Maxwell’s POV
It was so fucking hard to convince Lorenzo to go on this mission with me. Now I know why he has never lost a battle, he is too careful, or should I say too paranoid. Like me, he does his homework before embarking on any mission. But I make an exception to some mission, I take drastic action and I make hasty decisions if the mission calls for it. But Lorenzo never does that, he is more of a perfectionist, and if it was up to him, he would rather wait for our guys to do their thorough investigation before jumping to make any decision. He still doesn’t trust the information that I got from Declan. He wants to send his own guys to go over there first and see if the information checks out, but that would be a terrible idea because they would never get anywhere close to King Ashfords Palace before they are taken out by the lycan warriors that are swarming the premises. Besides, that would only give us out to king Ashford because he would know that we are coming and he may kill Stephanie faster than he intended to.
“This is the only way Lorenzo, we need to assume that king Ashford already knows about all our plans. We can’t send spies to his palace, he would kill her and he will speed up his plans and execute my boys in his dungeon. This is a move he will never have anticipated and it will slow him down a bit and buy us some time to get to Stephanie and get her out alive. This is the reason I came to seek you out, this is how we can put an end to this bastard, end this war and save our families. This is it man, it’s either you are in this or your not. You are either with us or against us, it’s all up to you to make the right decision. But before you make that decision, I want you to know that I can’t do this without your help, I need you on board man, we all need you. But I’ll understand if you don’t want to risk your life for us, I’ll totally understand, but I’m not going to back down. We are leaving in the morning. We would have left tonight, but I need to make some arrangements with my guys so they can extract us on time. We don’t want to go in there without backup, you know. I know it’s asking for too much, but I really hope you change your mind.” I told him calmly, earning scoff as he ignored me and pretended to be busy with his laptop.
I smiled warmly as I went out of his office, going to see how far Jason and Harriet have gone with our extraction plan. Jason had convinced me to shift our departure till the next day because he needed to coordinate with Jasper and come up with an extraction plan for the sake of Harriet and Stephanie. That’s what he said, but I know that he wasn’t thinking about Stephanie, he wanted to make sure that his mate is safe, he was only trying to protect her and it hurt me because I was supposed to be thinking about their safety as well, but I wasn’t thinking about them, I wasn’t considering them when I made my decision, I was only thinking about myself because I’m a selfish son of a bitch. Not to mention the fact that I need Jasper on this mission as well, King Ashford knows that he is my Beta and my right hand man, he would suspect a fowl play if Jasper, Jason, Harriet and a few of my trusted generals are missing in this my stupid plan to surrender. If I’m going to do this, I have to make it so convincing that he would never expect what is coming to him.
Jason made me to see that getting more men inside the lycan palace would be a tactical decision because then we would have more men inside when we want to break out. I wonder why I didn’t think about that in the first place, I guess my decisions are based on my feelings about Stephanie, I’m not really thinking straight, my head is not on the game. It’s safe to say that I’m compromised, my decisions are biased and if I don’t listen to my guys, I could get us all killed. The fact that Stephanie and I are still separated when this happened is making me even more upset and stupid because she may never forgive me after this. I would never forgive myself either, especially if that bastard lays his hand on my woman. I don’t know if we are ever going to move on after this.
“You came, thank you so much man, this means a lot.” I let out with a wide smile when Lorenzo stepped out in the morning, wearing only casuals, and to top it off, he was packing. Yeah, he didn’t come with any weapons, he simply came to help, just like I asked.
“Can’t let you have all the fun now, can I?” He asked me jokingly, making me chuckle softly. I know this doesn’t seem like a favor, I mean, this war also involves him and everyone in this city as well. But the fact that he is ready to risk his life because I asked him to, this means a lot to me. I totally owe him one, I’m going to repay him one day because I’m sure that we are on our way to becoming best of friends.
We went to the airport and took Lorenzos private jet, Tyler did a little tinkering with the GPS so we don’t get caught before we land. If King Ashford found out that a plane is trying to sneak into his territory he may shoot us out of the sky and our plans will be foiled before it even kicks off. We couldn’t land king Ashfords airstrip because that would be like painting targets on our backs. We couldn’t land on the beach or anywhere else for that matter because Ashford also has a way of securing every inch of his perimeter with landmines and motion sensors that triggers many other explosives. We had to jump soon from the planes with parachutes. I know every inch of this area and I also helped him plant his landmines, that is how I know the exact spot to land safely so we don’t get blown into orbit.
The bad news is that king Ashford places many guards on all the safe landing area. As soon as we landed, we got surrounded by some very angry lycan warriors. Damn, they looked so pissed as they charged toward us like angry bulls, beating us to the mud. I’m guessing they have orders to shoot to kill and that is why they aren’t listening to anything we are saying. We had to fight back otherwise they would have killed us and dragged our corpse back to king Ashford. We were able to use their very own weapons against them, we took out all the lycan warriors, except their leader.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone, I’m here for king Ashford, I’m here to exchange my life for Stephanie, I’m here to put an end to this war. I’m offering myself and my allies and generals. Take me to him right now.” I ordered them him fiercely.
“With pleasure.” He responded angrily, his eyes glaring daggers at me as he smirked evilly. I wish I could snap his neck and get it over with. But I can’t do that, I need him to pass us through security, we can’t fight our way to the lycan Palace especially when we don’t have any weapons, but with him by our side, we can get through every security and we can have a better chance to getting to king Ashford.
“Is this him, is that the mighty king Ashford that everyone is so afraid of?” Lorenzo mumbled softly when Ashford came out of the lycan palace, looking like a peacock with his colorful regalia that made him looks like a fucking clown. He is wearing a bright red pants, an orange colored shirt, a purple cape, and a crown of many colors. It is safe to say that he has finally gone insane, I mean, who dresses like this for crying out loud. When we were friends, I used to tease him about his choice of clothing, but this is quite outrageous, it is total insanity. I can’t believe that I have been waging war with a mad man, it’s just so hilarious. I think his black magic is beginning to work against him, there is always a price to be paid for possessing that kind of power. The fact that he is paying the price for his mistakes could only mean that his death is long overdue.
“I never took you as a weak coward, Max. When did you lose your charms, was it when she came into your life, or have you evaded my sword so much that you now covet death?” he asked me mockingly, laughing like a fucking clown.
“I’m tired Ash, I can’t do this anymore. Just take me and let her go, please. Kill me, do anything you want with me, but please let her go.” I pleaded with him, falling to my knees in front of him as he stood on the stairs that was leading to the door of his house, looking down on us as if he is a god. He must be feeling so proud of himself right now, bit that pride would be his downfall, I’m so sure of that.
“I came with my allies and my generals, without us, there will be no resistance against you. Please Ash, think about the happy times we spent together, we used to be best friends, remember?
Just let her go, I would do anything you want, I’ll fucking take my own life if that would make you happy, just spare my woman’s life, I beg you.” I kept begging pathetically. The others followed my lead and knelt before him as well, feeding his ego.
“Arrrrgg…
You’re no fun Max. We have such a good thing going on here, why do you want to ruin it by surrendering like a fucking coward. It’s that stupid girl, right?
She turned you soft and made you a weakling. That is why I am going to kill the whore!” He spat out in disgust, making me look up at him, feigning shock. He noticed my shock and he bought it, he fucking bought it. He laughed hysterically and walked forward to stand in front of me, fixing me a stern gaze,
“You must be high on drugs if you think that this cowardly actions of yours would be the end of this war. I’ll let you live long enough to witness the death of everyone you ever care of. You would watch as I take everything you love and set it ablaze. I will wipe every werewolf from the surface of the earth and when I’m done with my mission, I would screw your girlfriend right in front of you then I’ll kill her and I’ll kill you too.” He let out mockingly. I know he is trying to provoke me and I know that if I stay calm, he will think that I have another agenda. So I attacked him first, I tried to rush him and take him to the ground, but his boys held me down and beat the crap out of me and my boys. Then they injected us with a potion that knocked us out completely. Right before I passed out, I heard him instructing his warriors,
“Lock them up in the dungeon, except for the Mafia Lord. I need him in my torture chamber.” He told them fiercely.