*Blackjack's POV*

The morning came was too quickly for me. The sun shined into my antro, den brightly, rudely disturbing my sleep. I tried to roll over and relax for a few mor minutes, but then I remembered Candu's invitation to hunt with them. I stood up slowly to stretch my waking limbs which felt really good, until I remembered the dream I had.

I remembered only bits and pieces of it, but it seemed so real. I remembered looking down a large cliff at a massive river below. I didn't know why I was there, or what it meant, but the last thing I remember was jumping off into the water. Then I woke up. I shivered a bit as I thought back to it and tried to just shrug it off.

I stepped outside with the dream still buzzing around in the back of my head and I took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. It was relaxing enough to make me forget everything else and just enjoy the view for a second. I could see all the way down through the valley where we would be hunting, the sun was rising over the mountains in the distance, and the first few caribou were making their way out to graze. I heard my stomach grumble and wondered how long it had been since I had last eaten anything, and mais importantly, when Candu and Hutch would arrive.

"See I told you he could do it," I heard Candu say. I looked to my right and saw him right beside Hutch who still didn't seem very pleased por me. I still didn't know what I had done to make this guy so mad at me.

"Sure he can wake up early enough, but can he hunt," Hutch asked rhetorically. I just rolled my eyes and walked over to cadastrar-se them and they showed me where we would begin our hunt. It was a small break in the treeline, just enough to slip into the tall grama undetected. Waiting for us were two other lobos eagerly awaiting us. One was a female with golden tan pele, peles and amber eyes while the other was red-orange with verde mar, verde-mar eyes. They looked happy to see Hutch and Candu, but were confused to see me.

"Hey Kate, oi Garth, this is Blackjack.He showed up yesterday and can't remember a single thing about himself," Candu said introducing me.

"You must be the one I heard my parent's talking about yesterday, I'm Kate," the female said politely.

"I'm Garth, and I'm mates with Kate's sister Lilly," the male said with a wide beaming smile.

"Garth calm down, you let that much meat go to your head and you'll attract a bear," laughed Candu. Garth huffed and lowered himself to crawl into the field.

"Blackjack I want you and Hutch to go towards the end of the valley in case they try to run. Me, Candu, and Garth will hit them from behind and try to draw some your way," Kate explained. I nodded to let her know I understood but Hutch just let out an irritated growl. But he did as he was told and we made our way quietly to the end of the valley.

As we lay in wait neither of us said nothing. Hutch I guess was either so focused on the hunt he couldn't bring himself to talk, or he had some kind of grudge against me and didn't want to. Either way the quiet was way too irritating. I had to at least spark up a conversation long enough to occupy us until we had a chance to hunt.

"Why so quiet," I asked him. He just rolled his eyes at me like I should have known the answer.

"You should be focused on hunting right now, not talking," he replied as if he were scolding me.

"Come on, you have harrdly said a word to me since I've been here, it's like you don't want me here," I argued. He just let out a low annoyed growl signaling for me to shut up. Which was a good thing, because as I drew my attention back to the caribou, I noticed that our other three companions had already pounced onto one.

That howl of pain it let out was enough to warn the others of our precence, and they instantly darted towards me and Hutch. They were a good distance away, so we had a little bit of time to think of a plan before they got to us. The majority of them were directing striaght towards us, so hitting them head on was suicide.

"Break right," Hutch ordered. He and I must have been thinking of the same plan, because I was just about to tell him to break left. I darted off towards the right edge of the cliff and began looking around for a possible catch. I spotted a decent sized buck that was just far enough towards me that I could get him without being trampled.

I took the opportunity and leaped onto its back, sinking my fangs into its neck. It squealed in pain, and the momentum from my jump was enough to cause the buck to trip. Unfortunately, he fell and rolled, meaning i got rolled over a few times. Thankfully I didn't let go, and it fell cold dead in my jaws. I was filled with adrenaline and ready for another try.

I looked around and noticed Hutch having trouble keeping a grip on a larger caribou and started to notice a massive buck charging straight towards him. I instantly froze in fear, unsure of what to do. The other three were too far away to help, so I was Hutch's defense.

"Hutch look out," I shouted as I worked my way through the charging caribou. I felt the impact of their hooves against my sides as they cracked into me, but I kept on running towards him. Hutch must not have heard me because he was still oblivious to his attacker so I tried once again to get his attention.

"Hutch you're about to get hit look to your left," I screamed. Again he was unresponsive. I managed to work my way to the right side of the valley with a screaming pain in my right side. I ran as hard as I could to catch up to Hutch who recieved a kick to the shoulder from the caribou he was chasing. I looked left and saw the buck almost upon him.

"HUTCH," I screamed as I caught up to and tackled him to the ground. The force of my tackle sent us both rolling, just barely past the bucks antlers which would have made mince meat out of Hutch. I recovered from the ordeal quicker than Hutch and turned to face the agressor. It snarled at me and started to charge, then it let out a loud squeal of pain as Candu landed on it and sunk his claws into it.

Garth and Kate were right behind him and helped him bring down the larger than life buck. I looked back to see if Hutch was alright, but he wasn't there anymore. I began to get worried and looked around the valley to see him halfway back to the trees. His head was hung low and he was walking hurridly like he didn't want us to notice him.

"Hey guys I think we should go check on Hutch, I think something is wrong with him," I said with concern. They all looked over at him and I quickly rushed up behind him to see what the problem was.

"Hutch, what's wrong," I asked. He turned to me with his fangs bared and tears flowing down his eyes.

"You ruined everything, I could have had it, you just had to go and screw it all up," he screamed at me.

"Hutch calm down, he only wanted to help," Candu said stepping up beside me.

"Shut up, don't defend this outsider. Winston should have just let me kill him," he screamed even louder.

"Hutch please calm down, Blackjack just saved your life," Kate said stepping towards him.

"Keep away from me, all of you. This, thing, will do the same thing that the first one did, I'm trying to protect you, but don't come crying to me when he kills someone," Hutch shouted as he turned from us and shot off away from us. We just stood there, dumbstruck. His reaction was so sudden and violent, we didn't have time to really understand what had just happened.

"What was all of that," Garth asked. Candu just let out a dissapointed sigh and looked over to me.

"I knew this ano was going to be bad on him," Candu sighed.

"What are you talking about Candu," Kate asked.

"Oh yeah, you were at alpha school when it happened," Candu said in rememberance,

"When what happened," she asked irritably. Candu sighed and looked around nervously,

"Fine I'll tell you what happened, then maybe you'll understand why Hutch is atuação the way that he is,"

*Candu's Voice*

Yesterday was a two ano anniversary for Hutch. But it wasn't a pleasant one. See, Hutch used to have a mate. Her name was Victoria and he loved her mais than anything in the world.

Well a couple of weeks after they had become mates an outsider arrived. His name was Slade and he looked a lot like Blackjack does. Hutch was very nice to him. He would check up on him every day, talk with him, even invite him over to his antro, den just to talk. But them, well, Slade did something unforgivable.
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