Chapter 71: Chapter 71
"By kidnapping me?" I didn’t blink. Didn’t show fear, even though my heart was hammering against my ribs.
"By removing a liability," Tom said simply.
I moved.
I didn’t think about it—I just acted. Not only that, but I reached deep into my Luna bonds and yanked. Hard.
A wave of primal wolf energy exploded outward from me, raw and unfocused and absolutely unstoppable. I wasn’t projecting warmth anymore. This was fury. This was territorial aggression. This was a Luna claiming dominion over her pack.
Tom’s security team froze. I felt their wolves respond instinctively, felt them struggle against the power radiating from me. Their human consciousness warred with the animal inside them, caught in that moment of supernatural paralysis.
I ran.
The elevator seemed a thousand miles away. I sprinted, not caring about my heels, feeling them fall away as I abandoned them on the polished floor. The elevators were closer, so close—
Tom’s team recovered faster than I expected. Hands grabbed at me, missing, then connecting. Someone slammed me sideways into the wall, and my vision swam for a moment from the impact.
That’s when I felt it.
The building lurched into lockdown.
Security doors slammed down with hydraulic force, cutting off access to the main elevators. The stairwell was my only option, and I bolted for it, knowing they were right behind me.
My Luna bonds screamed with adrenaline as I realized what was happening. Tom wasn’t just trying to grab me—he was trapping me. Using his influence to seal me inside the building like a hunter boxing in prey.
The stairwell door swung open, and I threw myself through it, my bare feet slapping against the cold concrete steps.
Christian’s rage hit me through the pack bond like a physical blow.
I didn’t know exactly what was happening in his office when my terror transmitted across our connection, but I felt it. The moment he felt my fear, his protective fury overrode everything else. I felt the glass shatter before I heard it—the windows of his office exploding as his wolf erupted from human form.
The connection flickered with images. Marcus yelling commands. Warriors shifting, coordinating, and moving with brutal efficiency. The sound of vehicles burning rubber as they raced toward the city.
I was on the third-floor landing when I heard his arrival.
The entire building seemed to shudder with his presence.
Footsteps thundered up the stairwell. Not from below me—from above. He’d taken a different route. Of course he had.
When he burst through the stairwell door, Christian was human again, but barely. His eyes glowed silver. His movements were fluid and dangerous. Marcus flanked him with a contingent of elite pack warriors, all of them radiating controlled violence.
Tom’s security team didn’t stand a chance.
It wasn’t even a fight, really. It was a predator teaching prey its place in the food chain.
Christian moved through them like they were nothing, his supernatural strength carving through their defensive formation. Marcus was at his right, cold and efficient, taking down attackers with calculated precision. The other warriors flanked them, moving in coordinated strikes that turned the stairwell into a massacre in thirty seconds.
By the time Christian reached me, there were bodies on the stairs.
He pulled me into his chest so hard I couldn’t breathe. I felt the tremors running through him—residual adrenaline and rage and relief bleeding together into something raw and primal.
Then Tom stepped out from behind the corner, his expression remarkably calm for a man who was utterly defeated.
"This isn’t over," he said to Christian, his voice steady despite the armed warriors surrounding him. "You need to understand that Sophie is a liability to the Knight family legacy. Your choices will cost you everything."
He didn’t wait for a response. He turned and walked away, his remaining security team escorting him toward the upper levels of the building. I felt Christian tense, felt his wolf surge forward with predatory intent, but he held himself in check.
Tom and his men disappeared around the corner.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then I felt it—the sudden, complete release of tension from Sophie’s body as her adrenaline crashed. Her legs literally gave out, and if Christian hadn’t been holding her, she would have collapsed on the stairs.
Christian’s grip shifted. His hands, which had been shaking with residual rage, became gentle. He buried his face in her hair, breathing her in like he needed the proof that she was there, alive, unharmed.
Sophie’s heartbeat was slowing down finally. She wrapped her arms around him, her whole body going limp against his chest.
"I’ve got you," Christian whispered. His voice was hoarse, raw. His wolf was settling, his protective fury transforming into something else. Something that looked a lot like tenderness. "You’re okay. I’ve got you."
But as Sophie pressed her face against his chest, feeling his heartbeat slow from a panicked gallop to something almost normal, she felt something else threading through their connection.
A realization. A certainty.
Tom’s warning wasn’t empty. This really wasn’t over.
And whatever was coming next would be so much worse than any of them anticipated.
