Page 58 of Defeated

I charge them as two wolves, one large brown, and the other, a smaller, reddish-blonde, slams into him.

Colton and Penny.

Between them blocking the doorway, and Zoe and I on this side, we have them pinned between us.

Colton and Penny charge, and I do the same. Zoe pops up on my side.

I want to growl at her to get back, to let me protect her. But Zoe is strong, stronger than she probably thinks she is to have survived the hell she has.

We slam into the wolves, leaving them to defend their flanks and die, or defend their front and still die.

In seconds, the air is ripe with the scent of blood, the floor slick beneath my paws, and the soft sighs of dying wolves soon fill the room. Zoe is still beside me, her breathing labored. When I take a second to scan her for wounds, she’s unharmed.

Across the dead wolves at our feet, I meet Colton’s eyes, and he nods.

21

ZOE

The fight is over.

After we all shifted back to our human forms and deal with the dead wolves, I pull on a pair of jeans a little too short for me, and a pink sweater that Chris’s packmate, Penny, lets me borrow.

Colton lends Chris a pair of black sweats and a T-shirt to wear. Meanwhile, I try really hard not to look at a naked Chris and remember what we did last night and this morning because I would want to do it again.

We dumped the bodies in one of the lower back storage rooms. Whoever finds the dead wolves is going to have a thousand and one questions about how they got there.

Penny is almost exactly how I imagined her to be. A beautiful, lively, petite red-head who chatted happily with me as we got rid of the bodies. She was nice. Bubbly, but nice.

Outside the warehouse, Chris, likely sensing I would want to talk to Colton alone, said he and Penny would give us a couple of minutes. It isn’t safe for us to stay for much longer than that.

I agree.

Several people saw a wolf—me, and probably Chris as well, for him to get to me as soon as he did—running through town, so I hope no one thought to call the cops to investigate what the hell was going on.

Colton explained as we dealt with the bodies that he and Penny arrived at the townhouse, found it empty, and tracked us through town with both windows down. If he hadn’t been so quick at thinking on his feet, I wonder if Chris would have survived the fight.

He put himself between me and harm's way. Literally. No one has ever done anything like that for me before, and now, minutes later, I’m still struggling to believe someone would.

“If you want to tell me you told me so, I would completely understand.” I cross my arms and lean my back against his car parked at the side of the warehouse. “You told me it wasn’t safe to stay here, and I didn’t listen.”

Colton shakes his head. “I imagine you had reasons why you didn’t trust me. I’m just glad Chris was here to have your back.”

Chris is standing a few feet away, listening to Penny. I think she’s telling him about smashing a cake in a woman’s face, though I could have overheard wrong.

He must feel my gaze to glance at me and smile.

I smile back, automatically. “Yeah, me too. He saved my life.”

I’d been determined to fight to the death, not expecting Chris to burst into the room and literally slam into the wolf pinning me.

And even though they outnumbered us, he didn’t hesitate to put himself between them and me. I don’t know why he cares so much, but I’m really glad he does.

Colton bumps his shoulder with mine. “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen him smile like that before.”

Pulling my eyes from Chris, I peer up at Colton. “Like what?”

Colton gives me a knowing look. “I think you know.”

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