November 4th

"Where have you been Milly? I got so worried when I found you weren't at home," Max said hugging his sister over and over again.

"I had to leave," she replied.

"What?" he asked holding her tight. "How could you be so stupid, Milly!?" he asked exasperation in his tone. "We are so lucky that you are okay."

"I had to come and find you and Mason and Miles and Mattio," she replied. "But then I got lost and that girl over there, that's our cousin. She saved my life," Milly said pointing to me.

"I know who she is," Max said putting his sister on the ground next to him and taking her hand.

He eyed me carefully but the absence of contempt and scorn in his expression pleasantly surprised me.

"She saved you did you say?" he asked looking down at the man who was still lying on the floor.

"Yes, I wouldn't be alive anymore without her," Milly replied.

His lips twitched almost into a smile before his face straightened and he scanned the forest.

"Where's the Alpha?" he asked.

"I haven't seen him in hours," I said truthfully.

"I'll take her from here," Max replied and I nodded my head. He picked his sister and began to walk away. A few moments later he turned around, "Thank you."

And there it was. The alter ego I struggled so hard to imagine.

For the first time since I met him, I had experienced Max caring about someone. Around his sister, he was a transformed man. How could he try to get me killed one day and genuinely thank me the next?

I nodded my head again before he swung Milly onto his back and began to run. He was so much faster than Milly and I were and within minutes I couldn't see them anymore. I began to run as well as it was at least midnight and the air was too cold to stop for too long.

Blair told me to run South to find the base. But since the sun had set, I had no indication of which was South was and since the journey in the truck had only been an hour, and I'd already been running for at least three, I was categorical, without a doubt, entirely, absolutely lost.

I ran aimlessly for another hour and a half before I inevitably had to take a break. Stops were dangerous, I had already learnt that twice but my lungs heaved and my chest pounded. I had to lean my back against a tree to avoid cardiac arrest.

Every few seconds I held my heavy breath so that I could listen to my surrounds, checking that nobody was nearby. After 10 minutes my body had returned to normal and I was ready to go again. That was when I heard a male voice shout.

"Over there!" One voice said, I immediately seized the knife spinning around trying to spot who shouted it.

"Duck!" A different voice said from the opposite direction. Through instinct, I took his advice and dropped down to the floor. I felt a rush of air over my head before the sound of a sharp object sticking into a tree. Footsteps approached me as I stood back up narrowly avoiding another knife. Footsteps belonging to Max.

I didn't have time to process what was going on before three more footsteps came out of the forest and another knife. Max pulled me to the side as the knife pierced through the spot I was standing on. The men were coming from three different directions. I stood back to back with Max as we slowly rotated, keeping our eyes on the 3 terrifying looking men. Max grabbed one of the knives out of a tree and threw it straight at the closest Ayas warrior. It hit him in the centre of the chest and he fell to the ground, still alive, but hardly.

"Ella, I know that you have never done what I say before, but this time both our lives are on the line.copy right hot novel pub