Free Web NovelChapter 19: Rescued Her
KADEN’S POV
A strange, tight knot twisted in my stomach. Worried? No. I told myself it was just irritation. She was my property, and she hadn’t finished paying for her crime yet. I couldn’t let her die in a broken machine.
Without another word, I pushed past the guard and headed down the hallway. My steps remained measured and controlled, even though every instinct urged me to move faster. I am the Alpha King. I do not run for a slave. Especially someone like her. She could die for all I care.
When I reached the southern hallway, a few guards were standing around the heavy iron doors of the lift shaft. The air was thick with tension. And then, I heard it.
"Help me! Please, someone help me!" Rebecca’s voice echoed weakly through the thick metal. She was pounding frantically against the inside of the cage. "I can’t breathe... I can’t breathe! It’s too dark... I’m claustrophobic! Please let me out!"
The raw panic in her voice vibrated straight through the stone floor and hit me right in the chest. My hands twitched at my sides.
It would be so easy. I had the strength to jam my fingers into the seam of the heavy metal doors and tear them apart with my bare hands. I could pull her out of the darkness in seconds.
I stepped forward, my fingers wrapping around the edge of the iron door.
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I stopped. I forced my hands back to my sides, my jaw clenching. She was a murderer. She had killed my mate and my child. Why should I show her mercy? Why should I ruin my own hands to save a girl who had ruined my entire life?
"Alpha?" the guard asked, looking at me with wide eyes, waiting for me to act.
I stepped away from the door, my expression turning back into a wall of cold stone. "Go call the technicians," I ordered loudly, ensuring my voice carried through the shaft so she could hear it. "Tell them to fix the gears."
"Alpha Kaden, please!" Rebecca shrieked from inside the dark shaft, her voice trembling with pure terror. "Don’t leave me here! I can’t breathe... everything is spinning... please!"
Her cries began to weaken, the sharp screams turning into shallow, rapid gasps. She was running out of air.
"What is happening here?"
I didn’t turn around. I knew the voice.
Kane marched down the hallway, his brow furrowed as he looked from me to the vibrating iron doors. I didn’t respond to him. I kept my eyes fixed on the wall, ignoring the pathetic, breathless whimpers echoing from the shaft.
"The technicians will be here soon," the guard stammered, looking nervously between me and Kane. "They are bringing the tools to manually release the brakes."
Inside the lift, the sound of her pounding stopped. There was only the faint, agonizing sound of her gasping for air.
"Fuck it," Kane snapped, his brown eyes flashing with pure disgust as he looked at me. "It will be too late by then. She’s going to suffocate."
Before I could say a word to stop him, Kane stepped past me. He shoved the guards out of the way, jammed his large hands into the small gap between the heavy iron doors, and let out a deep, powerful grunt. The veins in his arms bulged against his skin as his Alpha strength took over.
With a loud, violent screech of tearing metal, Kane forced the heavy doors completely open.
The dark, narrow shaft was fully exposed. The iron cage of the lift was stuck about four feet below the floor level. Inside, Rebecca was curled into a small ball on the floor, her hands weakly clutching her throat as she gasped for any scrap of oxygen.
Kane didn’t hesitate. He dropped to his knees, preparing to reach down into the shaft and pull her out.
A sudden flare of rage snapped inside my chest.
"Step away from her, Kane!" I barked out angrily.
Kane froze, his hands hovering over the opening. He turned his head slowly, looking up at me with an expression of pure disbelief. "Are you insane? She’s losing consciousness, Kaden."
"I told you to step back," I growled, stepping forward until I was towering right over him. "This is my home. She is my prisoner. I gave a direct order to wait for the technicians. You do not overrule my commands in front of my guards."
Kane stood up slowly, matching my height, his brown eyes flashing with deep frustration. "I don’t give a damn about your pride right now, brother. I care about a dying girl. Look at her!"
"She is a murderer!" I roared, the sound echoing violently through the stone corridor. The guards stepped back, lowering their heads to avoid our wrath. "She took everything from me! If she suffocates because a machine broke, then it is the judgment of the Goddess. It is not your place to interfere."
Kane scoffed, shaking his head with utter disgust. "This isn’t justice, Kaden. It’s cruelty. You are letting your hatred turn you into something our father never raised us to be."
"You know nothing about what I am going through," I hissed, my chest heaving as I fought the urge to wrap my hands around my own brother’s throat. "You do not tell me how to handle the woman who destroyed my life. If you want to play the hero, go back to your own territory."
While we stood chest-to-chest, the air between us thick with a deadly Alpha challenge, a weak, pathetic wheeze came from the dark shaft below.
Rebecca’s eyes rolled back, her small body going completely limp against the cold iron floor of the lift.
Kane frowned at me. "If she dies, then there is no breeder to have your pups."
I tightened my jaw. "That is left for me to worry about. Stay out of it."
Kane ignored my warning entirely and dropped right back down to his knees. He reached his long arms deep into the dark shaft, grabbing Rebecca by her waist and pulling her limp, unconscious body out of the iron cage.
My chest heaved with a wild, chaotic anger as he laid her out on the cold stone floor of the hallway.
She looked completely breathless. Her lips were pale, her eyes were shut tight, and her head fell back limply against the stone.
Kane hovered over her, pressing his ear to her chest for a brief second before looking up at me, his face tight with anger. "She’s barely breathing, Kaden. Her pulse is fading fast."
"Then let it fade," I growled, forcing my voice to sound completely heartless even as my hands trembled at my sides. "I told you not to touch her."
Kane stood up slowly, stepping right into my personal space until our chests slammed together again. "Look at yourself," he whispered, his voice angrily low. "You are the Alpha King, but right now, you look like a monster. If she dies here, it won’t be the judgment of the Goddess. It will be your murder."
"Get out of my face, Kane," I hissed, my eyes flashing a dangerous, icy green.
"I’m not going anywhere," Kane snapped back, refusing to back down. "I am going to carry her to the pack doctor myself since you are too blinded by your sick revenge to do it."
Before he could reach for her again, I stepped directly between him and Rebecca. A strange unease twisted inside me, one I couldn’t understand and hated even more. But the thought of Kane lifting her into his arms, carrying her away, and holding her close sent a savage wave of possessive anger crashing through my chest.
