Chapter 13

ELLA

As I watched the two men roll around on the floor with each other, I felt my heart creep up into my throat. Andrea’s strength took both Leo and me by surprise.

He wasn’t even an alpha, yet he was the only person I’d ever seen to even stand a chance against Leo, and that alone was terrifying, regardless of his murderous expression.

Or the gun that Leo was fighting so hard to keep away from me and himself. At one point, Leo pinned Andrea’s wrist to the floor, but before he could get the gun from his hand, Andrea pushed him off and freed himself once again.

I managed to move behind a pile of boxes, which provided me relative safety, in the hopes of giving my mate one less thing to stop Andrea from shooting.

Just as the fight got out of my sight, I felt another body draw up behind me and grab my wrists.

“Sssh. It’s me,” a man’s voice whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”

I recognized the voice immediately.

My eldest cousin: Max.

He began slowly leading us toward the back of the warehouse where a door hung bent with a freshly broken lock.

Seconds later, we were in the open desert, and Max was leading me in the direction of a parked car about fifty meters away.

“Andrea has a gun,” I said, pausing. “How can Leo defeat him unarmed?”

“Do not worry about him. You just need to get away from here safely,” Max replied, tugging me.

“No, no, no. He is my mate. I can’t let him be killed,” I stated, pulling my hand out of his. “Andrea is stronger than you’d expect.”

Max let out a short sigh before reaching forward and taking my hand again, this time more forcefully.

“Max, what the fuck?” I began.

“We have to go. Now,” he replied. “I’m sorry, Ella,” he added, now marching to the car and dragging me behind. “I made a promise to Leo that I’d get you away from here alive no matter what you say or how much you fight me.

“That man wants to hurt you, and Leo wants your life to be put above his. He says it is the least he could do.”

“No,” I said, trying to pry his hand off my wrist. “No! If he dies, I will never forgive you.”

“And I will never forgive myself, but at least you will be okay, and that is all that matters to him. He is happy to die so long as you live, and I am willing to let him sacrifice himself,” Max replied.

“And why don’t I get a say in this?” I snapped, kicking him in the shin.

I felt a little guilty because he was just following Leo’s orders, but Leo’s orders were suicidal, and I needed to do something.

“Let go of me, Max!” I cried as he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me from the ground as we continued to near the car.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I really am.”

“Max,” I begged. “Please! I can’t let him die! Please!”

After that, Max stopped replying. Ordinarily, I think I could have escaped his grasp, but I hadn’t eaten or drunk properly in days, and I had no strength left in me.

That didn’t mean I didn’t try, though. I kicked and screamed and flailed and wriggled, but my cousin wasn’t letting go.

“Leo and I are mates! We are a team! I can’t just leave him!” I cried.

“Yes, you are a team, and he is the alpha of it, so stop being a disobedient little bitch and fucking do as he says.”

I stopped fighting him and paused to give him a glare of absolute betrayal.

“Because you know all about obeying the alpha,” I replied.

He stared back at me coldly, but before he could do anything more to get me to the car, it sounded.

The fateful gunshot.

My heart leaped into my mouth or maybe deep into my stomach or maybe it had shattered… I don’t know. Nothing could describe the pure dread I was feeling.

I tried to speak, but my lips couldn’t form words, and nor could I produce a single sound. If it weren’t for Max still holding me tightly, I felt as though I would have sunk to the ground right there and then.

For about thirty agonizing seconds, there was complete silence. The sound of the shot still ringing through my ears, but no movement was coming from the warehouse. No singular man emerged, neither Leo nor Andrea.

I listened to Max’s heart thud, his breath shorten, and the sweat on his palms form. I was just the same but a thousand times worse.

“Ella, I need you to get in the car,” Max said after a few more seconds. “I will go and investigate, but if Andrea is still alive, he will be after you.”

I still couldn’t speak.

“Ella,” he repeated, shaking me gently.

After I was unable to respond the second time, he began to lift me up. Just as he opened the car door, a figure began to emerge from the warehouse.

He had a gun in hand but no suit.

No devilish eyes, no sadistic grin, and his hair was dark blond and his eyes vibrant blue.

I let out a deep breath, a shaking smile of relief formed on my face as Max put me down, and I ran forward.

There were only about fifty meters between us, and I covered it in less than five seconds before throwing myself into his arms and holding him tighter than I ever had.

He dropped the gun and wrapped me in his comforting embrace too.

“You told Max not to let me help you? Why?” I sobbed, refusing to let him go.

“I’m sorry,” he replied, sounding emotional too. “Your life was all that mattered. I had to ensure you were safe.”

“Even if it meant you weren’t?”

“Of course, Ella,” he replied, looking down at me with his big blue eyes. “I’m sorry I took so long, but I’ll always be here to catch you when you fall. No matter what.”

In that moment, the swing dream made sense. It made perfect sense.

I smiled before taking his face in my hands and kissing him gently.

“Thank you,” I whispered, before he leaned back in and kissed me back, this time more passionately.

“Easy, tiger,” I said a few seconds later. “We have an audience,” I added, looking up to Max who was standing awkwardly, looking anywhere but in our direction.

Leo laughed before he just pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead.

“You don’t know how happy I am to see you,” he said.

I clung to him once again for a few moments as my emotions calmed a little, and I was able to think a little clearer.

“Max, I’m sorry,” I said, holding my hand out to him. “I didn’t mean to snap.”

“Well, I think I got as good as I gave,” he replied with a smile as he took my hand.

“You two managed to have an argument within a minute of being reunited?” Leo asked.

“We’re good at arguing,” I said, pulling Max into a hug.

“I’m glad to see that you’re okay, cuz,” he said, kissing my cheek.

“Never call me a bitch again, got it?” I said, prodding a finger into his chest as he laughed.

“You called my mate a bitch?” Leo asked in a light tone as he raised an eyebrow. “I know I told you to do whatever you have to do, but you know that she’s your luna, right?”

“I lost my temper, and I didn’t mean what I said. I’m sorry, Ella,” he said.

“Good…you bitch,” I replied, before hugging him again and then Leo again.

“Is he dead?” I asked.

“Shot in the heart with his own gun,” Leo replied. “You don’t have to worry about that motherfucker anymore.”

“Thank you for saving me…again. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you,” I said.

“You wouldn’t find yourself in ninety-nine percent of these situations if it weren’t for me, Ells,” he replied. “Being my mate is dangerous business. I’ve told you that since the day we met.”

“I know,” I said with a nod. “But it’s worth it. And how did you find me?”

“A man named José called. An old friend of your father’s I believe? He said that you told him to tell me where you are and that you were quite persuasive.”

I smiled and hugged him again. “We need to ensure that he is rewarded.”

“Of course. If it hadn’t been for that call, we would never have found you, and I dread to think what that fucking teenager would have done,” he said.

I then looked around. From the car to Max and then back to Leo. “Um…where’s Luca? I would have thought that he’d be here.”

Leo swallowed and clenched his jaw.

“After José called, Luca went back to a pack we had just visited during our search for any scrap of information on Martinez to ask to borrow some guns.

“He was supposed to catch up to us, but he never did. Now he’s not answering his phone,” Leo explained.

“He isn’t answering his phone?” I said hoarsely as my face probably turned the color of snow. “Leo, when did you last hear from him?”

“Two hours ago,” he replied. “We both agreed that if anything happened to either of us, our priority was finding you. Now that that is done, we can focus on finding him. So come on, let’s go.”

He then threw Max a set of car keys and guided me to the backseat door of the car.

“Just as I thought we could go home. Life’s never easy, is it?” I asked with a sigh.

“Who told you it would be easy?”