#Chapter 450 – Kidnap Ella
Cora spins to look at me, her eyes wide, and together we both run for the window. Cora gets there first, unhooking the latch and throwing the window open, bending out so that she can see. I lean out too, my eyes scanning the ground below.
My gaze locks, instantly, on the action.
A man one whose figure and face I’ve glared at too many times in the past few days – drags a small girl by the hand. He has his arm wrapped around the waist of a woman. She fights against him, but her movements are sluggish.
“He’s got them,” I say, grim, and then I look to the side at my sister, determined. “Tell Sinclair. Stay with the baby.”
Cora stares at me for a second and then her eyes go round with shock. ” Ella,” she says, reaching out for me, Ella, what -”
But I’ve already turned back to the window, and before I can even think about what I’m doing, I transform into my wolf and surge out.
I hear my sister scream my name behind me, but I’m already gone, leaping from my narrow window ledge to the next below us, and then another, steadily working my way down the palace wall as fast as I my paws can carry me. The majority of my concentration is on aiming my jumps and ensuring that I land in the right spot, my wolf’s instincts taking over, but a little part of my mind is suddenly grateful that my wolf is small and nimble.
Sinclair, with his gigantic wolf, would never be able to balance on these small ledges, and neither would Roger.
Instead, my smaller rose-gold wolf makes quick of the vertical surface of the palace wall and darts towards the ground. The girl screams again as my paws hit the flagstones of the courtyard and I’m already moving across them towards the man who drags the woman and the girl away.
As I bolt across the courtyard towards them, I see from my periphery that I am not the only one to respond – palace guards begin to converge, their guns raised, but they hesitate when they see that Xander will not make it easy for them to take aim on him without risking Sarah and Jessica.
And the guards hesitate further when my snarl rips through the air, a steady order that clearly says he’s mine.
The guards fall back just a little, probably thinking that their King isn’t going to like it very much that they let me take the lead. But my authority brooks no compromise: I mean it.
This is my fight, and I won’t let them take it from me. Xander spins when he hears my snarl, looking first above my head as if he was looking for a larger wolf. Then his eyes fall, meeting mine, and he has the gall to laugh.
“A she-wolf?” he says, his voice thick with derision. Xander yanks Jessica closer to him and Sarah struggles anew, though her movements are slow. I focus on her for a moment, noticing blood on her forehead, in her hair, and realizing that Xander has hurt her – somehow – to make this escape possible.
Xander holds fast to both of them, and despite their struggles and his older age, he’s still a wolf. He is stronger, innately, and his determination to take what is his is steel.
I growl again, prowling closer, my demand that he let them go is clear in my narrowed wolf’s eyes, my bared fangs. Xander just scoffs at me, beginning to turn away. “You cannot touch me, she- wolf,” he snarls. “I will rip you to shreds.”
A louder snarl tears from between my teeth, letting Xander know that that’s precisely what I intend to do to him.
He spins again to me and then, vicious, he hurls Sarah to the ground and kicks her hard in the ribs. I hear bone crack and she moans, curling up, shuddering on the ground. I yelp, moving towards her, knowing that she’s badly hurt –
But before I can take more than a step, Xander pulls Jessica hard against him and pulls a knife from his pocket, pressing it to her throat. “A step closer,” he growls, “and I will kill her, she-wolf. You can keep the old one – I have no more use for her. But this one?” he says, looking down at Jessica and running a lecherous hand down her cheek, “I had her bred special for me, just to my tastes. And I will take her.”
A growl rumbles in me and from the corners of my eyes I see the palace security creating a circle around us. My muscles go tense, because I know that Xander sees it too, and I know he sees that his chances of escape are waning.
But a man like Xander, who is already on the run, playing his last card? That won’t cow him. It will just make him desperate.
And if he knows we’re going to take him out, he may do his best to leave as much collateral damage in his wake as he can. His knife, now, is pressed tight against a little girl’s throat.
So, I do the only thing I can.
I transform back into my human form and hold my hands out placatingly.
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret, uncle,” I say quietly. “If you give the girl to me now, we will give you a fair trial.”
“You have nothing with which to negotiate,” he says, backing away, and Jessica cries out as he pulls her with him, reaching out her hands to me in a way that makes my heart twist with fear. Xander wraps his fingers in her hair, tugging hard and making her shriek, but her hands drop as she goes with him. “She is mine, and I will take her. Now, call off your dogs,” he growls, tipping his head towards the guards on either side of us.
I hesitate, suddenly wishing I had Cora’s mind or Sinclair’s strength because –
Because, damn it, I don’t know what to do.
I take a step forward, not wanting Xander to put more distance between us, and his eyes narrow, his hand pressing the knife even tighter. So I counter, seeking to placate him, raising my hands on either side and shouting an order for the guards to lower their guns. My eyes flash to Sarah, who lays on the flagstones to my left, breathing softly and whimpering in pain.
Good, I think, alive. And then I refocus on Xander, who continues to slowly back away from me. For every step he takes, I take one step closer.
“Stop,” he growls, his eyes fully focused on me, angry. “Stop following me, you worthless girl – let me pass -”
I see, quite suddenly, that all of his attention is on me in this moment. That I’m pissing him off enough by continuing to step after him that he doesn’t notice the end of the courtyard behind him and the wide set of stairs that follow. If I can just…keep him distracted…
“No,” I say softly, not pushing him enough to do anything to Jessica but wanting his attention here, on me. ” You don’t control me, Xander. No matter how much you’ve tried, I’ve defied you at every turn.”
“You did nothing,” he hisses, steadily moving backwards, three steps from the stairs now –
“I didn’t have to,” I murmur, taking one step forward myself. “I had the right friends in place – my sister, my mate -”
“Your sister,” he spits, laughing.” That human bitch – ”
He takes one more step back. Only two steps left…
The insult rankles in me, but I don’t let it get far. I take another step forward, a larger one this time. God, it’s so close, I have to time this just right…
Xander reacts as I hoped he would, taking another step back, a big one, big enough that his next step will land just on the edge…
