Finding Forgiveness

“Maybe, maybe not. But wherever I am, I love you all so much,” I said hugging him so tightly. “Make sure everybody knows that.”

Silas then returned with my rucksack and by the sounds of things, Rosa and Antonio were well-distracted downstairs. Everything was ready.

Mathias had a tear in his eye too and even Silas seemed to have worked out that something wasn’t right.

They were both only six years old, I couldn’t possibly expect them to understand.

I pulled Silas into the hug too and for a moment thought that I couldn’t let go. I was close to ducking out and not going, but deep down I knew that the easiest thing to do isn’t always the right thing to do.

I eventually pulled my self away, kissed them on the forehead, effortlessly broke the weakened lock on the window and began scrambling my way onto the window ledge.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“I love you,” I said to them as they watched.

Silas waved but Mathias just stared, his eyes now full of water. I blew a kiss before disappeared out of the window.

Goodbye, my loves.

Leo’s POV

I was at the base in the pack headquarters with people rushing around all over the place at my command all working to bring my son back. I had men heading out in every direction in hope of stopping the car before it crossed the border and the? intelligence department doing everything they could to find even the tiniest nugget of information that could help up. But so far, there was nothing.

“Alpha,” Luca said as he marched into my office whilst I was discussing my next move with Blair and a few other military advisers.

“What is it, Luca?” I asked in a harsh tone. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have snapped at him but this had all resurfaced my? buried anger for him for co-starting all this with me.

“Ella’s gone,” he said gravely. “Antonio just called.”

“Gone?” I asked deeply. “You mean he let her escape?!”

Luca swallowed and nodded.

I took a sharp breath in and clenched my fist before bringing it down hard on the table.

“Blair, close off the borders again. Tell the guards to check every vehicle that drives through and to have the woods covered too,” I ordered. “Luca, tell IT to shut her credit card down and try and locate any signals from her phone.”

“Yes, Alpha,” they said before leaving the room.

“We’ll continue this later,” I said to the men remaining in my office. “Keep me updated but right now I need to deal with my disobedient Luna.”

They nodded and left as I began to dial Ella’s number. No surprise she didn’t pick up. She was smart enough to know that if she did, I’d be able to track her down.

“Fucking hell,” I cursed after calling her multiple times. “Max!”

A few seconds later, he appeared in the office.

“Ella has somehow escaped and I’m putting you in charge of stopping her from going anywhere near Mexico. You’ve been on the run with her before so you should know how she will think? and what she will do,” I said. “Do you think you can find her?”

“She’s smart Alpha and she won’t be acting predictably,” Max replied unusually quietly without looking me in the eye. “But I’ll try.”

He then turned for the door.

“Max, wait,” I said stopping him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He hesitated for a moment and turned back around with a sigh.

“She’s 24 years old, Alpha. Not a kid anymore but a woman. She’s also Cato’s parent too. Don’t you think that this is her decision?” he asked.

I stared at him for a few seconds but pushing his words out of my head, “Max, put your personal feelings aside and just follow my orders.”

He nodded, “Yes, Alpha. Of course.”

Ella’s POV

Two hours later, I was on a bus. I figured that getting off territory anyway other than by aeroplane would only lead to my capture so I bought a plane ticket to Mexico online before Leo had the chance to cancel my credit card or anything like that and I headed for Seattle airport.

I watched the trees whiz by outside and tried to get my head around everything that had happened in the last four hours. Unable to decide whether I was doing the right thing or not either so I just tried to not thinking about it. I was just gonna trust my gut and do it.

When we reached the border between the North section of Stella territory and the South, I ducked my head out of sight of the window hoping that Leo’s men wouldn’t stop a human bus.

My heart sank as the bus ground to a halt and the doors opened. I tucked even further under the seat as a tall, definitely werewolf man stepped onto the bus wearing the Stella army uniform. Leo must have clocked that I’m missing and put all his men on high alert. I switched on my phone to see ten missed calls from Leo, 6 from Luca and 4 from Max confirming my suspicions.

I watched through a crack in the seat as he sniffed the air before doing a hand gesture into the forest and turning to the bus driver.

“Two tickets to Seattle please,” he said with a seriousness in his tone as another soldier joined him on the bus.

Fuck.

I hastily fumbled with the zips on my bag before finding and spraying my deodorant in an attempt to mask my scent. I then pulled up my hood and tucked in my hair.

I listened to the men walk down the aisle of the bus, their heavy boots clonking against the metal floor. There were plenty of empty seats so when one of them sat beside me, I knew that my attempts to hide myself had been futile.

“Can I persuade you to get off at the next stop and we cut the journey?” he asked quietly with that slight Italian accent that all native Stellas had.

“I’m sorry, Sir, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied tuning my face away from him. “Do I know you?”

“You may not know exactly who I am but I am pretty sure you know who I work for and that I know who you are, Luna,” he replied in a calm tone. “If you cooperate with us, there won’t be any trouble.”

“Threatening your Luna… nice,” I remarked. “And I won’t be getting off at the next stop. I’ll be getting off at Seattle before getting on a plane to Mexico to rescue my son.”

After that, he didn’t say anything and neither did the other one sat towards the front of the bus. He only sighed, leant back into the uncomfortable bus chair and prepared for another hour journey.

A few minutes later, he pulled out his phone and dialled a number. Translation: good evening Alpha. This is South-North border control point 96.

“Abbiamo trovato la tua Luna su un autobus umano per Seattle,” he added.

Translation: we have found your Luna on a human bus to Seattle.

“Ma lei si rifiuta di scendere dall’autobus senza tante storie.”

Translation:? but she refuses to get off the bus without a fuss.

“You have my permission to do whatever you have to do,” Leo replied. “Under no circumstances must she be allowed to get on a plane to Mexico.”

“Si, Alpha,” he said before hanging up.