Part of Your World

Out of the Woods

It worked. It had fucking worked, and now my Aria was able to speak. I felt my eyes go wide, felt my throat tighten with emotion as those eyes stared deep into my soul. The woman who'd stolen my heart was now speaking to me. I felt a huge grin plaster itself onto my face as everything else in this world melted away. She returned my grin, not a trace of fear in her eyes. If we were to die, we were going to die together.

We'd made our promises to one another, and it seemed we would both keep them, for I didn't intend to leave this lake with my soul still in my body. I would take a bullet to my brain by my own hands before I let Natalia fuck me against my will. I understood, for a fleeting moment, the helplessness all women must feel when stalked by a predator with no chance of escape.

And as I let my eyes wander over the group of hyenas, licking their chops in anticipation of slaughtering their prey, I remembered who I was. Maks Volkov. A ruthless killer. A man who could feel immense pain and still keep going. A wolf. A top tier predator amongst lowly sheep, and I would win.

I always got what I wanted, and right now I wanted nothing more than to kill everyone responsible for hurting Aria, for aiding in killing my sister. Tonight, I wold right the wrongs of this cruel world, and I would be victorious. Failure was no longer an option, even with such odds stacked against us.

My eyes fell back to Aria's, and though her smile had faded, I knew she knew I would not go down without a fight. I could see, even all this distance, how she subtly shifted, how her throat bobbed in a gulp.

Natalia moved into my line of sight once more, and I tempted fate by smirking at her. She had always said how sexy I was when I smirked. The voracious slut's eyes widened, her chest straining against her two-sizes-too-small jacket as she came ever closer. She was so easy to predict it was boring at this point. She was just a small speed bump in a residential neighborhood—a nuisance, an annoyance, but I'd had a pretty shitty fucking day, and she was about to feel the beginning of my wrath.

The men behind me loosened their hold the smallest bit. My eyes flickered to Aria's once more. We just needed to hold them off long enough for Niko to arrive, which would be any minute now. Aria dropped her eyes before darting them back up. A nod. She knew what I needed her to do without me having to say a word. I took a deep breath, lungs full of Natalia's perfume, and leaned back as far as I could before I thrust my head forward.

Pain splintered across my skull at the crack, and blood rushed down the cut right above her brows as her eyes rolled back and she slumped lifeless to the snow. Chaos ensued, but all I could think about was Niko. He was coming. Soon, with Serg and father, and then we would stand a chance against these bottom-feeding scumbags.

I twisted in the arms of my captors, throwing my weight to the ground, my freed hand stretched across the snow, my fingers grasping the grip of my gun. I rolled, bringing it forward as someone clawed their way up my body. It only took one shot between his eyes to end him as the others scrambled back, but I wasted no time as I rolled, everyone in the area scattering, Aria holding Mavka at gunpoint with her bound wrists, her back to the lake as she edged closer and closer to the water. How did my little pipsqueak get a gun?

I didn't care. I didn't have time to care. I just prayed she'd listened to all of Niko's training, that she would remember anything of use, should she need it. I doubted she could actually pull the trigger and kill anyone, and I didn't want her to; I wanted to be the one saving her, this time. Something she had deserved those three short years ago the night she lost her voice.

I scrambled through the ice and snow to my feet. I needed to get Aria, get to higher ground, and pick them off one by one. Dmitry chose then to rush at me, aiming for my heart with a shaky hand on his gun. Three shots fired off, but he missed each time. I smirked as his cheap as sidearm jammed, and in his distraction, I aimed for his knee and fired off one round. Falling to the ground, he screamed and writhed like a little bitch. Good. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted them all to suffer at my hands. I wanted their screams and their blood to paint my walls, and then I wanted the world to forget they even existed.