last Hope

What Happened?

Luca

It was about ten when we went to bed. 

I woke up to the sound of Lily whimpering and Leo growling at about eleven-thirty. 

When I try to wake her up she’s still dead asleep with tears streaming down her face. I continue to try and wake her up from whatever this is, but her condition doesn’t change, so I go to get the pack doctor, Lacy. 

When she looks Lily over she doesn’t find anything physically wrong with her. Mentally, on the other hand, it seems as though she were awake. We figure out it’s probably her Mother again, using magic to keep her in this state. We couldn’t do anything to help and I felt so useless. Again! 

-

Lily stayed in that state half the night before she eventually stopped whimpering and crying. Not long after, she woke up. She shot straight up, gasping for air like she had been underwater for hours. 

I try to get her attention and calm her down. “Lily. Lily, baby, you need to calm down. What happened?” I pull her close to me when she looks me in the eyes and starts to cry again. 

What the hell happened? 

Lily 

She has an army. An army that could destroy everything. She will stop at nothing to get to us. To me. 

*Lily’s dream*

“Let’s talk.” 

My anxiety continues to grow more and more with every step she takes in my direction. I try to get as far away as possible by going in the direction of the corner. I would’ve run out but I was, once again, in those same uncomfortable, skin burning chains. Molly whines, feeling useless to help once again. 

“I tried to keep this between the two of us. I tried not to cause unnecessary bloodshed. Nonetheless, because you are now hiding behind your alleged mate, I have no choice.” She has a crazed look in her eyes as a small smile twitches at her lips. 

“You have forced my hand. Now I’m going to have to use my army and demolish your dear beloved pack. Your oh-so-important ‘family’.” I look at her like she’s crazy, which she is no doubt, and question her. 

“What army?” 

“Oh, just Witches, Demons, Giants, a pack or two of Rogues.” The crazed look she had in her eyes slowly spreads on her face as she says this. She almost looks proud of herself. 

“What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?" I question.

“No, you can’t blame what’s happening on me, all of this could have been avoided if you had just been obedient to me! So this is all your fault.” She looks dead serious as she says this, looking me straight in the eyes the whole time. 

“You are crazy.” I say this slowly questioning her sanity completely. She comes straight for me when I say this and slaps me straight across the face with all her strength. 

I see black for what feels like hours as I slowly calm down from my hysteria, and then a strange light comes into my line of vision. It starts getting brighter and brighter as I continue towards it. 

All of a sudden, I shoot up in bed having a hard time catching my breath. 

*End of dream*

After I calm down Luca looks into my eyes, worry written in his features. “Baby, what happened?” 

I try to explain what happened as best as I could and I could gradually feel him start to shake. It’s not out of fear though. He’s pissed. No, scratch that. Beyond pissed. I can’t even find the words to describe how angry he looks right now. 

I take his hands in mine and start rubbing small circles with my thumbs, the familiar tingles going crazy at the touch. He starts to calm down almost instantly, then I notice small black bags under his eyes. 

“Luca, will you lay with me? I’m kinda tired.” 

He smiles and looks happy at the opportunity to get some sleep. I know he hasn’t exactly gotten very much sleep since all this started, so when we both lay down on the bed I hear his soft snores not long after, lulling me to sleep as well. 

-

By the time we wake up the next day it’s almost noon. We both lay in the bed for a bit before we know we need to warn the Alpha of the coming attack. We find him in his office going through paperwork and doing other Alpha duties. 

When we get his attention we explain what had happened the previous night and he goes pale, then gets the same look Luca had when I told him. Beyond pissed. 

He starts barking orders, no pun intended, at different pack members and gets on the phone to see if any of the neighboring Alphas have noticed anything unusual on their land. One did, and he happened to be a family friend and an ally to the pack. 

He tells us that my parents had passed through his territory just a couple of days ago, claiming to be going on a vacation. After hearing that, I left to be by myself, feeling too overwhelmed with my own emotions. Molly tries to help, but I end up just blocking her out. 

Once I’m alone, I break down. I happen to be in one of the bathrooms and so I start to look for something to use. Something to help relieve the pain and stress of the world closing in and crushing me from every direction. 

However, before I get the chance someone knocks on the door. 

“Yes. who is it?” I ask, trying to mask the pain in my voice. 

“Lily, can we talk?” It was Luca. 

Damn mate bond. 

‘Good, maybe he can talk some sense into you.’ Molly says with a smug tone, but she’s really just worried. 

‘Shut up Molly.’ I growl and say this with so much dejection and rage she cowers away and retreats to the back of my mind, not saying another word, or making another sound. 

“Sure.” I look in the mirror before walking over to let Luca in. 

I look like I just crawled out of hell. My eyes are bloodshot and swollen and my hair is all over the place from trying to get my throbbing head to subside and keep my sobs and whimpers under control and quiet. 

I back away from the door slowly after unlocking it, everything hitting me at once. Pain, fear, anger, worry. I had been so overwhelmed with my emotions I had forgotten about Luca’s. 

As soon as he steps through the door and sees my face he pulls me into a tight embrace leaving me in tears once again. 

Luca 

*After the meeting*

Where is she? 

Lily had disappeared right after we told my Dad about her Mom’s crazy plan. I’ve been feeling her emotions and stress all day and I’m getting really worried she’s about to do something. 

Something bad. 

‘You need to find her now! I have a bad feeling.’ Leo says this with a lot of rage, but you can tell he’s just worried. 

‘I know, I’m trying.’ 

‘Well try harder!’ 

I finally find her in one of the bathrooms after a while. I can hear her muffled sobs and could feel her strong, overwhelming emotions. Pain, sadness, fear. I could also feel something else as well, and it surprised me. Betrayal. 

I knock on the door after standing there for a minute, trying to sort out my feelings from hers. I hear her soft voice and feel a sharp stinging pain in my heart from the sound. Leo whimpers softly as his heart constricts like my own. 

‘She’s in so much pain.’ He says softly as he tries to hide how much pain he feels for our mate. 

‘I know.’ I say in agreement and understanding for the pain we both feel for her. 

“Lily, can we talk?” It takes a minute for her to respond. 

“Sure,” she says, obviously trying to hide her pain. 

I hear her moving around for a minute before the sound of the lock turning fills my ears. I stand there for a few seconds, suddenly feeling burdened with my own emotions. As soon as I step through the doorway my heart drops to my stomach. 

Her eyes are bloodshot and swollen. Her face red and stained with tears. She tries to keep her head down as she backs away from me, but I just ignore it and pull her close to me. I could hear her soft whimpers and sobs as she buries her face deeper into my chest and as close to me as possible. I do the same and bury my face in the crook of her neck, trying to calm her and myself down in the process by rubbing small circles on her back and whispering sweet nothings in her ear. We stand like that for a long time before she stops crying and calms down. 

When we finally release each other from the tight embrace it feels like we had been standing there for hours. I look down at Lily’s face to see if she looks any better. What I see is… 

Lily 

“Beautiful.” Luca has a soft, comforting smile on his face as he says this, looking deep into my eyes. I have no idea what I look like right now, but I know I’m not beautiful. I try to turn around so I can look in the mirror but Luca stops me, picking me up bridal style effortlessly in the process. 

“Luca, what are you doing?” I look at him confused and all he does is smile. I can see the gears turning in his head as he carries me down the halls and I start to get a little worried. 

Molly and I simultaneously think the same thing. 

What is he thinking? 

-

Luca carries me up to our room, hands me some clothes, and tells me to go take a shower. I give him a weird look but do it anyways. Once I’m done cleaning up I put on the clothes Luca had given me to wear. It’s a loose skirt with a beautiful flower pattern on it, and a long sleeve, off the shoulder, flowy white shirt. 

I dry and curl my hair quickly and put on a little make-up before going out into Luca’s room, feeling a little self-conscious. Luca is sitting on the bed in his dark blue jeans and a nice red dress shirt. His light brown hair is a little messy like he’s been running his hands through it, but it looks good. 

He looks up at me with those mesmerizing blue eyes of his and shows me a goofy grin. “You look beautiful.” 

“It's just the clothes.” At my words, a look of pain crosses his face and he walks over to me from where he was sitting. 

He gently takes my cheeks in his hands and turns my face to look him in the eyes. “It is not just the clothes. You are beautiful.” 

He says this slowly and kisses me passionately to add emphasis to his words. I kiss him back with just as much ferocity and passion until we finally have to pull away for air. 

We stand there for a few minutes, just savoring each other's scent. “We should get going.” 

“Where are we going?” He pulls me towards the door of the bedroom, through the house, and out to the garage with a huge grin on his face. 

When we get into his truck I look to him for answers once again. 

“Luca?” 

“I’m taking you on a date of course.”