Chapter 48

ELLA

I battled my way through the jungle for hours. I could hear his voice. Leo’s voice.

He shouted my name over and over again, but my senses were so overwhelmed by adrenaline and exhaustion I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

It echoed all around my mind as my head spun and my heart thudded. I let out a desperate, frustrated cry before stopping between two large trees to catch my breath.

“Why’d you stop?” a voice asked. “He’s so close.”

I jumped and snapped my head around. Luciano slowly emerged from the shadows, sporting one of his most malicious grins.

“How long have you been following me?” I asked.

“Eh, hours,” he said with a shrug as he examined the gun in his hand, polishing a smudge away with his sleeve. “Kinda boring how you just go around and around in circles, though.”

“Is this a game to you?” I asked.

“It was until you just stopped and gave up,” he said. “You make it too easy for me.”

I could still hear Leo’s calls. Perhaps if I couldn’t find him, he couldn’t find me.

“Leo!” I shouted. “Leonardo!”

Before I could call for a third time, Luciano had grabbed me and slapped a hand over my mouth.

“Shut up,” he growled. “Or one of these bullets might end up in your alpha’s skull.”

“Fuck you,” I hissed, shoving him away from me.

At that, he wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling me into his chest and held the gun to my head.

“Don’t underestimate what I will do, Ella,” he said deeply.

“Ella!” Leo’s voice called again.

He was half a kilometer away now at the very most.

I didn’t doubt Luciano’s words for a second. He was perfectly capable of killing me, but I was more concerned about him killing Leo. I stood silently, praying that he wouldn’t find us. It was the only way he’d stay safe.

Unfortunately, I was not so lucky.

A few minutes later, we were listening to a set of close footsteps battling through the dense vegetation, and a few seconds after that, the light of the moon, filtering through the canopy, cast onto Leonardo’s face.

He was exhausted. And not just from running through the jungle tonight. The sort of long-term exhaustion from weeks and months of sleepless nights and stress.

The twinkle in his eye had diminished, and his usual sturdiness of his presence had wilted into desperation.

But the second we made eye contact, he seemed to revive.

“Leo,” I whispered as a tear rolled down my cheek.

He scanned me, stopping at every bruise and cut on my body, before returning with a sad smile.

He then looked up to Luciano, who still held the gun to my head, and immediately turned cold and harsh.

“Let her go.” He growled.

“I don’t take orders from you anymore,” Luciano replied with a laugh.

Leo lurched forward, but then Luciano only tightened his grip on me and pushed the gun harder against my head. “Don’t think I won’t do it.”

Leo froze and gave Luciano the most demonic glare.

Just then, we heard the not-so-distant calls of men. Andrea’s men.

Luciano turned and tuned his ear as I did the same. Andrea was among them.

“Where are you, puta?” Andrea shouted. “You can’t hide from me forever.”

Luciano then looked back to Leo for a split second and then down to me. He removed the gun from my head and shoved me toward Leo.

I stumbled and gasped, but without hesitation, Leo came forward and pulled me into his arms.

One arm wrapped firmly around my back, the other hand settling at the base of my head, holding me close to his chest in a protective embrace.

I rested my head on him and breathed in his comforting scent for the first time in months as I clutched his shirt in my hands.

I felt him nod to Luciano, who disappeared into the jungle, leaving me with Leo.

A few seconds later, he lifted my head so that my eyes met his. “I’ve never been so relieved to see you,” he said, wiping my tears away with his thumb. “I love you.”

In that moment, I felt our bond more powerfully than I ever had before, and I was too choked with emotion to reply, so instead, I just gave him a genuine smile as more tears flooded out.

“We need to get out of here,” he said a few moments later as the voices of Andrea and his men got louder.

I suddenly remembered our situation and the danger we were in.

“I tried to kill him,” I said, my heart rate already increasing. “But—”

“It’s okay,” he replied. “We will get him one day. But for now, just let me get you somewhere safe.”

I nodded, and he took my hand in his tightly, and we ran.