Page 20 of The Alpha’s Unclaimed Mate

Down on the drive, the dark-blond woman has both kids gathered against her now, shaking, her eyes huge and wet. I don’t know her, don’t know the children, can’t place a single one of them among the hundreds who pass through these gates. I frown and then call out to one of the office staff.

A woman enters, and I gesture to the window. “Find out who they are, the mother and the two kids. And get security out there.”

My gaze turns back to the argument, which is nowhere close to finished. The aunt jabs a finger at the mother. “She stole them. She took my brother’s own kids right out of their beds and ran.”

“I didn’t steal anyone. I got them somewhere safe, away from him.” The mother’s voice shakes but holds. “He puts his hands on them.”

“That’s a lie. A father’s allowed to discipline his own children.” The aunt sneers. “Better they be disciplined now than turn into useless garbage like you.”

“It’s bad enough he uses his fists on me.” The mother pulls the kids tighter. “I won’t stand there and let him use his fists on them.”

The aunt’s patience snaps. “Let him? Let him?!”

Her hand flies up, open palm, swinging for the mother’s face, and Jessa moves without a half-second’s thought, stepping squarely into the path of it. The slap cracks across her cheek instead.

I’m through the door.

The wolf has gone from amused to murderous between one stair and the next, a snarl building in my chest that no human throat should make, and I swallow it down by force as I take the steps three at a time. Down on the drive, Mia’s scream splits the air, her mother’s name torn out of her.

By the time I hit the bottom of the steps, Jessa’s shoved the woman back a pace, ignoring her clearly stinging cheek, her eyes lit with something I recognize from the curb in the rain.

“Try that again,” she says, low and even. “Hit me one more time and see how it goes for you.”

The aunt, fool that she is, draws her hand back for another swing.

Jessa’s fist comes up and around before I can close the last ten feet, a short, clean shot that catches the woman flush on the nose. The crunch reaches me across the drive. Down she goes where she stands, both hands flying to her face, blood already sheeting between her fingers.

Jessa shakes out her knuckles, winces, then turns her head and finds me standing there. “What are you looking at?” she snaps out.

I lift both hands, palms out, and lose the war with my grin. “You’ve got it handled. I’m only here for the view.”

The woman shrieks up at me from the ground, blood bubbling over her lip. “I’ll kill you. I’ll have you arrested. I’m reporting this. You all saw it, she broke my nose.”

“Report it, then.” I plant myself between her and Jessa and let my voice drop. “The moment you do, I bring kidnapping charges against you for hauling two of my students off school grounds against their will. I’ve got security cameras everywhere.”

Her eyes snap up to my face, and recognition hits hard. She knows exactly who owns the building behind me, and the venom drops out of her face, replaced by a fawning smile.

“Mr. Steele, you don’t understand the situation.” She scrambles half upright, wheedling now through the blood. A bloodied finger stabs toward the mother. “That one stole my brother’s kids and turned them against him. She’s tearing my family apart. I only wanted to see my nephew and niece.”

“I don’t care about your family’s troubles.” I keep my voice down, and that does more than shouting would. “As long as those children walk through my gates, you don’t lay a hand on them. Not here, not anywhere near here. And we don’t bother the police with people like you. We deal with them ourselves.”

I leave the threat hanging where she can feel it. She goes a shade paler under the blood, scrambles the rest of the way to her feet, and bolts for her car without another word.

The sedan peels out too fast, fishtailing onto the road. I turn to the mother, sunk onto the low wall by the steps with a child clamped under each arm, all of them shaking.

“Are you three all right?”

She nods, not trusting her voice, holding her kids close enough to hurt. The office assistant has reached the steps, and I wave her over.

“Take them inside. Somewhere quiet. Get them something warm to drink and let them breathe a minute before they head home.”

The woman looks up at me, exhausted and grateful at once, and lets the assistant lead her children through the doors. Jessa keeps a hand on her shoulder the whole time, murmuring something I can’t catch, the two of them not quite strangers to each other. That’s another thread for Adrian.

That leaves Jessa standing in the middle of my drive, cradling a split set of knuckles she’s pretending don’t hurt, two girls now plastered to her sides.

“Mom, that was so cool,” Mia breathes, gazing up at her with open hero worship. “You hit her so hard.”

“Yeah, Mrs. Vasquez. That was really cool!” Bella looks up at her adoringly, as if she’s never seen me pummel a grown wolf into the ground during a sparring session. Traitor.