Chapter 69

ELLA

I was dragged away from the flames by two of the men. They squeezed me tight and held my wrists and ankles, but there were no stakes anymore. My children were safe, and I was unfazed by their guns and threats.

They weren’t going to kill me.

But Andrea would.

So I had to put my all into escaping them before they could bring me to him.

I fought with all my might against the three grown men, but I had no success in stopping them from dragging me, and I only felt my feet on the ground again when they stopped half an hour later.

My hair was disheveled across my face, I breathed heavily, and my eyes still stung with the dust from the explosion, but a few meters away, I could still see a figure in front of us.

He wore a pristine black suit, and his dark-black hair was gelled neatly as an assertive smile sat on his lips.

“Bring her to me,” he said, his accent as slurred and thick as ever.

The two men holding both my arms walked me forward, and I couldn’t even try to resist them, too frozen with fear.

I was now only half a meter from him, then he took a slow step forward, now we were only inches apart.

As he used the tip of his finger to move the hair out of my face. I cast my eyes down to his polished black shoes, somehow still clean despite the earth and leaves of the forest.

I took a deep, shaky breath when I felt his touch run down my cheek to my chin where he clasped my face and forced my eyes up to look at his.

“Hola, Blanca,” he said, “my beautiful wife… How wonderful it is every time our paths cross…”

His eyes were full of scorn as he glared mercilessly at me. My mouth was dry, and my hands shook with the intense fear building inside of me.

At long last, he spared me from the darkness of his eyes as he went to examine my body, his fingers following his gaze as it traveled across my chest.

“While I was looking forward to some time alone, I was also rather hoping your children would be with you,” he said as he looked up to the men.

“Where are they?” he asked in Spanish, raising a full black eyebrow.

“They escaped, sir,” one replied.

“Escaped!” Andrea growled, his face hardening into anger. “Are you stupid?! They’re children!”

The man swallowed, fear all over his face as Andrea seized his throat. “Find the brats and bring them back to me,” he ordered. “Or I will have you all killed.”

The men then let go of me and cowered back.

“What the fuck are you waiting for?” Andrea hissed. “Vamos!”

“They’re with a witch,” one of them stuttered.

“A witch,” Andrea scorned. “What bullshit. And what is a witch to a bullet, huh? Get out of my sight and do as I have ordered, or I will send you straight to hell.”

It would have been amusing to see such rough-looking men shudder and pale if it weren’t for how furious their reluctance had made Andrea.

He sent them one more hard stare before they turned and ran through the trees, back in the direction of Milly’s fires, leaving Andrea to seize my shoulders and pull me into him.

“You still have people doing your dirty work, I see,” I said as I caught the strong scent of his cologne and his minty breath.

He let out a twisted laugh. “How are your commanders?” he asked. “Blown to pieces by the bombs I planted, I presume?”

I swallowed.

“How are the families of all the Stella soldiers I cut the throats of?” he continued, pulling me even closer to his face.

I cast my eyes away from him as he brought his mouth to my ear, his breath heavy.

“You know I am more than capable of ‘dirty’ work,” he said. “And I can promise you this, Blanca: tonight, I will take great pleasure in murdering all of your dear children, your beloved mate, and you with my own hands.”

I scrunched my eyes shut as my face contorted with dread, and he only let out another laugh.

“Look at you,” he jeered, grabbing my arm with one hand and wrapping the other around my waist. “You’re so weak and feeble. It’s pathetic.”

I whimpered as he gripped me tighter.

“When we first met all those months ago, you were so feisty and now…totally helpless,” he said. “Admit it, Ella Martinez. I ruined you.”

I said and did nothing. With his hold on me, I could hardly move, and my mouth blatantly refused to form words.

“I could crush you with my bare hands, Blanca,” he said, taking his gun from his belt and casting it onto the ground beside us.

“And you are too afraid to even fight back.”

His hand moved to my throat, and he gripped tight.

As he slowly increased the pressure, gradually blocking my airway, he pushed his lips against mine, planting them with a lasting kiss.

My vision was beginning to blur, and my head felt light and dizzy.

Confused, twisted thoughts infested my mind. The wretched screams of my children echoing around my skull along with their father’s face, his cheeks wet with tears and a forlorn expression, riddled with guilt.

But just as I thought I couldn’t resist the encroaching darkness any longer, my airway was suddenly released, and fresh oxygen gushed into my starving lungs.

“Do you mind, Loren?” Andrea asked as he pulled my back into his chest, wrapping his arm around my neck. “I’m trying to kill your mate.”

My vision cleared, and I could see Leonardo standing tall and fuming only a few meters away.

Thank the Goddesses. He found me.

He was unarmed, but his hands and arms were covered in blood that splattered up to his face, indicating he had managed to do some damage to our enemies regardless.

“And I can’t let that happen,” Leo replied, lurching forward as Andrea began to move toward his gun, which still lay where he had thrown it on the ground.

Leo got to it first and kicked it far into the forest before coming straight toward Andrea and me.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Andrea warned. “I can still snap her neck.”

Leo paused and looked at Andrea's hands on my neck before his face hardened, and he took a step back.

“Fine,” he said sharply. “We’re both unarmed. We’re both adults…well, I am at least. Let’s settle this properly.”

Andrea scoffed.

“You against me. Alpha against alpha. Man against man. Unless you’re afraid I’ll beat you…again?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow.

Andrea was still reluctant, and Leo’s lips curled into a smile.

“Tell me, Martinez,” he began, “do I threaten you?”

With that, Andrea unraveled his hand from my neck and kissed my cheek as he maintained fierce eye contact with Leo, who swallowed, the corner of his mouth twitching in anger as he exhaled heavily through his nose.

Andrea then shoved me behind him.

“Fine,” he snapped. “I had planned to kill you last, but…this works too.”

Leo gave the first blow: a forceful punch that sent Andrea stumbling back and reeling in pain.

The blood he spluttered from his mouth barely had a chance to seep through his brilliant white shirt before Leo came in ruthlessly with a second.

But before Leo’s fist could reach his cheek, Andrea had shot to the side, narrowly avoiding it before bringing his knee hard into Leo’s exposed stomach.

He doubled over, the air expelled from his lungs; Andrea didn’t hesitate to knee him again, causing him to choke out another residual breath.

Just as Andrea was coming in for a third, he cast his weary eyes up and met mine. A split second later, his face instantly hardened again as he stood up straight, his gritted teeth seething with rage.

Andrea may have had alpha blood, but it wasn’t as strong as Leo’s. He was just as tall but slender with youth. He was muscular and powerful, but I’d never seen a man more ripped than Leo, and Andrea Martinez was no exception.

With his strength quickly returning, Leo seized his collar and flung him to the ground, the impact causing him to groan as fresh ripples of pain spread through him.

But as Leo pressed him to the ground, with a sudden surge of strength, Andrea managed to offset his balance and roll on top of him as one of his hands shoved deep into a pocket for a small object.

With only a small click, a glint of moonlight reflecting off a metal blade caught my eyes.

“I don’t play fair, Loren.” Andrea growled as he began forcing the pocketknife toward Leo’s throat. “I don’t believe in honor and nobility.”

Leo had his hand around Andrea’s wrist, desperately holding the blade off, but since he was lying flat on his back, and Andrea could use his body weight and gravity to push the knife down, he was struggling.

His arm shook as he gritted his teeth and groaned.

Andrea just looked down at my mate, a wicked, victorious smile on his face.

My heart was pounding in my ears, my stomach had been bound and constricted by anxiety and dread, and my hands were clammy and trembling uncontrollably.

But as I watched Leo’s desperation and death get closer and closer to him, an instinct set in.

The gun.

Andrea’s gun.

It lay covered in leaves only a few meters from me.

I sprinted to it and picked it up. He taught me how to use one like this months ago, the day I had been too weak to shoot him when his back was turned.

Now I had another chance, and my love for Leo was my strength.

He always had been.

I spent three hellish months enduring Andrea’s torture, but the hope that Leo would one day find me got me through, even when Andrea eroded it away until there was only a fragment left.

I clung on. Just about surviving by the dim light of a flicker of faith burning in my heart.

Because I knew that Leonardo would always do whatever it took to save me. Sometimes it hurt me, like when Connor got caught up in his fierce protection. Sometimes I suffered months of pain before he could rescue me.

But he always did.

No matter what.

Now it was my turn to repay the favor.

No matter what my fear.

I gripped the gun firmly in my hands and repeated Andrea’s words inside my head:

Both eyes on the target.

Hold it steady.

Use your strength.

Pull the trigger.