Finding Forgiveness

“No, that’s tomorrow. She doesn’t need to go yet. Could you leave us for a minute, please?”

“Miss, do you want me to go?” the guard asked.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“No, it’s fine. I’m leaving,” I replied trying to get out of Leo’s grip.

“Antonio’s picking you up. He won’t be here for another five minutes at least. You might as well stay here,” Leo said quickly.

“I have an errand to run,” I said pulling at his grip again. He roughly pulled me closer to him with my arm which the guard immediately saw.

“Sir,? I’m going to have to ask you to put your hands up,” he ordered Leo pointing his gun and pressing a red button on the wall.

Seconds later, another three officers appeared in the doorway, all armed with guns.

Leo slowly let go of my wrists and let me move away.

“Put your hands up!” another officer bellowed.

I looked up into Leo’s dark, furious eyes and mouthed a ‘sorry’ before stepping towards the door.

The officers then began tackling him to the floor and recuffing his wrists. I took the opportunity to flee down the hallway and out onto the parking lot.

I could hear Leo fighting the officers as I raced to my car.

Keys. Keys. Fucking keys. Where did I put the fucking keys?!

And then it dawned on me, Leo must have taken them out of my pocket without me noticing.

Smart ass mother fucker. He was always one step ahead.

Guess I’ll have to get the bus to Mexico then. I ran out of the parking lot and down the road towards the bus stop. The police station was weirdly a mile out of town but it was only a short run along the forest track to get there.

Minutes later,? I could hear a car coming up behind me. I moved aside to let it past before realising exactly whose car it was and why it was slowing down as it neared me.

I quickly turned into the forest, where I knew a car couldn’t follow me and sprinted as fast as I could.

I heard the door open and footsteps coming towards me before a pair of arms seized my waist and lifted my feet from the air.

“Stop fighting me,” Antonio’s voice growled as he hauled me to his car.

Unfortunately, only a decade and a bit ago he had been Alpha and consequently had strength only marginally less than Leo.

“You don’t understand,” I argued kicking and wriggling even more. “You have to let me go.”

“I am just doing what Leo ordered,” he replied gruffly. “So if you like to stop being difficult and let me get on with it, that’d be fucking great,” he added throwing me in the backseat before slamming the door and getting in the front.

I noticed that he also put the child lock on so that in case I felt like throwing myself out of a fast moving vehicle, I couldn’t open the door.

“So what exactly is going on?” he asked. “Leo’s phone call was rather brief.”

“Andrea said that he’d let Cato go unharmed if I hand myself over to him. He also said that if we try anything else, he won’t hesitate to kill him. Of course, I am willing to sacrifice myself for my son but Leo won’t let me,” I explained.

A tear escaped my eye and raced down my cheek. I hastily wiped it off and took a deep breath in.

“Please Antonio, you have to let me do this. It is my choice.”

“No fucking way,” he said as he drove in the direction of home. “And it is not your choice. It is Leo’s choice. You just need to do as your told and let the Alpha deal with this.”

“The Alpha that is currently in jail!” I argued. “And you expect me to let him make that decision over our son?”

“You don’t have a choice,” Antonio replied bluntly in a deeper tone. “Leo clearly wants you out of this for your own safety. He is the Alpha, he gives the orders and you follow them. I don’t know why in seven years you haven’t learnt that yet but the sooner you get that in your head the better.”

“Antonio! My son! My fucking son!” I exclaimed a tear running down my cheek that I quickly wiped off. “Imagine if someone took Leo when he was a kid and told you to stay out of it.”

“Ella, I can only imagine how you feel but he’s just trying to protect his Luna and his pack,” Antonio said in a much softer tone. “That’s what Alphas do, yes?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “But he’s putting Cato’s life at risk.”

“You’ve been with him long enough to know that he always has a plan and that it is usually a good one. You will get Cato back, Ella. Telling you not to worry would be futile but at least try and have a little faith in your mate,” he replied.

I nodded and leant my head against the window. The tears were still streaming and only increased with every thought of Cato and how scared he must be.

We returned to Antonio and Rosa’s house. Antonio didn’t move much further than a metre away from me, as if he was concerned that I might disappear if he so much as blinked an eye. Rosa made me a cup of hot chocolate as I clung to my remaining children.

“Can we go and play with big Luca again, Mommy?” Lili asked.

She was too young to really understand what was going on. They all were.

“No, sweetie. None of us can leave the house, okay?” I replied stroking her hair.

At that point, the phone in the office began ringing.

“This could be important,” Antonio said before leaving to answer it.

Meanwhile, Rosa was busy with bottles of milk for Stefano and Zach and I was unattended.

I quickly kissed my remaining seven children on the head, grabbed my phone and marched to the door.

I felt kinda guilty because none of this was Rosa and Antonio’s fault and I was causing them more trouble than they deserved but on the other hand my maternal instincts were kicking me hard. Whether Leo has a plan or not, Cato’s life could be in danger if I don’t meet Andrea in Mexico and I’m not risking it.

I opened the front door and slammed it behind me. Before I could even begin sprinting down the drive towards the forest, I noticed Rosa’s car in the drive. The one I had left at the police station. Seconds later, the door opened and my mate got out of it.

Oh shit.

“Ella, get the hell back in the house. I’m not fucking around,” he growled striding towards the front door.

“This is my choice,” I insisted. “And you don’t you dare try to stop me. How are you even here?”

I saw his jaw clench as he continued to near me and his eyes flash black.

“Now is not the time to defy me,” he replied in his Alpha tone.

He then grabbed my arm and pulled me over his shoulder before bursting into the house and up the stairs leaving Rosa and Antonio dumbstruck.

He carried me into one of the spare rooms, put me down, left and locked the door behind him. I stood motionless for a few seconds before going to investigate the windows. They were both locked but one of them looked pretty weak. There was still a huge drop to the floor but also a tree that if I jumped far enough, I could get to and climb down.

Usually, when Leo and I had disagreements these days we didn’t fight. We sat down and talked about it. But I could just tell that there was 0% chance of him changing his mind here so drastic times called for drastic measures.

Just as I began rattling the already weakened lock, Leo marched back into the room with what looked like a pair of handcuffs in his hand.