Twelve hours later,

The next time I woke, I was in an unfamiliar room, by a roaring fire, smothered in blankets and in layers and layers of dry, warm clothes. I blinked my eyes open slowly and as my vision cleared, I saw Leo sat with his head in his hands on a hard wooden stool only a metre away.

His head snapped up as I began to squirm under the exasperating heat.

"Don't move," he said jumping to his feet and placing his hands gently on my shoulders.

"I'm boiling," I replied slightly out of breath.

In response, Leo took both the blankets off me and cast them aside.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You tell me. I found you close to death, hypothermic and unconscious on the side of a mountain in a blizzard," he replied. "I don't know how or why you got there. I don't know how long you'd been there but I do know that you almost died, Ella. Had I been ten minutes later, I'm not sure we would be having this conversation."

I narrowed my eyes, racking my brain for some sort of recollection of what happened. A second later it all came rushing in like a 20 ft wave.

Running away from my mate again, the furious phone call I received at the airport, ignoring his demands for me to return home...etc

"Leo-" I began trying to muster some heartfelt apology that my heart didn't really feel.

"Save it, Ella. You said you were sorry last time yet here we are again," he replied.

"Are you not furious?" I asked looking at his brooding and bubbling but relatively calm expression.

"Do you want me to be?" he questioned. "Because I can sure do that."

"No, it's just I'm confused. I ran away from you for the second time and after the first time you-"

"Yes, I know," he interrupted with a strained voice. "I hit you but I promised I'd never do that again and unlike you, I don't break my promises. Besides, my overall emotion right now is pure relief that you are okay," he replied taking my hand.

I smiled before gently placing a kiss on his hand.

"But you still haven't answered. Why were you up the mountain?" he asked.

I narrowed my eyes and thought again seconds before another 20 ft wave hit me.

The amulet, the stolen car, the storm, the fight...

Max.

Make that a 40 ft wave.

"Max!" I exclaimed sitting bolt upright.

"Lie down," he said firmly as he pushed me back down on the sofa. I fought against him for the worry of my eldest cousin. He has his annoying and dicky moments but so do I and I love him.

"Where is Max? Did you save him too?!" I asked frantically.

"He's fine. Still unconscious but the doctor says all his vitals are fine," he reassured.

I relax and allowed him to lay me back down on the sofa.

"Wait, where are we?"

"Alpha Xander's pack," he clarified. "My sister's mate, remember?"

I nodded.

"Quite conveniently he owns a helicopter and knows how to fly it."

"How did you know where we were?" I asked.

"The first thing I did when you got home last time was put a tracker in your phone," he replied. "Since I wasn't expecting you to run off to the Northerly tip of Russia, the range wasn't quite long enough and it took my IT technician a day or two to get working. When he did, I flew straight here and showed Xander where it was showing your location to be. His exact words were: 'there has to be a technical glitch. You'd have to be insane to go up that mountain at this time of year'. So tell me my Luna, why were you and Max up there?...unless of course, you are in fact going insane, in which case I should take you to see a therapist."

"Something tells me that you already know the answer to that..." I said observing the fact that someone had changed my clothes, including my jeans which had the amulet stuffed their pocket.

Leo gave me a sarcastic smile before withdrawing the precious necklace from his own jeans and dangling it in front of me.

"This," he stated. "You risked your life, again, for this."

"Leo please, I am begging you. You have to let me help Milly," I begged.

"No," he snapped. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Luciano told me about Elizabeth," I informed him. "I understand why you object to it but that was 300 hundred years ago and it was only one of Hecate's descendants too. Donatia didn't have that problem."

"The pack still remembers. I can't run the chance of it being seen on my territory even if I agreed," he replied. "The Alpha's son died last time. Imagine if that was Cato or Mathias or Silas."

"Milly will not do that. Elizabeth's story has been told over 300 years, it's bound to have changed and who's to say that the part about her being kind-hearted is an incorrect version of the truth?"

"I am not willing to take the risk. I will not gamble with lives of my children or people. This will be the last time that we talk about this," he replied with a sense of assurity.

"Just listen to one last thing and I'll stop, please," I said squeezing his hand and kissing it again. "It's important so hear me out."

He sighed before placing a hand on my cheek and nodding.

"Go on."

"Milly told me that something big is coming. Something that she can't control but she will be the cause of and there is nothing she can do. People are going to die without the amulet, people might die with it. You don't have a choice to gamble with the lives of your people and if I were you, I'd pick the option with the better chance of a win."

At that point, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Leo said not taking his eyes off me, clearly occupied in thought.

The door opened and Bella popped her head around the corner.

"I thought I could hear your voice, Ella," she said as our eyes met.

"Bella!" I exclaimed, thrilled to see her.

I hadn't seen her since last November, which was almost a year ago when she came home for Thanksgiving.copy right hot novel pub