Chapter 100 - A nice day

**Hopes pov**

The next few weeks flew by in a blur. I kept myself busy. I was at the clinic where many of the prisoners from the hunters were, tried to help them and their wolves as best as Luna and I could. I spent time with my mother and Maja and many others from our pack. Cathy had left, she was going to visit a friend a few towns away. I think Zandra’s absence affected her more than she wanted to show. Zara was back after being gone for a couple of days. She never said where she had been but I suspect she met Ambrogio. From what I understand, to maintain the spell she has on him, to keep it from breaking, she must expose him to her somehow. Tony has told Joe that his father is mostly recovered but very withdrawn and as Tony described it, bordering on depressed. I asked myself a few times if I should feel guilty...I know Zara is deceiving Ambrogio and I know why. I’ve asked Luna several times but if there’s one place we don’t agree, it’s when it comes to him. She usually gives me pictures in response, a stone statue, a mate bleeding to death on the ground, newspaper articles about missing loved ones and crying parents. I countered a few times by thinking about the warmth in his voice when he talked about the past, the reverence when he showed his respect for her, his oldest enemy, how he and his children fought to help free us…but Luna always had more memories, more pictures so I lost every time and finally I gave up. As Zara wished, the decision regarding Ambrogio rested with Zandra.
In cooperation with Tony and the vampires, we helped track the hunters and tried to map the various organizations. Mercedes whose name turned out to be Emelie contributed everything she could, as did the former prisoners. We put together a group with Tony and their task was to move around mixed clubs and other places to gather information. Every third day we had a briefing. We learned a lot from people who started filling our cells. The vampires were the ones who elicited the most information, probably due to our different interrogation techniques. I couldn’t take the step towards torture and instead used Zara’s help with various forms of truth potions and mind-twisting illusions. But the men and women we managed to catch were just foot soldiers, they hadn’t even earned their car names yet so the process of getting the really important information we needed was slow.
We always returned them with false memories of where they had been, a weekend in Paris for someone, a few days with stomach flu for another, Zara impressed with her skills... Of the vampires’ prisoners, none came back, not alive anyway. A couple of blood-drained bodies had been placed in places to send a warning or a promise of retribution. I had expressed my disapproval on several occasions but this was not just my war and I was not the only leader, so in the end I backed off and let them do it their way.
I started and ended each day at Zandra’s bedside. I made sure there were always fresh flowers from her garden next to her bed so that would be the first scent she smelled when she woke up. I talked to her about everything that happened in the pack, I told her about Alex, our lead warrior, his mate and their new pup, a little girl with strong lungs. I talked about Tina, still locked up with her father and Alpha David..we haven’t decided what to do with them yet. Callum wanted them dead but I didn’t.
I took lonely runs in the forest where I screamed and cried to the heaven, demanding answers and help to bring Zandra back..I went to the moon temple where both me and Luna tried to get Selene to talk to us..but it was silent everywhere, no one answered and finally I almost started to think the Gods were just an imagination.
At night I fell asleep in Callum’s arms, sometimes crying but mostly completely exhausted, I still woke up from the nightmares that haunted me.
I trained regularly with everyone else, Kevin stepped up and accepted to be a coach to keep teaching the others quick shift, but for many it was a painful training and frustrating for their wolves as well.
Today I sit on the sidelines watching, very fascinated by his technique. He has built a type of obstacle course, it is a bit like the parkour course at home in the park, maybe he has trained with Jesse there when he was visiting? It’s a shame I can’t remember seeing him.
The obstacle course is very well thought out. He has strategically placed objects that can be used as weapons in human hands, as well as building platforms and ledges that can give a wolf extra speed and height, very impressive. The ones who have the easiest time learning are actually the group from the cave, Joe’s people and ironically, they are from Kevin and Jesse’s old pack.
I feel the scent of spring and sunshine before she sits down next to me and out of reflex I close my eyes and take a deep breath to keep the feeling the scent brings with it. Maya sits down close to me and puts her arm around my waist.
“Hey girlfriend…”
“Hey…” I reply, leaning into her. Even though I have her here and see her daily, there is always someone or something else that needs my attention. Maya and I haven’t spent time alone together in a very long time.
“So, I thought I’d track you down to share a suggestion. The boys are training and Reece said they were doing something in the prison after…” She started.
“Yeah, they are letting The Luna and the Tinas mother meat their mates. Callum didn’t want to approve it at first, but I thought it couldnt hurt..we might need them soon and either way, they are our responsibility”
“How so?”
“We stripped The Low Falls pack of their leaders...as Callum explained it, the time will soon come for us to either take over that pack, or add a new leadership and even when that’s done we have to decide what to do with Tina and the others.” Maya listened and as she did she moved a strand of my hair from my face and put it behind my ear.
“Is there any possibility you can let it be the guys headache? Just for today?” I looked up at her, into those round blue eyes I knew so well and I saw how they reflected the smile playing on her lips. Since there was no smile more infectious, I responded with one of my own.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
“Well, my wolf really wants to stretch her legs and she’s longing for some quality time with her mother…” she gave me a wink and a laugh escaped me.
“To think that a part of me would become the mother of a part of you…who would have guessed?”
“After a run, I thought we’d have a mani-pedi at the spa down at the mall, and I’ve heard of a club nearby..Fusion I think it’s called, we finish there and if the guys want to, they can join us. What do you say about that?” She studied my face closely and she could see where my thoughts were taking me.
“Sweetie, there is nothing you can do for her tonight…she would like you to take a break, you need a break Hope.” I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent, I know she’s right and if anyone can make me relax and feel better it’s Maya..apart from Callum that is. I felt around to see if Luna had any objections but on the contrary, I could feel her stretching her muscles and shuffling a bit, ready for a run with Maya’s wolf.
“Okay!”
“Really?” Maya’s smile grew wider and she jumped to her feet.
“To be honest, I thought I would have to fight a little more than that, I have a lot of persuasive reasons in store.”
“I’m sure you have, I laughed, But you’re right, a break is exactly what I need.”
For a few seconds we just looked at each other in silence. We were back home in the city..our city, just us, no wolves, vampires or hunters. Just two besties making plans for the evening. Maya took my hands and pulled me up and, laughing, we jogged towards the forest.
The first hour we competed, in sprints, jumps and tracking. I have to admit that Maya and her wolf impressed us. She was bigger than other werewolves which I understood was because she was a first generation from me. But she was also incredibly quick and agile, just like Reece. Her tracking technique, however, could be improved...a lot. When we ran, we left our wolves to themselves and retreated to the back, leaving them be. Every now and then I would sneak a peek and see how Luna was raising Maya’s wolf. She taught her how to sneak, by showing how to silently put one’s paws down on materials like dry twigs, it was apparently about balancing one’s body weight. She showed how to isolate one scent from another when tracking, and soon they had taken up the hunt for a bunny, then I had to interfere..*Please*, *just track but don’t kill any bunnies!* Me and Maya talked about memories that were about our crazy nights at clubs, we talked about the kids at work and how much we miss them. We promised each other to make time to return and see them. We talked about old mistakes like Kyle and mistakes that never happened like Jesse.
“Did you never feel anything?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know Luna was asleep...but did you never sense that he was a wolf?” I laughed at her.
“Maya, even if I had felt something I wouldn’t have understood it... the supernatural was only in the movies…but I remember thinking he couldn’t be human.” We laughed together at how right I had been.