Page 105 of The Gamma's Second Chance

Why was Kimberly at the mating ball? Why would she want to hurt our alpha and luna? And why would she plant a bomb in their room and then come to their pack demanding to speak with them?

None of it adds up.

Unless…

Unless she wasn’t after Wesley and Haven. My steps slow and my breath catches.

What if she was after someone else entirely? Cassandra got ready in Haven and Wesley’s room. She went straight therewhen we arrived at the hotel for the ball and never went into our room until after I marked her in the stairwell. Her scent would have been all over that room.

If Kimberly was at the ball, she would have seen me all over Cassandra. She would have known we were together. If she came to California for me, to try to win me back…

I exhale and sprint forward, chasing after Cassandra, who is almost to the packhouse, her one track mind not realizing I paused behind her.

I’m almost to her—only a few steps away—when a rabid, ear-piercing growl sounds nearby, and Kimberly charges towards Cassandra, launching herself at her with her claws out, her hands wrapping around Cassandra’s neck as she tackles her to the ground.

Chapter 36

CASSANDRA

Clawed hands wrap aroundmy throat, and a female body tackles me to the ground. I hit it with a thud, the air punching from my lungs on impact. But years of practice have my body and my mind prepared for attacks like this, and I catch my breath with ease.

As soon as I do, I flip us, wincing against the pain in my not-quite-healed legs as I wrap them around her to counter our positions. The blonde she-wolf beneath me yelps, but I hold firm, grappling with her hands as she fights back.

She caught me by surprise at first, but it’s clear she has minimal training. Her attempts to escape my grasp on her grow more pathetic by the second. She glares at me, her teeth bared and her dark brown eyes filled with rage as she growls and snarls, thrashing underneath me.

Nolan rushes towards us, but Mason grabs his arms, stopping him from getting closer. “What is she doing outside?” Nolan asks with a snarl.

“I was taking her to the council representative’s car!”

Kimberly’s crazed noises cover any further conversation between them. Her hands continue their frantic flailing, the only part of her I can’t maintain control of. I toss and whip my body around to stay out of her reach, but she eventually grabs my loose hair, yanking it with all her strength and ripping strands from my head in the process. I wince and hiss through the pain, but I grit my teeth, because her attack and focus on my hair gives me the opening I need.

I grab her arms and twist her wrists together, pinning them above her head with one hand, my other at her neck with claws extended, aimed directly at her artery.

“Bitch,” she spits at me. “He should be mine. Heismine.”

All I can do is laugh at her. “You’re delusional.”

My hand at her throat creeps closer, my extended claws scraping her skin. She stretches her neck and whimpers. Her eyes widen as I break the skin, a bead of blood forming and dripping down to the ground beneath her. I laugh again, leaning over her more, drawing my claw down her neck in a straight line, extending that superficial cut. “Even before you rejected him, he was never yours.”

She jerks herself away from my claw as I pierce deeper into her flesh, but I lift my knee higher, slam it down, and slide it next to her head, pushing hard against her skull so she can’t lean away to avoid the impending injury. She squeezes her eyes shut, and with a trembling body and a piercing pitch, she shrieks, “Yield! I yield!”

My lycan curls her lip, unsatisfied with her surrender, but as soon as the words leave her mouth, Nolan lifts me off her and takes me several steps away from where we fought. His hands cup my cheeks, and he scans my body frantically, his brows furrowed and his eyes filled with worry.

“Are you all right?” he asks, keeping me close to him, hovering over me and shielding me from the world, and I nod in response. “Did she hurt you?”

“No,” I say.

He exhales in relief and drops his forehead to mine, eyes closing. His fingers weave into the hair at my nape, and his other hand trails down my neck, fingertips circling my mark, as if he’s reassuring himself that it’s still there. I arch my neck higher, submitting to him and confirming his claim on me, and he swallows, aligning his hips with mine as he continues to trace my mark.

The sensual, possessive touch sends unfathomable shivers of delight skittering across my skin, shivers that extend to my very soul. Growling, I rise onto my toes and kiss him, curling my hands into his shirt.

This male is mine, and I want anyone who is watching to know it.

The kiss is passionate, but brief, Nolan tearing his lips from mine after only a few seconds. Tension builds under his skin, his muscles rippling, and he takes my hand in his.

“I need to get you away from her,” he murmurs, the concern from his eyes working its way into the timbre of his voice.“You’re not safe around her,” he adds, leading me towards the packhouse.

His long strides are difficult to keep pace with, and I have to jog to keep up with him. But we only make it five paces towards the house when he roars and whirls around, his hand flying out and catching a charging Kimberly by the throat. His momentum keeps him spinning, and he throws her to the ground, landing with his knee in her gut and both hands around her neck. Behind us, Mason crouches on the ground, hunched over and covering his groin with one hand and wiping dirt from his eyes with his other hand.

---