Chapter Fifteen

Lorenzo’s POV  

I had faced death countless times, I wasn't a stranger to it. I had looked into the eyes of men who wanted me gone, so badly that a blade to my throat had been their only option.

I had felt the sharp edge of those blades pressed against my throat and tasted the metallic bite of my own blood.  

I had stood in a room surrounded by killers but most of all I had made choices that determined who lived and who didn’t. In all that time not once—not once in all that time—had I ever felt as powerless as I did now.  

Because for the first time, I had no plan.  

No strategy and definitely no answer to the question Arielle had just asked me.

How do you plan to save me?  

I had no answer to give and I didn't know what I had hoped to accomplish by coming here but it wasn't happening how I had hoped it would and now all I had was a mate who looked at me with eyes full of doubt and pain.  

I had nothing to give to her but a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. Arielle’s gaze burned into me unflinchingly as she asked again 

“How?” she asked, her voice steady but fragile, like a thread pulled too tight with tension. 

“How are you going to save me, Lorenzo?”  

I opened my mouth to answer her and then closed it. Because the truth was—I didn’t know.  

I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have an army waiting outside these walls, ready to storm Hell’s Pit and take her back. I couldn't do that anyway that would be crossing lines that were not meant to be crossed and would put me and her in a tight spot. All I could do was bargain with her,beg her to at least try to stay alive while I thought of a way to save us both. 

“I just need time,” I said finally, hating how uncertain I sounded. 

“Stay put. Be safe. Let me handle this.” Arielle let out a sharp, humorless laugh that cut through the air and me. 

“Be safe?” she repeated, shaking her head. 

“I’m trapped in a prison where men bid on my life like I’m nothing. Where I have to fight for my right to breathe. And you’re telling me to stay put?” Her voice cracked, and I felt it like a knife to the gut.  

I took a step closer to her 

“Arielle—”  

“No.” She cut me off, taking a step back. 

"Don’t do this to me, Lorenzo. Don’t give me false hope.”  

She turned away, arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to hold herself together by sheer will.  

“I can’t afford to hope,” she whispered. 

“Not when it never leads to anything but more pain.”  

Something inside me snapped.  

I didn’t plan it, I'm not sure I was even thinking about what I was doing I just moved. 

One second, I was standing still and the next, I was holding her my arms wrapped around her, pulling her into my chest.  

Arielle stiffened, a sharp inhale of breath, but she didn’t push me away she seemed to lean into me for a moment,

I took advantage of that moment wrapping my arms around her,I held her close her scent washing over me filling me with purpose of what I could not let her away from me . I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.  

I only knew that I couldn’t let her go.  

Not now.  

Not ever.  

“Give me time,” I murmured against her hair, tightening my hold.

 “Just a little more time, Arielle.”  

She pulled away from me looking me deep in the eyes as she let out a wary laugh, shaking her head. 

"False hope is worse than none at all.” she muttered looking away from me and something in me snapped at her words.  

A surge of anger so primal I was afraid she could see it in my eyes, it wasn't directed at her but at the world that made her believe she had no hope at all.  

Before I could stop myself, I grabbed her wrist, yanking her toward me. She jerked towards me, her free hand pressing against my chest.  

I felt my pulse racing as I liked into her eyes 

“Don’t say that,” I ordered on a sharp growl ,Arielle’s breath hitched.  

Arielle looked to me her eyes glowing with a fire in them that surprised me, she was trembling but I could tell she was not weakened by this if anything she seemed angry. 

My heart stopped racing because I knew she would survive no matter what that fire had kept her alive this far and it would again 

She exhaled, slow and shaky.  

“This isn’t fair,” she whispered and I pulled her back into my embrace I closed my eyes, inhaling her scent, grounding myself in the only thing that made sense anymore.  

“I know.”  

And then, because I had nothing else to offer her— Because I was losing her, and I couldn’t let that happen. I did the only thing I could do in the moment I made a promise one that as I made I swore to myself I would keep even if it killed me.

“I will get you out of here.” I whispered softly against her skin. 

Arielle didn’t answer but she didn’t push me away. I knew she didn’t believe me either,I could feel it in the way she went still.

 She couldn't afford to believe me right now but I would make it so she could. For now, I would hold on to her—to us—for as long as I could.

I would not loose her. 

So for now that had to be enough.