Chapter 137 - Do it

**Hopes pov**

The sight that met us was horrible. I understood that we had entered the holiest of hunters’ rooms, it was in the air, it was in the walls and furniture. If nothing else, the wall in front of us bore witness to just that. I could feel Luna’s heart breaking as she saw the hunters experiment before us. Patric was nothing compared to this. Luna roared, she called upon their wolves in a way I had never heard or known before. While demanding submission and obedience, she promised love and protection. She poured her heart into the roar, like a mother calling home her beloved lost children. I could see the change in the beings before us, surprise, pain, doubt and finally love and submission.
“What are you doing!? Kill them!!!” I heard the commands from the cowardly men behind them. I stepped forward, stretched out my senses and caressed each of them. I scratched them behind the ears, kissed their noses or just leaned my forehead against theirs.
“You can leave the room, go outside and make sure no hunter is alive when the night is over.” Reluctantly they left my side and the room and I could finally see the real threat before us. Five men. The last chairs around the table.
“Hope! Thank God it’s you Hope!” I heard his voice before I saw him, my father. He stepped forward behind the others and assumed his leadership role. I could feel my teeth grow and a growl bubbled up from my throat. Luna would have loved to lunge forward and rip his throat out before he could utter another word, but she restrained herself, for my sake.
“Hope, please stop this madness now, let’s sit down and talk like adults.” I could hear the falseness in his pleading, all he wanted was to get out of here alive. He showed a good leadership role where he stood in front of the other men. He held his hands behind his back, baring both chest and throat in an attempt to show us that he trusted us.
“There is nothing to talk about…Father.” His facial expression changed for a few seconds and the men behind him looked uncomprehending.
“Ooooo...haven’t you shared your secret?...Your dirty little secret?” I sneered at the men and then back at him, slightly enjoying how awkwardly he squirmed.
“Gentlemen..let me introduce myself. My name is Hope, I am Mr. Bugatti’s...only daughter. I am the mate of Alpha Callum of The Great Falls pack, Luna above all werewolves.” I bowed somewhat theatrically.
Some of them looked horrified, doubtful. But a couple didn’t show anything, probably high enough in the hierarchy to know what I was talking about.
“Hope, I’m willing to discuss…terms.”
“Are you? Okay, these are my terms. You disband the Sons of the Sun, right down to the last laboratory and footsoldier. You then work to disband the rest of the Phalanxes, or the few that remain that is. All of my blood stored must be destroyed , all elixir dangerous to wolves must be destroyed. All wolves and vampires held captive and harmed in your experiments must be released and compensated, properly. You must then donate all money held within the organization to build a center for the same in need of help, support whatever trouble they’re in. If you’re willing to do this, you might live long enough to see your grandchild, that is, if mom doesn’t get hold of you.” I scoffed as I nonchalantly looked at my claws and waited for his response.
“Hope..Be reasonable, what you’re asking is not reasonable..How about this, your pack will always be safe, your bloodline too…regarding…the vampires…we won’t hunt them down, unless humans are in immediate danger. Your blood and elixir will be destroyed.” He looked hopeful as he laid out his counter-proposals.
“Dear father…what you don’t understand is that all wolves, from every single Alpha down to the weakest most abused rogue you have in your cells…all are my pack. I am the Origin, I have no borders.
“Enough of this, let’s end them.” Ambrogio took a step forward, and then another. I couldn’t see the rest, he was moving too fast but one by one, the men around my father fell dead to the floor. I didn’t mind, I wouldn’t have seen the night end any other way. I knew Ambrogio would leave my father to me. I met his golden gaze as he walked back towards me with a bloody face, he winked at me and smiled a little. Like, *Thanks, I’m full now, the floor is yours.* Behind him, I could see my father bring out his hands, which he kept behind his back the whole time. I had thought they would be empty, but they weren’t. A crossbow, quite small but seemingly powerful was about to be aimed at Ambrogio’s back, loaded with a solid wooden arrow. It was as if time stood still, I could see and appreciate the beautiful weapon in my father’s hands, I could see his eyes darken with hatred. When time finally started, it went far too fast.
"AMBROGIO!!!" Zandra’s voice cut through the room as my father released the arrow. Ambrogio managed to turn and I knew the arrow was going to hit his heart...until I saw Zandra’s arms around his neck....and her limp body in his arms. She had thrown herself in front of the arrow, taken it in his place. I could no longer control Luna, she pushed me away, locked me in the back of my head...and attacked my father. She knew I couldn’t kill him so she took the entire burden herself, leaving my human soul untainted. My beloved wolf, my better half.
*Luna...Luna girl, it’s okay, calm down, he’s dead...we need to check on Zandra.* Slowly she returned control to me, half shifted, we crawled across the bloody floor to Ambrogio and to Zandra in his arms.
“What are you doing? Heal her!” I yelled at him as he passively sat stroking her hair. He met my gaze and tears rolled down his cheeks.
“I’ve tried…it’s not working, I don’t understand why…you have to turn her Hope, let Luna turn her into a wolf, please save her!” *Luna, you heard him, bite her, save her!* Luna whined and howled in my head and soon I was somewhere else…
*“Zandra, I have to try, I promised her!”* *I looked at the young woman on the ground in front of me. Elena...she had just gotten old enough for me to turn her. I had promised that we would have the ceremony after the battle. She would wait for us with the others who did not fight, tend to the young and the old. But Elena was different. She wanted to be in the heat of battle, fighting vampires and hunters, anyone who threatened us, the ones who killed her own family before I found her. She had snuck up on us and on a whim threw herself into close combat with a vampire. She never had a chance. I could hear her heart beating slower and I wanted to try to turn her now, it was the only thing that possible could save her.*
*“Aayla…if you turn her now, if you let Luna take from her soul to not just give her a wolf but to try and heal her…then you will lose your child. It’s your choice.”* *Zandra’s voice was filled with sadness and pity as she placed the burden of this difficult choice on me. My hands immediately searched for the bump on my belly, my baby, the last thing I had after my mate...Luna’s next human. How could Luna live on to hunt Ambrogio if I let my baby die? My mate was dead, I would never have another child. I looked in front of me at the torn body of the young girl and felt my heart break as her heartbeat slowed.*
I understood what Luna showed me, save Zandra and lose my baby.
“Ambrogio, I can’t...it will kill my baby..” I cried my answer and I saw how it broke him.
“But you can…you can turn her.” I heard Callum’s voice behind me and when I turned to see him leaning on Jesse I almost couldn’t hold myself together anymore. His gaze passed me and was fixed on Ambrogio.
“You can turn her. She’s your mate, make her one of yours.” There was a cold determination in his voice, not sadness, despair or surprise but anger almost.
“But I cant even heal her...and she would never...she won’t...” Ambrogio stuttered out the words as he continued to stroke her hair.
“DO IT!!! TURN HER!!!” Callum roared and both me and Luna backed up a bit.
“She knew what was going to happen, she trusted us to find a solution!” Callum nearly lost his breath as the last words left him and I could see Jesse struggling to keep him on his feet. I turned to Ambrogio, he looked scared. I looked at the arrow in Zandra and listened to her heartbeat. Just like the girl in Luna’s memories, they became fewer and fewer. Her clothes had stopped bullets, how could an ordinary wooden arrow go through? I took a firm grip on the wood and said a silent prayer before closing my eyes and with all my might pulled it out of her chest. When I opened my eyes, they met Ambrogio’s, there were so many emotions there. Some of them wanted to rip my head off for possibly shortening her life by a few seconds, another part wanted my approval to do what Callum demanded of him. I nodded slowly and said what he was waiting for.
“Do it...please try.”