Over the next year, a lot happened to the pack.

Angel and Arius continued leading as Alphas and caring for Faith and Tato. As the two pups grew, Faith was known to be the outgoing and curious one. Tato was shy, secluded, but very smart and talented. They both got along well with each other and the other pups, and they always loved hearing the story of Angel and Arius's adventure. After a few days of birth, they noticed a weird red marking under Faith's fur. Angel supposed it was the gem Miles said was in one of her pups.

Keighley remained Mates with Jake, and eventually became pregnant with pups of her own. About five months later, she gave birth to four pups, whom she named the two boys Beta and Delta, and the two girls Gamma and Omega. They all enjoyed their names and it gained the small pups some attention. Keighley had a hope to find peace in the dream realm once and for all.

After the battle, Sierra became known as the Guardian of the Dream Realm. She protected it with her heart, and believe it or not, changed a lot. She went back to the wolf Keighley had described to Angel. She had a feeling one day she would make it out of the dream realm. She got lucky, though. One day, a wolf appeared in the realm, and he fell for Sierra. Sierra liked him too, so he decided to spend most of his days with Sierra in the Dream Realm, which made Sierra extremely happy.

Kade lost his red ball, but after a moment. He didn't seem to mind much. He started helping out Baylee in the hospital wings, treating other pups. He mainly worked on cuts and colds, but he enjoyed it whatsoever.

Naomi stayed a hunter, but she never was promoted back up to the mater hunter. She was a lot nicer to everyone, especially Angel. She even was able to find Arius a large pig migration, which made his day. That night, everyone are delicious pig, and everyone had too agree: It was amazing.

Jake was later named the head caregiver, since the old one had unfortunately been killed in the heat of battle. He worked along side one other wolf, and he would always say it was hectic. Although, in the end, he was able to get on fine.

Everyone else seemed to get on perfectly fine otherwise. There was a nice friendly atmosphere usually everyday.

They had also been able to figure a few things out. Glade, whom had been mentioned before by Dontas who proclaimed he was the leader of a group called the darkness, was a wolf who was a member of this pack many, many years ago. How could he be alive? And the cliff where Angel saw the spirit of Keighley, someone else found it and saw their mate's spirit. Angel knew she wasn't the only one who saw it.

One day, it was late at night. Faith and Tato were with Keighley and Jake, sleeping over with their pups. Angel and Arius decided to leave the den for the night and go on a walk. They had a guard (They had to pick new ones, as the guards that survived left) escort them at a distance, letting Angel and Arius have their privacy. Eventually, Arius said the guard could go rest, and he nodded and waked off to the den.

The two of them walked off together through the woods quietly for a moment until Angel spoke up. "Arius..."

"Yeah?" Arius replied, inching closer to Angel.

"I still can't put a paw on everything that happened..." Angel mumbled, leaning close to Arius as they walked.

"You mean before Faith and Tato?" Arius asked.

"Yeah." Angel confirmed. "Why do you think it all happened?"

"You know, you can't always control things out of your reach."

"I know, I know." Angel said. "But maybe there was a reason it happened to me and you?"

"Faith." Arius said immediately. "If the whole deal with the gems is true, Glade's cronies are probably after her."

"But why do you think she was chosen to behold the gem?" Angel asked. Arius stayed quiet as they made it to the top of the cliff where the spirits were seen.

"Angel, I need to tell you a story..." Arius said, sitting down next to Angel. "When I was a pup, my Grandpa was the sweetest ol' man you ever had met. He would always play with me no matter how tired he was, if his back was hurting, he would still lift me up."

"Sounds nice." Angel said.

"But... One day he got attacked." Angel gasped. "He survived, but he kept living his life in fear. Whenever I went to visit him, he would panic and nearly have a heart attack. On his birthday we gave him a surprise and he almost killed someone."

"That sounds... Terrible." Angel mumbled, leaning her head on Arius's.

"It was." Arius said with a sigh. "But... The day he died, I was the only one there to see him pass. I stood by him crying as he laid on the floor. I remember he looked up at me and said, 'Don't live the way I did. In fear of the past.' And he took his last breath." Angel could see tear trail through the fur on his face. Angel scooted closer to him.

"I never worry about the past anymore. Of course, I keep it in mind, but I don't constantly think about it and fear it. Like my gramps did." Arius finished. "And I know Faith will be OK under the packs protection." Angel looked down off the cliff as a misty vision of Faith and Tato rolling around together playfully roughhousing appeared.

"I think we will be OK." Angel said, looking up at the full moon which had appeared from behind the clouds.

"I agree." Arius said. "Everything will be OK, my Angel." Angel smiled and looked up as the sounds of howling filled the night sky.

~~~The End~~~