December 27th

Ella's POV

I still had no idea why Leo had just dragged a struggling human woman into our house but after fifteen minutes of coercing and encouragement and Leo just about keeping his patience, we got her out of the hallway and settled her on the sofa.

All Leo told me was that she knew we were werewolves and that she'd been through some trauma. She was thin, like she hadn't eaten in days, so I heated up some soup on the stove and brought it over to her.

For some reason, she was incredibly anxious around Leo so I'd banished him to the other side of the room where he stood cradling Cato as I gave Hestia the soup.

"Hopefully this will make you feel better," I said to her.

She gave me what could have been a slight smile as she took the bowl, still nervously eyeing Leo.

"Leo, would you go upstairs please?" I asked him.

He turned and glanced at Hestia before nodding.

"Don't worry about him," I reassured her once he was gone, "He looks scarier than he is."

She bit her lip, "He seemed quite scary when he showed up at my house threatening to kill my kids," she said, her voice hoarse and quiet, "And he was quite scary when he ordered the death of my husband and left me in a cold, dark prison cell with his evil friend for days too."

She then picked up the spoon in the soup and slowly stirred it.

My mouth dried, "He did all that?"

She nodded.

"When?"

"In the last week," she replied, lifting the spoon for a few seconds before putting it back down, untouched.

I felt my stomach churn and squeeze as I brought my hand to my mouth and stood up.

"I-I'm so sorry," I said, turning to look out the window, staring at the pure white snow.

"...You didn't know?" she asked after a pause.

I plastered a smile onto my face before turning back to her.

"I know he is no stranger to evil. But I thought he had changed," I said sitting back down next to her.

She placed her hand over mine, "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about," I replied, "And I'll have strict words with him later. But for now, is there anything I can do?"

"Just stay with me...please?" she asked, "I don't want to be alone."

I nodded, "Of course."

We sat quietly as she finally ate her soup. I couldn't help but dwell on the shock of what she had said about Leo. How could he do this? Why would he do this?

"Your husband..." I began, "If you don't want to talk about it then don't worry but...who was he?"

"Achilles Drakos," she said, "He was a mercenary working for your mate, finding out the name of some leader. But he made the mistake of messing with him and lost his life for it."

Connor's name.

I swallowed, "And who are you?"

"I am nobody," she replied, "I had no idea werewolves existed or that my husband was anything other than a teacher until a few days ago when Leonardo and his friend, Luciano, abducted me as blackmail against Achilles."

She's innocent. She did nothing wrong.

"Luciano," I said gravely, "That's the friend he left you with."

She was suddenly quiet again.

I could hear Leo upstairs, talking to Cato and pacing around, probably still rocking him. The thought of him doing this still sickened me to the core.

"Leonardo forbade Luciano from touching me. But when you went into labour, he had to leave. Luciano disobeyed the orders and when the Alpha returned he suffered a lot of violence for it," She said, "If that's any consolation..."

"He dragged you into this in the first place," I replied, "Luciano is a vile, repulsive man but this is on Leonardo's conscience too...although I'm starting to doubt he has one."

She was quiet again, "He does. Otherwise, why would he have brought me here to help, especially when he knew it would mean you'd find out."

I shook my head, "We will not excuse him," I said, "But we will be glad that he at least made one good decision," I added before noticing her soup bowl was already empty, "Would you like some more soup?"

I sat with Hestia for hours. Leonardo had come in briefly to inform us he'd tracked down Hestia's children. They were safe but with social services who he was now battling with to have them returned.

Hestia seemed relieved but quite rightly she didn't thank him and I soon sharply sent him back out of the room.

The next morning, I woke still in the living room next to Hestia with the TV still playing back to back 'Friends'.

It was already fairly late in the morning and I could hear Leo's footsteps coming down the stairs.copy right hot novel pub