Pain roared through his chest like fire licking bone.
Cassian's eyes snapped open.
The sterile light above him flickered once. Then again. He blinked slowly, vision hazy. White ceiling. The low hum of machines. He wasn't dead.
But Alina—
He tried to sit up. The agony crushed him like a falling building, but he didn't care. Tubes ripped. Monitors screamed.
"Sir, no—please—you need to stay—!"
"Where is she?" Cassian's voice was rough, broken. Blood still clung to the inside of his throat. "Where is my wife?"
The nurse tried to push him back down, but he caught her wrist midair with a grip that spoke volumes. "Tell me."
"You were unconscious for thirty-six hours. We've alerted your security—"
"I don't care about time," he growled. "Alina. Find her. Now."
He tore the IV from his arm, ignoring the splash of red that followed, and stood. Every movement dragged agony down his ribs. His blood still soaked the bandages, his suit coat was folded on a nearby chair, torn and burned from the gunfire.
He could still feel her hand in his. The weight of her body against his when the bullets struck him.
She'd screamed his name.
And now… silence.
Cassian pressed a hand to the wall, catching his breath, fighting the blurring edges of consciousness. He was a man torn open, but not broken. Not yet.
He stormed out of the hospital wing, phone in hand, already dialing.
"Trace the van. The black one. License plate I sent before—find her." His voice turned to ice. "If she dies, so do you."
---
Somewhere far away, in a room that smelled like rot and rusted chains, Alina screamed.
It wasn't just the pain—they wanted her mind. Her soul.
The third person stood in the shadows, cloaked in silence and menace. His face was partially hidden, his voice distorted with some kind of filter. Every time he spoke, it crawled under her skin like insects.
"You thought he could save you?" he whispered. "Cassian Vale blends like every other man."
Alina spat blood. "And you hide like every other coward."
The slap was hard. It echoed.
But she didn't cry. Not anymore. They'd already taken pieces of her—cut her skin, held her underwater, burned her with questions. She was trembling, yes, but still defiant.
Still fire.
They hadn't found it yet—the strength Cassian saw in her. She wasn't giving it up.
"I know what you are," the voice said, circling her slowly. "A bargaining chip. But maybe I'll keep you longer than planned. Make him come crawling."
A metal rod scraped along the floor. Alina clenched her teeth. The room tilted. The nausea came again, bitter and acid.
She was pregnant.
She hadn't told them. Would never.
Not even when they strapped her to that chair. Not even when they whispered the things they'd do to her body next.
Somewhere in the fog of agony, she heard herself praying. Not for mercy. But for Cassian.
Find me.
Please.
---
Cassian stood in front of a wall of monitors.
One showed street footage. Another showed heat sensors. Another displayed phone triangulations.
And then—
"There." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Pause. Zoom."
A flicker of a shadow moving a limp body into an industrial building outside the city.
Cassian's jaw clenched.
"I want a helicopter prepped in ten. Bring the Reapers." His eyes burned with something no man dared look into too long. "I'm bringing her back."
"And if they kill her before we arrive?"
Cassian looked up, dead and silent.
"Then I'll burn every inch of this city until I'm standing on his ashes."
---
Alina was cold.
Her limbs had gone numb from the chains. Her breath rattled as she drifted in and out of blackness. The sound of footsteps returned. She flinched.
But they weren't the same as before.
They were heavier. Quicker. Then—gunfire.
Muffled.
Then the scream of men. A crash.
And then a voice. Familiar. Thunderous.
"Alina!"
Her heart stuttered.
He came.
The metal door exploded inward. Cassian entered like vengeance incarnate—blood still wet on his shirt, eyes burning, gun raised. The third man lunged at him from behind, but Cassian shot without turning. The body hit the floor, twitching.
He was at her side in seconds, unchaining her. "Breathe. It's me."
She collapsed into him, sobbing.
"I—I thought—"
"I'm here now." His voice broke. "They hurt you?"
"I didn't tell them… I didn't say anything. Cassian…" She clutched his collar with bloodied hands. "The baby—"
He froze.
His eyes flicked down to her stomach.
Then his hand slowly, gently, moved to her lower belly.
"Are they fine??.."
"Yes" Her voice trembled. "I didn't tell them. I didn't tell them anything, Cassian."
His entire expression changed. Like the walls fell.
Then he kissed her. Deep, raw, desperate.
"I'll never let them touch you again."
Outside, the building burned.
Inside, the Reapers cleared the rest of the enemy like ghosts in black.
Cassian carried Alina out, her broken body pressed to his. He didn't flinch when blood soaked his bandages again.
She was safe.
For now.
But the war was only beginning.