ELENA.
Alexander is on his feet instantly, pulling me behind him.
“Stay here and please don’t leave her until I ask you to do so.”
“What the hell…is…”
I was unable to complete my crash out with my heart palipitating in fear when another loud crash erupted within as if it was getting closer to where we stayed.
He moves to a closet, pulls out a gun.
“Elena, I need you to listen to me very carefully.
There’s a fire escape outside the bedroom window.
If I tell you to run, you run.
Don’t look back.”he paused for a while hoping to hear a response from me but I was so scared to the point of saying something.
“Do you hear me?” He snapped his fingers across my face with one hand while the other hand was holding the gun.
“I’m…not…leaving you.”I muttered under my breath.
“You will if I tell you to.” His eyes are fierce.
“I didn’t protect you before.
I’m protecting you now.”
Footsteps in the stairwell.
Multiple people.
Alexander pushes me toward the bedroom.
“Go.
Now.”
“Alexander!!!” I called out his name until he shut the door at me.
The apartment door explodes inward.
Three men in tactical gear flood in, weapons drawn.
But they’re not police.
No badges.
No identification.
“Alpha Grey,” one says.
“Step away from the Omega.”
“Who sent you?”
“That’s not your concern.
The girl comes with us.”
“Like hell she does.”
I’m frozen in the bedroom doorway, watching this unfold.
Alexander’s wolf surfaces, his eyes flashing gold.
“You want her, you go through me.”
“We were hoping you’d say that.”
The first man fires.
Not a bullet but a dart.
Alexander dodges, but barely.
“Elena, RUN!”
I don’t think before I act.
I run.
Out the bedroom window, onto the fire escape.
I can hear fighting behind me snarls, gunshots, breaking furniture.
I’m two floors down when I hear Alexander scream.
I freeze.
Go back?
Keep running?
A hand grabs my ankle from above.
I kick, hard.
Connect with something.
The grip loosens.
I jump the last ten feet, land badly, my ankle screaming in protest.
Run anyway.
Into the alley, onto the street.
I’m limping all alone in pain.
A car screeches to a stop beside me.
The driver’s window rolls down.
It’s Vivian.
“Get in,” she says.
“Unless you want to die in the next thirty seconds.”
Behind me, I hear the men from the apartment emerging.
I have maybe three seconds to decide.
Trust the woman who threatened me?
Or take my chances with armed killers?
I get in the car.
Vivian floors it.
“What the hell is going on?” I gasp.
“You really don’t know, do you?” She’s driving like a maniac, weaving through traffic.
“You have no idea what you stumbled into.”
“Then tell me!”
“The Ashford family isn’t just a pack.
They’re a front for a massive money laundering operation.
Dominic was the fall guy.
And you?” She laughs bitterly.
“You were supposed to be the scapegoat.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Luna Catherine has been running a criminal enterprise for twenty years.
Dominic found out six months ago.
He was going to expose her.
So she set him up.
Set you both up.
And now that Dominic’s dead, you’re the only one left who can take the fall.”
“But I don’t know anything!”
“Doesn’t matter.
You’re married to him.
Your name is on the accounts.
That’s all the prosecution needs.”
We’re speeding toward the waterfront now.
“Where are we going?”
“Getting you out of this damn city.
There’s a boat waiting.
It’ll take you to a new city, then you can figure out.”
A black SUV slams into us from the side.
We spin out, hit a guardrail.
Metal screams.
When the car stops moving, I’m upside down, held by my seatbelt.
“Vivian?”
She’s unconscious, bleeding from a head wound.
The SUV’s doors open.
A woman steps out.
Elegant, powerful, familiar.
Luna Catherine.
She walks to my window, crouches down to look me in the eye.
“Hello, dear.
I’m afraid you’ve become quite the liability.”
“You…
you did all this…”
“I did what was necessary.
My son was weak.
His brother was a fool.
And you?” She smiles.
“You were convenient.
Until you weren’t.”
She pulls out a phone, makes a call.
“We have her.
Bring the cleanup crew.”