NovelEnglishChapter 72
Ella & Alexander
Ella
The world kept slipping in and out of focus.
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One moment | was sitting at the restaurant table, the next | was being carried out the back door, seeing Lilith’s
bloodied head on the ground behind me, and then | found myself staring at the back of a car seat, my cheek
pressed against cracked leather.
My head felt like it was filled with cotton. When I tried to lift it, everything spun.
“There we go, sweetheart. Just relax.”
The man’s voice cfrom somewhere above me, but it sounded distorted, like he was speaking underwater. Or
maybe | was the one who was underwater, drowning, sinking. I tried to turn toward the
sound, but my neck wouldn't cooperate.
“What...” My own voice sounded strange and slurred. “What did you...”
“Shh. Don’t fight it. Makes everything easier.”
| blinked hard, trying to clear my vision. The man was driving with one hand on the steering wheel, the
other reaching back to... to touch my leg.
| tried to pull away but my body wouldn't listen. My arms felt like they weighed a thousand pounds.
“Get away from me...”
The man laughed. It was an ugly sound. “You're not in any position to make demands, Luna.”
Luna. He knew who | was.
Terror shot through me, cutting through sof the drug-induced haze. This wasn’t random. This wasn't just
screep who'd seen a pretty girl in a bar. He'd targetedspecifically.
| tried to sit up and get a better look at where we were going, but something was wrong with my wrists. When |
looked down, | saw silver duct tape wrapped around them, binding them together.
“No, no, no...” | struggled against the restraints, but they held firm.
“Save your energy,” the man said. “You're going to need it.”
The car hit a pothole, jarringagainst the door. Through the window, | could see we were no longer in town.
Trees flashed by in the darkness.
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The man held up something small and rectangular. A camera
“Smile for me, sweetheart.”
The flash went off, temporarily blinding me./squeezed my eyes shut, but he kept taking pictures, the flashes
hurting my drugged retinas even through my eyelids.
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Finally, the car began to slow, turning onto what felt like a dirt road. Branches scraped against the windows as
we drove deeper into the forest. And then we stopped.
The man got out and caround to my side
of the car. When he opened the door, | tried to scramble away,
but my legs wouldn't support me. He caughteasil
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and the acrid scent of his unwashed flesh made me
“Easy there. Don’t want you hurting yourself before we have our fun.”
Ignoring my weak protests, he draggedtoward an old barn, maybe, or skind of storage building.
The wood looked rotten, and half the roof had caved in.
“Perfect spot, don’t you think?” He pushed open a door. “Nice and private. No one to interrupt us.”
Inside, it smelled like decaying hay and animal waste. My feet dragged across the dirt floor as he hauled me
toward the back of the building, where a few broken stalls remained.
He shoveddown onto a pile of moldy hay, and | couldn’t catch myself with my hands bound. My shoulder hit
the ground hard, sending a spike of pain through my body.
“Now then,” the man said, pulling out the camera again, “let's get
The flash went off again and again. | tried to turn away, but he grabbed my chin and forcedto look at
him.
“Please,” | said, my voice stronger now as sof the drugs began to wear off. “Please don’t do this.”
“Oh, but | want to. Someone’s payingvery well to make sure you have a really bad night.”
Someone was paying him?
Before | could process that information, he reached for the hem of my dress.
That was when the adrenaline kicked in.
| rolled away from him, ignoring the pain in my shoulder, and scrambled to my feet. The barn door was still open,
a rectangle of slightly less darkness against the black walls.
I ran.
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But with my hands bound, | couldn’t balance properly, and the drugs were still making everything swim in and
out of focus. | stumbled over broken boards and Goddess knows what else, but | kept going.
Behind me, | could hear him cursing and giving chase.
“You fucking bitch! Get back here!”
Somehow, | managed to make it outside and plunge into the forest. Branches tore at my dress and scratched my
arms, but | didn’t stop.
| didn’t get far, though, before | tripped over a fallen log and went down hard, tasting blood where | bit my
tongue.
“There you are.”
He was onbefore | could get back up, his weight pinningto the forest floor. | could smell his breath, sour
and rotten, as he leaned over me.
“That was stupid,” he panted. “Now I'm angry.”
Panic consumedcompletely. This was it. This was how | was going to die. Not from my condition, but
here in the dirt with this monster.
| opened my mouth and screamed with everything | had left.
“Alexander!”
Alexander
“Take her to the hospital,” | told Liam as | helped Lilith into his car. Blood was still trickling from the gash on her
temple, and she looked ready to collapse. “Make sure they check for a concussion.”
“What about you?” Liam asked.
“I'm going after Ella.”
“Alexander, we should call the police-”
“There's no time.” | slammed the car door. “Go.”
Liam’s car disappeared down the street, leavingalone outside the restaurant. | pulled out my phone and
called Gabriel.
“I need you to call the police and put out the word,” | said without preamble. “Sophia’s red convertible is heading
out of town. I need to know which direction it went.”
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“What's going on?”
“Ella’s been kidnapped. Find that fucking car.”
Before he could answer, | hung up and got in my own car, my hands shaking as | started the engine. Someone
had taken my mate. He had drugged her, hurt Lilith, and driven off with Ella unconscious in the
back seat of Sophia's car.
My phone rang as | pulled out of the restaurant parking lot.
“Got something,” Gabriel said. “Gas station attendant on Maple Street saw a red convertible speed through
about twenty minutes ago. Said it was driving erratically.”
“Which way was it headed?”
“North, toward the forest roads.”
I floored the accelerator.
Twenty minutes later, | was driving through rural back roads with no streetlights and nothing but trees on
either side. I'd managed to track the convertible this far through a combination of Gabriel's contacts and sheer
luck a farmer had seen it turn onto Old Mill Road, and a jogger had spotted it near the abandoned
logging camp.
But now the trail had gone cold.
| pulled over and got out of the car, trying to think. Where would someone take a kidnapped woman out here?
The old logging roads crisscrossed through miles of forest, leading to dozens of abandoned buildings
and forgotten campsites.
| could search for hours, even days, and never find her.
Suddenly, my wolf stirred.
And then | caught the faintest trace of Ella’s scent on the night air.
Cherry and vanilla and... fear.
| closed my eyes and let my senses take over, following the scent trail deeper into the forest. It ledoff the
main road and down a narrow dirt track that was barely more than tire ruts through the trees.
The scent grew stronger as | drove, so | knew | was getting closer. But whatever was happening to Ella, she
was terrified.
Finally, | saw it-an old barn mostly hidden by overgrown bushes, with a red convertible parked beside it.
| parked and approached on foot, moving as quietly as possible. Through a gap in the barn’s broken boards,
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Chapter 72
| could see light flickering inside. A flashlight, maybe, or the flash from a camera.
“Alexander!” | heard a familiar voice scream.
My mate was calling for me.
I didn’t think.
| just shifted.
A moment later, | crashed through the barn door in my wolf form, splinters of rotten wood flying
everywhere. The scene inside made my vision go red.
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Ella was on the ground, her dress torn, duct tape around her wrists. A man was crouched over her, one hand
on her throat, the other reaching for-
I launched myself at him before he could finish whatever he was trying to do.
My jaws clamped around his throat, and | heard the satisfying crunch of vertebrae snapping. His scream cut off
in a wet gurgle as his blood filled my mouth. | shook him like a rag doll, making sure he was dead, before
dropping his body to the barn floor.
“Ella.”
| shifted back to human form and rushed to her side, kneeling in the dirt beside her. Her eyes were wide with
shock and terror, but she was alive. Breathing. Clearly drugged, but conscious.
“I'm here,” | said, working at the tape around her wrists. “I'm here. You're safe.”
The tape cfree, and Ella threw her arms around my neck, sobbing into my shoulder. | pulled her close and
held her tighter than | ever had before.
“I thought... | thought he was going to...” She couldn't finish the sentence. | didn’t want her to.
“He’s dead,” | said simply. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
As | held her, breathing in the familiar scent of her hair, a scent that drove away all of the fear and pain and rage
and blood, my wolf quieted for the first tin five years.
“Mi
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AD
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