Finding Forgiveness

“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 and 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 discretely 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 gruelling 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 onto 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 sat 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 lift.

I screamed as loudly as I could in the hope that I could attract somebody’s attention.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“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 immobilised 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 towards the elevator door where the other soldier was stood 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 whilst the two soldiers glared at me intensely. The footsteps then began to walk hurriedly towards 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 were 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 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 this 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’s nothing they can 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 fast walk 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 towards the door. I obviously fought against him and screamed but my screams were drowned by everybody else’s. A matter of seconds later, the alarm silenced and a voice came through on the tanoy.

“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.

“.. F. u.. ck… y.. ou,” 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 0. 5 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.