October 20th

Leo dragged me through the base until we reached a cute little cafe. Mateo stood outside with his arms folded and an unimpressed expression on his face as a girl stood next to him eating a panini.

"I'll be back in an hour," Leo grumbled before marching away again.

"Hey," I said awkwardly.

"Did you two just have a row or something?" he asked, a smile creeping onto his lips.

"What?" I asked.

"You know what. He was clearly pissed off," Mateo said with a laugh.

"And naturally you assume it's something to do with me?" I asked.

He put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair, "Of course it's something to do with you. You get under his skin like loiasis."

"Loiasis?" I questioned.

"It's a parasite worm that lives under the skin and itches like hell," he said with a wide smile. "That's you. You are the worm."

"Ew, Mateo I'm tryna eat," the girl complained as she lifted her panini up.

"Gee thanks," I muttered. "Do I look like a parasitic worm to you?"

"Oh this is my Allison," Mateo said gesturing to the girl, "Allison this is Ella."

She quickly chewed the bite of panini in her mouth, "Nice to meet you Luna."

She was a tall athletic girl with strong arms and legs and a bright smile.

I looked from her to Mateo before suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, "Oh God. I hope I'm not interupting anything."

"Relax," she said with a light laugh, "We're just friends. I was in the same class as Marco and Carlos at school so we're best friends and I've known them for decades."

"So...why are you-" I began looking at Mateo.

"Because we fuck sometimes," he interupted.

"Mateo!" she explain, "That isn't public knowledge!"

"We can trust Ella not to tell Marco and Carlos....right Ella?" he said looking a little nervous.

"Of course," I replied, "My lips are sealed."

Mateo smiled before pulling out a chair from one of the outdoor cafe tables.

"So come on then," he said gesturing for me to sit down, "Spill the tea sis. What happened with Leo?"

I rolled my eyes, "I hardly said anything. He's just fragile."

"I want details," he demanded.

I sighed, "Well we were on a walk and he suddenly had to go to the junior institute. I suggested that I just went with him and he said no. I protested because I wanted to see whatever shit he has going on there but he told me I should just accept his answer because he's Alpha. Anyway, it escalated and I ended up saying I regretted mating with him which apparently really pissed him off. Maybe partly because he's already in a bad mood because I took a pregnancy test earlier which was negative."

Mateo raised both eyebrows, "Well shit," he muttered.

"Yeh..." I said, "Such a healthy relationship."

"You realise that he will never in his right mind let you inside that institute though, right?" Mateo asked.

"Why not?" I asked.

"He doesn't let anyone in," Mateo said, "Only him, Blair and the few that work there have ever been inside."

"Do you know why?" I questioned.

"Nope. But my guess is there is some shady shit going on," he replied, "He's taken those little boys to train as ruthless warriors. Do you think he's baking them cookies and letting them play with teddy bears?"

I swallowed.

"I dread to think what is happening in there," Mateo added.

"We have to find out," I announced.

"How are you going to do that?" Mateo asked.

"I don't know. Break-in?"

Mateo laughed before his face dropped, "Oh... you're not joking."

"Let's do it," Allison chipped in.

Mateo turned to her, "Do you have a death wish?"

She shrugged, "He won't kill me," she said, "Your family is friends with mine. He's known me since I was a baby."

Mateo raised an eyebrow, "And you think that's enough to protect you?"

She smiled, "Okay maybe you have a point."

She then looked at me and winked.

Mateo then looked down at his watch, "Oh fuck," he cursed.

"What?" I asked.

"Leo recently gave me a leadership role in his army," Mateo said, "And I'm supposed to be meeting my new squadron right now."

He then quickly glanced around, "I'll be half an hour," he said, "Stay here and I'll be back before Leo is. Allison knows how to kick ass if there's any trouble okay?" he said to me.

I nodded, "Fine by me."

He then shoved a dollar my way, "Buy an ice cream or something," he said before jogging off.

"I don't really want an ice cream..." I said to Allison, a grin creeping onto my lips, "I'd rather go trespassing and expose the inhumane treatment of kids."

Allison grinned, "I couldn't agree more."

"Can we do that....?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Should we do that...?"

"Will we do that....?"

I looked at her and she looked back before we both just got to our feet.

"Let's do it."

"Let's break into a high-security prison."

I already loved Allison. She was tough and brave and although she had the advantage of her family being affiliated with Leo's, there weren't many wolves in this pack that would dare do this even so.

Allison showed me to the building. It was crawling with guards but there'd have to be more than a burly men armed with knives to deter us.

So we crept through the forest to get to the back where we slowly sidled up to the back wall.

"Now what?" I asked.

"I'll give you a leg up," she whispered, "There's a gap in the barbed wire there," she added pointed up.

"And when the guards see me three metres off ground, scrambling over their fence?"

She gritted her teeth, "We need a distraction."

I looked around, trying to think of anything.

But before I could, Allison grabbed me and pulled me behind a tree.

"There's a truck coming," she said. "They'll open the gates and that's our chance."

I nodded and we stood waiting for the truck to roll down the track up to the back gate.

As he stopped and the driver got out to unlock the gates, we raced up to it and climbed under the canvas sheet that covered the cargo before lying silently and still, waiting for the truck to move again.

Miraculously, we weren't seen and soon enough, we heard the gates close behind us.

We could hear the voices of soldiers outside. They spoke in Italian but Allison mouthed what they were saying to me in English.

This truck is destined for the warehouse to be unloaded later.

We were driven a hundred or so yards more before the beep of reversing filled the air and the sunlight that shone through the canvas was obsecuring. The reversing stopped, the driver climbed out and then just silence.

"Do you think it's clear?" Allison asked me.

I nodded, "How the fuck did we get away with that."

Allison lifted up something next to her to show me.

It was an onion.

"We got incredibly lucky," she said picking up more and more onions, "The smell of onion can mask almost any scent and this truck just so happens to be full of them."

I smiled and we fell about silently laughing.

"Come on," she said rolling off the bed of onions, "Let's work out what to do next."

The truck was in a dark warehouse. The only light came from a door with a small window leading out to a dim-lit hallway.

"It's open," she whispered, "We must have gone through the security on the way into this warehouse."

I smiled again and we slipped into the hallway.

I followed Allison as we ran along it. She was so light on her feet and I tried to have the same elegance but I'm sure I could ever be as smooth as her.

When we first heard the sound of a guard's footsteps, we both froze.

But Allison was first to do something in order to stop us from being caught blatantly red handed in the middle of a corridor.

She grabbed my arm and yanked me towards a staircase off the hallway which we then both ran up.

At the top of the stair case was a single door. Worried our scents would still be detectable from the hall below, we had no choice but to go through it.

"Luna?" a voice said.

I looked up to see a woman stood infront of us, she held a crying baby in her arms and when I glanced around the room I noticed two dozen other young children in cribs, half of them screaming and crying.

"What the fuck..." I whispered.

"Luna, you can be here," the woman said, "Does the Alpha know?"

I shook my head, "I'm sorry. I just had to see what's going on in this place."

She looked incredibly nervous, "I have to sound the alarm."

"No," Allison said quickly, "We'll go...but do you work here?"

She nodded, "I'm a nurse. I feed and care for the kids in this ward."

"And it's just you...with about 24 young children?"

"I shouldn't be telling you," she said in a hoarse voice.

"Please," I said, "I need to know so that I can try to do something."

"I'm the only one. There is one nurse per ward."

Allison exchanged looks with me, "...copy right hot novel pub