Page 76 of Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse)

What a fucking mess.

“They want Issa to make a statement,” Cyrus said with a raised brow.

Glancing over my shoulder toward the closed office door, I turned back to the police officer with his hands resting on his belt.

“She’s with one of her alphas right now. She needed to be calmed down after that asshole assaulted her.”

“His buddies are telling a different story.”

The cop was a beta, and his tone sounded as though he was leaning more toward Issa’s side than the alphas.

“Let me guess – they were attacked unprovoked? Our beta already has bruising and swelling where that fucker grabbed her.”

The officer pulled a notebook from his breast pocket and started jotting down notes. “Had anything else transpired before?”

“I don’t know the details, but she’d told our bartender he was verbally accosting her.”

“Accosting her how?”

“I don’t know the full details. I was in my office when everything was happening.” Instead of out here where I could keep an eye on her.

Mother…fucker. I had supported her decision to get a job and had been overjoyed that she wanted to work for us. In my mind, it would have been easier to keep her safe if she was under the same roof as her three alphas.

And we’d fucking failed her.

We had plenty of security in this place, though. Issa could have simply said something to one of the bouncers or even Aryn and the alpha would have been booted out the door.

She was trying to be strong, trying to prove she could handle this job and being around alphas.

And…she’d done exactly that. Yeah, the fucker had put his hands on her, but she hadn’t been seriously injured. I wouldn’t know the full story until I had some time to talk to her, but I was proud of her. Pissed at myself and my staff, but proud as fuck of our girl.

“Would it be possible to bring her out to speak to me? Or could I–”

“No,” Cyrus and I said at the same time when the officer started to ask whether he could step into the office.

Beta or not, a strange man in the room with Issa when Ax was so out of control would be…well, our packmate would definitely end up in the clink.

“Could we bring her by the station later tonight or in the morning?” Cyrus, ever the diplomat, asked, looking between me and the officer while rubbing the back of his neck.

The policeman looked between the two of us and the reason behind our protests seemed to sink in because his brows raised and he nodded.

“Could someone take pictures of her injuries tonight while they’re fresh?”

Warm linen and chocolate covered strawberries lifted on the breeze a second before Issa and Amir stepped outside and stopped beside me. For some reason, I didn’t like the two of them so exposed out here and pushed them both until they were between Cyrus and myself.

Stupid, being as there were enough officers here to ensure their safety. But my alpha was barely hanging on by a thread after tonight’s incident.

“I’m Isabelle Rivera,” she said, offering the officer her hand, and it wasn’t lost on me that she’d intentionally offered the hand with her bruised wrist.

The officer’s eyes scanned her, not a slow perusal, but rather looking for injuries. “Other than the obvious bruising on your wrist, did the alpha cause any other injuries?”

“No. Because my alpha stopped him before he could go any further. I have no doubt he would have–” She cut herself off and blinked rapidly as her eyes grew glassy with unshed tears.

Mother fucker.

Rage started to boil fresh in my veins. I was the fucking pack lead. I needed to keep my shit together or I could end up making the situation far worse than it already was.

“The victim’s friends–”

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