LOGINThe rotors cut through dawn like a verdict.Jenna woke to motion.Not the violent, tearing movement of the jungle—but something steadier, mechanical. A vibration that thrummed through her bones and pulled her back from darkness inch by inch. Her eyelids fluttered open to blinding white, then blue, then the hard metallic gray of a rescue helicopter’s interior.For a moment, she didn’t know where she was.Then memory rushed back in a flood so sharp it stole her breath—drums, fire, blood, Rex’s arms locking around her like iron, the jungle screaming as if alive. She sucked in air and winced.Pain bloomed across her sho
The drums shattered the moment.Reality crashed back in with brutal force.Rex surged forward.He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t slow. Didn’t care that spears still cut through the air or that shadows leapt between the trees. He moved like a storm given flesh, carving a path straight toward her.Another hunter charged from the left.Rex turned and fired once at point-blank range. The body slammed backward into the brush. He didn’t look. He didn’t register the recoil. His entire world had narrowed into one blood‑streaked figure struggling to stay upright in the clearing.Jenna.“Cover her!” Rex roared.His men spread instantly, weapons raised, forming a moving wall of gunfire and muscle. The jungle screamed again—this time with dying voices.Jenna barely registered any of it.The ground tilted violently beneath her feet. The pain in her shoulder pulsed hot and wet, her strength draining with ev
The jungle screamed.Not with voices—at first—but with sound so violent it rattled Jenna’s bones. A thunderous crack split the air somewhere to the north, followed by another, sharper blast that sent birds exploding from the canopy in a frantic black cloud. The ground shuddered beneath their feet.David spun instantly, knife up, eyes blazing with alarm. “That’s not them hunting,” he muttered. “That’s war.”Steeve flinched against Jenna’s shoulder, pain carving his face into something hollow and gray. “Another tribe?” he rasped. “There are more of them?”Jenna’s heart slammed violently against her ribs. The child in her arms whimpered, clutching her shirt tighter as if he could crawl inside her chest for safety. Every instinct screamed that the jungle was closing, that the island itself was turning hostile.Another explosion tore through the trees—closer this time.
The drums Rex heard on the shoreline never reached Jenna’s ears—but the echo of pursuit did.It lived in the way the jungle breathed too loudly, leaves shuddering long after no wind passed. It lived in the way David stopped abruptly every few minutes, head tilted, listening not for sound but for absence. It lived in the way Steeve’s footsteps began to drag, each step heavier than the last, as though the earth itself were pulling him down.They had been running for hours.Or maybe days.Time lost all meaning the moment the cages opened, and chaos tore through the village. Since then, everything blurred into movement and pain and fear stitched together by adrenaline.Steeve stumbled again.Jenna caught his arm just before he collapsed fully, his weight crashing into her shoulder. The impact drove a sharp cry from her throat. Pain flared through her ribs—still bruised from the capture—but she locked her knees and held.&l
Fog swallowed the shoreline as the boats cut their engines.Rex stepped onto the sand with a heaviness that had nothing to do with the damp air. The island loomed ahead—jungle thick, dark, breathing. Drums echoed faintly somewhere inland, low and irregular, like a pulse that did not belong to any human heart. Behind him, the hired men fanned out in practiced silence. Former soldiers. Mercenaries. Men who had killed for causes far smaller than this. Rex did not look back. Every step forward felt like crossing a line he could never uncross. The fog curled around his boots, dampening sound, distorting distance. Visibility dropped to a few meters. Somewhere in that white veil, something moved. A whistle cut through the air. The first spear came out of nowhere. It punched through the chest of the man to Rex's left, the force so violent it lifted him off his feet before slamming him back into the sand. Blood sprayed warm across Rex's cheek. "Contact!" someone shouted. Then
The decision was made without drama.It came with silence.Rex stood on the upper deck of the rescue vessel long after midnight, the wind pulling at his coat, the salt biting into his skin. The sea was darker here, far from sanctioned routes, far from observers who might question why one of the most powerful men in the corporate world had vanished from public view.Below him, the ship prepared in near total darkness.No flags. No identification lights. No official markings.This voyage would not exist on paper.Rex watched as the crew members moved with disciplined efficiency—men and women he had handpicked not only for their skills, but also for their silence. They spoke in murmurs, using gestures and nods. Every crate loaded, every weapon checked, every drone secured carried the same unspoken understanding.Failure was not an option.Because failure meant Jenna was gone.Rex closed his eyes.Her face rose behind his lids—not as the polished heiress the world admired, but as the woma







