Page 45 of My Ruthless Alpha

“Here we go…” I mumbled under my breath as we all got up, not prepared to be beaten down by their retaliation.

At once, with the scrape of chairs and several angry grunts, the bikers swung at us, trying to land their blows. The humans were easy to bypass as their reflexes were much slower,but the shifters did prove to be a bit more challenging to handle in such a small space, given their size.

The bar erupted in a sea of chaos. A full-fledged bar brawl broke out, with punch after punch being thrown and some of the other bar-goers joining in.

I heard Ethan laugh from beside me after receiving a fist to the face, spitting out a mouthful of blood as an antagonistic gleam shadowed his face with a grin while he looked at his assailant with his fists up. “Is that all you’ve got?”

He was in his glory, along with Ezra, when he grabbed another man by his vest and hit his face repeatedly, able to let out that anger on a deserving target.

It was all happening so quickly, and I had half a mind to try and stop it, but the moment one of the shifters grabbed my collar, I swung reflexively, stunning him with an elbow to the face before following it up with a quick punch, forcing him back out of my space. I felt as my phone buzzed in my pocket, but given everything going on, there was no time to check it.

While it was tempting to shift and show them some real power, it wasn’t the time or place.

We were skirting that precarious line of allowing that fury to guide us without giving up our shifter identities or causing even more damage. If we let all that careful restraint go, there was a high chance the building wouldn’t still be standing by the end of it.

As the men kept coming at us, refusing to back down, we continued to retaliate, forcing back anyone we had to with our fists.

It was a complete mess of limbs and bodies as tables were shoved back or broken, caught in the middle of it all. Anyonewho didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire left the bar in a rush, but the others who were drunk and hyped up by the action joined in, sometimes swinging on people who had nothing to do with the brawl, which only instigated more violence.

The bartender and bottle girls were long gone, well aware that they could do nothing to break up the fights.

Soon enough, though, the bikers were starting to tire as their faces puffed up from the inflammation and blood-stained their skin.

The ringleader caught my attention while he stood near me, looking somewhat dazed as he laughed.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I shoved him back against a wooden support beam, hearing the faintest crack as the material groaned beneath the force of it. “What the hell’s so funny, huh? That you and your goons are losing this fight?”

He chuckled again with a wheezy sound as blood trickled from a cut above his eyebrow. “No, you idiot…you think we targeted you for no reason, right? Well, you’re wrong.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That pretty little mate of yours has caused quite the trouble for us…but while you and your buddies are here beating our asses, you’re too preoccupied to know we have quite the numbers, and some of our men are already in your home turf…just waiting to take the bitch.”

His words sank in as he gave me more of that smug expression, beginning to laugh all over again as the realization settled within my features. “There you go, kid…let those wheels start turning.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, feeling a rush of simultaneous panic and rage as I shoved him back against the beam again,forcing the breath from his lungs. “You work for Colton, don’t you?”

The ringleader chuckled despite his pain and managed to lift his hands in mock surrender. “Guilty…”

With the confirmation, there was no holding back by then as I grabbed his shoulders and threw him, putting distance between us while he crashed into one of the old wooden tables.

I turned my attention to the guys as they continued holding back the others, making fairly quick work of them.

“This is a diversion!” I shouted at them, watching as they swung at whatever men were still standing and returning for more. “They’re after Faye!”

Some of their heads turned at once as they caught my words, letting mutual realization wash over them. Their eyes widened, well aware of how we’d walked into a trap. We took the bait and allowed ourselves to be distracted.

“Shit—”

Ezra cut himself off as another shifter charged at him again, but he fed him a fist to the face again easily enough, forcing the assailant back again. He looked at me. “You have to get to her then.”

“We need to take care of this first!” Ethan returned, receiving a good few punches from one of the shifters before slamming his forehead into the other’s, causing him to groan and stumble back.

Despite being aware of my mistake, I knew he was right. He had to fend them off before we could do anything.

Aware of just how far away we were from my territory, it was easy enough for me to find the inspiration I needed to keepfighting—to hit harder and faster with the intention of finishing it, not merely entertaining the brawl.

I could only think of Faye and Margo while I grit my teeth and take out the nearest guy, not letting up until he refused to move again.

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