Author's Note: THIS IS IT! THE FINAL CHAPTER IN GARTH'S STORY! YAY!

Sorry it took a little while longer. I had to make some "executive" decisions in regards to the plot. I ended up going with what I had pretty much planned all along. With that being said, I have a song suggestion: All This Time by Britt Nicole is a great song to listen to while reading this chapter. (Here you go. /watch?v=8h_9wp6sk5s Just open Google in a background tab and paste it into the search bar and it will be the first video that comes up. I highly recommend the song!) If you take the song suggestion, click play right when you see this symbol {}. ENJOY THE FINAL CHAPTER IN GARTH'S STORY!

Chapter Forty

"Garth! Garth! Wake up," a voice said cheerfully from outside Garth and Lilly's new den.

Garth rolled over from his resting position on Lilly and looked outside of the den. Tony waited for him and looked unusually happy. "What's going on?" Garth asked.

"You'd better find out for yourself! There's someone back at our den that wants to see you!" Tony answered.

Tony ran off back to his den with Garth sleepily jogging behind him. When they arrived, Garth sat down and waited outside of the den while Tony went inside to get this "visitor."

As Garth anxiously waited outside of his den, he tried to guess who could possibly be so in need to see him. He was too tired to think however, and before long he was very close to dozing off. Fortunately, Tony ran back outside and caused Garth to wake up.

Tony invited the mysterious wolf outside of the den. "Alright, come on out… Mary."

Garth's eyes widened when he heard the wolf's name! It was the same name as his mom's! But it was impossible for it to be… her. Wasn't it?

A light brown wolf with green eyes stepped out of the den and into the light. IT WAS MARY! Garth could not believe it! He knew it was his mom; he could recognize her anywhere! Garth's mom was alive! She was not dead! She was alive!

"M-mom?" Garth questioned although he already knew the answer.

"Yes Garth, it's me," Mary answered.

Garth did not waste one more second of time. He ran up to his mom and gave her an incredibly long hug! Just the fact that she had somehow survived her fall was overwhelming to Garth. His heart was leaping with happiness. Everything bad that had happened to him, all the sadness and pain that had left scars on his heart, all of that was healing at an alarming rate. Garth suddenly felt something that he had not felt in years: he felt whole. He felt entirely complete. All his sadness was over with now! Everything was more than okay.

{} Author Note: Continue reading when the singing starts.

"Oh Mom," Garth said, "I… I missed you so much. What happened?"

Mary pulled out of Garth's embrace and decided to spill her story. "Actually, until just yesterday, I wasn't sure what happened. I know now, however." Mary explained what had happened to her.

"During that terrible storm a while back, I did fall down the cliff. But about halfway down, a sudden gust of wind blew against the cliff and slowed my fall down. At the same time, however, the wind gust shoved me into the cliff wall and I hit my head. I was out cold for who knows how long. When I woke up, however, it was sunny outside. I didn't know who I was, or where I came from, so I started walking. Eventually, I found a pack that took me in as one of their members. I lived there for months actually as an omega."

"An omega?" Tony asked in disbelief. "How?"

"I don't know. Maybe the bump on my head showed a different side of my personality. But they saw me as an omega, and I believed them.

"Anyway, I lived there for months as an omega. But on one particular day, I think two days ago, I was out with some of my new friends just kind of walking around our territory and hanging out. Suddenly, the ground started rumbling and we all looked up to see a caribou stampede heading from the west and right towards us."

Garth and Tony looked at each other. They both knew that that was more than likely the same caribou stampede that had caused such an uproar in the valley on Garth and Lilly's wedding day.

"We all split up and ran out of the way of the caribou. However, as I was running alongside the woods, I looked back to check if I was clear of the oncoming herd. While I was looking behind my back, I ran the upper side of my head straight into a tree and knocked myself out again. I awoke maybe a day and a half later with 'strange' wolves around me inside of an unknown den. Startled by all the strangers, I ran away as fast as I could to get away from all of them. When I knew none of them were following me, I stopped and sat down. And I suddenly remembered that those 'strange' wolves were my new friends and that I was the mate of the Head Alpha of the Eastern Pack. So, I headed back to my home territory and arrived early this morning."

"One question," Tony began. "What pack did you become a member of?"

"Funny thing about that," Mary chuckled, "I can't remember any of the names of anyone in that pack, so I especially cannot remember the pack's name."

"It really doesn't matter," Garth said. "All that matters now is that you are alive and well. Welcome home Mom."

Mary smiled when she heard this from her son. It was good to be home.

"What's going on?" a voice said in a sleepy tone.

Everyone turned to look at where the voice had come from. Very tired and lethargic, Lilly was making her way up to the recently reunited family. Her eyes appeared to be still foggy with sleep and she looked like she might fall out at any second. "Daddy told me I'd find you up here Garth. So what's going on?"

"Um, Lilly," Garth began, "meet my mom." Garth laughed somewhat nervously when he said this.

When Lilly heard this her eyes shot open and she fully woke up. "WHAT?"

"Yeah, I know," Garth said. He walked over to her and sat right next to her so that his shoulder was touching hers. "Lilly, this is my mother, Mary. Mom, this is my mate, Lilly."

"WHAT? YOU'RE MARRIED?" Mary said in pure astonishment.

"Well I was going to tell you right after you finished your story, but I didn't get the chance." Garth replied.

"Okay, let's get this straight," Mary said. "When I 'disappeared,' you were upset over your breakup. So I guess you went to alpha school and found a nice and sweet alpha to marry somewhere along the way, is that right?"

Garth and Lilly looked at each other with smirks on their faces. "No, not exactly," Garth explained. "You see, Lilly is an omega, and while…"

"WHAT! How can you have an omega as a mate? That's against pack law!" Mary said.

"Not anymore. While you were gone, everyone realized how stupid that law was. After a wolf almost died because of it, the law was abolished. And, Lilly and I are not the only alpha and omega couple."

"You know what," Tony started, "a whole lot has changed since you've been gone. I think we all have some explaining to do."

"Why were you gone anyway?" Lilly asked Mary. Everyone laughed at this.

Before he knew it, Garth was listening to Mary tell Lilly the whole story on why she was still alive and why she had been gone the entire time. Soon after, Garth, Lilly and Tony explained how things had changed between the two packs and that the Western and Eastern Packs were now united as the United Pack of Jasper. They also explained how the abolishment of the alpha and omega law was tied into everything and how Garth and Lilly had ended up together. Garth listened and spoke throughout the whole thing and while he was doing these things, he realized that everything really had come together in the end. Tony would be a better wolf now. And Garth had not only a happy mate, but a happy family as well. It was all because no matter what happens, love will last or it will fail. In Garth's story, love was most definitely lasting.

Author's Note: I thought that song was very appropriate for this chapter.

Also, I like to point out that the "gust of wind" that saved Mary is and always has been in chapter 21 when Mary falls off the cliff. Just so you know.

So, how was the story? Was it good? Not cliché? Original? Heart touching? You have the wonderful privilege of answering all these questions and more in a review if you'd like.

How about some special thanks? Okay, here we go.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FANFICTION MEMBERS AND ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS!

Thank you AaOWaSaCD4ever for being my very first reviewer! You were not only the first reviewer to my story, but you were the very first person to review anything I ever did on FanFiction! Congratulations!

Thank you theMikMik! You were the very first to read my story on most days when I updated in the morning. I also have taken your comment on this story being "original" to heart. I now try to make everything I write original.

Thank you to elete13, The Idealist and Chaoticlover for giving me plot ideas. I may use one or both of them in "alternate endings." (Mwhahahahahaha!) Sorry if you mentioned an idea and I forgot to list you.

Thank you to all of you who were especially understanding during my little illness and other physical and mental difficulties throughout the story. Ha ha!

Thank you again to the Idealist for coming in perhaps a bit later than some people yet not failing to review every chapter as you caught up!

I thank Gordon Pasha for commenting on how a particular phrase was "poignant" in the story. Made me feel accomplished.

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me throughout this story. I think that was pretty much everyone. Happy face!

Thank you to all of you anonymous reviewers who read and reviewed this story even though you did not have an account. (That would be Crash Bandicoot, A Wolf Fanatic and A1pha0m3gafan36 . I can't trace any others, cause there was no name.) By the way, I highly advise any and all anonymous readers to get an account. You don't even have to write stories. You can just leave signed reviews and talk to authors if you want. There are some great authors on this site. And you can subscribe and favorite authors and their stories! Plus you get to vote on the polls! That's an extra feature. ;-) It is well worth the ten minutes or however long it takes you to make an account.

Special thanks to everyone who liked this story enough to favorite it.

Even bigger special thanks to everyone who liked my writing enough to add me as a favorite author! You are all wonderful readers!

And now, *drum roll* the moment everyone's been waiting for! The next story will be…

KATE'S STORY!

The votes were close, but "Another character's story" ended up winning by one vote. WOW! I didn't want to do Lilly's Story, because I just did Garth's and I wanted a couple change. Also, I couldn't do Humphrey's Story, because there is too much about his past and whatever already. *GASP* That could come across as cliché. Plus I wanted to write about a different gender anyway.

By the way, I have a new poll out asking on how I should update Kate's Story. Please submit your vote by Saturday the fourteenth at noon Central Time.

So Kate's Story will begin soon, hopefully within the next week. I'll try to form a plot, but a lot of you know that I just have to plan as I write. I can't put a plot on paper; it won't work. So I'll cook up something in my head and you guys get to see what happens. Good-by now! Thanks for reading!