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‘NOW,’ I snarled through the mind-link as Max focused on the alpha male before me. He was strong, but we were fast and almost as strong. We were holding our own, but Molly’s cries distracted Max for a moment, and the alpha wolf’s teeth sank into my shoulder, only centimeters from our throat. Max let out a howl of pain and a whimper, and my heart sank when I heard Zi screaming out for Molly.
“Daddy! Sthap. Bad woof!” Maxed turned, and we saw our little pup pulling on the tail of the alpha wolf to get him away from me. When we watched the hind leg kick Molly away, we saw red. Zi ran to where Molly landed, and we kicked the asshole off with renewed strength. No one touched what was ours. No one hurt our pup. Rage exploded within us and Max sank his teeth wherever he could land them, tearing at the flesh and spitting out pieces of skin and meat before he sank them back anywhere he could connect.
“STOP,” Cory’s alpha command barely penetrated through the red haze we were in, and even then, Max fought it with every fiber of his being. With a slight tremble to his body, he sank his teeth and ripped another piece of flesh from the man who dared to put his hands on our family.
Cory walked forward carefully as Max fought the need to submit to his alpha and continue his onslaught. We’d never fought a command before, and I could feel how much Max hated disobeying the man we’d considered our alpha long before Cory took the official title, but the need to protect and destroy the threat to Molly and Zi was all we could feel at the moment.
“Stop, James. Go check on Molly and Zi. They are outside with Evie. I’ll make sure he doesn’t get away.” Those words did it, and we ran out of the house, following the scent of strawberries and cream combined with fear of our mate and the raspberries scent of our pup. There was a crowd gathering outside Zi’s house, and guards posted everywhere keeping people away.
Max let me take back control the moment we saw them being looked at by Aunt Valeria near the left corner of the house while being comforted by our luna. Zi and Molly pulled away from Evie when they saw us and ran our way. I shifted back and held them to me fiercely, covered in blood, mine and his. I could feel the stinging bite on my collarbone bleeding freely, but all I could think about was them.
“Are you okay, Molly?” I asked my pup when I pulled back, wincing a bit, but needing to ensure she wasn’t hurt too badly. The kick of an alpha wolf on a toddler could cause a lot of damage. She couldn’t heal the way we could.
“She’s fine, James. I want to do an X-ray to double-check that nothing is broken, but outside of a sore tummy, she seems fine.”
“It’s not necessary, Mom. I’ve got Aunt Nat coming over,” Evie assured me, eyeing my shoulder worriedly. The bastard got a good bite in, and it would take a while to heal without Aunt Nat’s help, but it wasn’t fatal. I looked at Zi, who was looking very pale, but the blood dripping down her scalp was already drying.
“Are you okay? Who is he?” I asked.
“Anthony,” she said, tears filling her face. I swallowed the rage trying to claw itself up my throat again when I realized this was the man that raped my mate, choosing to focus on Zi instead.
“No. No more tears. He won’t touch you again. I promise,” I said as gently as I could.
“No, he won’t.” I heard Cory’s voice behind us. I looked back and took the pair of shorts he was holding out to me. I pulled them on while I watched four of our guards drag the unconscious asshole that raped my mate out in chains. He was back to human form, and I was glad to see many chunks of flesh missing from different parts of his body.
We should have bitten off his dick, but I didn’t want to touch it, Max growled, and I almost snorted at his hesitation to bite off the man’s dick. He was right, though; we should have ensured he couldn’t do what he did to Zi to anyone again.
“You should’ve let me kill him,” I told Cory, trying to hold back the anger at being stopped. Cory shook his head.
“The council is still here. We’ll have the matter resolved before they leave. Your mate needs this closure.”
“How the fuck did they even get in here?” I growled, looking around at the guards, who scuttled away as they felt my anger flowing with my aura. We had so many security measures in place. This should never have happened.
“The asshole you so kindly refer to as broccoli snuck him in. They’re family, so their smell is very similar, and being a stranger on the visitor list, the guards couldn’t distinguish one scent from the other and let him through. He should be in the dungeons by now.”
“I want their heads, Cory, or I will challenge them both,” I growled, unable to show the respect he deserved and swallowing the guilt that came with it. But all I cared about was making sure Zi never had to think about these men again.
“I promise you’ll have them,” he promised me, not saying anything about my lack of respect, patting my good shoulder to show he understood and shared my anger.
“How? Aside from today, what happened isn’t enough to demand their heads. A punishment maybe, but not their lives,” Zi pointed out, her lip still quivering with restrained emotion. Molly was hanging tightly onto my leg, and I bent and picked her up with my good arm while I pulled Zi slowly with my injured one, not giving a damn at that moment about the pain or that I was bleeding all over her clothes.
“Evie.” Cory looked adoringly over at his mate, who was trying to disperse the crowd and assure them everyone was fine. Mom, Dad, Aunt Camila, Uncle Gillian, Uncle Markus, and Aunt Celeste were all on the side, waiting patiently until the official business was over so they could come to check on us. Only other people who knew the work involved in an incident like this could understand the need to restrain their fears until we had everything under control. I could feel their support and worry from here, though, and it warmed me.
“Evie said she and Zi always installed security measures inside their apartment back in New York, and they did the same out of habit when they moved in together here. She turned them on this morning when she grabbed clothes for the girls out of precaution. She has the entire incident on video,” Cory explained.
“Oh Goddess, why didn’t I think about that?” Zi cried, her hand going to cover her mouth.
“Because you were ambushed and terrified. Will what’s on there be enough?” Cory asked, a sudden worry appearing on his face.
Zi nodded her head. “He told me—” She looked at Molly in my arms and was unwilling to continue with the sentence. “He admitted to everything. It should be enough.”
“How did you find all of this information out? I thought you were right behind me.” I suddenly narrowed my eyes at Cory suspiciously. He took longer to catch up than I thought. He should have been less than a minute behind me. Cory confirmed my suspicions when he blushed.
“I didn’t think there was an attack. I thought you were just worried about Zi. I was trying to gauge why he’d shown up when I was mind-linked about a fight at Zi’s. I sent over some people while I chased after Brock when he took off suddenly and cornered him. He pretty much got diarrhea of the mouth when I threatened him, telling me that he flew his brother out and snuck him in here to find Zi.”
Aunt Nat arrived, and shortly after healing all of us, Cory let the rest of the family come near. They passed Molly around and reassured her, but eventually, Molly started crying and ran back into my arms, where she belonged. Cory and Evie saw everyone out while making sure the council members were given appropriate lodging. After watching the video, they called a couple of other council members and sent them to arrest the old alpha and be present for the trial tomorrow. That asshole Anthony had gone into a full villain monologue, which implicated his Dad and brother in more than just Zi’s vile treatment.
Zi and I mostly listened while we held each other and Molly in the living room after the council meeting. People kept fussing around us, but I think we were in shock. The adrenaline had worn off, and I just wanted my family near me, and they seemed unable to leave my side. Someone brought us dinner, and I ate around Molly one-handed while the other couldn’t seem to release Zi. I’m not usually possessive, but it took everything in me not to growl at my family when they suggested Zi go shower or that they would take Molly from my lap so I could do the same. I was still wearing the shorts Cory gave me and a T-shirt that was smeared with dried blood.
