Finding Forgiveness

I then spotted Max over by the armoury.

“Ella, Milly and the kids are in the vault I trust?” I asked as I stood next to him.

“Locked and bolted,” he confirmed.

I nodded and sighed a slight sigh of relief, “Were they okay?” I asked.

“There was some tears and worried faces from the kids. But Ella held it together,” he replied, “She’s amazing like that. No matter how hard things are for her, she’ll do whatever she must for those little kids.”

I smiled, “She sure is amazing. And she has a huge heart too. She feels terrible about what happened with Milly. She’d change it in an instant if she could.”

Max nodded before he looked up to me, “I know… but she can’t.”

I sighed.

“And do you regret it?” he asked, “Because we all know at the end of the day it didn’t matter whether Ella supported it or not, it was your decision as Alpha to test Milly’s powers. So do you regret it?”

I paused for a second, “No. I am sorry that it turned out this way but I am not sorry for clasping at what could have been an opportunity to save this pack from certain doom.”

I quickly bit my tongue and looked around. The soldiers were all still busy and I had fortunately not managed to turn any heads.

“Certain doom huh?” he asked, “You think we’re fucked?”

“I’m not willing to underestimate Martinez for a piece of mind,” I replied. “Now push your spite for me out of your mind and focus on at least trying to win this war. If by some miracle we succeed, you can leave with your sister and never have to look at me again. And keep your mouth shut. I need morale to stay high.”Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

I knew Max was entitled to be mad about Milly but he certainly had a way of pissing me off when I was already on edge. As I walked away from him, another man was approaching me.

Haden.

Just what I needed.

“Is it important?” I snapped as he began to follow me.

“Last time you had to lead anything of this scale on home turf it was against Ayas,” he said, “It’s an honour to fight alongside the great Alpha Loren rather than against you.”

“Fuck of Haden,” I replied, “I don’t have time for your pointless wittering.”

“I just wanted to let you know you have my full support,” he said.

I stopped walking and turned to face him. Having once been a powerful Alpha, he was nearly as tall as me and still stood with the posture and nerve of the man he once was.

In the years since the end of our official feud, Lia had forced us into many failed attempts to get along. Whilst he had no choice but to comply to my orders, he had hardly ever been the submissive type and done everything with the most resent and reluctance possible. He irritated me beyond measure and much to Lia’s dismay, any endeavours for civility and peaceful ‘family time’ only ever ended with arguments. So to hear him give me his ‘full support’ was something I never thought I’d experience.

“I don’t like you, Loren,” he said bluntly. “But I don’t like Martinez more. He kidnapped my nephew and he poses a threat to my own family too. So I will fight for you to take him down.”

“You are a member of my army and you don’t have a choice… but I appreciate it. Thank you, Haden,” I said with a half-smile, “Now get back to your division before I am forced to discipline you.”

He nodded and finally left me alone.

I spent the next half an hour, watching over my men as they prepared. I helped them load up their trucks, buckle up their bulletproof vests, hand out helmets and package emergency first aid kits.

There were apprehension, nerves and tensions but these men certainly didn’t lack courage. They were hardened, experienced soldiers. And they were ready to lay down their lives to protect this fight and they certainly weren’t scared of Andrea Martinez.

“Alpha,” Blair said approaching me as I stood in the middle of the facility, “Everything’s ready. Shall we give go ahead?”

I nodded and waved my hand to the drivers of the trucks and the patrols ready to file out, “Let’s do this.”

“Have you been down here before?” Milly asked, glancing around the bunker.

We were sat almost in pitch black. Only a small bulb hanging from the ceiling illuminated the room in a dull grey glow and being ten foot underground, there certainly wasn’t any opportunity for the moonlight to shine in.

“No,” I said clutching Stefano in my arms.

The rest of the kids were huddled by my feet, wrapped in the thick woollen blankets that Leo kept stashed down here. They held each other and my legs, not a single one asleep despite it being one in the morning.

“The night I met you I was supposed to be,” I said looking around at the concrete walls, concrete floors and thick reinforced doors, “But Haden’s men got to us before they could get me to safety so I ended up in the heart of the war. It was terrifying but this is hardly a comforting alternative.”

She nodded and continued her 10th lap of the small confined room. We’d been here twenty minutes and she was yet to sit down. We were all anxious and scared for the people above the ground that we loved but she seemed particularly uneasy. Agitated, skittish… cooped up.

After the explosions, Max had piled us all quickly into the back of a military truck, all eight kids still in their pyjamas, and driven through the smoke and burning to get here. The kids had only had a seconds each to say goodbye to their father and there had been no time to explain to them what was going on until Max had slammed the three-foot iron door shut and we’d listened to the clunk of every single bolt echo around the concrete bunker. We’d stood in silence for a few moments before I ushered them further in, found the switch to the unimpressive light and at least tried to settle the distress and confusion.

They were already scared and explaining to them was difficult, especially with Cato’s probing questions. He was far more developed than his younger siblings and he knew there was more than I was letting on to.

But all I could bring myself to tell him was that we had to stay down here until Daddy says it’s safe and that he is up there doing everything he can to make that happen. I told them the fires were set by that bad man we talked about before but they couldn’t burn forever. When the flames have died and the ash has settled, everything will be okay.

But Milly was seventeen and she knew the full situation as much as I did. My soft words didn’t stand a chance of settling her.

“Why don’t you sit down, Milly?” I suggested, there’s plenty of room.

She shook her head, “I can’t,” she said clenching her fists, “I just…”

She tilted her head back and contorted her face in what looked like pain.

“Just what?”

“Somethings not right. I can sense it,” She replied, “Those books we’ve read about my magic and Hecate. They all talk about how I should be able to see the future. I’ve never been able to hone that power. Occasionally I have visions but only in dreams and they’re weird and hard to interpret. But there are feelings that I get. Like preemptive emotions for what’s about to come…”

She then turned to me. Her face was grave, her bottom lip quivered a little as she pressed her nails into the palms of her hand.

“… and what emotions do you feel now?” I asked.

“Panic, suffering, chaos, anger, fear…,” she said, “And then this one emotion that I could never have imagined. It’s like nothing I’ve felt before. It’s cold and empty and dark and…” she glanced down to my children in a split second before continuing in a hushed tone, “… It’s like death, Ella.”

Now my lip trembled too.

“Whose going to die Milly?” I asked.

She clenched her fists even tighter as she just stared into my eyes, her face plastered in pure dread.

“Us and everyone we hold dear.”

Leo’s POV

Blair and I leapt behind our truck, ducking low, as another round of machine-gun fire was sent our way.

We breathed heavily pressing our backs against the armoured metal.

The bombs laid on the roads and around the border had all been detonated by the first fleet of Martinez’s men meaning now there was a free passage for hundreds more to flood in, all trigger happy and ruthless.