The Luna You Betrayed Is No Longer Yours

Chapter 148: Chapter 148 Rescue at last

_Rowena’s POV_

The curtains burned so fast.

I watched the fire climb upward, spreading along the material like it had somewhere urgent to be. The smoke followed next, it was slightly thin at first, then became thicker, moving toward the ceiling in a way that it was already beginning to sting my eyes.

Virella and Theo were gone. The door had barely clicked shut before the heat started reaching me.

I didn’t panic. Panic would waste the only seconds I had.

I looked at the cuffs first. The headboard was made of metal. It was solid and bolted into the wall. I’d tested it before and found nothing. But the fire was changing the situation, and a changed situation meant changed options. The room was filling with smoke, and I had maybe two minutes before breathing became the bigger problem.

I twisted my wrist inside the cuff, ignoring the bite of metal against skin. It hurt me a lot, and I missed Kyra even more.

But I kept going regardless. I pulled hard, rotating my arm, feeling for any angle that gave me even a fraction more space. My shoulder screamed with the effort, my body already weak from days of barely eating something good.

The smoke was thicker now. I turned my face into my arm and coughed into my sleeve, buying a few more seconds of cleaner air. The curtains were fully engulfed, the fire beginning to lick at the wall beside the window. The heat pressed against my face like a hand.

Then I heard it, something shifting in the ceiling above me. A sprinkler head, triggered by the heat, sputtered once and then burst open with a cold rush of water that hit me like a shock straight through the chest.

The fire hissed and the curtains darkened and began to die at the edges. freēwēbnovel.com

I almost laughed.

Virella had set the fire without checking if the room had sprinklers. Of course she had. She was always so certain of herself that she never thought anything through to the end. Stupid.

The water soaked everything in seconds, the floor, the bed, and me. My hair plastered flat against my face and I shook it back, blinking through the spray, and looked at the cuffs again.

Water changed things too.

Now wet skin was slicker. I just twisted my wrist again, slower this time, and felt just the smallest amount of give that hadn’t been there before. I worked at it steadily, grinding through the pain, until my hand finally pulled free, skin scraped raw and bleeding. But I was free.

I sat up immediately. A little too fast. The room tilted and I grabbed the headboard with my freed hand to steady myself, breathing hard and waiting for the dizziness to pass.

Not now, stay up.

The other cuff was still on. I worked the lock with numb, shaking fingers. It wasn’t latched the way a proper restraint should be.....

Someone had definitely fastened it in a hurry, probably after my last escape attempt, probably cutting corners because they thought the first cuff was enough. It came loose after thirty seconds of pressure.

My both hands were now free.

I swung my legs off the bed and stood. The floor was wet and cold under my bare feet. The smoke still remained in the upper side of the room, the sprinklers were still running, and through the ruined window I could see the cars pulling in.

I heard the other cars outside. More than one. Doors opening, voices sounding urgent followed.

They are definitely not Virella’s people. They were already gone.

Alaric’s team had arrived.

I staggered towards the door, holding the walls for support as tried to leave.

They must have sensed the fire.

A part of me was so excited to finally see Alaric after days of being apart.

Just as I tried to catch my breath, I heard footsteps coming towards my room.

I smiled even before I looked up. A figure stepped through the doorway, and my breath caught.

Tall, handsome and moving fast until he stopped. He went completely still the moment his eyes found me across the room.

I didn’t move, I couldn’t. My legs had stopped cooperating and my throat had closed around anything I might have said, and all I could do was stand there against the cold wall, soaked and bleeding, probably pale too and barely holding myself upright.

His expression broke open in a way I’d never seen from him before. The alpha king poker face gone.

“Rowena,” Alaric said.

Just my name, nothing more. But the way he said it, as if it had been the only word he’d been carrying for days. It undid something in my chest that I’d been holding very tightly together. freewebnovёl.ƈom

I didn’t cry, I hadn’t cried through any of it, not the cuffs, or the slaps, and the fire.

But my knees buckled, and Alaric crossed the room in three steps and caught me before I hit the floor.

“I’ve got you,” he said, one arm around my back and the other under my arm, holding me up with a steadiness I hadn’t felt in what seemed like forever. “You’re alright. I’ve got you.”

I pressed my face against his shoulder and just breathed.

Outside, I could hear the rest of his team moving through the facility, their voices calling out, rooms being cleared, and orders passed quickly from one person to the next.

They had come. They had actually come.

“She set the room on fire,” I said finally, my voice muffled and rough.

“I know,” he said. “The sprinklers.....”

“I know,” I said. “I used them.”

There was a slight pause. Then, quietly, something that might have been the beginning of a sound he didn’t let out......something between disbelief and something softer.

“Of course you did,” he said. “You’re back in my arms, I won’t let anyone take you away again.”