Page 32 of Land of Monsters

My muscles locked up, and I watched helplessly as they lifted her, the men rushing back for the jeeps, tossing her in the back, and piling in.

“Noooooo!” The word barely croaked from me, my feet scrambling under me, my lungs spasming. I pushed myself up. My legs stumbled again, oxygen still not reaching my brain.

The jeeps revved, the wheels squealing out with the same momentum they entered.

From a distance, I heard a bird shriek.

“No!” I shouted again, shoving myself up, limping toward the vanishing brake lights, the automobiles disappearing around the corner. I tried to keep up, my knee screaming with pain, hobbling after, but I knew it was pointless. She was out of reach.

Pain shot up my leg, and I came to a stop. I bent over, gasping for air. Fury and grief roared from my gut, anger at my fuck up, for not protecting her, not getting to her fast enough. This was my fault. They came after her because of me.

“Ffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccckkk!” I bellowed, the pigeons around me flapping and fluttering away as I slammed my fistinto a pole. Trees nearby creaked, limbs breaking off in my fury, raining down on the road.

She was gone.

But now, I would’ve given anything for her to be heading home like I first feared. Safe in her family’s embrace, even if I never saw her again.

My gaze flickered to the sky. I couldn’t see her, but I had no doubt Nyx had led them here. Searching for us, she must have spotted Raven in the square, because if she knew where I was, the soldiers would have raided the brothel.

Or she knows how to really hurt you. To make you feel the pain of losing someone like she did.

Though it was Warwick and Brexley who killed her girlfriend, it was me who shot Nyx to save them, leaving her for dead. She hated me too and would love to see me grieve, to tear my world apart.

My feral anger shifted into calculating, vengeful energy, my shoulders going back, determination setting my features. If anything happened to her, I would murder them all. Slowly. They thought Warwick, the Wolf, was the legend of death? They had no idea of the pain I would rain down on them.

I just had to find where she was and get her back. In my gut, I knew they wouldn’t kill her. Torture and starve? Yes. But they wanted me down on my knees. To hand myself over to them.

She was bait.

My heart thumped with resolve, every nerve zapping under my skin. I would not stop until I found her.

Along the way, Raven got under my skin, and without realizing it, I started to live again,feelagain. Something I hadn’t believed could ever happen. But with the taste of her still on my tongue and the feel of her mouth around my cock, I couldn’t fight the hollow feeling from deep in my soul.

Mine.

?

“Where’s Maestro?” I barked, slamming through the door, fury rolling off my shoulders. The few workers who were up, cleaning or drinking coffee at the bar, still looked half asleep and haggard from the night before and jerked their heads to me, staring. “Where is he?” My patience was barely contained.

“Hey, hey…” Maestro entered the room, his hands motioning for me to calm down, his brow furrowed. Dressed in a paisley dressing gown, looking like an old movie star, he sashayed to me. His face was devoid of makeup, his head wrapped in a cap, showing the man underneath the performance. “My beautiful boy, what has you coming in here screaming like you want to wake the dead? Most of us are still suffering, you know.”

“Where is the base camp?” I had no time for frivolities.

“What?” Maestro’s frown deepened. “I have not had my coffee yet. So please, tell me what is going on?”

“They have her.”

“Have who?” His thin eyebrows puckered.

My mouth opened to utter her name and stopped. He already thought she reminded him of someone, her true identity barely a subtle hint away. Her name would only confirm who she was. And I couldn’t have that. I needed this to stay quiet. Sonya and Lazar couldn’t find out who they really had in their grasp. I couldn’t give them that leverage—the power to bring the Unified Nations to their knees.

Getting her wasmypriority.

“My girl.” I cleared my throat, the sentiment feeling odd coming off my lips. I hadnevercalled anyone that before. Ever.

“What? Who took her?” He exploded with shock, no longer speaking quietly. “What happened?”

“Sonya’s men.” They certainly were no longer Lazar’s men. He was a facade. An actor playing a part with no power to speak of anymore.

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