Chapter 35

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Evelyn was glum.

Her honeymoon over, her bubble was about to burst. Some would say married to a prince and living in a palace would consist of it being a dream but the truth was Max was a busy man, sitting with Roma had made her realize the million things that they needed to look at on a daily basis. Max managed most of their businesses while Roma focused on the werewolf side of things, it was a perfect division and it worked for them but Max also was dragged in to the important meetings of the werewolf world, one day he would replace his mother as the monarch and he needed to consolidate his power will before then to make the transition as smooth as possible.

His average day included at least twelve hours of work and it something came up he would be gone for sixteen if not more hours and once back he would be so exhausted that he would simply crash on to the bed. That was one more thing they had spoken about in their honeymoon. He had promised to dial back on work and hire someone to take some load off his shoulders from the business standpoint. She understood that he was a busy man but she could not work on a marriage where her husband was absent for majority of the time. Max had readily agreed and had promised to make this his priority.

They had really bonded on their honeymoon, their attention on each other they shared their hopes and fears and the week they spent together had only helped them get close to each other and now, real life was ready to bite then in the ass.

She looked out of the window braced for the landing which was as gentle as possible, the private jet that was bringing them back to Roma. As the small jet taxied across the tarmac it moved to a private hanger.

"We are here" Max said, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Evelyn simply pouted.

"I wish we could turn around and go back" She mumbled wishfully.

He grinned at her and extended his hand to her "Get up and stop pouting!"

She made a face at him and got up reluctantly, mumbling to herself.

As she wriggled out of the seat and stood up Max pulled her up to him and gave her a deep kiss.

She surrendered to it by wrapping her hands around him.

Someone cleared their throat and he pulled back looking at the interruption.

"Sir we are ready to deplane and you have guests waiting for you on the tarmac" The pilot informed and turned to walk out of the cabin.

Max sighed and reluctantly let go of Evelyn "I guess it's time to head back to the real world" he sighed wondering who was waiting for him.

He gave a slap on Evelyn's ass as she yelped in surprise and started walking out of the airplane and she hurriedly followed him.

As Max stepped out of the airplane in to the morning sun he squinted at the convoy of vehicles waiting and tried to figure out who was waiting for him.

As he stepped down the flight of steps the door of one of the cars opened and his mother stepped out.

Max's step paused for a moment, she was the last person he was expecting and he quickly walked towards her with Evelyn in tow.

"Mother?" he asked concerned "Is everything all right?"

"Everything is just fine Maxwell" she assured and said "I just wanted to greet my children when they got back" with that she smiled at Evelyn who smiled back weekly. Still confused what Roma was doing here.

"Hello Evelyn" Roma greeted her enthusiastically "Did you like the winter retreat?"

"It was amazing!" Evelyn gushed.

Roma smiled at her "Me too...I loved that place, it's been a while since I have been there" She paused and added "Welcome back! And unfortunately I need to steal your husband"

"Oh!" Evelyn said unsure of what to say.

"What happened?" Max asked his mother.

"Nothing Maxwell, we have a meeting with Rand Marshall" Roma explained.

"Marshall?" Max asked confused. Rand Marshall was Roma's Prime Minister. To the outside world Roma was a thriving democracy. But the truth was no one became a Prime Minister in this country without the blessing of the Monarch.

"Yes, the Russians have sent out some feelers through him" She elaborated.

"The Russians want to meet? And why did they contact Marshall?" The Russian wolves had kept to themselves for most of their existence, extremely fierce they protected their borders with vengeance but they rarely stepped out of their lands and interacted with others unless it was something extremely important.

"I am not sure why they contacted Marshall" Roma added, even she was lost, it was strange of Russians to contact a civilian government leader, they could have reached out to people who had ear's or Roma like Sebastian. While Marshall was a werewolf he was mostly busy running the country and was rarely involved in matters concerning Werewolf politics. He was busy forming alliances with the human world in forms of trade and co-operation. Being a Prime Minister was a full time job and left little time to do anything else.

"Regardless, we should explore this opportunity" Roma added.

"Evelyn, I have a car waiting to take you back to the palace and I am going to steal Max for a while" She said.

"That's ok, Thanks!" Evelyn responded meekly, what else was there to say?

"Let me walk her to her car" Max said as Roma nodded and went back to sit in her car.

Max walked quietly beside Evelyn to her car and as they reached he opened the door for her "I will be back soon" He told her.

She nodded looking at him and then got in to the car as she closed it behind her.

He waited till it slowly drove away.

He turned back and entered the passenger seat of his mother's car.

As their car started moving he asked his mother "So, why couldn't this wait?" Why was this so important that she had to whisk him away from the airport?

"There is a trade delegation from Russia currently in country, the contact was made from there and it comes directly from Ivan."

Max raised his eyebrow. Ivan or as many called him 'crazy Ivan' was the Alpha of the Russian werewolves. He was extremely dangerous and was known for his reckless aggression against his enemies and thus earned the nickname 'crazy Ivan'

"So what do they want?" Max asked.

"Marshall wasn't sure, he reached out for guidance and the delegation will leave tomorrow. But he said they were interested what was happening in America." Roma said.

"So they want a piece of action in Colorado" Max summarized. Who wouldn't? With Colorado now firmly under Roma's control they could make all sort of play in Gordon Lockbourne's backyard.

Roma nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"So, what do we do?" he asked.

"Let's see what they want...and if we can make it like we are doing Ivan a favor, it wouldn't not hurt" Roma added. Having the crazy bastard on their side would not hurt one bit.

"You mean, you are considering it?" Max prodded.

"All I am saying is let's keep all the options open and see what they get to the table."

"Where is Sebastian?" Stuff like this was right up his ally.

"He is strategizing back in the palace, he should have an agenda ready for us that we can push to the Russians" She explained.

He sighed and leaned back in to his seat and looked out of the window. Diplomacy sucked.

***

Evelyn walked in to her room to find Alex sprawled on her bed.

"Alex!" She said surprised "What are you doing here?"

"Where is hubby?" He asked pretending to flip through a magazine.

"He had to attend a meeting" she explained.

"Looser!" Alex mumbled "He steps out of the plan and ditches his wife...at least ditch the looser now and run away with me" He said dramatically with his eyes twinkling.

She couldn't help but laugh "So what brings you here?" She asked grinning

He got out of the bed "What, I wanted to see my favorite girl"

"Well you saw her and she isn't going anywhere"

"Good" Alex said "Now come down to the media room in an hour, I will arrange some lunch and we can watch that new movie that I had been planning to watch for a while"

"Ok" She said eagerly, she had planned to lounge in the bed in her PJ's and sulk in general but this plan sounded infinitely better.

"Give me an hour and I will be there"

***

Roma sat in the car and Max slid beside her. The meeting had just concluded and they were now returning back.

It had been an interesting meeting, Ivan had been smart they realized. The reason he chose to mediate through Marshall was because he was not an expert in werewolf politics and that way the Russians had avoided a seasoned negotiator. They had coached Marshall and sent him to the meeting and when he came back this was what Russia was offering, they has some information on someone Roma was looking for aka Charles and in exchange they wanted some preferential treatment on Ivan's business in Roma plus piece of some action in Colorado. The Russians were not a big fan of Lockbourne as well.

Nothing was settled in this meeting as it was expected as no side was willing to commit to anything at this point. This haggling would go on for a while.

"What if the information they have is credible?" Max asked.

"I am not worried about the credibility of the information Max, I am worried about what we can do with it" Roma said "We know Charles has been camping in Montana for a while now, what can we do about it?" She said frustrated. Short of war with the American werewolves there was little they could to do get their claws on Charles. They had just authorized a small team to infiltrate Montana, it was extremely risky business but they had been frustrated at the stalemate.

"Let's see what the Russians get to the table, they dangled Charles to make us pay attention to them and now that they have our attention they will come up with their actual agenda" She declared.

"Hmmm" Max said in thought.

"Let's keep this channel open" Roma said "Marshall can't negotiate so we will ask them to talk to Sebastian and we take it from there"

He nodded and pulled out his phone and messaged Evy that he was returning.

Their car had left the city and started to snake up the mountain range on which the Palace of Roma sat.

The car suddenly slowed down and stopped.

"What happened?" Roma leaned forward and asked the driver.

"Not sure Roma" He said, peering through the glass trying to figure out why the convoy stopped.

Suddenly he saw a smoke trail of something whiz from the trees and the lead car exploded in flames.

"Shit!" He mumbled and quickly as he was trained to do, he flipped a switch under the steering which in turn activated an unimpressive looking box in the boot. It was the distress signal.

Secondly he floored the pedal, his primary goal now was to get his passengers to safety. The remaining cars in the convoy did the same and with tires screeching they roared past the lead car in flames.

The driver saw one more whiz of smoke and a car behind him exploded in to flames. He heard metallic sounds and minor cracks on the outside of the window. Bullets! Fucking bullets! Someone was firing a truckload of bullets at them. Thank god, the car was bullet proof.

The radio in his car started to crackle "This is primary to base, this is primary to base, code red...code red!"

In the backseat Max pulled Roma down and covered her with his body as the driver drove like a maniac. He saw a trail of smoke coming their way and he swirled wildly and heard an exploding behind him. But before he could breathe easily he saw one more trailed of smoke fast approaching and he didn't have enough time. So he hit the brakes hard and turned the wheel wildly hoping to spin the car to escape the oncoming RPG, It worked but the RPG instead of hitting the bulk of the car hit the rear tire and the momentum of the explosion cartwheeled the car in to air.

As the car cartwheeled on the road, the windows shattered and the passenger door ripped away and Max was thrown out of the car.

The convoy stopped and men started getting down from their vehicles with gun drawn and firing in to the forest, they still did not know what they were shooting at.

"Air support in two min, primary" Came a crisp response on the wireless radios in the SUV's

Two men with machine guns came running to pick up max, he was fifteen feet from where his car's wreckage finally stood still.

They picked him up and started to pull him to their SUV, one of the vehicle in the convoy and they unceremoniously dumped him in to it.

"No" he whispered "Mother!"

"Our men will retrieve her sir" one of them assured "No, we pick her up, now!" Stop the car near the wreckage" he ordered.

The moment they were close to the wreckage Max jumped out and two guards jumped out with him.

"Sir please!" The guard pleaded and ran in front of Max. They were completely exposed on the road and were sitting ducks. A vehicle in standstill was an easy target.

As if reading their mind an RPG propelled its way to the car and smashed in to it and promptly exploding and rendering the vehicle useless. The impact of the blast knocked them to the ground. The guard indicated one more SUV of the convoy to pick them up.

Max was running to the wreckage of his car where his mother was in when the guard on his left abruptly collapsed. Max picked up his gun and started firing in to the forest. The elevation was giving their attackers advantage.

Suddenly the other guard saw something and pushed Max with full force away from him. A moment later a grenade exploded under him. The blast tearing his body to smithereens.

Max got up disoriented and saw the remains of bloody pulp of his guard on the road and he started running towards his mother's car. He could hear footsteps behind him as more guards started running behind him and some gunfire, trying to provide him cover.

As he crouched and ran he heard bullets whiz past him and he was less than five feet from the car when he picked up speed and suddenly he felt an exploding pain in his shoulder and then felt warmth soaking in to his shirt. He was hit. What he didn't expect was the burning sensation that followed, like someone poured molten lava on his wound. Silver! Those bastards were shooting with bullets laden with silver.

He staggered and tried to run to the car when his torso exploded in pain and he fell on the road face firs on impact. Fuck! He saw blood seeping out fast. He got up on his knees as one guard reached him and stood in front of him. From in-between his legs Max had a visual in to his car and he saw his mother still inside the car, he could see the blood on her, indicating she was in bad shape and he saw her trying to move slightly. With renewed vigor he got up and started for the car when the guard protecting him fell.

Suddenly Max heard helicopters above him, he looked up to see men shimmying down ropes and guns on the choppers blasting in to the forest.

With relief, he got up and started to the car to retrieve his mother and just reached it...

...he suddenly stopped.

A bullet had hit him in the neck and exited from the lower back of his head. He collapsed on to his knees, his head lolling to the side, his neck no longer able to support it and his body collapsed on to the ground.

Dark red blood started seeping in to the ground around his head.

***

Roma had regained consciousness and all she could see was the passenger door on Max's side was missing, her car was upside down and she was on the roof of the car. The windows had shattered and as she pulled up her hand she saw blood on it, she was pretty sure it was hers. She wanted to move but could not feel her legs, could not feel anything below waist. Then she saw in panic that Max was running towards her car, she tried to push her body with her hands but was unsuccessful.

She saw in horror Max run for her with his shirt soaked in blood.

Her vision was spinning, she tried to extend her hand out and call out to him but her throat would not work.

As he approached all she could see were his legs. He had stopped in front of the car.

And then suddenly he collapsed on his knees, his face coming in to view.

She looked at him completely horrified, blood was pouring out of his neck and then he suddenly collapsed on to the ground blood seeping out around his head.

"Ma..."she whimpered horrified "Ma.." her hand extended to her son. She saw more legs running towards them and then her vision went blank.

And all this while, Max was lying still, his body motionless.

***

Evy looked at her phone and Smiled, Max had just messaged her that he was on his way back. A smiled teased her lips when she felt Alex smack her arm.

"Hey!" she said.

"No distractions!" he hissed watching the movie on the screen "Get me a burger and fries" he ordered her carelessly.

She grumbled and got up, they had ordered a couple of burgers and fries from the kitchen and they had arrived at the snack table at the back of the room.

Still grumbling she walked to the table to pick them up. Alex returned the focus on to the movie on the screen when a moment later he heard a plate shatter. He paused the movie and turned around from the recliner sofa they had been sitting on.

"You Klutz, that better not be my... "he paused as he looked at her. The look on her face would be something he would never forget in his life.

With the shattered plate and food all around her Evy looked pale and terrified.

"Evy" Alex called out with concern. What was wrong?

Her eyes slowly turned to him...the utter pain, terror and sorrow he saw in those eyes would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Evy" he sat up alarmed looking at her "what's wrong?" he asked urgently.

She whispered extremely low that he barely heard her "Max" she said and her eyes rolled in to her head as she collapsed on to the floor.

"Evy!" Alex yelled and jumped over the sofa to rush to her. He knelt in front of her and pulled her head in to his lap "Evy! Get up!!" he shook her wildly in panic.

Hearing the commotion the guard who was stationed outside rushed in and pulled out his radio "We have a code blue!" he spoke in to this radio "Newbie is down! I Repeat Newbie is down, will need immediate medical attention! Location is media room 1A" Newbie was the codename the security detail gave her.

"Acknowledge, Doctor on the way" Came the crisp reply.

"Evy! Evy!" Alex was shaking her. Desperately hoping to get a response.

"A moment sir" the guard said and put his fingers on her neck to check her pulse. It was erratic but was there.

And then the radio silence on his wireless set broke.

"Attention all units we have a code red in progress."

"We have a code red...I repeat code red"

A doctor rushed in to the room at the same time and pushed Alex away from her and took over.

The radio crackled continuously....

"All units be advised...we have a code red in progress."

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The story continues in the next installment of the series

Book two of Wolf of Roma series