As we stroll up the road, all the men in the street stare at me.
Alpha Maximus drapes his arm over my shoulder to show them I’m his. I thought it was adorable he did that. How good it is to be free, walking down a street. I hope I will never be forced back to Alpha Tate’s pack house. Nathan orders food from a Chinese restaurant, but I don’t want to sit inside. I want to enjoy the fresh air and space all around me.
‘Do you think we can eat our food over there?’ I ask Alpha Maximus, pointing to a lush picnic area.
‘Sure, if that’s what you want to do?’
‘Yes, it is.’ I smile.
We have cute little boxes of rice. There are some vegetables like carrots and green peas mixed in as well. Alpha Maximus tries to show me how to use chopsticks, but I’m not very skilled at it, so instead, he feeds me himself using them.
‘Oh, this is too cute, Alpha! Watching you feed the Luna like that!’ Nathan says with a grin.
We both laugh and continue eating. As soon as we finish, Alpha Maximus lays on the grass. I decide to join him and cuddle up against him.
He places his hands on my back, and we stay there for a while. Nathan wanders off to give us some alone time to bond. We begin to kiss. No matter how hard we try, we can’t keep our hands off each other. Cars start tooting, and people wolf-whistle out the window at us.
Nathan returns. ‘Come on, lovebirds, we should get back to the hotel. It’s getting dark, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Alpha Liam has people keeping tabs on us,’ he says.
‘Why would they follow us?’ I ask.
‘We will talk about that back at the hotel.’ Nathan replies
We walk back to the hotel holding hands, constantly staring and smiling at each other. As soon as we enter our hotel room, without warning, Alpha Maximus grabs me by the waist and pulls me onto his lap as he sits on the couch.
‘So, I have some not-so-good news I need to tell you both.’ Nathan says nervously.
‘When I wandered off at the park, I contacted Alpha Mark of the Wolf Mire pack. It’s the next wolf pack we will be passing.
Alpha Tate has informed all of the packs of the same story he told Alpha Liam. Since then, Alpha Liam has also contacted the other packs about our altercation with the Silent Howl pack earlier today. It gets worse. All the pack Alpha’s except for one, Alpha Dan of the Moon fall pack, have agreed that it is in the best interest of the werewolf community that you, Alpha Maximus are to be killed.’
I stare at Alpha Maximus in shock. My eyes well up, and he starts to rub my back.
‘There’s more…’ Nathan says.
‘They claim Hope is a witch and must also be eradicated.’ I gasp as Alpha Maximus growls.
‘No!’ he says, standing up, ‘They can hunt me down all they want! But if any harm comes to Hope, then I will kill every single one of them with my bare hands!’ he says angrily.
‘What are we going to do?’ I ask.
‘We will focus on getting home to our pack safely. We will go around the other territories to avoid the packs and figure out what to do next after we are home. The best thing to do right now is for us to have a rest, sleep and then get out of here before sunrise. Nathan, contact Alex, get him up to date with everything, and tell him to put extra warriors on guard throughout our territory.
Nathan nods and returns to his room.
‘Maximus?’ I say, gazing sadly at him with worry. ‘I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were only protecting yourself, and you saved me. Maybe I could talk to some of the Alphas and explain the situation? If I tell them Alpha Tate rejected me and tried to kill you, perhaps they will let us be?’ I suggest.
Alpha Maximus cups my face ‘My sweet, kind, gentle Hope, I don’t think this is going to be something we can talk ourselves out of, and I don’t trust any other Alpha to be near you. But we will try and figure something out. In the meantime, let’s get some sleep.’
With my nighty now on, Alpha Maximus scoops me into his arms and climbs into bed. I rest my head and hand on his chest and fall asleep.
I’m gently being woken from, Alpha Maximus caressing my cheek, ‘Time to get up, sleepy head.’ he smiles.
I pull the blanket back up and snuggle back into him as tightly as possible. ‘Just a bit longer?’ I mumble.
‘I’m sorry, but we have to go, Hope.’ he says softly.
I make puppy dog eyes at him. ‘Please, Maximus, just a few more minutes?’ I beg. He grins. ‘Okay, but just a few more minutes.’
I nuzzle my face into his neck and close my eyes while I caress his stubbled face.
A few minutes later, there’s a knock on the door ‘Alpha, Luna, are you ready to go?’ Nathan asks through the door.
I let out an annoyed moan.
Alpha Maximus laughs. ‘I know, babe, I wish I could stay in bed with you all day too,’ he says, sitting up.
As soon as we are dressed, I quickly help Alpha Maximus pack the suitcase back up, and then we walk downstairs to leave. Only a few people are in the lobby, and I pray to the Moon Goddess that none are from Alpha Liam’s pack.
It’s still dark, but you can see the sun is about to rise. We spend most of the day driving. I enjoy looking out the windows at all the towns we pass through. However, I keep noticing a white car with black tinted windows throughout the day following us.
I point out the back window, ‘I’ve seen that car for a while now,’ I say.
‘I noticed them too.’ Nathan replies, looking through his rear vision mirror.
Alpha Maximus growls under his breath. ‘We are being followed.’
‘I’ll try and lose them at the next town.’ Nathan says.
We drive through a town called Withermarsh. Nathan drives through all the streets, trying to lose them, only for the white car to appear again. A beeping sound is heard inside the car. ‘Wands! We are just about out of fuel,’ Nathan says.
Nathan pulls into the nearest petrol station.
Alpha Maximus steps out of the car and faces Nathan. ‘I’ll keep watch while you fill up. Hope, you stay in the car and wait for us.’
‘Okay.’ I reply.
Nathan is filling the car up while Alpha Maximus leans himself against the car with his arms crossed as he looks out for the white car.
As the white car slowly approaches, Nathan walks inside to pay for the petrol. A window is wound down. Alpha Maximus suddenly appears startled. ‘Wands!’ he says, opening the limo door, grabbing my arm and swiftly pulling me out. ‘Run!’ he yells.
Suddenly I feel a wave of hot air behind us and the sound of an explosion. We’re thrown into the air from the force and tumble and roll back onto the ground. My ribs and my legs hurt.
Even though I can see Alpha Maximus is saying something to me. All I can hear is a ringing sound. I turn around to see what has happened, and even though I can’t hear myself, I start screaming and crying at the horrific sight.
The whole fuel station is up in flames. Nathan and other people were inside at the time, paying for their fuel.
‘Nathan!’ I scream. I try to run towards the burning store, but Alpha Maximus comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me.
We fall back as another explosion erupts. Alpha Maximus uses his body to shield me. I look up from the ground to see the station is now completely obliterated. Debris flies through the air and lands all over the place.
People nearby are also screaming and crying,
‘Nathan?’ I call out again, hoping to see him appear from the flames.
Alpha Maximus takes my hand and runs towards the field away from the explosion, pulling me behind.
I still can’t hear what he is saying. Why is he running? Why isn’t he running back for Nathan?
He stops briefly and moves my head, and points. The men that were in the white car are still coming after us. They are armed with rifles.
Alpha Maximus shifts into his Lycan and lifts me onto his back. He runs at full speed. I cling onto him tightly, afraid I might fall. He must have run for at least two hours until he finally comes to a stop. He gently lowers me down.
Fields, mountains and trees surround us. We are far from any civilisation. The ringing in my ears has settled, and I can hear the sound of birds tweeting from the trees.
Alpha Maximus shifts back into his human form. He falls to his knees and slams his fists into the ground.
‘They killed him. They killed Nathan. He was a brother to me!’ He cries. My heart shatters for his loss. I kneel in front of him and let him cry with his head resting on my chest. I cry with him and caress his back for hours. We let all our frustrations, sadness and anger out. After having no tears left to cry, we decide we should leave. It’s almost nightfall.
We hold each other’s hands tightly as we walk through the field, watching the stars. We haven’t spoken since the explosion.
It’s becoming quite cold now, and Alpha Maximus’s shirt had torn off when he shifted into Chaos earlier. ‘We should find shelter for the night.’ I say with chattering teeth.
He nods but doesn’t say anything. His mind is elsewhere with the grief of losing his best friend.
We come across some trees. Alpha Maximus begins to collect thick branches on the ground.
He makes a little shelter, just big enough to fit us.
‘You go in first.’ I tell him.
I squeeze in, lay tight against his chest, and gaze into his sad eyes. I place my hand on his cheek. He gently rubs his face into my hand. The sparks from my touch are helping to soothe and comfort him.
‘I’m so sorry, my love.’ I whisper to him.
‘Me too.’ he sadly whispers back.
