Chapter 161 SAVED

Chapter 161 SAVED


So now, Alex had to trace the baby to where it was, just like he was on time. The bond in his neck burned with every step toward the river road, pulling him east like a hook in his ribs. He could feel Mia behind him in the bond, pacing the packhouse, her fear sharp and metallic on his tongue. 

They had sealed the baby in a carton and had thrown her into the water. 

Alex didn’t know it at first. 

He skidded to a stop where Ivan’s men were standing around like this was a joke. Three black SUVs. Five men. Laughing. The river was twenty feet below the guardrail, running fast and brown. 

At first Alex didn’t know it was the baby inside the carton. He was still confronting them, demanding where they kept Sara, and his voice was shaking with something he hadn’t felt in years. Terror. 

"Where is she," he said. It wasn’t a question. 

One of them grinned. "Check the water, Alpha." 

That was all it took. The men swarmed him. They weren’t trying to kill him. They were fighting him to distract him. Every punch, every grab, every shout was timed to keep his eyes on them and off the guardrail. Off the box. 

Because while they fought him, the box was tipping. 

Inside it, Sara was wrapped in her pink blanket, duct tape sealing the flaps. She was three weeks old. She didn’t understand what was happening, only that it was cold and wet and dark and her lungs hurt. She cried once, a small sound that no one heard over the men cursing and Alex roaring. 

Then the box went over. 

It hit the water with a soft splash and started to sink immediately. The tape had been rushed. Water poured in through the seams. 

Alex was too busy with a knife at his ribs to see it. He tore through two men and slammed a third into the SUV, but they kept coming. That was the plan. Hold him. Distract him. So the baby would sink and die, just like Ivan commanded. 

He didn’t hear the splash. 

But a woman did. 

Jenna had been walking her dog along the bridge. She worked nights at the clinic, and hated getting involved in other people’s business. But she saw the men. She saw the fight. And she saw the cardboard box hit the water and start to go under. 

She didn’t think. She dropped the leash and ran. 

The guardrail came up to her chest. She climbed it and jumped. 

The river was ice. It stole her breath and tried to pull her under, but she kicked. Hard. The box was already half submerged, brown and bloated, and she could hear it. A sound. Muffled. Weak. 

She got her arms around it. It was heavier than it looked, waterlogged and pulling her down, but she kicked for the surface and broke through gasping. She held the box to her chest and swam for the muddy bank, her arms burning. 

On the road above, Alex finally heard it. Not the fight. The splash. 

His head snapped toward the guardrail. The box was gone. 

The tug in his chest went sharp, like someone had twisted the string tied to his heart. 

Sara.

He roared. It tore out of him, not human, and he ended the fight in seconds. Bones broke under his hands. He didn’t feel it. He was already over the guardrail and in the air. 

The water hit him like a wall. It drove the air from his lungs and tried to freeze him, but he was already swimming. 

Jenna saw him coming and lifted the box up with the last of her strength. "Help me!" 

Alex reached her and got both hands under the cardboard. It was falling apart. He could feel the weight inside it now. Small. Wrong. 

"Is it—" Jenna started. 

"Don’t talk," Alex said. 

His fingers were shaking so badly he couldn’t get the tape, so he ripped it. He ripped his nails doing it. The flaps came open and river water poured out, and there, wrapped in a soaked pink blanket, was Sara. 
. 

Blue around the lips. 
Not breathing. 

The world went silent. 

Alex pulled her out and cradled her against his chest. The cold didn’t matter anymore. The men didn’t matter. Ivan didn’t matter. 

Only this. 

He kicked for the bank. Jenna was next to him, holding onto his arm, but he barely felt her. He hit the mud and laid Sara down. His hands were too big. Too rough. But he cleared her mouth with one finger and tilted her head back. 

"Come on," he whispered. "Come on, baby girl. Breathe for Daddy." 

He pressed two fingers to her chest. Once. Twice. 

Nothing. 

He put his mouth over her nose and mouth. Small breaths. The way the nurse had shown Mia in the hospital. 

Once. 
Twice. 

On the third, she coughed. Water came up. And then came the cry. 

Thin. 
Furious. 
Alive. 

Alex gathered her up and held her. He was shaking so hard he thought he’d break her, so he rocked instead. "I’ve got you," he said into her wet hair, over and over. "I’ve got you. Daddy’s here. I’m here." 

Jake was there then. And the other wolves. Staring. 

"Call a medic," Alex said. His voice cracked. "Now." 

The ambulance came fast. The paramedics took Sara, checked her oxygen, wrapped her in warm blankets. "She’s okay," one of them said. "Hypothermic. Some water in the lungs. But you got her out in time." 

Alex didn’t let go of her hand until they put her in the rig. 

Jenna was on the bank, wrapped in a foil blanket, shaking. Alex walked to her. 

"What’s your name?" 

"Jenna." 

"You saved her," Alex said. "You saved my daughter." 

She started crying. Hard. Alex hugged her because he didn’t know what else to do. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you." 

The five men were zip-tied on their knees when he walked back. Jake was waiting. 

Alex looked at them. Then at the river. Then at his hands, still shaking. 

"Take them back," he said. "Don’t kill them. Not yet. Ivan needs to see what happens to people who touch my daughter." 

He got in the ambulance with Sara. 

Mia was at the hospital when they arrived. She ran down the hall and hit him like a storm. Then she saw Sara in the paramedic’s arms, pink and screaming and alive, and she made a sound like she’d been holding her breath for a year. 

She took Sara. Held her. And Sara stopped crying immediately. 

Alex stood next to them with one hand on Mia’s back and one hand on Sara’s tiny foot. The bond was warm. Steady. 

Outside the room, Jake told him the men had talked. Ivan ordered it. An Alpha with an heir was a threat. 

Alex nodded. "Good," he said. "When we’re done here, we finish it." 

He looked through the glass at Mia and Sara. 

Marked. 
Bonded. 
Safe. 

"Goddess," he whispered. "Thank you."