the two Mbwa mwitu loups they have been waiting for. Winston stopped his pacing and looked back to see the sight of his daughter walking closely beside Humphrey, he lightly smiled.

"Ah good wewe guys made it" He alisema as the two stopped in front of them.

"Sorry were late, we had to make a stop while moving through the pack since one of Humphrey's Marafiki spotted him." Kate replied

"Yeah, but it was nice to see them again" Humphrey added with a smile, being back in Jasper was such a great feeling to him.

Winston nodded before looking at him "Well it's nice to have wewe back in the pack Humphrey"

"Thank wewe sir, on good terms I hope?"

"Yes but we can catch up later, we should be going" He stated before turning away.

Hearing that was a bit of a relief to Humphrey, Kate had told him that Winston was okay with all of this but hearing it from himself was zaidi comforting. As the old mbwa mwitu began to walk towards the river Humphrey greeted the others and even received a hug from Lilly but even zaidi surprising was seeing Kate's mother so calm and collected. She smiled at him and repeated Winston's words to an extent, he figured he would be pinned to the dirt kwa now, much like what happened the last time they met. He felt so welcomed, after all that had happened during the past months he never expected to see Kate's parents okay with it. He smiled to himself before following alongside Kate as they crossed the river with the others. Once across everyone began the trek up the steep grade that eventually led to the eastern pango grounds.

"So how does it feel to be back in Jasper Humphrey?" Lilly asked starting conversation

"It feels great, it's nice to be able to see the beauty that is this place again." He replied

"That's good"

"Is the plan to just talk to Tony and get him to agree?" He then asked

"Pretty much, yeah." Kate answered

"The 'getting him to agree' part won't be easy" Garth said

"So I've heard, but I think this will all go well. We do have your parents on our side after all." Humphrey alisema looking at Kate and Lilly.

"Yeah, yeah, hopefully. hujambo Garth did your dad ever become suspicious of wewe like my parents were?" Kate asked

"Not really, I don't talk to him as much as I used since I moved in with you. Though I guess when I did see him and he would ask how things were going I'd struggle to come up with things. Which I guess made him wonder at times but he never alisema anything that would make me think he was on to me." Garth replied

They all nodded, Winston and Eve were a little ways ahead of the rest of them so they weren't paying attention to what they were talking about. "I take it wewe aren't very close with wewe dad?" Kate asked.

He shook his head and sighed "Unfortunately, yeah." He alisema before a pause, letting the sound of the rain fill the silence. "I was always close to my mother as a pup but when she passed my dad could never fill in that gap."

Lilly already knew the story because she had asked him about his mother one night, however Kate and Humphrey did not know it. Kate knew that his mother had passed because that much was apparent, but she never realized that Garth and his father weren't very close. Now wasn't the best time to learn what had happened, but maybe someday in the future she could get the full story.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I never realized that wewe aren't very close" She replied in a low tone

"It's alright I don't mind it anyway, I was already an alpha when she passed so I didn't need any zaidi parenting." He said

"Maybe wewe two just need to spend zaidi time around each other" Humphrey suggested.

"I appreciate it Humphrey, but it is what it is."

"Let's change the subject, we shouldn't be pulling his sprit down before he has to face his father." Lilly said.

The others agreed and began to talk about what things they have been up to besides what they were doing right now. Humphrey told Lilly a little about how he managed to live on his own out in the unclaimed forest. He brought up how Kate and Jake had taught him to hunt and how to protect himself, as well as continuing to play his omega games. Lilly as well as Garth just smiled at how he made it all seem so enjoyable, for an omega he did quite well during his time being a lone wolf. As the four continued to talk Winston and Eve were having their own conversations, mostly about what would be the plan of action once everything is finished here. Winston wanted to hold a pack meeting tonight in order to announce the news, whether it was going to good au bad news has yet to be decided. He just hoped the pack would be understanding and actually agree to Kate and Garth divorcing and marrying their omega loves.

The eastern pango grounds came into view as the group made their way through the forest, while the western pango area was on the side of a kilima the eastern one was very flat. In the middle was the old leaders den, mostly just a tall mound of dirt built up with a hollow center. This was the first time Humphrey had ever been over to the eastern side so this was all brand new to him, he looked around at all the other dens around and then up at the clouds wewe could see between the tall pine trees. While to him it wasn't as spectacular as his own pango ground, but it defiantly did have zaidi dens. There were a few Mbwa mwitu loups around that were doing their own things, but most of them did look up to notice the group as they headed for Tony's den. They were kind of confused as to why they were all together to see Tony but didn't think much of it, after all it was probably just leadership stuff they were doing.

Tony's pango was defiantly a large one, it could fit all six of them comfortably sitting in a mduara, duara along the walls, including Tony himself. He was surprised to suddenly see so many Mbwa mwitu loups enter his pango at one time. "Winston, Eve, what brings all of wewe here?" He asked while turning to face them.

"Well it seems that we have a slight problem that we need wewe to help straighten out." Winston answered casually as they all took a kiti, kiti cha in the den.

"What happened? The omegas aren't uigizaji up again are they?" He asked

Winston shook his head "No everything is still great with them, the problem lies with Garth and Kate."

"To say the least, we want a divorce" Kate blurted out, she wanted to get right to the point so that they could all be done with this.

Tony looked at all of them for a moment before letting out a few laughs, Garth looked at his father confused. "...A divorce, oh that's a good one, wewe know Winston I don't have time to joke around." He alisema clearly thinking nothing of what Kate said.

"Dad we're serious, we want a divorce. Why would we joke around with such a thing?" Garth stated

Tony's expression quickly changed from happy to alert, never did he expect to hear those words come out about his son's marriage. At the same time he was confused, Garth always told him that thing with Kate had been going good so what happened? "What's going on here? Why do wewe two want a divorce all of a sudden when you've both alisema things have been great between wewe two?" He alisema eyeing the two

Kate was going to answer but Garth cut her off "Because we have been living a lie dad, things were never great between us, we're merely Marafiki at this point." He said.

"So? wewe still got plenty of time to get to know each other and fall in love." Tony answered

"No we will never fall in love," Garth corrected "because we have each fallen in upendo with someone else."

Tony was surprised to hear that, who could his son possibly upendo if he's never seen him around another female besides Kate? "Yesterday one of our patrols found that they both had left the territory so I sent two alphas out to investigate. When they returned Eve and I eventually discovered that they both had been hiding something from us. My daughter is in upendo with Humphrey and has been seeing him outside pack borders ever since the siku after the joining of the packs." Winston alisema causing Tony to immediately recognize who the young grey mbwa mwitu was in the den.

"Meanwhile your son has fallen in upendo with Lilly, and have been seeing each other for the same amount of time. They told me about wanting to get a divorce and at first I refused it but I finally agreed that they can divorce and abolish the law that keeps alpha and omegas apart as long as wewe would agree with it." Winston finished continuing to look at his old friend "So, do you?"

Tony had to let all that process in his head for a dakika before coming up with an answer "Do I agree with it? Winston have wewe Lost your mind, do wewe even realize what will happen if wewe let them divorce? We will lose the bond that keeps the packs together and everything he had worked so hard to achieve, I can't allow for that to be ruined just because they don't upendo each other." He responded.

The two couples already sensed that his wasn't going to end well, however it was the same way yesterday and look at what happened. "Don't even get me started on abolishing the law that keeps alphas and omegas from mixing, we can't end a law that has remained in existence for dozens of generations. Our alphas need to be pure au else we could lose all structure." He continued looking right back at Winston before turning to Garth. "Garth it is your responsibility to go through with this marriage for the good of the packs, the same goes for wewe Kate."

"Why dad?" Garth quickly replied "Why should I have to give up my life for the good of the packs, this marriage is only killing us. I'm sorry dad but I can't go on and have to live with a barrier between me and the life I desire."

"I will not allow for wewe to marry an omega, wewe are an alpha and should only be with another alpha."

"Again, why? What's so bad about us marrying omegas?"

"It's not our custom, it's the law for a reason and the only punishment for loving and omega is banishment." Tony stated, surprisingly the argument has continued to be in a normal tone.

"Tony your son and my daughter both deserve to have the upendo life they desire, I have realized that forcing them into marriage was the wrong thing to do. I know it's not right but I'm sure it will work out and peace will be kept between our packs if hujambo divorce." Eve said

He growled in frustration, what had gotten into everyone that was causing then to act this way? Winston and Eve should know all too well that it was foolish to go through with this. He should have known something was up that night he saw his son howling with Lilly while on his way to war with Winston's pack. Sure Eve was right that they both deserved a chance at true upendo but letting them marry omegas? No that was not right to him, he's heard what has happened to packs that have done the same and the results were not pleasant. He did not want to see his own pack suffer the same fate, he along with Winston and Eve worked too hard to get to where they were toady and that would not be ruined. Even if it hurt his own son's feelings, Garth and Kate needed to understand that this was for the best.

Back and forth the conversation went leaving Humphrey and Lilly the only two out of the loop, they didn't want to be a part of the argument so they just sat and listened. Humphrey let his thoughts run and distract him from what he liked to call "alpha business", Lilly on the other paw was feeling sorry for her love. While her parents could see sense in the fact that they deserved to be with who they wanted to be with, Tony seemed not to care. From what she heard he stated that the pack comes first no matter what, which was true statement when it came being an alpha. However she and Kate had grown to understand that family is just as important as serving the pack could ever be. It's a shame that Tony didn't think the same way according to his current behavior.

Winston wasn't very surprised kwa how much Tony refused a divorce, he had every right has a leader to enforce pack law. Yet even after his son reasoned with him that forcing him and Kate to stay together was not right Tony still refused. He had heard enough and decided that if he wasn't going to listen to reason then it was time for plan b, which was to have the pack decide. He was confident in the fact that altering the law would only boost the morale of the pack, the freedom of upendo was a powerful thing. Sadly his only friend could not see it the same way, he was always one for tradition so he just hoped that one siku he would understand.

"Alright Tony, of you're not going to agree with this then I will just do it myself. I will let the pack decide on what should happen tonight at the meeting, after all the choice should really be there's." Winston alisema after a pause.

"You're kidding me, what happened to wewe Winston? wewe of all Mbwa mwitu loups should understand just as well as I do that the pack should stay the way it is if it's going to thrive." Tony replied.

"No, I will not watch my daughters have to suffer from the choices we made, neither will I watch them have to leave the pack. wewe either accept this au wewe may never get to see your son again, they told me that if all went bad then they would leave Jasper." He said.

That seemed to make an impact on Tony, was he really only pushing his son away from him kwa doing this? He knew he was defeated, what was the point of fighting anymore. If the pack starts to fall apart then all he can say to Winston is "I told wewe so" before having to fix his mistake. He sighed and looked at the ground. "Just do what wewe need to do, I won't get in the way anymore. Now if you'll excuse me I would like some time to think." He alisema before turning away from them.

That wasn't quite the response Winston wanted to hear but it sounded like he would allow for him to go ahead and alter everything. He looked at the others and signaled for them to follow as he exited the den, he alisema farewell to Tony while doing so. Eve, Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey quickly followed without saying a word but Garth couldn't even bare to look at his father anymore. Of all Mbwa mwitu loups he expected him, his own father, to understand that he was in upendo with someone else. That wasn't the case and all he could do was sigh and shake his head as he exited the pango and out into the rain with the others.
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A/N: So it looks like Garth's and Tony's father son relationship has turned sour, perhaps after some time Tony will come to understand his sons decision. I'll be honest, to me this chapter seems kind of clumped together and maybe doesn't draw the line I want so to speak. Maybe I'm wrong though, maybe I'm just crazy and wewe thought this chapter was fine. Either way I can tell I am not the best at conflicts, but it's something I'm working on! That's enough blabbering about my problems; thank wewe for being patient while I took my time ilitumwa these last few chapters. I've just been busy with other things to write, but I can assure wewe that the story will still continue through the distractions! Cya.