The Blood Rescue

🩸 CHAPTER 10: THE ASHES OF THE COVENANT

The universe shrank to the frantic, heavy thudding of Jax’s heart

against my palms.

He was a mountain of muscle and dark intent pressing me into the plush

black velvet of the mattress. The scent of sweet citrus, electric

rain, cedar wood, and heavy smoke had blended into something entirely

new—a thick, narcotic cloud that stripped away the past nineteen years

of my life until I was nothing but a raw nerve ending, begging for his

touch.

Jax’s large hands were tangled in my hair, anchoring my head to the

pillows. His chest heaved against my ribs, his lips trailing hot,

burning paths down the column of my throat. He stopped right over my

pulse point. I felt his jaw shift, his lips parting as his sharp,

lengthened Alpha fangs grazed the bare skin over my vein.

My inner wolf didn't cower. She arched her back, offering herself to

the bite that would bind us for eternity.

"Look at me, Eva," Jax rasped, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly

beautiful, demonic register.

I forced my heavy eyelids open. His eyes weren't just dark; they were

completely black, bleeding with a primitive, ancient hunger.

"Tell me you are mine," he growled, the tip of his fang pressing hard

enough against my skin to draw a single, tiny bead of crimson. "Tell

me to mark you."

"Mark me," I cried out, the final wall of my resistance shattering

into dust. "Jax, please—"

A deafening, earth-shattering boom cut my words in half.

The entire compound shuddered. The glass of the massive

floor-to-ceiling windows rattled violently in their frames, and a

split second later, a brilliant flash of orange light painted the

night sky outside.

Instantly, the room’s ambient lighting died, plunging us into total

darkness before the ceiling vents began to pulse with a blinding,

rhythmic crimson glow.

Weee-ooo! Weee-ooo!

The red emergency alarms started blaring, a mechanical screech that

tore through the narcotic fog in my brain like a splash of freezing

water.

Jax froze. The monstrous, primal predator in him didn't vanish—it went

hyper-lethal. He snapped his head toward the window, his entire body

turning to solid iron above me. A low, thunderous growl ripped from

his throat, a sound so dark it vibrated through the mattress.

"Pakman!" Ilya’s voice exploded through the electronic intercom on the

wall, cutting through the blaring siren. "The front gates are down!

It’s the Ivanov’s! They bypassed the outer perimeter—someone gave them

the security codes! They brought heavy ordinance!"

The realization slammed into me like a physical blow. The security

codes. Viktor’s faction hadn't just been plotting a quiet

assassination. They had sold out the entire compound to the rival

Russian syndicate.

"f*****g traitors," Jax snarled.

He forced himself off me, breaking the intoxicating physical

connection. The sudden loss of his body heat sent a violent, agonizing

shiver straight through my core. My heat cycle swept back in with a

vengeance, a liquid fire coiling in my stomach, making me whimper and

curl into a ball on the sheets. My biology was screaming at the

interruption, desperate for the Alpha who had just abandoned the nest.

Jax didn't look at his clothes. He strode over to the heavy mahogany

wardrobe, ripping the doors open. He pulled out a dark tactical vest,

strapping it over his open black silk shirt, and snatched two heavy

modified pistols from a hidden biometric safe in the wall.

He looked back at the bed. The amber in his eyes was a terrifying,

unhinged blaze. He saw me shivering, my ruby-red dress dishevelled, my

eyes glowing a molten gold through the dim red emergency lights. He

knew I was completely vulnerable, trapped in the physical exhaustion

of a sudden heat cycle.

He crossed the room in two massive strides, kneeling by the bedside.

He didn't touch my skin—he knew if he did, his inner wolf would lock

him in this room to defend the nest, abandoning his men to die.

"Listen to me, little bird," Jax whispered, his voice a rough,

commanding rumble that forced its way through my fever. "The doors to

this room are reinforced steel. Once I lock them from the outside,

nothing short of a military tank can breach them. You stay on this

bed. You do not move. Do you understand me?"

"Jax..." I choked out, reaching a trembling hand toward him. "Don't leave me."

His jaw tightened so hard the muscles jumped under his stubble. "I

have to execute the rats in my house, Eva. If I don't clear the

compound, the Ivanov’s will take you. And I will burn the world before

I let them lay a finger on my Queen."

He reached under his tactical vest, pulled out a small, sleek silver

dagger, and pressed the hilt into my shaking fingers. "If anyone

breaks through that door, and it isn't me... you sink this into their

throat. I’ll be back for you."

He stood up, turned on his heel, and strode out of the bedroom. The

heavy oak door slammed shut, and a deep, mechanical thud-thud-thud

echoed through the walls as the secondary steel deadbolts locked into

place from the outside.

I was entirely alone.

Outside, the distant rattle of automatic gunfire erupted, punctuated

by the deep, bass-heavy thud of grenades detonating in the lower

courtyards. The Volkov compound had become a meat grinder.

I lay on the bed, clutching the silver dagger to my chest, my skin

slick with sweat as the fever of my heat raged on. Every explosion

made my heart hammer against my ribs.

Then, beneath the mattress, a faint, rhythmic vibration caught my attention.

I reached down with trembling fingers, pulling out the plastic burner

phone. The screen flickered to life in the crimson darkness of the

room. A new text message from the contact 'Ghost' was glaring back at

me.

The Ivanov’s are clearing the first floor. Jax is trapped in the

eastern wing. Elena is coming to unlock your door right now. If you

want to live through the night, you will come with us. This is your

only chance to escape the monster.

I stared at the glowing text, the automatic gunfire echoing closer and

closer down the hallway outside.