CH.60

Serena’s perfectly manicured finger hit the dial for Jenkins on the phone screen long after they left her father’s villa.

"Serena? Jesus, are you okay?" Jenkins' panicked voice exploded from the speaker as soon as he picked up.

"You saw the videos I assume? With dear old stepmom, Kylie and that snake Alex?" Serena spat with venom.

"Yes, God, Serena what were you thinking confronting them like that?" Jenkins sounded exasperated. "Especially with that dobbed sex tape shitstorm everywhere online. You should be lying low, not stirring up more drama!"

"Those fucking cowards leaked it to sabotage me before I could take them down for what they’d done." Serena erupted, stabbing an accusatory finger toward the empty seat in front of her as if Alex was sitting right there.

"I figured as much," Jenkins sighed. "Still, just showing up at the estate like that? Your face is all over the internet now. I thought we agreed you'd lie low until we could get ahead of this mess."

"Until what?" She clutched the phone so hard her fingertips went numb. "Until that bastard successfully stole everything from me and continue to make me the target of all those vicious rumors in the media?”

Jenkins sighed again. "Look, I get you're furious but storming the villa solo like that wasn't smart. You're just playing into their hands, giving them more ammunition against you."

"Don't patronize me," she cut him off, acid burning her words. "Father's bullshit will got leaked too, didn't it? I'm supposedly shut out completely according to that fake piece of trash."

"...Yes. It's all over the media," Jenkins admitted quietly.

Serena’s voice went flat with all the furious energy drained from it. "Did he...perhaps leave anything for you? In case something like this happened?" Her throat clicked audibly as she swallowed hard.

"Serena..." The hesitation in Jenkins' voice made her stomach twist anxiously. "My office was broken into recently. Cleaned out. All the client files, everything...it's gone. They took it all and murdered two of my security guards. If they'd met me here, I probably would have been dead too. There was undoubtedly an inside man because they took care to turn off the CCTV footage in advance."

Jenkins heaved. “Sincerely, I'm not sure if I should express my gratitude to your wonderful husband for holding hostages at his villa until this morning.” He added sarcastically.

Serena squeezed her eyes shut. "What about you?" she finally forced out. "Were you hurt when they--?"

Serena’s words drowned out when a deafening bang shook the entire vehicle she was in. The force of the blast punched through the air so loudly, making her ears pop.

Her world exploded into a hellish nightmare as the car was flung forward violently. Metal shrieked in protest while the vehicle tumbled over and over before crashing down in a fiery heap on its crumpled roof in the middle of the road.

But just as suddenly as the chaos erupted, everything stopped as though someone hit pause on a video. The flames froze solid in place, twisted metal hung motionless in midair and the cacophony of destruction was abruptly silenced to a vacuum of eerie stillness.

Then, as if being rewound, time itself began moving in reverse at an increasing speed. The flaming wreckage slowly reconstituted itself, slamming back together into the pristine sedan in a series of metallic crunches and groans.

The deafening bang became this weird reverberating sucking sound as the force of the blast got inhaled back into the vehicle.

Everything finally paused again just moments before the explosion.

A powerful hand shut out to grip her arm and wrenched her body from the backseat.

Time snapped back to normal and the bomb detonated once more in a thunderous roar, the shockwave flattening everything in its path. But this time, Serena was flung safely away from the inferno, skidding against a tall wall of muscles that shielded her from the blast.

Serena blinked in shock and disorientation. What the hell was going on? Had she been killed in the blast and this was the afterlife?

Her chest heaved, watching the debris rained down all around her in horror.

She squinted up at the imposing figure looming over her through unfocused eyes. "K-Knox..." she rasped out. "What...how...?"

Knox looked utterly unruffled despite the chaos, not even a single dark hair out of place on his head.

His arms tightened around Serena's limp form as she slumped against his chest, out cold.

He forced strands of hair back from her pale face and forced himself to take a steadying breath, his jaw clenching with the effort to stay calm.

Son of a bitch! He almost lost her. If he'd gotten here a minute later...

Knox swallowed. Hard.

He stared down at Serena's delicate features, looking so small and vulnerable cradled in his powerful arms.

Protective instincts surged through him, raw and primal.

‘Never again. I'd burn the whole damn world down before I let anyone hurt her again!’ An unfamiliar voice snarled inside him.

Knox was briefly startled. ‘Who are you?’ He asked incredulously. But there was no response.

He didn’t give it much thought and carried Serena swiftly to the waiting car, his long strides eating up the ground.

He slid into the backseat, arranging her carefully against him with one hand cupping her head to his shoulder.

Knox's worried gaze raked over Serena, checking if there was any scrape and forming bruise marring her skin.

Fury simmered in his gut, dark and deadly, begging for an outlet. Someone was going to pay for this!

He tenderly brushed his lips across Serena's forehead. "You're safe now." Yet even as the words left his mouth, a cold knot of dread twisted in Knox's stomach.

He had enemies, ruthless bastards who wouldn't hesitate to use Serena to get to him.

Who sold her out? When he found them, there'd be hell to pay!

‘No one is taking her from me. Not now, not ever. I'd fight like the devil himself to keep her safe, to destroy anyone who tried to touch her.’ The voice from before spoke again.

‘This is on you.’ Another voice Knox was used to over the many decades stated. Though this particular being within him rarely spoke, he was aware of its existence.

Knox's eyes hardened to shards of amber ice. It was time to remind his enemies who they were fucking with.

For Serena, he'd unleash the beast. And the Goddess help them all when he did.

If he hadn't felt the danger rip through their mate bond, if he'd hesitated even a second longer...

"Fuck," he growled, the word tearing from his throat. His magic crackled under his skin, barely leashed. It had taken everything he had to shield her from the worst of the blast.

Knox had been neck-deep in dealing with an emergency when the first pulse of danger hit him.

He hadn't thought, hadn't questioned. In that instant, nothing else mattered. Not the hackers his damn father had hired to try to break into his system, trying to uncover the identity of the man the latter feared most.

He'd moved like a man possessed, cutting through the city at breakneck speeds, heedless of the wreckage left in his wake the second his private jet landed at a secret base not far from this location.

A single thought pounded through his head the whole time: get to his mate!

And now, with her soft curves pressed against him, the adrenaline began to ebb, leaving raw, jagged panic in its place.

The mere thought made his stomach heave. Serena was his fucking soul. If anything happened to her...

Knox shook his head savagely. No. He wouldn't let it come to that. He'd raze cities to ash, burn the whole world down before he let anyone take her from him.

His arms flexed around Serena as he willed his racing pulse to slow.

But when he found out who was behind this, who dared to threaten what was his... There'd be no mercy. No escape.

Knox's eyes glittered with lethal promise.

He'd hunt them down like the dogs they were. And he'd make damn sure they suffered before he ended them.

“Supreme Alpha, I failed to protect the Luna.” Dimitri’s voice pulled Knox out of his reverie. He was battered from the blast and naked as the day he was born. He’d had to undergo an abrupt shift to save his life during the blast.

Dimitri hung his head low as he expected the worst from his master. However, only one word left Knox’s lips: “Drive!”