45

Before I could painfully sit up again, my hair was pulled up and the blindfold was finally removed.

It was dark here in the middle of the forest, but I still had to squint my eyes a few times to be able to see everything again. Next to me was Darius, staring coldly at me, while behind him was the giant with the accent and the young guy who got me out of my cell on the first day.

"Get the loser out of the trunk," Darius ordered them without taking his eyes off me and freed me from my handcuffs with a small knife. I gently stroked my ankles, which showed slight tears from the rope and were burning as a result.

When I turned around, I watched as Ethan was thrown to the ground by them, tied up. "Oh my God," I whispered and wanted to go to him, but the giant pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the man lying on the ground.

"One step further and Ethan is history," Darius warned me and I stopped in my tracks until I suddenly heard a voice behind me that made me gasp.

"Chiara," I heard Jayden call out and turned to him with wide eyes. He stood there looking completely exhausted, which sent chills down my spine. I immediately wanted to run towards him, but Darius grabbed my neck and pulled me close to his chest.

"Hey!" Jayden yelled, raising both hands in the air in surrender. "I'm here so let her go!" "What I plan to do with her after you're gone is my business!" Darius yelled back, throwing me to the ground with such force that my head started pounding.

"You killed my sister and you expect pity from your bitch?" Darius asked him calmly and the giant suddenly aimed at me, whereupon Ethan started throwing insults around that I hardly noticed anymore.

"That was never my intention! She was a strange wolf in my territory! And weren't you the ones who had attacked us before and left more than enough dead behind?" Jayden took a cautious step toward us, hands still held up. "Like I said, here I am. Let them both go."

Darius didn't say anything else, which made me all the more nervous, and Ethan lay silent as well while we could only watch as the Alphas looked into each other's eyes in anger.

"Okay," Darius suddenly said, yanking my arm up to push me in the direction of my mate, while the giant then targeted Ethan again. I fell down several times while running, out of excitement, and then, out of breath, reached him and fell into his arms, crying. For that brief second, feeling his arms around me and taking in his scent, I forgot our hopeless situation. "I'm so sorry," I whined in his ear, hugging him even tighter as he kissed me on his mark. "I'm sorry," he breathed and broke away from me to put his black jacket around me protectively.

He pushed me behind him and then turned back to Darius. "And now my beta," he demanded, but Darius shook his head with a grin. "He'll stay with me until you move over here.

It got so quiet that all I could hear was my rapid breathing and when Jayden started to run, I held his arm back, pleading. "Please don't go," I begged, yet I knew he would never let Ethan die. When the first tears started to roll down my face, he suddenly looked at me and just smiled sweetly, which totally confused me.

"It's going to be alright," he whispered, taking my face in his hands. "I have a guardian angel, nothing will happen to me." He kissed my forehead and I looked after him in confusion until I looked around quizzically to see if there was any sign of Ludwig there, but I didn't see him.

"On your knees," I heard Darius say, and turned my gaze forward again, where my mate knelt in front of him and he drew a gun to put it to his head while the giant still aimed his at Ethan. "No!" I yelled as Darius started counting backwards from ten. 9 8 7 My heart was racing and I couldn't breathe anymore 6 5 Without thinking I ran to stop him 4 3 2 1 But 2 shots froze me and I fell screaming to the forest floor where I lay broken.

Jayden's lifeless body was driving me insane. I was no longer aware of anything but his empty, wide-open eyes and the blood spurting from his chest to seep into the forest floor.

Complete darkness surrounded me, forcing me to question everything and I just wanted to die because the pain in my heart was unbearable. I could no longer feel my heartbeat and could no longer breathe, as if I had forgotten everything and was no longer able to remain in my body.

I crawled on all fours to his body and cried and snuggled up to him to realize that he was no longer radiating warmth. With the coldness of his body, the cold of the night also came over me, even though I shouldn't feel cold anymore.

My body trembled against his and I kept praying that he would just start breathing again, but I couldn't. He was dead, dead because of me, and suddenly I heard a rustling behind me that made me jump.

Totally dazed, I got up and saw the black wolf who had his ice blue eyes. How many times had I seen him and now I knew why. He always wanted to warn me about this and while weeping I started screaming to make him run away but he came even closer and made me so angry that I screamed at him even louder until the bright sun started to come up moving through the darkness and I still woke up screaming.

My eyes widened and I couldn't realize where or who I was. Everything looked blurry and I only felt that someone was holding me. I frantically wiped the tears from my eyes and realized with confusion that I was in Jayden's bedroom. I turned to my side and looked at him questioningly while he eyed me with concern.

"Everything is fine," he whispered and pulled me to his warm chest, which had just seemed so lifeless to me. "Are we in heaven?" I asked him, sure that it had to be the truth. It was too good to believe that we were finally reunited in his bed with the sun shining on our bodies.

He began leaning over me and gently licked my lips before beginning to nibble on my earlobe. "Yes, this is heaven," I moaned softly and just wanted to give myself to him, but he broke away from me, stood up and pulled my arms to my feet. "You're not in heaven," he explained, standing right across from me. "Ludwig shot Darius while Chace took care of the giant. Both are dead," he stammered and looked sadly at the ground. "We spared the smaller one and let him go," he finished the conversation while looking at me intensely.

"I want to see Ethan immediately," I asked him decisively and he nodded in agreement. He took my hand and led me over to the living room where the beta was sleeping peacefully on the couch. I stood frozen, unable to comprehend it all, and fled back into his arms. "Jayden," I whimpered, completely overwhelmed, whereupon he carried me back into the bedroom and carefully lowered me onto the bed.

"Sleep a little more," he whispered, but I didn't feel like sleeping. I was trapped for days, treated like a whore, watched Ethan break up, and almost had to deal with the death of my mate. I had never felt more alive and the quarrels that had been circling around us before seemed unimportant. Eager for comfort and love, I pressed my lips to his and wrapped my arms around his neck. I didn't know what made me do it, but I felt like I had to fly to escape the pain of the past.

He didn't fight back and I felt he needed it as much as I did. Full of longing, he wanted to bend over me, but I wouldn't let him and got up to close the bedroom door first. He sat on the edge of the bed and watched me with excited eyes as I took off the clothes he had put on me and let them fall on the floor next to me until I was just standing naked in front of him.

He pulled me over by the waist and started kissing my stomach and running his tongue over my skin while I let my head fall back and pulled hard on his hair, making him gasp. His kisses continued to descend until he reached my center and I finally started to forget everything and only saw him.

Enjoying the control over this situation that I have needed so badly for the past few days, I began to pull him up to me. I helped him undress and he carefully picked me up to lower me onto the bed under him. Using the connection to drift off into another world was the right thing to do. Into a world where he would withdraw me from the bitter reality.

He licked his mark and grabbed my chest and kneaded it tight, causing me to close my eyes and cup his hips to pull him closer to me. I wanted to feel him, immediately, and he obviously enjoyed playing with me, because he took his time and waited until I was almost going insane with lust for him.