James's POV

"SHE IS WHERE?" I lost my cool when my father had told me about Shelby being back in the pack's borders. "Why did you not come and get me straight away? She is my MATE, you have no right to do anything to her,"

"Son, she left. If that is not her way of rejection, then what is? I thought that we agreed that you were going to marry Sarah," My father argued back. "This is for the best of the pack,"

"It is not your pack anymore. I asked you to temporarily take over while I find my mate, she is back, no you can step down or I will challenge you,"

"Shelby attacked Sara," my father tried to justify his reasoning.

"I have no doubt that it was not deserved," I replied looking over to Sarah, who was poorly acting hurt.

"She is a rouge,"
"Not for long," I said and started making my way to the cells.

"She is set to be killed tomorrow morning," my father shouted to the door.

"That is no longer your concern," I called back. "I am the Alpha now," with that I closed the doors and went to find her. The redhead that could never leave my heart, I knew the second that I turned 16. She was it, the only girl that could hold my heart. I loved her. She was challenging, argumentative, and has a temper like no one's business, but she was loyal, beautiful, and intelligent. She would be the perfect Luna.

"Open the door," I told the guards outside.

"Alpha told us to keep you out," The guard said confused.

"I am your Alpha, now open the doors," I said using my Alpha command.

They did not say anything, but they did open the doors and I quickly followed her scent, roses, and vanilla. She was in the last cell alone, I suddenly got nervous, but it was too late. She knew I was on the other side of the door, even with our weak bond I could feel how happy she was. I grabbed the key and opened the door, she attempted to rush to me but was pulled back by chains. She let out a short whimper, I was not sure if it was pain from the chains or longing to embrace me. "Hey Red," I smirked.

"Alpha," She bowed her head. I took a step back, in shock.

"Did you just...?" I started to ask.

"I did," She said bringing her head up to meet my eyes, she submitted to me.

"I did not think that the day would come,"

"Shut up and let me out already," there is my spitfire.

"Your wish is my command," I said pulling out the key to unlock the chains. As soon as her hands were free, she pulled me into a hug. "Miss me much?" I joked.

"Shut up," she punched my arm. "Tell me something?" she asked her softer side showing.

"Anything," I replied.

"Did you sleep with Sara?"

"That's why she has a black eye?" I let out a laugh. "No, I wouldn't even dream of it. I spent every second looking for you, I even went to Trevor for help multiple times. Our searches always came up empty,"
"Oh, thank god," She wrapped her arms around me again.

She pulled away and then did something that shocked me even more, "I want to stay here," she bit her lip and looked at me with her big green eyes.
"Please tell me that you are serious?" I asked.

"Until the end," She replied. "I do have one more thing to do until forever though,"
"What's that?"

"I am going to save my mom," She said with resolve.

"I'm in," he said.

"I didn't even ask you,"

"You don't have to. I will never let you leave my side again,"

All she did was smile and her eyes flickered to my lips momentarily, before meeting my eyes again. I had to admit that I missed her eyes, they always held a little mischievous in them that I could never resist. "All you have to do is ask," I told her.

She put her hand on my shirt and pulled me down to her. "I don't need your permission," She said before she put her lips on mine, her lips were so soft. The way her body fit against mine was just so perfect, she was so small in comparison. My hands found her hips and our little innocent kiss was turning into a heated make-out session. I picked her up and her legs wrapped around my waist as her back was pressed against the wall. I am sure that everyone within a 5-mile radius could smell how turned on she was, it was irresistible. I thought that the sparks were intense before but now, it felt like electricity running through my body, her touch was like magic. I was lost in the heat of the moment when a cough interrupted us.

"I am glad that your tongues are reacquainted, but this does throw a wrench into our plan," Thomas said looking at Shelby.

"I think that this helps, now we can get some things from the armory," Shelby said looking at me.

"We can leave first thing in the morning," I replied.

"Not we, I don't think that you should go. You need to be here with the pack, I can handle this. I just need a couple of people and some equipment," Shelby said.

"I'm not staying here," I argued. "I just got you back, I am not going to let you go,"
"Thomas will be with me, I will be just fine. There is no need for you to worry," she casually replied.

I knew that I was not going to win this argument, "take care of her," I told Thomas. He replied with a nod.

"Alright, now I will need to talk to that hacker," Shelby said and started walking out of the cell. When she was out and I thought that she would not be able to hear me I turned to Thomas.

"One scratch on her and you kill the son of a bitch who did it, or you bring his sorry ass to me," I hissed.

"Yes sir," Thomas replied with a smirk.

When we caught up to Shelby, she was helping Amanda out of her cell, the two girls were laughing about something. "This takes me back," I said.

Shelby looked confused as she still did not have all of her memories. "He is talking about the time that we all got detention because you wanted to 'explore' the forest that we went to on a field trip. When the guys finally arrived at the detention room you and I were laughing, then we decided to skip detention," Amanda clarified. "Alpha overkill was so pissed when he found out. We all had extra training for two months and a week of straight border patrol," all of us laughed except for Shelby who just looked sad.

"You will remember everything eventually," Thomas said in an effort to cheer her up. Amanda and I exchanged looks of sorrow.

Shelby just gave a small smile, then went to the exit. We all agreed to meet by the west border before sunrise the next day, Shelby would get some weapons from her home and Thomas was going to the armory to stock up. They all would stop by the garage to pick out a couple of cars to take. Amanda and Thomas started walking knowing that I would want to talk to Shelby after they left.

"Red?" I called before she walked away.

"Hmm," she replied and turned back around. The way the moon bounced off of her hair gave her an angelic glow. I could not help but stare at her, she looked so beautiful. Her face started to redden as I kept staring at her. "What?" she asked.

I walked over to her and kissed her, it was not like our kiss before, this was slow and steady and overflowing with the love that I had felt for her. I slowly pulled away and rested my forehead on hers. "Come back to me," I requested.

"Okay," Her voice was soft and weak. Then she turned and walked away, I watched her for a second, then turned to head home too.

Shelby's POV

I caught up with Amanda and she gave me a smile and raised her eyebrows. "Shut up," I said.

"I did not say anything," she countered, her eyes were crinkled in amusement.

"Well, then stop thinking that," I said with my face ablaze. We walked the next couple of feet in silence.

"Do you really think that we can pull this off without James? I mean we don't have a big team or muscle really," her voice was doubtful.

"The mission does not need muscle, it needs stealth. James is overkill, Thomas and Darren are just precautionary. I think that we could do this alone with the assistance of your hacker friend," I replied. I had gone over my plan thousands of times since I learned of their location. "It is a simple rescue mission, I don't see much that could go wrong,"

"You make it sound so easy," she laughed with tension.

"Just get enough sleep, we need to be at our best for tomorrow," I said as we reached our houses.

"Aren't you worried that he is going to chew you out for going missing?" she asked looking at my house with worry.

"I will be fine don't worry," I said.

We said our final goodnights and I walked up to the door to my father's house. I carefully opened it, praying that he was asleep, unfortunately, I did not have that much luck.

"Where the hell have you been?" he cursed as soon as I got back.

"I was working," I said.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT I AM THAT STUPID? YOU NEARLY TORE THIS PACK APART, FOR WHAT? A BOY?" he raised his voice.

"I was just out, I did not mean to cause that much trouble," I tried to remain calm. I knew that if I lost my temper that I would be back in the cells before morning.

"SHELBY NICOLE SCARLET, THIS IS NOT A JOKE. YOU WILL TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. I WANT YOU OUT OF THIS HOUSE BY MORNING. YOU ARE NO LONGER MY DAUGHTER," he continued.

"Don't worry, I will be gone before you are awake, Beta Scarlet," I replied to him with a little bit of sass.

"YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR TONE. YOU ARE ALREADY ON THIN ICE AS IS," he shouted up the stairs. I just slammed my door in response. As soon as my door was closed, I got a text message from Amanda, 'is everything ok? I heard yelling,'

'Don't worry about it, I will see you tomorrow,' I wrote back. I went to my closet and flipped the red switch on the side, my clothes racks went to the sides, and the arsenal of weapons that I kept hidden up here appeared. I grabbed a needle knife, a set of my throwing daggers, and my p99 twin guns. I went and grabbed my blackout mission suit, it was a semi bulletproof suit, I laughed thinking about the time Amanda compared it to a scuba suit. It was specially designed to be light enough to provide for max mobility, I had planned to use it when I joined the pack's special divisions group after high school. I threw them in the secondary duffle that was hidden in the closet. I then waited for about an hour, after I heard my- the betas door close, I carefully stepped out of my room with my duffle and headed to the garage. I may have been feeling a little spiteful when I took the keys to my dad's favorite mission car, it was a blackout 4-door Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows. My dad had spent over $50,000 decking the car out with bulletproof windows and other special designs to make it practically indestructible. I got in and started the engine, leaving before my father even had the chance to stop me from taking his baby.

I drove for about 30 minutes before I reached the side of the highway where we would be meeting up in a couple of hours. I turned off the engine and climbed into the back to take a short nap before everyone arrived, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

When the sun was just starting to rise for the day, one of my dumbass friends decided to smack the window of the car causing me to jump awake. "Good morning sleepyhead," Thomas said laughing when I climbed out of the car.

"If you needed a place to crash you could have asked," Amanda said.

"I would have let you sleep at mine too," Darren commented.

"I would have offered, but I doubt that we would have gotten much sleep if you stayed at mine," James commented shooting a wink at me.

"Thanks, guys but I was fine in the car, besides my dad kicked me out last night," I shrugged off their offers.

"He did what?!?" They said in unison and I could not help but laugh at their concern.

"It is not that big of a deal, I will find a place when I get back," I said nonchalantly.

"No," James said.

"Excuse me?"

"You will live with me, I will work on the preparations while you are gone," he said with no room for argument.

"James, that is nice but..." I got cut off.

"No buts or complaining. You can have your own room until we graduate if you want, but you are not talking your way out of this," he smiled.

"Alright, now that it is taken care of, let's hit the road," Thomas said.

I nodded, "I will lead the way, it is not that far from here," I got up in my car and started my engine.

"Scarlet," James called over the sound of engines starting.

"What?" I asked.

"Be safe, don't do anything stupid," he ordered.

"Yes, Alpha bossy," I replied. With that we were off, we had to drive about 2 hours northwest to get to this pack. With the limited research I had on the pack, their primary cells were on the south side of the pack underground, but they had another group of cells embedded in a mountain on their southeast side. That was our target if I remembered correctly from the dreams I had of my mother, she was in cell E-13. I prayed to the moon goddess as I drove asking her to watch over my mother and the three who accompanied me.