Page 140 of The Heat of Us

I turned the corner to the worst thing I’d ever seen.

I finally laid eyes on the alpha who had been tormenting her. Cursing as he looked to be trying to salvage a bent syringe, failing to insert it into a vial. And then there was Hazel, in the arms of a diminutive older woman who was trying to get her under control.

Because she was completely feral.

“You,” the alpha snarled, eyes bulging.

His recognition confused me for a moment. Until I realised he must’ve watched me with Hazel.

Suddenly, I felt like erasing every trace of us online simply because this fucker got that small piece of us.

I caught sight of a second empty vial on the floor.

“What the fuck have you done to her?” I roared.

He followed my gaze and sneered. “Fucking bitch went feral from the first shot and—”

I never did get to find out what Hazel did to prevent them from administering the second shot because I’d punched him in his smug fucking mouth.

He was much bigger than me and I did not have it in me to care.

I started to care a little bit more when he lunged at me, letting his whole bodyweight take us both to the floor. He used his size to full advantage, keeping me on the defence as we grappled. It wasn’t a modern alpha contest, our dominance surging through our blows like savages.

He split my lip.

I blackened his eye in return.

I welcomed the pain of his skull tearing open my knuckles. His blood mingled with mine between my fingers, making my blows slippery.

His hand shot out and found my throat. The right pressure in the wrong place and my strength drained out of me. I choked and he squeezed tighter.

No.

Alarm bells rang uselessly in my head as his face grew blurry above me. He was relentless, no matter how hard I scratched and pulled at his grip.

Hazel needs you.

My fingers frantically tried to find a weak spot on his face, neck, anywhere to try and stop the claustrophobia creeping in, the oxygen snatched from my lungs before it was too late and—

Suddenly a foot appeared from above me, landing directly on my attacker’s jaw. His neck snapped back from the force of the blow and he rolled off me with a pained groan. Air rushed back down my windpipe and the darkening spots cleared from my vision.

“Get the fuck off my packmate.”

Holy shit. The sheer power behind Ben’s bark was staggering, my alpha wincing at the collateral damage. I coughed, raw and violent, trying to get my breathing back to normal.

The asshole laughed. Laughed.

“She was begging for me,” he taunted us. “Showed me her neck. May as well have spread those whore legs of h—”

There was a sickening crunch. The sound was so visceral, bone and gore and flesh. I glanced back to see blood pouring from the other alpha’s nose. Ben inhaled quietly and the atmosphere of the entire room grew thin.

“Quiet,” Ben commanded him.

Like a dog.

Still unsatisfied, Ben applied his thumbs almost clinically and with a firm push, drove the bone shards deeper into the exposed membranes of his face. The alpha let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“Do not touch what is mine,” Ben seethed.

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