Page 1 of Reclaiming Izabel

chapter

one

Drake

The smellof antiseptic hit me first. I blinked my eyes open, but everything was so fuzzy, I could only make out the acoustic tiles on the ceiling. My gaze wandered, and an IV line came into view.

Monitors beeped.

A hospital.

The lower half of my body was numb.

I panicked. The dull roar of pain was familiar. I’d been pumped full of painkillers.

My breaths came quick and shallow.

The monitor beat spiked.

I was in a nightmare.

A woman in green scrubs rushed in. She peered into my face before leaning over me.

“Where am I?”

She didn’t answer.

“Where the fuck am I?” I gritted more forcefully.

Then horror rushed in.

The firefight.

Our retreat into the caves.

The blast.

My team incinerated right before my eyes.

No.

Dead. All my men were dead.

A roar.

A bellow of anguish.

Pain in my chest.

A pinprick on my arm.

Oblivion.

When I next came to,a man with close-cropped blond hair was leaning against the wall beside my bed. Tall, muscular, with strong, angular features and ice-blue eyes I would recognize anywhere.

The eyes of a killer.

“Viktor?” I croaked. “What are you doing here? Where am I?”

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