Chapter Four
Call For Ransom
Gabriella’s POV
Jax and Jack had taken over my life. I could feel their presence everywhere, both their claims on me made it impossible for me to escape.
Every look, every touch, every word they said wrapped around me like a chain, tightening me until I could no longer breathe. “I can’t stay in this place any longer, I need to leave.” I whispered to myself.
How could I even leave when they both kept me under constant watch, Jax making sure that Jack does not win the fight of claiming me. I was tied to both of them in a way I never even asked for.
So, I came here—straight to Hunter.
Maybe he could help me out of this, at least for the love we once shared. My fingers curled into my sleeves as I stepped into his house.
I didn’t trust Hunter, but he was the only way out to escape the bondage called Jax and Jack. I had sent him a message earlier, telling him I was ready to leave with him, but I needed his help to do so.
His reply was short.”Come alone.” He said and ended the call.
Hunter leaned against a rusted pillar, the smirk on his lips sharp and sly. "Well, well," he said, opening the door for me to enter inside.
"I knew you’d come running back to me eventually.”
I swallowed hard, trying to keep a composed demeanor underneath my fear. "I need to get away from them. You said you could help me.”
His eyes shone in the dull light, something fishy about them."I did say that, didn’t I?" He took a slow step forward
“But tell me, Gabriella... what do I get in return from helping you escape your obsessive Alphas?”
"I—". I tried to give him a response, a cold feeling settling down in my stomach.
I turned my back towards him trying to figure out something to say to convince Hunter to help me, I couldn’t raise my child with those monsters.
But then— I felt it suddenly.
Pain.
Blinding, sharp pain crashing through my skull before I could even give him a response. A hard blow from behind me sent me falling to the ground. My knees giving out under me.
I gasped, my hands grasping for air as the world felt dizzy around me. The last thing I saw was the floor rushing towards me before everything went dark.
Darkness wrapped around me like a suffocating veil, my head throbbing as I fought to regain consciousness.
My arms ached, stretched above me, wrists bound together by something cold and unforgiving. The faint scent of rust filled my nostrils, and when I shifted, I realized my ankle was shackled too.
A metallic clink echoed in the silence, sending a fresh wave of panic through me.
“Where was I?” Trying to recollect what had just happened to me.
I forced my heavy eyelids open, my vision blurring before sharpening enough to reveal the dimly lit space around me.
Concrete walls. A single flickering bulb overhead. A basement, maybe? My breath hitched as my gaze landed on the figure standing a few feet away—Hunter.
His arms were crossed, his expression sinister and wicked. but the cruel amusement dancing in his eyes sent a chill down my spine.
“Finally awake,” he said, stepping closer. “For a second, I thought you might’ve died on me too soon. Would’ve been a shame.”
Fear coiled in my stomach. My throat was dry, but I forced out the words. “What do you want?”
Hunter smirked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. “Not what I want, sweetheart. What your precious mates are willing to pay.”
He dialed a number, his gaze locked on mine as the call rang. The tension in my body tightened, and for a fleeting moment, hope flickered through me.
Jax and Jack would come for me. They had to.The line connected.
“Who is this?” Jax’s voice was sharp, demanding.
I parted my lips to scream, but Hunter moved fast, his hand clamping over my mouth.
“You might want to listen carefully,” Hunter said smoothly, ignoring my muffled protests. “I have something of yours. Or should I say… Gabriella?”
Silence. Then, a growl so low and menacing I swore the walls trembled. “If you so much as touch her…”
Hunter chuckled. “Too late for that, brother. But here’s the deal. You want her back? You pay. And if you take too long… well, let’s just say she won’t be as whole as you remember.”
A dark chuckle followed, and Hunter pulled the phone away from his ear, switching to speaker mode so I could hear every terrifying word that followed.
“Hunter,” Jack’s voice was quiet, controlled. Too controlled. “If you harm her, I swear—”
“Oh, I don’t plan on harming her,” Hunter interrupted. “But my buyer? He’s not as sentimental. Her heart, her liver… even her pretty eyes. You name the price.”
Tears pricked at my vision. My chest heaved with shallow, panicked breaths as I fought against the restraints.
Jax was snarling something on the other end, but the blood roaring in my ears drowned out the words. My stomach twisted violently as Hunter turned, stepping toward the door.
“Time is ticking, brothers. Let’s see how much she’s really worth to you.”
He ended the call, tucking the phone into his pocket as he walked away. The door slammed behind him, leaving me in suffocating silence.
My pulse pounded as I yanked against the chains, my wrists burning from the friction.I wasn’t going to wait to be sold off piece by piece. I had to get out.
But just as I pulled harder, just as I sucked in a breath to scream for help, the door burst open again.
And it wasn’t Jax or Jack.
It was…… someone worse.
Jax’s POV
I was going to kill him.
Every bone in my body vibrates with unstopping rage as Jack and I tore through the city, her scent calling to me like a signal.
She was scared. She was hurting. And that bastard…he had her. I couldn’t let him hurt my child.
Jack was silent beside me, but I could feel the storm raging beneath his skin. He was barely holding himself together, his fingers clenched so tightly on the steering wheel I swore it might snap.
“She’s close,” I snarled, inhaling sharply. The scent of fear, of Gabriella, filled my lungs. “He’s keeping her underground.”
Jack didn’t respond, only pressed harder on the gas.Minutes passed in a blur, the city lights flickering past as we followed the scent to a rundown warehouse on the outskirts of town.
The moment the tires screeched to a stop, we were out of the car, moving in sync, driven by the same violent need.We would tear this place apart.
We stormed inside, the air thick with the scent of dust, blood, and something else—something rotten. My vision sharpened, my muscles coiled, my wolf raging beneath my skin.
Then, I saw it.
A scrap of fabric. This was the dress Gabriella had worn earlier.
It was torn.
Stained with blood.
The scrap of fabric lay on the dirty floor like a discarded piece of something that had once been whole—something that had belonged to her.
And beside it, smeared across the concrete wall in thick, dripping red:
“Let’s see how fast you catch up with me to save your little obsession.”
“I’m going to kill this motherfucker if I find him!.”
Jack went deathly still beside me, his breathing sharp and uneven, his entire body locked in place like a predator ready to strike.
Then, without warning, a growl tore through the silence, deep and raging, vibrating with pure, raw rage. It wasn’t just anger.
it was a promise of violence, a sound that sent shivers down my spine even though I felt the same fury boiling beneath my skin.
I clenched my fists so tightly with such a force that made my knuckles crack. The atmosphere inside, growing heavy, thick and filled with the scent of blood.
I… I hope it’s not hers, I just hope something hasn’t gone horribly wrong before I got to her.
Gabriella was nowhere to be found where we had traced her scent to. She was gone.
Hunter must have taken her to another location.” I should have killed that bastard the day I saw him lay his filthy hands on Gabriella.” I whispered in anger, slamming my fists against the wall.
What if he had done something…. Worse to her.
I quickly pushed the thought aside before it would fully envelope me. But it was already there, creeping at the edges of my sanity.
Had we been too late? Had he already—?
No.
I wouldn’t accept that. I couldn’t easily accept that.
Jack was already moving, his movements sharp and restless, his chest rising and falling with quick, uneven breaths.
His fingers twitched at his sides, like he was barely holding himself back from punching the wall, from tearing this whole place apart with his bare hands.
My own pulse drummed in my ears, drowning out everything else but the burning need to find her. To tear that bastard Hunter apart.
"We need to move now!” Jack yelled, his voice rough, no longer human. We hated each other but at least we had one goal in mind right now.
“To find Gabriella.” That was all that mattered right now.
I didn’t need to be told twice by Jack for us to get on the move. My mind raced with different thoughts of what he might have tried to do to her and my baby.
I was calculating, trying to hold onto any little thread of logic I could still hold on to about nothing happening to her.
Where would Hunter take her? He was stupid.. but he was smart, too smart to leave for us an easy trail behind. But he was foolish enough to make one mistake.
The blood handwriting on the wall was not just to laugh at our faces, the blood was still fresh.
From the scent of blood I knew that Gabriella was still alive.
But if we don't find her soon…
“The next time we saw her, she might not be alive again, neither would…. My baby.”