Chapter 118 - My way or the highway

**Hopes pov**

Four days had passed since we let Dirk run. Reece had set up a screen in Callum’s office where we could follow him. He had made his way through the terrain impressively quickly, probably benefiting from whatever military survival training he now had. He had checked into a hotel in the first community he came to, probably contacted someone to help him after that because yesterday he traveled very far in a short time so it was safe to say he was car borne. Now I sat and looked at the screen and felt cold. He had been in the same place for twelve hours so he had probably reached his final destination. It wasn’t a city, not even a small town but by car it was only about thirty minutes from my little apartment. Whether this was the headquarters or my father’s home I did not know, perhaps they were one and the same. The idea that he had been so close to me all my life was, however, very unpleasant. I closed my eyes when I felt Callum’s strong hands on my shoulders. He came home last night after accompanying Jesse to Low Falls. They probably thought they were free from everyone who teased them after their vodka bender, but from what I heard, Cathy did her job and they had to continue to be embarrassed.
“How does it look?” Callum massaged me and kissed the top of my head.
“It looks like it’s time to rally everyone, looks like it’s time to attack.”
“Already?”
“Yes, the sooner the better.” “I hadn’t said anything about mine and Luna’s conversation with Zandra yesterday, about how Ambrogio might not have much time left. I hadn’t decided how I felt about it, if he could die without taking Zandra with him… surely everything would be easier with Tony in charge? All my predecessors could rest in peace in their graves, his evil against them would finally be avenged, surely that should be a good thing? Still, I wasn’t sure, I felt uneasy. My greatest concern was for Zandra, killing her own mate, what would that do to her? How would she change? How long would she have when her life force was no longer bound to his?
“Okay, I’ll have Joe contact Tony and we’ll arrange a meeting.”
“I thought Joe was in Low Falls?”
“My wonderfully sweet, sexy mate...there is an invention, it’s not big but very powerful...it’s called a phone.” He chuckled and kissed me a few times on the neck before taking on the task of getting in touch with Joe.
Whatever Zandra came up with, whatever she decided to do, I wanted Ambrogio with me on this hopefully final mission. He kept his children in order just by being and the last thing I wanted was a bunch of vampires out of control.
“Knock Knock!” Reece knocked on the doorpost and stepped through the open door.
“Has he moved yet?”
“Nope, he’s still in the same place.”
“Thought so, I’ve been trying to pull up radar images but it’s exactly like where they held you prisoner, it’s blurred out.”
“It must be the right place, right? It’s isolated at the same time close to the nearest city..”
“Yes, I think that’s the right place. Still sure you want the vampires on this? We could probably take them ourselves.”
“I don’t doubt that, but there would be great losses and I can’t risk that. And I promised..”
“What is a promise to the bloodsuckers? It’s not like they wouldn’t break one if it benefited them.”
“I don’t know if you’re speaking from experience, but a promise is a promise and I intend to keep my word.”
“Okay, I’m just checking.” He winked at me and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him.
“Joe is setting up an online meeting with Tony and Ambrogio, he’ll be back with the time.” Callum was back by my side.
“Hey boss, we missed you at practice this morning.”
“Yeah, I came in late last night and wanted to stay in bed with my beautiful woman this morning.” He buried his nose in my hair.
“Oh, okay…”
“What?”
“No, nothing.”
“Reece! What?”
“There’s no one who wouldn’t respect you if you told the truth..even an Alpha can suffer from a hangover.” Callum growled and set off after Reece who was quick enough to leave the office before he was locked in. I listened until I was unable to hear them anymore, Reece thundered down the stairs laughing with Callum hot on his heels.
Alone again, I could feel the worry of Zandra creeping back in so I decided to leave the office. I hadn’t worked out this morning and I could feel the built up energy in my muscles so I set course for the training area. Alongside the open spaces were a number of different exercise machines, but they weren’t the ones I was looking for. My eyes landed on the large punching bag. Perfect!
I was sweating and every muscle ached pleasantly from exhaustion when Maya came jogging.
“Wow, I really feel sorry for the sack!” She laughed.
“God how I needed that.. .” I took a towel and dried myself while glancing at her. She looked happy, collected and calm. As if she had found peace. Not that she used to be a restless soul but she was always on the go, either after the latest fashion, the newest nail polish or the rarest handbag. I took her hand and looked at it, the nails were neatly filed but unpainted so I smiled and looked at her questioningly and saw that she was blushing a little.
“Nail polish feels a bit unnatural these days...” I understood what she meant and wanted to give her a hug.
“Absolutely not! You’re sweaty and you stink and I’m not really that close to nature yet.”
“Come on, just a little hug please!”
“Gross Hope!” She turned and started jogging back. *Don’t you want to hug your daughter Luna? Take her!* I felt her in every nerve as she shot energy to my legs and we set off after Maya. Maya was fast, just like Reece, but we were faster. I caught her right in front of the steps to the pack house and threw my arms around her.
“Eeeewwww!!! Hope! Stop it!” We fell together laughing on the ground, adding some dirt to the sweat.
“Alpha, if you get the beer, I’ll get a couple of chairs, I can look at this all day.” Reese was grinning at us from the stairs, Callum also had a twinkle in his eye but probably didn’t know if he liked Reece’s comment so he responded by slapping him in the back of the head before coming down to me, pulling me to my feet.
“Joe called, we have a meeting in 30 minutes.” and with those words, seriousness returned.
Next to Callum’s office was a smaller conference room where a large screen was set up and when we entered the meeting’s other participants were already visible on the screen. Joe, Jesse and Kevin from Low Falls, Tony and Ambrogio from the Vampires. “Hope, you look…rosy…Alpha Callum, always a pleasure.” Ambrogio spoke politely and smiled his charming smile. We greeted everyone and settled down. I told them how we let Dirk go and how we probably located the Sons, if not at least an important place. “Where? Where are they?” Ambrogio’s voice gave way to impatience and his eyes darkened a shade.”
“Forget it, if we give you the place you won’t wait, you’ll attack right away.” I found myself going into defensive mode.
“What does it matter ? We’ve burned down the other phalanxes, I’ve personally eliminated several of the chairs around the table.”
“Because that’s how you wanted it! I’ve made it clear from the start that Mr. Bugatti is mine!” I stood up at the table and growled the words at the screen.
“If we all calm down a little, of course he’s yours Hope, my father has his own reasons for being impatient, he mean no harm.” Tony tried to mediate and got a look from Ambrogio that had made most people back away. I closed my eyes and took a couple of breaths before sitting back down, Callum took my hand in his.
“Look, if you want to be in on this, we’ll do it my way, otherwise we’ll leave you out, that’s the deal.” I could see how irritated he was, he was a man used to getting what he wanted. Then I immediately felt guilty. He must feel like shit. What I saw when he was here was a man breaking down being around Zandra, how bad would he feel now that he couldn’t be around her considering what happened when we got her back. Of course he was bloodthirsty, that was normal for him and he needed normal. I could see someone coming into the room calling his attention and his expression went from questioning to doubtful before he stood.
“Fine, we’ll do it your way. I’ll let Tony plan out the details with you, I have to go.” And with that he disappeared from view.
“What was that about?”
“Don’t know, something about him having a visitor.” We left the subject and began to plan what the attack would look like.
When the screen was off, Callum fetched a bottle of wine and four glasses.
“Are you sure you’re going to drink, we don’t want you to fall asleep…” Reece couldn’t help himself and laughed out loud at Callum’s clenched jaws. I took a sip and rolled my head to release the tension in my neck.
“We should ask Zandra to come here, we’re going to need her help in this.” Callum nodded but Reece was looking questioning.
“Zandra? Zandra isn’t here.” He said
“What do you mean, not here?”
“She left this morning, something about visiting an old acquaintance.”