Chapter 68

ELLA

“Do you hear that?” I whispered, snapping my eyes to Milly.

It’d been silent for hours. The children thankfully had all gone to sleep, and Milly and I were in too much anxiety to speak.

But now the muffled clanging of metal had crept up on us.

“It sounds like somebody trying to get into the vault,” Milly replied, her voice hushed and hoarse.

The entrance to the vault was a small steel hatch shielded by rocks and vegetation.

“There’s no way anybody would just stumble across us,” she said surely. “Maybe it’s the alpha or my brother. Maybe everything is over.”

I shook my head.

There were about ten different locks, a passcode, and scans, but Leo and Max both had access to them all. They wouldn’t be trying to break through the thick, sturdy metal.

“Just an animal maybe?” she suggested.

I forced a smile and held Stefano tighter in my arms. “Maybe.”

We sat for ten minutes just nervously listening to the banging.

As the time passed, it became apparent that whatever or whoever was out there was incredibly determined to break through, and with every single attempt they made, my heart jumped, praying they wouldn’t succeed.

But eventually, it stopped.

I glanced at Milly.

Maybe they’d given up.

Maybe they’d gone.

A few more tense minutes passed with no sound, and I began to relax again.

The children still slept, and we were still safe. That was about all we could be thankful for, but at least it was something.

I rested my head back on the wall and took a deep breath as I ran my fingers softly along Stefano’s little tufts of silky blond hair.

His eyes were shut peacefully as his long black eyelashes flickered ever so slightly with every gentle breath he took.

With his head resting on my chest and his little hands folded close to his face, I could cuddle him close, keeping him shielded from the harsh, cold darkness of the vault.

He was not even a year old yet, and he was lucky enough to stand no chance of remembering any of this. But that also meant he wouldn’t remember anyone we lost tonight. His father, his siblings, Luca, Max, his grandparents, me.

He’d never know them, and that broke my heart.

I placed my lips on his precious head and closed my eyes, holding in my tears.

But just as I left the lingering kiss, I had to scrunch my eyes shut, my head suddenly filled with a high-pitched, thudding, piercing ring.

I could feel the gritty floor under my knees and hands as my body was suddenly overcome with the pain of impact, and my eyes filled with dust.

The already dim light bulb flickered off, and apart from the wretched wail in my head, I was completely deafened, leaving me almost senseless.

All I could smell was powdery concrete and smoke as I staggered to my feet, clutching in the dark.

“Stefano,” I said.

I couldn’t even hear my own voice.

“Stefano!” I shouted. “Kids! Milly!”

“Ella?” a croaky voice replied as I felt a pair of hands reach for me.

The ring was quieting and being replaced by the screams and cries of my children.

“Milly,” I repeated, clutching the hands.

“The vault,” she whispered. “It’s open. The door is broken.”

I rubbed my eyes, wiping the dust as I glanced around incredibly disoriented.

But just by me, I could see a small sliver of silver light slipping into the vault. Moonlight.

“Get everybody back,” I said, crawling away from the light, wildly waving my hands and ushering the children back.

“Are you all okay?” I asked, still unable to see as I felt their heads with my hand.

I felt Cato’s height and Mathias’s curls. The bow I’d tied in Marie’s hair and an identically sized person beside her clutching her hand: Francesca.

I heard Lili’s voice as I discovered another little girl reaching for my hand, and Silas’s cries came from somewhere in the vault too.

“Zach and Stefy,” I whispered. “Where’s Zacharias and Stefano?”

“Here,” Milly said, “I’ve got them. They’re fine.”

“Everybody’s okay,” I said, taking a deep breath before I turned back to where the door to the vault was.

The explosion had only broken through a crack of it, but the distinctive clang of the shovels and digging was soon back, this time closer and louder.

I felt my pulse in my throat as I stood in front of the children, listening to the echoes.

Milly stood next to me, shielding them too, but as the metal of the door creaked and groaned and the shovels broke through, fear gripped me.

Fear of not being able to protect them.

A flashlight shone in, blinding us with bright white light.

I squinted and stepped back before whoever was holding it began calling up to the surface in Spanish.

“Ellos están aquí,” he called. “They are here!”

A few moments later, three pairs of footsteps flooded into the vault, and I felt a man seize me.

“No,” I hissed, kicking and punching. “My kids.”

I glanced around as he grabbed my hands and lifted me off the ground. One of the other men had ripped Stefano and Zach from Milly as another seized Lili as she screamed and cried.

I managed to punch the guy who had pulled me up hard in the nose, making him let go of me to stagger back so that I could launch myself at the one with his dirty hands all over my youngest daughter.

I kicked him in the ribs with all my force, and he leaned over groaning so that I could pull Lili into my arms as she buried her head in my chest.

“Stay away from us.” I growled as the man holding Zach and Stefano cowered back. “And give me my sons. Now.”

The other two men who were still on the floor, rolling in pain, so I handed Lili to Milly and stepped confidently forward, anger and fury rushing through my veins as I gave him my hardest glare.

He nodded and put the boys down.

But just as I was reaching for them, the first guy, whose nose was now bloody and already swollen, raised a black metal object.

I heard the click of the safety latch as he pointed it directly at Milly and my children.

“Our boss only cares about having you alive, woman,” he slurred in a thick Hispanic accent. “Cooperate or I will kill them all.”

I swallowed before nodding.

That wasn’t a risk I was going to take.

“Okay,” I said, lifting Stefano into my arms as Milly came to pick up Zacharias. “Come children,” I added, ushering them all forward. “Don’t worry. Mama’s here.”

Lili clung to my hand and my eldest three—Cato, Mathias, and Silas—took care of their twin little sisters as we all were herded out of the vault, through the rubble, and into the fresh air of the forest.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we were led away from the vault.

One of the guys was walking close behind Milly, continually prodding the back of her head with his gun and shoving her forward.

In the distance, we could hear gunshots and bombs constantly sounding along with cries and shouts in both Italian and Spanish.

“Back to your husband of course,” the second replied.

My stomach churned. “He’s here?”

“And he’s close,” he said with a grim, toothy grin.

“And Alpha Loren?” I asked. “Where is he?”

“Papa,” Lili whispered.

I put my hand on her shoulder and held her close.

“Far from here,” he replied.

While I was relieved to hear he was still alive, it would be great if he could just appear and rescue us right now.

“Papa is safe, Lili,” I whispered, “and he’s going to save us.”

The man laughed. “Don’t lie to your children.”

Just then, the man walking behind Milly prodded her in the back with his gun, this time so hard she stumbled forward having to clutch Zach tight in her arms.

“Keep walking, bitch,” he said. “I’ll be right here…the view is so good…,” he added, looking down at her butt.

“She’s a child,” I hissed.

“She’s woman enough for me,” he replied, reaching for her ass.

With that, Milly spun around and shot him a glare.

I instantly noticed the wind pick up around us, making the trees groan and creak.

The man took no heed and stepped toward her again, jeering and laughing.

The gust only grew until it was a gale, whipping Milly’s hair as she fixated her stare on him.

His face began to drop its sneer as he glanced around at the swaying trees and the clouds blowing over the moon, casting utter darkness onto the forest.

“What the fuck?” the one behind me said, just before the ground began to tremble.

“It’s her,” the one next to me hissed, pointing at Milly. “She’s doing it.”

The man closest to Milly had wide eyes and was completely frozen to the spot as Milly stood, her eyes closed shut, focusing and concentrating hard.

But it only took the other to hiss some Spanish at him before he pulled out his gun, aiming it at Milly’s head.

“Milly!” I screamed.

She snapped her eyes open and immediately spotted the gun, not even a second later, a towering wall of flames ripped through the forest, scorching the leaves and debris in its path as it stretched on and on.

We were now all illuminated in a yellow glow, and through the flickers of fire, I could see the scared faces of my children who hid behind Milly—well, seven of them at least.

The eighth was still in my arms.

On the other side of the wall.

The same side as the three armed soldiers.

I lurched forward, but the fire had grown five feet tall. Milly’s mouth was gaping open, her chest rising and falling in panic as she ran forward to stand opposite me.

“Ella,” she cried. “No! I can’t do anything. I don’t have the control!”

There was no chance of jumping it without burning. It burned too fiercely and high. But with the men quickly pushing the shock from their minds and processing what they had witnessed, there was only one thing I could do.

“Give Zach to Cato,” I ordered.

She didn’t question and passed the toddler down to his eldest brother.

I couldn’t cross to the other side, but Stefano could. He weighed no more than twenty-five pounds.

I wrapped his blanket tight around him and glanced behind me at the men who were now marching forward toward us.

“Catch him,” I said as I kissed him quickly on the forehead before I took a step back and launched him into the air.

I didn’t have time to dwell on the idea, nor could I afford to hesitate and overthink. Somehow, I managed to just push all doubts away and switch off my panic to think rationally and know that this was his best chance.

So I let go of my baby son, sending him flying over roaring fire into the arms of Milly.

She caught him unscathed, and I let out a choked sigh of relief.

“Go,” I shouted across the crackling and spitting of sparks and burning, “Get the kids somewhere safe!”

She was still reluctant, her dark eyes reflecting the orange and yellow glow in front of her.

“Milly, go,” I commanded, and she eventually nodded, taking a lasting, sorrowful look at me before lifting Zach higher onto her hip.

She clutched Stefano in her other arm and ushered the rest with kind, reassuring words. They all glanced over at me on the other side of the fiery barrier with worried little faces.

“I love you,” I said just as I felt a calloused pair of hands seize me. “I love you all!”