Chapter 4 - The Lioness Awakens
I screamed with an absolute, primal agony that tore violently through my burning throat.
I lunged desperately into the freezing darkness, my empty hands grasping at the empty, wet air.
The massive man holding my crying son disappeared seamlessly into the dense, black forest without making a single sound.
I fell to my knees in the cold mud, completely shattered and entirely unable to breathe.
Elena stumbled out of the cabin a moment later, bleeding heavily from a deep cut above her eye.
She grabbed my shoulders and hauled me roughly to my feet.
"We cannot stay here, Serena, the woods are absolutely crawling with armed men," Elena urged desperately.
I shoved her hands away, my paralyzing grief instantly transforming into a blinding, murderous rage.
"I am not leaving this forest without my son," I declared, my voice trembling with a lethal, unstoppable determination.
I wiped the cold mud from my face, suddenly realizing exactly who was behind this highly coordinated ambush.
Lucian would never use random tactical mercenaries to secure his own flesh and blood.
There was only one man in the entire country who possessed the resources and the sheer cruelty to orchestrate this specific nightmare.
"It wasn't Lucian who took him, Elena, it was our father," I whispered, the terrifying realization chilling my blood.
Don Carlo, the exiled former boss of the syndicate, had absolutely never forgiven Lucian for violently usurping his criminal throne.
My father had kidnapped his own newborn grandson to force me back into the deadly family business.
We hiked through the freezing woods for hours until we finally reached a desolate highway.
Elena managed to hotwire an old pickup truck parked outside a closed diner.
We drove relentlessly through the night, heading straight toward our father's heavily fortified estate in New Jersey.
When we crashed through the front gates at dawn, his heavily armed guards immediately surrounded our stolen truck.
I stepped out of the vehicle, ignoring the dozen laser sights aimed directly at my chest.
"Take me to my father right now," I commanded with a cold, terrifying authority I did not know I possessed.
The guards escorted me into the grand study, where Don Carlo was sitting comfortably behind a massive mahogany desk.
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He smiled warmly at me, while my newborn son slept peacefully in a lavish crib beside his chair.
"Welcome home, my beautiful daughter, I have a very simple proposition for you," my father said smoothly.
