Crouching with a speed and determination that had her toppling back onto the concrete, the Alpha hovered. He sniffed at the air around her, the curve of his lips pulling back into a snarl that was matched by a low rattle of fury. She didn’t think she had flinched, heard no sound other than his rage, but he acted as if she had tried to run.
The weight of him crashed down into her stomach with a knee, one hand shoving her flat when Quinn tried to curl around the sudden pain. His other hand grabbed at her hair, twisting her head aside to grind her cheek into the pavement. Merciless fingers caught the neck of the oversized shirt, scraping over skin and half healed scabs. Fabric ripped in his haste to bare the mark he’d set there. Not until her entire shoulder was bare, the weeping wound in plain sight, did he stop the violent tearing.
Whatever he saw appeased him somewhat. The crushing burden was removed, and he allowed her to curl onto her side against his bent leg. Wheezing breaths shuddered into her lungs as she gulped at too thick air. If she thought that it was over, that he would calm now, she’d been mistaken.
The hands that she had relished while in heat pulled and jerked at the rest of the shirt. The fabric rent, shredded, falling away in ragged pieces until she hugged her knees to hide her nakedness. Thick welts and jagged lines of crimson bloomed on pale flesh. Something thundered in the distance, but she was too distracted by those savage hands as they went to work on the loose pants that hung from her hips. Even as the thought of fighting back entered her mind, her world spun and sparkled with dark stars as the back of his hand connected with her cheek.
Reeling from the strike, Quinn was pliant as he ripped away the baggy sweatpants. She stared dumbstruck at the dark figure barreling up the street, scattering people before him and leaving chaos in his wake. Face twisted, muscles bulging, Alton ran towards her with rage in his eyes.
Fear dumped adrenaline into her system, sweeping away the sticky cobwebs of pain as she looked up at the Alpha rising to meet the challenge. Squinting against a jagged bolt of white-hot agony that seared through her skull, she tried to remember his name. Hysterical laughter bubbled at the back of her tensed lips when she realized after everything, she still didn’t know the man’s name. What had the Beta called him? Carl? No… Kahler was his name. He wasn’t as large as Alton, didn’t look as if he knew the way of a brawl, yet the deep green of his eyes held nothing but death in them.
“You get the fuck away from her! I’m going to rip you apart, you sorry shit,” Alton roared, a bare foot away when he came to a stop. Thick legs spread and shoulders held wide, he seemed impossible and huge. Menacing and enraged, corded muscles flexed.
“So,” Kahler said with a calm that crackled like thin ice down Quinn’s spine. Head canted, his green gaze swept over Alton. It was his voice, though—the smooth, moderate tone—that terrified her as he continued. “So, you are the one that thought to touch what’s mine.”
Seemingly forgotten, Quinn was left to shiver on the sidewalk as Kahler paced around Alton. There was no bristling fury or violent posturing from him. His strides were slow and measured, shoulders held easy and arms loose at his sides. It was a stark contrast to Alton who seemed to grow bigger and more rigid with every furious breath.
“She’s mine.” There was no question to Alton’s conviction. The possessive gleam in his eyes was a balm to the ragged edges of her soul. All her worries withered and died under all that dominating thunder. He would take care of the bastard, grinding him into the pavement. He would take her back to the warehouse and his room, would hold her and tell her everything would be all right as he slipped the needle deep into her vein. Then, she swore to herself, she would be everything Alton had ever wanted her to be.
Heavy and warm, fabric met her back and slipped around her to hide bare skin. The spicy musk of Kahler wrapped around her just as his hands had. Startling hard enough for her teeth to snap together, biting her tongue with a quick flash of coppery panic, Quinn turned terrified eyes up to see this new threat. His attention wavered only a moment towards the impending fight before Curtis focused back on Quinn. The long coat was arranged around her huddled form, his hands guiding her into it. Careful of wounds old and new, he ushered her further away from the street. Further away from the dangerous men. Once settled against the building’s wall, he stood in front of her, facing the circling Alphas.
Quinn chanced a look around. A multitude of people had paused in their daily routine to watch. Alton’s people had poured out from the warehouse after him. In this part of town, the police wouldn’t be called, and never on Alton. Faces she knew were picked out from the crowd. It took a bare moment for her to realize only Curtis had approached. Not even one of the Beta women who had brought her this far had even bothered to fling a jacket in her direction once the men squared off. Only he had even thought to move her out of harm’s way.
She couldn’t say why her eyes burned with the knowledge or why it seemed to matter so much.
“Do you know who I am,” Kahler asked, sounding nothing if not unconcerned.
Kahler didn’t want her. She wasn’t even sure he was angry that someone else might have played with his latest toy. It was just the dishonor of it, another male stealing away his possession before he was finished with it. The tears welled bitter and hot in her eyes though she blinked hard to hold them back. The claim was a mistake, she was sure of that. Something he didn’t even mean to do. She’d put her heat off too long and it had overwhelmed them both. Shamed and full of suffocating remorse, Quinn berated herself for ever having refused Alton. He would have cared for her, would have kept her safe. Alton had always wanted her. Making an even smaller target, the tears won out. Muffling quiet sobs against arms holding her knees, she watched as Kahler came to a stop facing her.
“You’re the sad fuck who’s gotten in my way.” Alton scoffed, lush lips smirking at the other male in derision. Names didn’t matter to him.
Kahler’s gaze slipped to her for the barest second. The twist of his lips resembled a smile, but it was as dead and lifeless as his soul as he walked straight past Alton towards her. Thrown over his shoulder, he didn’t even pause as unhurried steps brought him closer. “I’m Tobias Kahler. Continue and you’ll wish you were dead by the time I’m done with you. As it is, you have your uses, so I’m willing to be lenient just the once.”
The unease was immediate. Alton, along with the half dozen Alphas and Betas standing at the ready behind him, seemed to diminish. Confused, Quinn didn’t react when Kahler snapped his fingers hard in front of her face, followed by a flick of fingers directing her up.
Feeling slighted as Quinn stared at Alton’s stillness, the hand that came down on her cheek was hard and unforgiving. The shrill cry was more one of surprise, feeling numb as everything moved far too fast for her to make sense of it. Somehow her eyes were wide open, and they saw Alton rock on his heels.
No forward movement was made.
Kahler’s hand was in her hair, clenched tight against the scalp as he pulled her straight up from the pavement. By some vague miracle, the coat remained closed as she scrambled to her feet clinging to his wrist.
Quinn’s gaze never faltered as she stumbled backwards beside Kahler’s purposeful strides. When her legs fell out from under her, he didn’t stop. Dragged along by his grip in her hair, Quinn shrieked at the tearing pain.
Alton only continued to stand unmoving. Rigid, vibrating with tension, he didn’t come to help her.
“Stare all you want,” Kahler said in a low hiss. “Did you think he would keep you hidden away? That he’d fight for you? You look at him and see that you meannothingto him.”
The angry words hit too close to home. In a blinding moment of lucidity, she remembered who she was. Careless of the ripping sensation tearing across her scalp, she twisted in Kahler’s grip and lashed out. Though every blow landed, the Alpha marched on as if she was no more than a gnat.
“Alton!” She hadn’t meant to call for him. As the dark car loomed ever closer with Curtis already holding the back door wide, she had panicked. Fighting against the far larger man was getting her nowhere. She needed help. In a sea of bystanders, only one face showed its concern, and she had reached for it.
He hesitated. A single step forward was taken back at once.
Betrayal punched her hard in the stomach, knocking the air from her lungs in a disbelieving whine. She couldn’t even struggle when Kahler jerked her up into his arms and climbed in the car. Looking through the back windshield as Kahler pulled her to straddle his thighs, she saw the familiar angles of Alton’s features twisted into raging grief. She wanted to scream a litany of epithets and curses at him. What good was all of his supposed love when he was willing to stand by and watch her be carted off by a monster? Where were his promises now when she needed them? The fact that the monster was right burned through her stomach like acid.
In the next moment, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.
While busy having her heart crushed and soul battered, Kahler had freed his cock. Her pussy dry and too tight, he spat into his palm to slick the already pulsing shaft enough to force his way in. Every inch burned and ached, her shrill cries ignored. Not until he was buried to the hilt, stretching her wide and far too deep, did he call to her.
