Page 47 of Fall into Savagery

I tried to shake him awake, yet I was afraid I might shake too hard and cause more damage to him. I didn’t know what to do.

“Wake up. You’re not allowed to die, you hear me? You’re not. You’re mine. You don’t get to die because you’re mine. Your body, your heart, and your soul belong to me.Youare mine, do you get me? You are mine, and you don’t get to die unless I give you permission to die, and I don’t give it. You’re not allowed to die, so wake up. Just wake the fuck up! I don’t give you permission to die, so fucking wake up.”

Then, the sweetest fucking sound I had ever heard in my entire life. “Pet.”

I let out a loud sob and buried my face in his chest, hugging him to me.

He wrapped his arms around me, and I cried harder. How many nights had I dreamed of these arms wrapped around me? And it was finally happening. He was here, and he was alive.

But we weren’t out of danger yet.

I pulled away suddenly at the thought, and Damien seemed to have gained more awareness because his eyes darkened as he took me in surprise.

“What thefuckare you doing here?”

I smiled. “Be mad at me later, okay? Right now, I have to get you out of here.”

He shook his head. “No, you get the fuck out of here and hide. We’ll find you when it’s safe.”

I shook my head. “Damien, stop it. We’re going to leave together. Can you stand?”

I didn’t think I had the strength to help him up.

He nodded and sat up, looking around at all the chaos. He pulled me behind him when a noise came through the door, and then grabbed my gun and shot the man that had just come in, right in his forehead. I blinked and looked away as the man fell to the ground.

Damien looked back at me. “Let’s go.”

He stood up to his full height, and I wrapped my arms around his middle, trying to support as much of his weight as possible. Damien shot at everyone that came to us, but the gun I had was a small revolver and only held six rounds. It didn’t take long for us to run out of bullets.

I stopped him when he was about to throw the gun away, and he looked at me before shoving it down the waistband of his jeans. We limped our way along the walls. Damien pushed me inside and used his body to shield me from all the flying bullets.

Then, it was as if by magic, but all the noise died down. I peeked out from under Damien’s arm.

I didn’t know if this silence was good or not.

There were no more gunshots, no more screaming and yelling, no more fighting.

My eyes moved about the open space, coming to a stop when they landed on a group of men standing in the middle.

And right in the center of the group were Mikhail and Nikolay, both looking at Damien and me with a mixture of relief, disbelief, and anger.

“What the fuck,” Nikolay said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. I flinched, knowing that it was directed at me.

Francisco was with them, and he had almost the same look of disbelief as them.

“As much as I missed you, pet, you are in so much fucking trouble,” Damien said quietly beside me.

I didn’t say anything to that. I knew it was true.

I waved my hand at the group in greeting. Even from a distance, I could see the tic in Mikhail’s right eye.

Another man walked up to us. I recognized Maxim right away.

He shot me a confused look, but he didn’t stop until he stood directly in front of us.

Maxim blinked, and it surprised me to see moisture in them.

“Welcome back, Pakhan,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “We missed you.”

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