Chapter 22

LEO

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 out.

But so far, there was nothing.

“Alpha,” Luca said as he marched into my office while 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 twenty-four 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, I said, “Max, put your personal feelings aside and just follow my orders.”

He nodded. “Yes, Alpha. Of course.”

ELLA

Two hours later, I was on a bus. I figured that getting off territory any way other than by airplane 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 the 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, I just tried to not think about it. I was just going to 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 ducked even farther under the seat as a tall, definitely werewolf man stepped onto the bus wearing the Stella army uniform.

Leo must have clocked that I was missing and put all his men on high alert. I switched on my phone to see ten missed calls from Leo, six from Luca, and four 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 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, turning 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 sitting toward the front of the bus. He only sighed, leaned back into the uncomfortable bus seat, and prepared for another hour’s journey.

A few minutes later, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

“Good evening, Alpha. This is South-North border control point 96,” he began in Italian, presumably to avoid raising concerns of the human passengers among us.

“We have found your luna on a human bus to Seattle,” he added, “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.”

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

“Luna, there’s a stop in five minutes,” he said. “Come on.”

“No,” I snapped, pulling my arm out of his hand.

“Luna, I don’t want to force you,” he replied, taking my wrist again.

“You can’t do shit,” I said, looking around the half-full bus. “There are too many people, and I’m good at making a scene.”

He let out a short breath before sitting back in his seat and letting go of my wrist. He knew I was right.

When we reached Seattle and only had the drag through traffic to the airport to go, I grabbed my bag and stood up.

I thought that if I could move to the front of the bus, I’d be able to get off and into a crowded area before Leo’s men could stop me.

Easier said than done, though.

Of course, the soldier beside me refused to move out of my way.

“Excuse me, sir,” I said loudly enough for the entire bus to hear. “I need to get through.”

“But why? The next stop isn’t until the airport?” he asked, tugging my wrist to try to get me to sit down.

“I’d like to move to the front of the bus so that I can get off quickly. I’m late for my plane, you see,” I replied, stepping forward.

“But there are no seats up there. You’d be standing for half an hour,” he retaliated quickly.

“I can deal with that,” I remarked with a sarcastic smile as I stepped awkwardly over his long legs into the aisle.

He discreetly grabbed my wrist, and just as the bus suddenly jerked forward as the traffic began to move again, everything shook, and he took the opportunity to haul me back to my seat without anyone noticing his sudden roughness.

“In traffic like this, I think it’d be best if you remained seated, miss,” he said, still holding my wrist.

Another grueling half hour later, we arrived at the airport, unfortunately in a pretty quiet parking lot.

Instead of trying to get past the soldier beside me again, I freed my hand and scrambled over the empty seat in front of us and into the aisle before legging it off the bus in front of everybody else.

It was a short sprint to the elevator signposted for the main entrance. I only hoped I could get there and shut the doors before my two little friends could.

Spoiler: I couldn’t.

I madly pressed the shut-door button as they approached, just like in the movies, but they got there and squeezed in so that I was trapped with them.

“Luna, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?” the one that had been sitting next to me asked, before pressing all the buttons on the elevator. “Because the outcome is the same.”

“You are clearly very loyal to your alpha, but what about your future alpha?” I asked. “Cato will be alpha in ten years if you let me save him. How old will the two of you be? In your thirties?

“Plenty of time to live with the alpha’s gratitude and rewards for allowing his mother to exchange her life for his.”

“Not really because the current alpha will kill us the second he finds out,” the other replied bluntly.

“Don’t be dramatic,” I said as the doors opened to another empty parking lot floor.

“Oh fuck,” I cursed, grabbing the rail on the inside of the elevator as one of the men seized me around the waist and began trying to pluck me from the safety of the elevator.

I screamed as loudly as I could in the hope that I could attract somebody’s attention.

“Cover her mouth,” the one holding the elevator door ordered. “Shut her up.”

“Get the fuck off me,” I hissed, fighting against him. “I’m just trying to save my son!”

For once, the excellent training of Leo’s soldiers was not playing to my advantage. He pushed me against the elevator wall, twisted my arms behind my back so that I was immobilized, and covered my mouth all in one slick movement.

“We are going to get back in a taxi and go straight back to Alpha. You are not going to cause us any trouble or make a scene, understand?” he said authoritatively in my ear.

I nodded. My arm was kind of hurting in that position, and I could see no way out of it.

He then pulled me off the wall and stepped toward the elevator door where the other soldier was standing with his foot stopping the doors from closing.

Just as we reached the exit, I heard a set of footsteps come into the empty parking lot floor. I let out a muffled scream, and the footsteps paused for a moment while the two soldiers glared at me intensely.

The footsteps then began to walk hurriedly toward us, and the one at the door had no option but to get back into the elevator and press the first button he could reach.

The doors closed before the owner of the footsteps reached us, and the soldier finally loosened his grip on me.

“I feel like you two should introduce yourselves now that we are well acquainted,” I said as he uncovered my mouth, allowing me to straighten myself up.

“You don’t need to know who we are,” the other replied. “Just that we are your alpha’s men, and we are under strict orders to bring you back to him at all costs.”

“If you are going to manhandle me, and we are going to spend the next hour at least together, I would like to know your names.

“That is an order from your luna,” I answered as they positioned themselves on either side of me in the elevator.

“I’m Alessio,” the one that had both sat next to me on the bus and just pinned me against the wall said. “And this is Xanthus.”

The elevator then pinged, and the doors opened, revealing a very busy terminal.

“Well, Alessio, Xanthus. This has been fun,” I said, a grin of relief forming. “Good luck with facing the alpha. I’m sorry for putting this on you, but my priority is my son.”

I then stepped freely out of the elevator into the airport and began scanning for a check-in sign. They followed me, of course, but there was nothing they could do with so many humans around.

“We should have just disposed of that one person back there,” I heard Xanthus say. “Now what?”

“I’ll make a distraction, you get her out of here,” Xanthus whispered, before dropping back a little.

Alessio nodded, and I began to walk fast away from the pair. A few seconds later, an alarm sounded, and there was a series of screams and hysterics from the people around us.

Alessio grabbed my hand and began hauling me toward the door. I obviously fought against him and screamed, but my screams were drowned out by everybody else’s.

A matter of seconds later, the alarm silenced, and a voice came through on the intercom.

“Everybody remain calm. There is no threat nor fire. It was a false alarm, and we are sorry for the disturbance,” it said.

The screams and shouts of the people around us stopped too, and Alessio quickly hauled us both into the nearest door where he slammed his hand over my mouth once again.

“Fuck…you,” I mumbled through his hand seconds before Xanthus joined us in what appeared to be the men’s restroom.

“Great fucking distraction,” Alessio remarked.

“Yeah, Xanthus,” I added as Alessio released my mouth again. “Great fucking distraction.”

“At least she can’t get on a plane from a toilet cubicle,” he grumbled, obviously ignoring me as he ushered all three of us into one of the moderately sized cubicles before anybody else came in.

“You have three seconds to let me go before I fucking kill you both,” I stated, causing their heads to turn and stare blankly at me. “Do not underestimate a mother protecting her child.”

“With all due respect, Luna,” Alessio began, “there are two of us and one of you.”

“We are also both double your size and highly trained soldiers, so good luck with that,” Xanthus added in a much blunter, less respectful tone.

I preferred Alessio over Xanthus. He seemed to be in charge and also understood that I was still his luna.

“You now have zero point five seconds before I attack,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at Xanthus.

“Hold that thought,” Alessio said, taking his vibrating phone out of his pocket and answering it.

I took the opportunity to karate kick his stomach. Unfortunately, his lightning-fast reflexes meant that he caught my leg and used it as leverage to pin me once again against the wall.

“Have you got her?” Leo’s voice asked down the phone line.

“Kind of,” Alessio replied, a sense of nervousness in his tone as he looked down at me as I struggled against him.

“What do you mean kind of? There’s two of you, ~and~ you are supposed to be some of my best soldiers! How can you only ‘kind of’ have a woman that hardly weighs a hundred pounds?” Leo asked in a deep tone. “She should be easy.”

“I’m glad to hear that you appreciate me, Leo,” I hissed

True, since having eight children, I had relaxed a little on the training malarkey, but I’m not weak.

“I’m sorry, Alpha, but she is causing us some issues,” Alessio replied. “There have been humans around us the whole time, and she won’t go quietly.”

“Where are you now?”

“The men’s bathroom in Seattle airport,” Alessio said quietly.

“For fuck’s sake.” Leo growled. “Give the phone to her,” he ordered.

Alessio then held the phone to my ear as he continued to hold me against the grimy wall.

“Could you tell your men to politely stop manhandling me so that I can go and save our son from certain death?” I hissed.

“I am currently unbelievably furious with you, but I am willing to put that aside if you just cooperate with them and let me focus on getting our son back,” he said in a deep tone.

“No.”

“No?” He growled.

“Cato will be halfway to Mexico by now, and we both know the only way to get him back alive. This is my decision so let me make it,” I replied.

“I may suffer for the rest of my life if I make it, but at least Cato will be okay, and that is all that matters to me.”

“It is not your decision because, as you clearly have forgotten at some point in the last couple of days, I am your alpha, and I choose what you do and don’t do. It is not that difficult to understand.” He growled.

I didn’t reply, not exactly sure what to say.

“Now stop this blatant disobedience and humiliation, do as you are told, and get back in your place. I have better things to worry about than an insubordinate luna,” he added in his alpha tone.

I remained speechless. The way he spoke reminded me of how he was when we first met. It was like he had suddenly snapped, and seven years of progress was gone with one defiant “no.”

Alessio then brought the phone back to his ear.

“We’ll have her back before midnight,” he said, looking at his watch that read about 9 p.m.

“If she still doesn’t cooperate, drug her,” Leo added bluntly.

“Drug me?! Leo, you better hope they don’t bring me home because when I see you, we are going to have a serious talk about my human rights—” I began, before he hung up.

“Okay, Luna,” he said to me, ushering me toward the door of the cubicle where Xanthus stood. “Let’s go.”

He placed his hand gently on my back and led me out of the cubicle and into the sink area.

I let him urge me forward, trying not to allow Leo’s words to impact me as much as they were. For some reason, I felt compelled to follow his orders.

Just as we reached the door, the speakers of the intercom crackled and squeaked before a voice came through again.

“This is a security announcement. Two suspicious-looking men, midtwenties, dressed in all black and both over six feet tall have been spotted by our CCTV with a young girl around the same age with blonde hair and a blue rucksack.

“Please report any sightings of these people to the security desk along with any suspicious behavior or unattended baggage. Thank you,” the voice said.

“Oh fuck,” Xanthus cursed.

I let out a short laugh before covering my mouth. I felt bad for them because they were only trying to follow Leo’s orders, but it certainly wasn’t their day.

“We have to change our clothes,” Alessio stated. “Do you have any spare T-shirts in your bag, Luna?”

“None that will fit you, that’s for sure,” I replied, looking up about a foot and a half to his face.

At that point, the bathroom door opened, and a green-T-shirted middle-aged man walked in. He looked from Xanthus to Alessio and then to me, and his face paled.

Like the rest of the airport, he had obviously heard the announcement and had now found himself in the unfortunate position of being located directly between the “suspicious-looking men.”

Xanthus and Alessio exchanged looks before they both shrugged and nodded as if they were having some kind of psychic conversation.

I mouthed a “run” to the man, and with a panicked look on his face, he turned back to the restroom door.

But it was too late for that. I caught a glimpse of Xanthus seizing the poor man and throwing him against the wall before Alessio bundled me back into the cubicle.

A few moments later, I saw him through the crack in the door being dragged along the floor, then placed and locked in another cubicle. Soon after, Xanthus returned in a green T-shirt.

The man was not particularly tall, but he was rather large, so the T-shirt was a good fit on Xanthus despite his height.

“There is no need for that kind of violence!” I protested. “Is he dead?”

“Nah, he’ll be fine,” Xanthus replied dismissively.

“And where exactly did this get you?” I asked, looking at Alessio who was still in the all-black Stella army uniform and then to my still bright-blue rucksack.

“Tie your sweater around your rucksack. I will escort you out, and, Alessio, you join us a few minutes later.

“If nobody makes a scene, there is no reason anybody will suspect a thing,” he said, obviously directing his speech to me.

Suddenly I remembered what I was doing there in the first place, and an image of Cato all alone with only the Mexican thugs for company flashed across my mind.

“I’m not coming with you,” I stated.

“You heard what the alpha said,” Xanthus replied. “He didn’t give you a choice.”

“I don’t care what he said. He’s not here, is he? And he can murder me when my son is safe,” I replied, folding my arms.

“Luna, we don’t want to have to resort to plan B,” Alessio said. “Come on. Just give up now and don’t make us do it the hard way.”

“Fine,” I answered after a moment of thought, before standing up and walking to the door of the cubicle.

Xanthus narrowed his eyes. He could see right through me.

My plan was to get out into the busy terminal and start screaming or something. Then they wouldn’t stand a chance of stopping me.

“Xanthus, I’m not risking it,” Alessio said, pulling me back. “Get the drugs.”

He nodded before leaving the restroom altogether.

“Where exactly do you get drugs from in an airport?” I asked.

“You’d be surprised what you can learn to do with a few packets of everyday drugstore pills,” Alessio replied, locking the cubicle door after Xanthus.

I sighed and stood up on the toilet seat before sitting on the back ledge.

“If I die from being forced to take some dodgy concoction,” I began.

“Do you really think the alpha would have told us to do it if he thought we might accidentally kill you? We’ve been trained, Luna. We know what we are doing,” he said, leaning against the cubicle door and folding his arms.

There were a few minutes of silence while Alessio waited for the return of Xanthus, and I planned my next escape plan.

“Do you have pups, Alessio?” I asked.

“Three,” he replied, his face softening.

“How old?”

“My daughter is five; she just started school. Then I have a son who is two, and another son that was born just two weeks ago,” he replied.

“What are you doing here then?!” I asked. “You should be at home with your mate!”

“I’m a soldier, Luna. I can’t have more than a few days off in a row for any reason,” he said with a sigh. “My loyalty is to the alpha.”

“What bollocks,” I stated. “How about you resign, go home to your kids, let me go and save my kid?”

“Nice try,” he said with a smile. “It is for their sake that I can’t let you get on that plane. A father away from home is better than no father at all, which is what I’ll be when the alpha is done with us if we lose you.”

“Is he really still that bad?” I asked through gritted teeth. “I thought he’d changed.”

“He has changed. But as soon as there is a matter concerning the safety of his luna, he has no mercy on any of us,” he explained.

“I’m sorry,” I recognized. “Over the years, I must have caused a lot of problems for you and the other soldiers. Please spare me the details, but I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. If one of my children was kidnapped, I’d be doing the same thing. As for the time that you went to Italy and Russia.

“I guess in the end you turned out to have good intentions too, and then all the times you’ve been abducted, we can’t really blame you for either,” he explained.

I smiled before the restroom door opened, and Xanthus came in with a shopping bag. He unloaded it to reveal a blue T-shirt that he threw in Alessio’s direction, five boxes of pills, and a bottle of water.

I didn’t recognize any names of the medication. Beno…something or other… Phenilzenthai…you get the picture.

I watched as Xanthus crushed different quantities of the pills with a penknife he got out of his pocket and then dropped a little water on them to make it into a thick paste.

He then pushed it into one of the molds of an empty packet and squeezed out the excess water.

“We’d normally inject it, but surprise surprise, needles aren’t available in airports,” he said, handing Alessio the pill. “So please cooperate.”

“No, no, no,” I said, shying back into the cubicle wall.

I climbed up onto the ledge again and curled myself into the corner.

“You can’t force me,” I added.

“You don’t listen to him, do you?” Xanthus said, grabbing my wrist. “The alpha told you to do as you’re told. Why don’t you listen?!”

“Xanthus,” Alessio warned deeply. “She is still your luna.”

Judging by his grip on my wrist, he was beginning to lose patience with me.

“I’m not fucking taking your stupid pill.” I growled, pulling my hand out of his grip. “How can I save my son with a million different chemicals in my system?”

Alessio used his arm to push Xanthus away from me before he knelt down and put his hands on my shoulders.

“Luna,” he began, “as a parent myself, I can sympathize with what you are going through, and I completely understand why you feel that you have to do this.

“However, as a mate, I can also sympathize with the alpha, and I see why under no circumstances you should be allowed on that plane.

“Both he, your other kids, and the pack can’t afford to lose you, especially to an avoidable, irrational, instinctual act. You haven’t thought this through, and you haven’t even given the alpha a chance to find another way either.

“He’s the most powerful man in the world, have you forgotten that? It’s okay to trust him, there is good reason to. And the harsh truth is, Luna, we are here to bring you home whether you like it or not.

“We will stay here all week if we have to. But the longer we do, the longer the alpha isn’t one hundred percent focused on getting your little boy home too. So please, let us do our job.”

He took a deep breath in and looked up at me with pleading, hopeful eyes. I paused in thought for a moment before nodding.

I couldn’t win this, and he was right.

He breathed heavily out and smiled before standing up, picking up the bottle of water, and handing it to me with the pill.

“Xanthus, go now, we can’t all leave together in case we are recognized, and someone needs to find a car. I don’t think public transport with an unconscious girl is a good idea,” Alessio said.

Xanthus nodded before disappearing out of the restroom.

“Do I have to take it?” I asked. “What if I promise to just come out easily?”

“I can’t risk it, Luna. There’s a lot at stake if I lose you. Please understand that,” he replied, holding the pill closer to me.

“What’s in it?” I asked, taking it out of his hand and looking a little closer.

“Benophalein, phenilezenathen, rynerol, Sominex, and umm…powdered wolfsbane cannabis,” he replied. “That last one isn’t available in drugstores.”

“Wolfsbane?!” I asked.

“Yeah, you may feel a bit shit for a few days, but it’s only a small dosage. I promise,” he said. “Just take it.”

Just as I brought it closer to my lips, the door to the cubicle smashed open, the lock flying across the floor.

I gasped, and Alessio took the opportunity to force the pill into my mouth before covering it.

“Swallow,” he demanded, before turning to whoever had just kicked open the door.

“Where’s my shirt, asshole?!” a middle-aged shirtless man bellowed with a gun pointed at Alessio.

After a few moments, I realized who he was, the man Xanthus had knocked out and stolen the shirt of.

I was also pretty concentrated on trying to stop the pill from dissolving in my mouth and getting Alessio’s hand off me so that I could spit it out.

“You can have this one,” Alessio said, kicking one of their black uniform shirts on the floor toward him. “And why the fuck do you have a gun in an airport?”

“Why the fuck do you have a woman in the men’s bathroom?!” he asked, pointing the gun closer to Alessio. “Is she your girlfriend? Kids come in here you know and—”

In one swift movement, Alessio had lurched forward and somehow ended up with the man’s gun in his own hand.

In the process, he had let go of me, and of course, I had spat out the pill and was in the process of climbing over the side of the cubicle.

Before he could notice, I was in the main restroom and just about reached the door back into the terminal before he could reach me.

I legged toward the check-in point as Alessio was hot on my trail.

Seconds before I reached the front desk, Xanthus appeared in front of me, blocking my path.

He grabbed my upper arm and forcefully dragged me away as Alessio joined us.

“A taxi is on its way,” he said over my head to Alessio as they marched me through the terminal.

“I...I...don’t feel so...good,” I said, bringing my hand to my head. “I think...I’m going to faint.”

The room was suddenly spinning, and my head felt light and fluffy.

“Did she have the pill?” Xanthus asked.

“Enough of it,” Alessio replied as my phone began to ring.

The two of them paused by a wall before Xanthus took the phone out of my pocket. Xanthus’s grip on my arm tightened as I began to sway, feeling as though I could collapse any moment. I felt too weak to even scream.

“No caller ID. Is this the Mexican?” he asked.

“I have...to answer that,” I said, clumsily reaching for the phone.

“No...no...,” Xanthus replied. “You don’t have to do anything.”

I noticed a woman holding the hand of a little girl about Cato’s age, watching the three of us with a concerned look.

She made eye contact with me as Alessio and Xanthus were distracted by the phone, and she mouthed, “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, and she nodded before walking to one of the security guards, taking her little girl with her.

She whispered something to the guard, which I could only just hear.

“There’s a woman over there with two men,” she said, pointing discreetly. “One is gripping her arm, and she looks like she’s in trouble.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” the guard said with a nod. “We’ll investigate.”

He and another security guard then began marching toward us talking into a walkie-talkie as he went. Alessio and Xanthus were still distracted by whatever was going on with my phone.

“Excuse me, miss,” he said, approaching us from Xanthus’s side. “Are you all right?”

Xanthus looked up and scanned the man before nodding.

“She’s fine,” he said dismissively, before looking back at the phone.

“Could you just let go of her a minute? Please, sir,” he said, turning to Xanthus.

“She’s not feeling well. I am only helping her,” he replied.

“Miss, do you know these men?” he asked.

Xanthus glared down at me and gripped my arm tighter.

I looked at the man and shook my head, disregarding Xanthus’s body language threats. What was he going to do anyway?

“Okay, sir. I am going to have to ask you to let go of this woman, and the two of you follow me. We have some questions to ask,” he said, urging Xanthus in the opposite direction of the door.

Shortly after, four more security guards appeared at the scene.

Alessio and Xanthus exchanged glances before Alessio shook his head.

“We don’t have a choice,” he said to Xanthus. “There are too many people.”

Xanthus reluctantly nodded before letting go of my arm and allowing the airport security to lead them away from me.

“I’m sorry, Alessio,” I whispered when they were a few meters away, knowing only someone with werewolf hearing would hear. “I’ll call the alpha and beg him to be merciful. I promise.”

I didn’t have long to feel bad before staggering as quickly as I could toward the sign-in point before anyone could come back and make me even later for my flight by asking questions.

I felt fainter and dizzier by the second, and the room around me was spinning. I couldn’t read the signs, and I stood no chance of finding my way to my plane.

Well, that was until I felt someone draw up next to me.

“Max?” I mumbled, looking upon the familiar face of my cousin. “No, no, please don’t take me back.”

“I’m not going to,” he said quietly. “I’m here to help.”

“What?” I asked.

“It’s your choice, and I respect that whether I think you’re being a dumb bitch or not,” he explained. “And you look like shit.”

“They drugged me,” I slurred. “But I don’t have long until check-in closes.”

“And you don’t have long until they get out of the security office either,” he said. “The alpha’s got contacts with the Seattle police.”

I nodded, and he wrapped his arm around my waist and led me to a desk where he bought a ticket on a random flight to anywhere, and then we went through passport control and security together.

“Ells, are you sure you’re okay to fly?” he asked, after making me drink more water as we waited at the gate. “You’re pretty out of it.”

“Leo’s going to murder you for this,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

“With any luck, he won’t find out,” he replied. “And if he does, guess I’ll just go into exile for another three years.”

I let out a laugh before an announcement called my flight.

“Guess this is goodbye, then,” I said, hugging him tightly.

“See ya later, cuz,” he replied, hugging me back. “And you’re sure you wanna do this?”

I nodded. “Thank you,” I said. “For being the only person in the entire pack to understand.”

“Don’t get soppy on me, sweetheart,” he said. “Now get on that plane before you change your mind.”

I hugged him one more time before making my way over to the passport and boarding pass check, giving him one final wave.