SEQUEL: ELEVEN

Alina woke up to the sound of distant shouts, feeling even more disoriented than the first time she had been knocked out.
Fortunately, this time, her eyes weren’t blindfolded and her eyes slowly adjusted to the sights around her. She was still tied up though although the gag seemed to have been taken out of her mouth, which was a relief because she didn’t have the energy to chew through another one.
The first time had merely been a fluke, a feat born from enormous amounts of adrenaline pulsing through her veins. She slowly sat up, noting that she had been laying on an expensive carpet this time, she would rather not be on the ground at all but she had to admit that it was a much better change from the cold concrete she had woken up on the first time.
“Awake I see,” An ageless voice came from somewhere in the room.
Alina immediately whipped her head in the direction of the voice, finding a masked man sitting in a throne like chair smoking a pipe. White smoke curled in front of the white mask he wore, it completely hid his facial features and only two eye holes were cut into the eerie mask.
She kept silent, rage burning under her skin. How dare they treat her in this manner? Did they have any idea who she was?
“Not going to speak, Your Highness?” The man went right on, sounding mildly amused.
“You must not want to live long,” She forced out through gritted teeth, her wrists and ankles raw from being tied up for so long.
The man rose to his feet, “I fear you speak some truth, princess, I might have bitten off more than I can chew this time.” He said, a trace of bittersweetness in his voice.
Alina just glared at him, unable to make sense of what he was going on about. The human walked closer to her which made her flinch and try to lean back away from him the best she could.
“I believe they’re here for you…” The masked man paused in time for them to clearly hear the sound of a door being violently broken in. “I left a little gift for them, and it would seem like they did the same judging the from riot happening backstage.”
Alina stared the human down with derision although she was seating on the ground and he towered over her. “My father will make sure you pay for this, I’m sure he’s here already.” She said confidently.
The man laughed, “I’d know if Anton was here,” He said shortly, disappearing through a hidden door just as shots rang out in the room before the one she was in.
Alina waited with her heart in her throat, worry for the person that had come to save her making it difficult to breathe. Altough, she knew well that her father wouldn’t personally come to save her, she held out hope that he did.
It was why she was so concerned at the number of guns firing at what seemed to be a single person, she didn’t know what she would do with herself if her father was hurt.
After what felt like forever, the sounds of gunfire finally ceased and she held her breath, waiting for who would come bursting through the door.
Roman wiped a blood smear off his cheek, his ice blue eyes blazing in anger, he hadn’t been expecting to walk right into an ambush. He looked down at the knocked out henchmen on the ground around him, clearly they had been expecting him or at least the 'Anton'.
He slammed in fresh magazines into his guns and kicked down the next door, anticipating another ambush only to find the next room completely empty save for the very person he came to rescue.
The stars in Alina’s eyes died out when she saw who had come for her, “You!” She said accusatorially like Roman had been the one to abduct her.
Roman holstered his weapons and briskly strode over, “Trust me, I don’t want to be here either.”
Alina threw her face to the side, “Then why did you come? Where’s my Dad?”
“In a meeting,” Roman said bluntly, unwilling to pamper the ungrateful princess. He swiftly went through the motions of cutting her ties free, rising to his feet afterward. “Can you get up?” He asked clinically, unwilling to get pulled into another meaningless argument, they needed to get out of there, fast.
He could still hear the chaos that burning down the stage curtains had caused, the best possible outcome must have happened and that was the curtains had already been irreparably damaged before they tried to fix it.
This meant that the guests in the auction hall were given a front seat to the disaster. Bonus points if the stage curtains suddenly going up in flames sent the guests into a frenzy as well.
Alina gritted her teeth at Roman’s response, unable to give a comeback. And although her legs felt very wobbly from being tied up, and she overall felt very woozy from being knocked out so many times, she pushed herself to her feet without help from Roman.
The British Alpha King ripped off his face mask and shoved it down a pocket, bringing out his phone to study it. “Fortunately, there’s an emergency back door, let’s get going.” He said shortly, starting off in the direction of the door that the masked man had taken.
It wasn’t until he pushed the door open and stepped in did he turn around and found out that Alina hadn’t made a move to follow him. “What’s wrong?” Roman forced himself to ask in a much gentler voice, thinking that she was actually injured.
“I’m not leaving Madeline behind,” Alina instead said steadily, not sounding like someone who was hurt at all.
Impatience flashed in Roman’s eyes, “What the fuck are you going on about?”
“I was captured with my friend Maddie and I’m not leaving her behind, I don’t care if you decide to leave me.” She said resolutely.
Roman had to suppress the urge to walk over, knock Alina out and then physically carry her out himself. “Fine, where is she?”
“In the holding basement where I was kept before, I think?” Alina said hesitantly, surprised that Roman had agreed to come with her.
Roman cursed under his breath and pulled out his phone again to study it, he had no intention of putting both of their lives in danger for a friend that he knew jack-shit about. But a look at the map showed him that the holding basement was not too far from the room they were in, and they wouldn’t have to go in the direction that would take them backstage.
“Fine, let’s go.” He said gruffly, changing directions.
Alina followed him quickly this time, keeping as close to Roman as she could stand, worry eating away at her for the wellbeing of her best friend.
They found the concrete floored room in no time, and luckily, the fire had taken up everyone’s attention so there were no guards around.
Alina found Madeline quickly, rushing to her friend’s side even as Roman got to work on her ties. Alina swiftly loosened the gag around her mouth, cupping her friend’s face.
Madeline gagged and coughed when the gag came off, her eyes watering. “Lina, you came back.”
Alina huffed, “Like I’d leave you behind.”
When Madeline was free, she could finally get a gander at the person that had come to save Alina, unwittingly saving her in turn. Her eyes went round when she saw that it was none other than the British Alpha King.
“A-Alpha King Roman?” She stumbled over her words.
Roman just rose to his feet, “We should get going,” he said flatly heading for the exit.
Alina quickie helped Madeline up, and it might be the result of being tied up on cold concrete for hours but she seemed to have a difficult time processing Roman’s presence. Which Alina supposed made sense, the only reason she was able to accept it so quickly was because they were due to be mated to each other, Madeline didn’t know that.
She entwined her hands with Madeline and then started after him, looking nowhere as impressed as Madeline was with Roman.
They made their way back to the room they had previously been in with few complications, the only henchman they had come across had been knocked out by Roman who didn’t even slow down, his guns out.
Alina had the loudest look of disdain as she stared at his back but she knew better than to kick up a tantrum while they were on the run for their lives.
Madeline on the other hand was awed by Roman, she had never gotten a chance to get close to him because she knew that there was bad blood between him and Alina. But also because the Alpha King never gave any woman the time of day although rumors flew around about how much of a playboy he was.
She had already known that Alpha King Lukas was off limits even before he got mated because Alina was into him but Roman was free real estate, he was her one possible ticket into the life of royalty.
She just needed to get his attention one way or the other, “Do you know the way out?” She asked, looking straight at Roman.
Roman glanced at the werewolf with Alina, if Alina had cared about so much that she was willing to sacrifice herself for her, it meant that they were cut from the same cloth. It would be best for him to keep his distance from her, “Yeah,” He said shortly, pushing open the door.
He dipped inside briefly to case the place, it was a bare corridor with bare floors and walls, and dim flickering naked light bulbs overhead. It looked surprisingly rundown considering that the room connecting to it was properly decorated but it was safe and that was more important than its aesthetics.
“After you,” He beckoned the ladies forward, relieved when they obeyed without protests, especially Alina. She hadn’t said anything unnecessary after he made that quip about her father, he wondered if he had crossed the line this time.
He wanted to draw the rear because although he wasn’t sure what they would find in the secret exit, the one thing he was sure of was that enemies would be coming from behind them. He still gave directions although he was behind and after a couple of complicated turns in what looked to be a maze of bare concrete corridors.
They stepped into an open space, which looked to be an underground foyer of sorts seeing as it led to a spiraling staircase that went upwards to what was hopefully an escape out of The Underground.
Roman despite himself, glanced at the slender heels they were both wearing, there were at least three flights of stairs, and he wondered if they could make it. He started forward regardless, taking the first step.
Alina and Madeline followed after him, taking careful steps. Fortunately, the spiraling staircase had railings so they had support, their heels clicking quietly against the cold stone.
By the time they got to the second stair, the climbing was starting to get unbearable, Madeline was willing to bear it to get Roman’s approval while Alina had been slowly building up to an explosion.
She had been infuriated about what Roman said about her father because deep down she knew it was true but she had been too busy trying to save Madeline to address the emotion. Now that she had been climbing up concrete stairs for what felt like hours while Roman paced his steps in front of them so that he didn’t leave them behind, she was right about to explode.
Because how dare he act so patronizing after saying the things he did? If he didn’t want to be here in the first place, why didn’t he just leave?
“Couldn’t you have found a more accessible exit? You have the map of the entire place, don’t you?” She blurted out, dark eyes blazing.
Roman turned around, he had been expecting this for a while now and he had told himself that he wouldn’t humor her but there was something about Alina that drove him to the edge of his patience. “Since you’re such a professional, why don’t you read the map yourself?” He fired back.
Alina scoffed scathingly, “You’re only saying that because this is the best you could come up with.”
Roman’s grip on his gun tightened, he shouldn’t have let her get to him in the first place. The only way to win with Alina was to not enable her theatrics so he kept quiet like he should have done the very first time.
Alina didn’t stop, “Quiet because you know I’m right?” She jabbed at him.
Madeline was right in the middle of their argument, watching with wide shocked eyes. She knew that there was bad blood between them but she never imagined it was this bad, usually they always ignored each other but now Roman had been the one to come save her and they were bickering like an old couple.
“Um, am I missing something?” She found herself asking.
That made Alina clamp her lips shut, increasing her pace. She still held onto Madeline’s wrist so her best friend was forced to speed up with her.
Alina pushed past Roman rudely, marching up the last flight of stairs while blatantly ignoring him.
Madeline looked back at Roman occasionally, a sympathetic look on her face as she did. She had never seen Alina react this abrasive to someone especially when they went through the trouble of saving her.