Questioning loyalties

“How did you get that video?” Henry asked Thomas as soon as he walked out of the interrogation room. “That part of the forest was once my territory,” Thomas explained. “I had installed cameras to monitor intruders and they are still in place and I get the feeds on my side.” “Do you have the entire footage? Maybe we can find something about Eleanor,” Henry suggested. “Sophia said that she saw Jonathan taking her away.” “I do,” Thomas replied. “I’ll go fetch it.” After Thomas got the drive with the entire footage, they went to watch it in the lounge room. It was hours long and they skipped to the part where Mia and Sophia were fighting. A few minutes after the scene where Thomas had pasued the video while showing it to Mia, Eleanor came into view. She looked prepared to join the fight but before she could, Jonathan sneaked up from behind and covered her face with a cloth. Sophia turned to look towards the commotion but did nothing to help Eleanor. Instead, she kept fighting Mia while Jonathan dragged Eleanor away. Seeing that, Henry’s anger bubbled to the surface. When he asked Sophia why she had not helped Eleanor when Jonathan took her away, she claimed she had been unable to do anything. But here, they could see that she did not even try! She just looked on as Jonathan dragged Eleanor away and did nothing about it. “Where is she?” he asked, pacing in front of the screen where the footage was still playing. “I want her to come here and explain what the hell is this.” Thomas asked a servant to quickly ask Sophia to come to the room. Even though there was clear evidence of what had happened, he could not believe that Sophia would hesitate to save Eleanor. She was the person Eleanor trusted the most. Why would she just watch while the hybrid Alpha abducted her? Sophia came into the room a few minutes later. “What is it?” “Are you also working with them?” Henry asked heatedly, getting in her face. Sophia took a step back, a startled look on her face. “With who? What are you talking about?” “You said that you could not do anything to help Eleanor when Jonathan abducted her,” Henry reminded her. “That’s right,” she said. “It happened fast and I could not get to her in time. Are you accusing me of colluding with the hybrids?” “Are you?” he spat. Sophia huffed. “Look, I know it’s frustrating not getting any leads about where she is, but that doesn’t mean you should point a finger at everyone. We all want to find her just as badly as you do.” Henry turned away from her and went in front of the screen. Pointing at it, he glared daggers at her. “Then do you care to explain this?” “Explain what?” Sophia asked, walking around to look at the screen. Thomas rewinded the footage to the scene where Eleanor appeared in the clearing. They all watched as Sophia looked towards Eleanor just as Jonathan appeared behind the latter. “Couldn’t do anything, huh?” Henry scoffed. “You just watched while he dragged her away and did nothing to help her! Exactly whose side are you on? What do you expect me to think after seeing that?” Sophia sighed. “I know how it looks like–” “You do?” he snapped. “It was Eleanor’s idea,” she confessed. “What idea? To get abducted?” he asked incredulously. “I wanted to help her when Jonathan appeared, but she ordered me through our mind-link to stay put. She said she wanted him to take her away so she could get inside his camp.” “You expect me to believe that?” Henry asked. “How do I know it’s not just an excuse to hide your own motives?” “If you know Eleanor at all, you’ll know that’s an opportunity she would take in a heartbeat despite the risk. She already knows Jonathan does not want to kill her. We have been trying in vain to find his pack. She saw the chance and took it.” “Why didn’t you tell me all of this in the beginning, then?” Henry challenged. “Why did you lie?” “Because she doesn’t want to only find his lair. She also wants to gather enough intelligence that will help us win the war once and for all. She didn’t want me to reveal her plan too soon because she feared you would ruin it.” Henry scoffed and paced, running his hand through his hair. Sophia was right–this was totally something Eleanor would do. But how could she just decide to infiltrate the enemy camp without even telling him? What if things went wrong? Fine, she had found her way inside. How about getting out? They knew little about Jonathan’s abilities. How could she just walk into his territory without a backup plan? “I’m going to get her,” he said, looking from Sophia to Thomas. “I’m going to scour every inch of that forest with a fine-toothed comb if that’s what it takes, but I’ll find his lair and I’ll bring her back.” “I don’t think you should do that,” Sophia said. “You should at least wait a day or two–” “Wait?” Henry scoffed. “You expect me to sit here and wait while she’s heaven knows where in the custody of that asshole?” Ethan rushed into the room then, looking harried. “What is going on?” he asked, his worried gaze moving from his mate to his Alpha. He had heard that Sophia had been summoned by Henry, and Henry had also asked him through mind-link to meet him ASAP. “Get the warriors ready,” Henry told him. “We are going to find the hybrid Alpha’s lair.” “No,” Sophia interrupted sharply. “Eleanor has a plan and if you go now, you’ll ruin it.” Henry pointed an angry finger at her. “If anything happens to her, it’s your fault. You watched that psychopath drag her away and did nothing. You are her Beta, how could you just let her go like that? Those hybrids don’t play fair. You’ve seen the damage they can do with their poisons. What can she do to protect herself if they use them on her? Did you think about that?” “Alpha Eleanor has never failed a mission,” Sophia said, her jaw set stubbornly. “I trust her. She knows what she is doing, and you getting in her way will not help anyone.” Ethan, seeing the tension between the two, carefully stepped up his Alpha. “I think we all need to calm down and think about this.” “Think?” Henry snapped. “What do we have to think about?” “Jonathan is not stupid,” Ethan said. “He must be expecting us to go charging looking for her. If we are not careful, we’ll walk straight into his trap.” Henry could not bear waiting longer. Every second that passed with Eleanor in that cursed hybrid’s lair seemed like a decade to him. At the moment, he could not think about winning the war. All he wanted was for her to be safe. They could figure out how to beat the hybrids later without risking her life surrounded by enemies. But Ethan had a point. If he reacted rashly without a proper plan, the chances of falling into a trap were high. That would only make Eleanor’s situation more dire. “I think we should wait for Eleanor’s news before doing anything,” Sophia told Henry. “Meanwhile, you should ally with the Western Mountain Pack. They helped us with the ambush and Eleanor believes their support would be key in getting rid of the hybrids once and for all.” Henry had promised Eleanor to form an alliance with the Western Mountain Pack despite the disagreement in the past. Eleanor had managed to seek a little assistance during the meeting with Jonathan, but they needed help on a larger scale if they were headed for a full-blown war with the hybrids. The Western Mountain Pack was no happier to have hybrids running amok near their territory, so he knew it wouldn’t be difficult to persuade them to join the war. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll do as she wants. Ethan, get me an appointment with Beatrice. I need to meet her as soon as possible.”