CHAPTER 54
Ema shrugged elegantly. “You don’t but what can you do? There is no another way to at least get a slight possibility to meet her. ”
Another long silence fell. In his thoughts, the former wiped all the tactics he could use in order to escape the snare. But in each and every single outcome that Daniel made, Amelia was in a risk. He was thoroughly surrounded & they had no other option left but to fight.
Not waiting for him to continue, Ema reached an arm out to pull him into a hug and Bruce, he whispered hoarsely, “We need time. ” “To consider your… offer. ”
Ema’s stood fanning herself and wringing her fresh dress. “Very well. You have until sunset. But, my dear, every moment you waste is a moment Amelia suffers inside that house. So think carefully, my dear,”
Finally folding her arms across her chest, Ema drawled one more triumphant smile to Bruce and Elijah then flounced out.
When the door shut on her, Bruce had dropped into the chair and put his head down on his hands. This time he was purging the words through a white mist that he said out loud: “How did this happen? “This far?” Groans, looks of despair and anger fill their faces They all sit up and one of them says: “How did we let it get to this stage?”
Elijah started to brisk in the room as he tried to figure out too the same question. “We really thought she would not be as sharp as she was,” he growled darkly. “We thought that we were in control of the situation all the time, little did we know that she was a step ahead of us. ”
Bruce collectively blinked opening his sore red eyes that looked like the darkness had stolen the happiness from within him. “What do we do, Elijah? We can’t let Amelia die We can’t give in to Ema’s demands. ”
“The pack will suffer,” Elijah completing his statement. “Even here there is no assurance that she will release Amelia. ”
They discussed, they argued, and they planned for hours. They covered all options, all scrams of what may happen in the scenario. But no matter how they approached the problem, they always came back to the same impossible choice: Amelia’s life or the interest of the pack – this is the major focus of the plot presented in the movie.
It was in the late evening, the sun set and gave lengthy shadows in the study, Bruce stopped and put down his hands on the window frame as if he had lost the fight. ‘We have to do it,’ he said softly. “He always has to agree to her whims. ”
Elijah sighed, but he agreed. “I know. For Amelia. ”
“For Amelia,” Bruce said in a numb tone. ”
But as they were ready for the confrontation with Ema and the consequent acceptance of the terms they witnessed, the murmurs of the weak voice at the back of Elijah’s mind. There was something strange about all this I couldn’t put my finger on. The timing is too good, the trap is too good.
“Bruce,” he said slowly, “lets think about it this way… what if… Ema does not have Amelia at all. ”
Bruce looked at them both, hope and bewilderment written all over his face. “What do you mean?”
Elijah started walking around, and everything sort of clicked when he started to speak. “Just that, the photo she showed us was cropped, we could not tell what prison or facility housed Amelia from the pictures and Ema looked so innocent the first time we had it in her face that she plans to attack the pack.
“But she knew Amelia was missing,” Bruce retorted. “How else could she have known that!”
“Spies,” Elijah said grimly. “We always believed she had influence over the rest of the pack and that she had a hand, indirectly, in Amelia’s vanishing act. It’s possible that she only found out about the girl’s current status a few weeks ago. If that is the case, then she is merely toying with us. ”
Bruce scowled at this possibility. However, the danger… if we dare her and she truly has possession of Amelia…
“I know,” he replied with a sigh of a man who has experienced rather bitter and difficult life lessons. “It’s a very risky thing to do,” Pause “But consider this; if you give in now Ema is the victor, you and the pack are entirely at her mercy, and Amelia, well… I don’t know where she is, or if we will ever see her again.
The two men lapsed into a foreign sort of silence where the enormity of the decision already made between the duo. "What was to be the fate of Amelia and The Pack?"
Suddenly evening came and a knock on the door interrupted the two in the study. On of the pack enforcers stepped inside, the man’s expression stern. “Alpha,” he turned to Bruce, “Ema asked for your presence in the great hall The woman told me it’s the decision time. ”
Bruce got up, assuming a new posture of confidence and putting his shoulders back. He needed no words to ask Elijah for help, the desperation was there in his eyes. Elijah nodded once, resolute.
“Very well,” Bruce said, in an experenced calmness; although his heart raced, and he was far from calm on the inside. I listened to the voice on the other end instructing me and said “Tell her we’re on our way. ”
Bruce and Elijah looked at each other one more time as the two moved towards the great hall. In that glance could be captured more than language or words, more than pillar and foundation; there was the meaning in the unity and the will to stick it out. Whether there was something else to confront they would face it as a group.
People in the great hall were gathered in different groups packs members whispering trying to understand what was going on. When Bruce and Elijah arrived at the front of them Ema was already standing there with a holo of triumph on her face.
“Oh, there you are,” she said loud enough to be heard by everyone in the vicinity of the party. “Still I am waiting for you to make up your mind?”
Bruce moved towards the stage followed by Elijah. The people stood aside and moved away from the children since they saw that the two were very angry. At Ema, Bruce let out a loud voice, which resounded to the extent, ‘
“We have,” he said that, keeping his eyes on Ema. “And I ask you, you say no”.
People in the audience were surprised, they emitted a collective gasp. In this case, the emotions shown on Ema’s face were the confusion and anger that fell on her before she could smile again. ‘It’s all right,’ Jack murmured, his eyes not leaving the two women In front of him , ‘What did you say?’ Ema asked, her voice low with anger.
Bruce cleared his throat “I said no. ”, the strength was slowly returning in his voice. “You will not control us anymore and never will this pack let you terrorise and dominate them. ”
Ema looked panicked and her eyes were shifting all over the room as she quickly began to see that her plan was falling apart. “You fool!” she spat. “Have you failed to remember Amelia, one call from me and she will be dead. ”
However Bruce held his ground, a steady voice saying in the hall, “You’re bluffing, Ema. You don’t have Amelia. You never did,” However, Ema was quick to counter him.
As a murmur went round the people in the gathering a certain tenseness entered the scene. Ema’s face went white; the mask she had put on so skillfully to hide her true emotions fell away. “No you are,” she replied but the confidence she usually had when arguing with him was not present. “I’ll show you—”
“Show us what?” Elijah asked as he moved closer to them. “Another photo staged? More deception? Lies? It’s over Ema. We know your tricks now. ”
‘Ema, gimme your wine!’ Ema choked and tried to argue with him at the same time as Bruce turned to the pack. He explained – Ema’s schemes, her threats, her try to turn Amelia against them. The proofs they had obtained, the stories of pack members under Ema’s manipulations.
In hall, people began to transform their attitude to bitter and resentful for the adversary and betrayal. Following members of the pack shouted for justice; for Ema to be brought to her knees for her misdeeds.
Moments later seeing her support system fading away Ema tried to knock the door of the room. Only a moment later the girl was surrounded by the pack enforcers, thus her escape was impossible.
Bruce then faced the pack again while Ema wriggled in distress when she was tied down. ‘We have been deceived and manipulated by these woman who claims to be your Luna’, he said anger and sorrow etched on his face. “But we are stronger than any one individual’s ambition, We will put it right the wrongs that have been done, We will bring back the trust that had been lost and we will find Amelia wherever she is. ”
The pack growled at the end agreeing with what was said and for once instead of arguing and division of the last few months there was cohesion and a clear goal. When Ema went out screaming and struggling Bruce and Elijah exchanged a satisfied grimace on their faces. Satisfied, they left the place knowing very well that this fight although they won, was far from over.
With Ema’s threat neutralized, they could now focus all their energy on the mystery that still haunted them: But what had really happened to Amelia? But most importantly than that, how could they take her home?
