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The alpha swung at me, but I dodged and latched onto his arm. He wasn’t expecting it from the look on his face, even though he had just watched me take down his friend. Some men can’t imagine a woman will fight back, even while watching her do it. I was happy to help them figure it out.
I tried to unbalance him, but he spun to counteract me. I lost my footing on the gravel path, and I cursed myself. It was a rookie mistake, but my focus had split in too many directions. I could hear grunts and blows landing behind me, and I didn’t think it was Cary delivering them.
The alpha yanked me back up and landed a savage blow to my gut that winded me, followed up with a punch to my head. I felt blood drip down my temple as the world spun wildly. My vision doubled sickeningly as I dropped to my knees. That was going to hurt later.
“That’ll teach you to know your place, you pink-haired slut,” he growled. Wow, he was a special little nugget. My knee had a date with his balls as soon as there were only two of them again.And what the hell was wrong with pink hair?
He yanked me roughly to my feet, and I saw the final alpha helping the one I dropped earlier up, too, before he headed for Ava. Cary was roughly shoved into my personal space, almost knocking me over. He was barely standing. I noticed his legs shake, but I wasn’t doing much better.
“Are you okay, Lexie?” Cary rasped, sounding just as winded as I was. He wasn’t watching me, though. His eyes were tracking the alpha headed towards Ava.
“Peachy,” I answered breathlessly. I sensed Cary would fight to the death to get to Ava if they touched her, which wouldn’t do us any good right now. He tensed beside me, and I knew I had to act quickly.
“Ava,” I wheezed through gasps as I struggled to get enough air deep enough in my lungs to be heard. Ava had kept her gaze fixed on us, but she still huddled protectively over Bear with one hand on his chest.
She lifted her chin briefly to show me she’d heard. “Don’t fight him. We’ll pick our battle,” I choked out, feeling the world tilt wildly with every gasp.
She nodded and hopped up, eyeing the alpha warily as he approached. But he just gestured for her to walk in front of him. I stumbled behind her until she turned quickly and grabbed my waist to prop me up before anyone could object.
“Bear’s still breathing. He’ll be okay,” she whispered, and I could have kissed her.
We reached the dining hall, when the alpha who took out Cary held up his hand for us to stop. I heard voices before we were all roughly grabbed and dragged from the shadows into the daylight and pushed to our knees. I got a lungful of oranges and pineapples turned bitter with fear, and my heart dropped.
Only one person I knew had that scent, and it was Maia. The world was spinning too much for me to look up, though, and I was still gasping for air. Where the hell were Leif and the guys? I could only hope they were okay and knew what they were doing.
On the next heaved breath, I copped a cloying mix of scents from all the alphas surrounding us. But one stood out. Mushrooms. I remembered that scent from the security alert the other night, when two intruders had checked out our fences. It was Maia’s stalker, Ronan. Only he seemed to have a lot more help this time.
“Is this who you were looking for?” I heard Ronan ask her. Great, so we were leverage against Maia. Which meant we were expendable. I tried to angle my head slightly without passing out and noticed Maia subtly pointing at the ground.
I hoped she was trying to tell us to stay down because I needed a minute before moving with any kind of speed, or I’d yak all over someone’s shoes.
Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea, though. Who had the nicest shoes? The alpha who hit me earlier had a nice, new, sturdy pair that looked like they hadn’t seen much action. I’d happily vomit on them for him and help wear them in.
Suddenly there was movement in front of me, and I heard a rough voice growl, “No, I think she was looking for you. She has a score to settle.”
I relaxed slightly as I recognized Damon’s voice, and he popped out of the trees in front of us. I figured the enormous boots next to him belonged to my brother, but there were two other pairs behind them I didn’t recognize. Unless it was just my double vision.
Suddenly, people were everywhere; more people popped out behind Damon, and the boots behind him swiveled to have his back. Not double vision then. That was a good sign if my eyes were getting steadier.
A distant gunshot that echoed in the air made my body lock up. I desperately hoped Max and Hunter were okay and they were doing the shooting because the intruders had us outnumbered here.
At least the women in the kitchen would take shelter now, if they hadn’t already, and weren’t likely to wander out the back door into this fresh hell.
I was having trouble following what everyone was saying. I thought I heard Sirena yell from over near the trees, but I didn’t know what the hell she would be doing here. Maybe I was hallucinating. I wanted to curl up and go to sleep, but I knew that would be a bad idea.
I almost cried in relief when I heard Hunter pipe up from the roof, and Max’s voice came from the same direction as Sirena’s. They were okay. We were all going to be okay now. The cavalry was here.
We were still outnumbered, but my brother and his friends were lethal. Hunter was a sniper, and he’d have Ronan in his sights. Everyone underestimated Max because he was a beta and a tech geek, but he was just as dangerous as his mates. With the four of them working together, we had a chance of getting out of this alive.
I closed my eyes and tried to breathe deeper to focus on what was happening around me. I could scent Damon’s lightning and Leif’s campfire smoke. There was a feeling of coiled violence in the air. It was almost crackling with it as though it was running over my skin. There was a weird electricity brewing I had never felt before.
I sensed it was coming from Damon, Leif, Hunter, and Max. Meeting their true mate and the bonds they had built with Maia had strengthened them. I could feel it whenever I was around them.
I figured they were now moving their pieces into place for whatever take-down they had planned, and I wanted to be ready for it when it came. I didn’t intend to sit quietly and let them have all the fun. My knee had a date with a ball sack.
I felt my head clear a little, finally. Ronan was monologuing like a classic movie villain, the idiot.Didn’t he watch movies?It never ended well for the villain. I opened my eyes when I heard Leif call out to me a moment later.
“Are you okay, Lex? Where’s Bear?” He asked in a quiet, dangerous voice.
