Chapter 133: The Great Escape

MATEO

Isabella stares up at me. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes are ablaze with lust.

That look—the look she would always give me right before we would make love—is something I never thought I would see again.

For the rest of my life, I thought I would only see that look in my dreams, when she would come to me in my sleep after a long, lonely night of endlessly thinking about her.

But now, here she is.

In the flesh. As real as anything else in this world.

Each touch is something I want to savor, like a glass of the finest Spanish wine, or the scent of a perfect rose.

The slow kissing of her tender lips.

The soft circular licking around her swollen nipples.

But soon, the anticipation becomes more than I can stand.

My hardness strains against my pants as her hands yearningly trace over its outline. The thought of not being inside her for a single moment becomes unbearable.

She unzips my pants and reaches in, grabbing my shaft.

“~Quiero que me folles, guapo~,” she moans. “I want you to make love to me.”

She spreads her legs, and I moan out at the sensation of her placing my tip into her wet core and slowly sliding me in.

I fit perfectly inside her, like a key inside a lock, opening the door to all the pleasure in the world.

As if we were made for each other.

I pull out and push back in, and she cries out louder and runs her fingers through my hair, her legs wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer and deeper.

I kiss her hungrily as I keep thrusting, my hands exploring her skin.

Faster and faster I go, gripping her and growling loudly as all of my willpower to savor this moment falls away.

I let my sweaty forehead rest upon hers as our bodies grind against one another. Our kisses and breath intertwine as the pleasure builds up to an unstoppable force.

“~Mi Diosa~!” she cries out. “Now, Mateo!”

I growl and let go.

The perfect release.

Our orgasms happen simultaneously, and we slowly let our bodies come to rest beside each other. My arms wrap around her, never wanting to let go.

She stares into my eyes, giving me the look that I want to see every day for the rest of my life.

The look of ultimate pleasure.

Of safety.

Of love.

“~Te quiero~,” I whisper. “I love you.”

“I love you too, ~guapo~.”

She nibbles my ear, her hands running up and down my abs.

“I do not care what happens anymore,” she whispers. “If Esmeralda came and took me away right now, I could die happy.”

I look at her.

“No, Isabella. We are not dying today,” I say. “This is the first night of the rest of our lives. I am getting you out of here.”

A huge smile spreads across her face. “But…how? There are so many guards, and if Esmeralda finds us…”

I put my finger to her lips. “Shh, ~mi amor~. Your voice is too beautiful to be dirtied by her name. Do not worry about a thing. I have some friends that will help us. We have a plan.”

We sit up and slip our clothes back, then I take her hand. “Come. We must go now.”

I try to pull her up, but when she puts her foot on the floor, she winces in pain and falls back down on the bed.

“What is it?” I ask anxiously.

She lifts her dress to reveal a red, blistering wound all the way around her ankle.

~The trace of silver shackles.~

“Esmeralda had me bound with silver when she brought me down for her knife show,” Isabella says, looking down at her ankle.

~Puta…~

“Can you walk?” I ask.

“~Si~,” she says, groaning as she tries to put weight on it. “But slowly and painfully.”

“No more pain for you, ~mi amor~. I will not allow it.”

I slip my arms under her and pick her up. She is light as a feather, and I carry her across the room toward the door.

Ariel and Jo peer at us as I step out of the room.

“You took your sweet-ass time…,” Jo says, rolling her eyes.

Ariel smiles at me. “I’m glad you did. You ready?”

I nod, and we silently make our way down the staircase.

ALEX

I knock my head back and down the last sip of my third glass of whiskey.

Well actually, it’s my third glass of water, with a tiny bit of whiskey to disguise it.

I’m not drunk at all, because I’ve needed to keep my wits in order to stall Esmeralda’s increasingly desperate attempts to seduce me.

Even now, as we stand on the balcony, she stares at me with lust in her eyes and fingers my collar, giggling drunkenly.

~Goddess.~

This woman is acting like she hasn’t gotten dick in a decade.

And the three ~real~ whiskeys I gave her probably aren’t helping either.

But I think my job is pretty much done by now. I’ve given Ariel as much time as possible, and I just hope everything went smoothly on her end.

Now, it’s time for me to make my smooth exit.

I turn to Esmeralda and flash her a friendly smile. “Well. It’s been a pleasure talking with you, but you know, I’m getting pretty tired…”

I move to leave, but Esmeralda grips my collar harder.

“Oh no, no, no. You’ve evaded me long enough, Alex,” she purrs. “You should know I’m a woman who is used to getting what she wants. And when you play hard to get, it makes me very, ~very~, impatient.”

I take a deep breath and push her hands away.

“You’ve been more than kind, Esmeralda. But I think it’s time I get back to ~my~ queen.”

Her eyes flash with anger. “Your queen?” she says with disgust. “That little slut has the stench of a commoner. She’s not a ~real~ queen. She doesn’t deserve the title.”

She takes a step closer and wraps her arms around me. The thought of this woman touching me a moment longer makes me physically ill.

~Especially~ when she’s talking about Ariel that way.

“You and I—we have ~real~ royal blood. We deserve to be together,” she says, her hand snaking around my torso toward my crotch.

“Just think about how powerful our kingdoms would be… Doesn’t the very thought just turn you on?”

“Good night,” I growl, pushing her off me and not even bothering to hide my anger anymore. “And consider yourself lucky that you’re a woman. If a man were to say those things about my mate, I’d rip his throat out.”

I walk over to the door leading out of the room and pull the handle.

~Goddess, I can’t wait to get out of here.~

But when I open the door, I come face-to-face with two giant, armored guards waiting on the other side.

Before I can even react, they reach out and grab my wrists.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” I yell out, struggling and throwing punches, but it only hurts my hands. Their armor is too thick.

Behind me, I hear Esmeralda start to cackle.

“You’ve been quite the tease tonight, Alex…,” she says, her voice laced with a tinge of venom. “But now, you’re just being ~rude~.”

The guards turn me around and lead me back into the room, facing Esmeralda as she smirks.

“And when my guests are rude, I’m afraid I have no choice but to ~punish~ them.”

I look down to see her holding a giant leather whip studded with metal spikes, and only one thought manages to rush through my head:

~Fuck.~

ARIEL

~Thank the Goddess.~

~Everything is going according to plan.~

But that doesn’t mean we can relax yet.

We still need to get Isabella safely out of the castle and then meet Alex at the rendezvous point near the plane.

Anger rises up inside me as I think of Esmeralda touching my mate.

~Focus, Ariel.~

~You have your part of the plan, he has his.~

We carefully step over the knocked-out guards and slip down the corridor leading the way we came.

It’s the early hours of the morning, and the castle is deathly quiet now. The party is over, and everyone is either asleep or blackout drunk.

Both of which are great for us.

Less chance of someone ruining our escape.

Isabella, still in Mateo’s arms, points to a door. “That door should lead outside,” she whispers. “It will be quicker.”

We slip through the door, stepping outside into the hot summer air.

Ahead of us, stretched endlessly into the darkness, are the royal gardens. During the day, they look so green and colorful, but by night, all I can see is the creepy, dark shadows of the strange plants.

The paths are lit only by flickering torches. Other than that, I can barely see anything.

As we start walking into the gardens, Mateo whispers anxiously behind us. “We cannot go this way. We must find another way.”

I turn to face him. “What are you talking about? This is the only way out.”

He eyes the bushes around us fearfully. “But…the tiger lives out here…”

~Shit…~

~He’s right.~

But we don’t have time to worry about that now.

“It’s nothing but a big kitty,” I say, continuing down the path. “Now come on, let’s get the hell out of here.”

Mateo grumbles quietly in Spanish as we continue, scanning for guards on patrol and any sign of the tiger.

But the only sounds are the flickering of the torches and the gravel crunching under our feet.

“The plane should be west,” Jo whispers, pointing down a path. “This way.”

I nod and we all follow her farther into the darkness, but we only take a few steps before I can feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

An anxious feeling comes over me. A feeling of dread.

My stomach starts to crawl nervously and my wolf lets out a whimper.

I shudder as I peer into the darkness around us, looking for any signs of danger.

But I have the unmistakable feeling that I’m being watched by ~something~.

Hearing the snap of a twig, I turn my head toward the sound, which is coming from somewhere in the plants.

And then I hear it.

The tiger’s ~growl~.

“~Mi Diosa Luna~,” Mateo hisses. “It’s here.”

“Where?” Jo says, pulling her sword out.

The growls get louder as we search the shadows for any sign of the tiger.

Suddenly, I spot ~something~.

Two giant, glinting golden eyes.

Staring right at me.

“RUN!” I scream.