Page 135 of Home: Posy 5

If thatwasour mate screaming in pain, someone was about to die, and protocol be damned.

Following the sweet scent and loud yelling, I ran into the kitchen, my boys hustling right behind me, and found who had to be Alpha Briggs standing over a small girl huddled it on the floor. He had a huge handful of her brown hair twisted around his fist, yanking her neck back. Blood poured from her mouth and it was obvious that her jaw was broken.

"What do you think you’re doing?!" Cole roared.

"How dare you harm our mate?!" bellowed Wyatt.

Ash stood frozen in the doorway, and Jay lost all control of Quartz, who ripped his clothes to ribbons as he shifted.

"Mate?" sneered Alpha Briggs as he glanced at us with a smirk. "This pathetic runt? She's a worthless whore. A useless slut. Take my advice, boys. Reject her quick and take a chosen mate."

Stay in human form,I told the others, knowing it was already too late for Jay.You need to help our mate while we take care of this bastard.

I handed Garnet the reins and shifted quickly, then he and Quartz let loose with thunderous growls as they advanced on Alpha Briggs. He released our mate’s hair, and she slumped to the floor and curled into a little ball, covering her head with her hands with enough familiarity that I knew this was no one-time incident.

Alpha Briggs crouched and shifted into his wolf, and fierce snarls echoed around the kitchen as Garnet and Quartz tore into him. He was a good fighter, but no match for us. As soon as Garnet snapped the alpha’s neck, Quartz began to shred him into little pieces, and I turned all of my attention to our mate.

Beta Roy had scooped her up and carried her to one corner, crouching in front of her protectively, and that was theonlyreason my brothers were leaving him alive.

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Cole

After Garnet broke Alpha Briggs’ neck, he supervised Quartz utterly destroying the bastard while Wyatt, Ash, and I hustled over to our mate. One furious glare was all it took for that worthless beta to get out of our way, then we fell to our knees around her, too scared of all her injuries to touch her.

She was thin, far too thin, and had cuts and bruises and scars everywhere I could see. Her brown hair was long and straight, but tangled and unwashed. I could even see blood matted up near the base of her skull.

We hadn't gotten here in time to protect her. We failed her before we even found her.

Never again,I vowed to myself.

"Are you okay?" Ash’s hands clenched into his dark curls.

"She's obviously not, idiot!" Wyatt barked.

"Why isn't her wolf healing her?" I muttered.

"I can't evenfeelher wolf," Ash said. "Can any of you?"

"What do we do?" Wyatt looked like he was about to cry.

"Let's get her off the floor to start with. Beta, get the pack doctor," I snapped at the man, then scooped up the girl’s tiny body and held her tight against my heart.

She weighs nothing!I linked my brothers.Goddess, I’m terrified I’m going to hurt her more!

Just be gentle, Jay linked me, trying to distract himself from what his wolf was doing to Alpha Briggs.

I had just stood up with her in my arms when a door slammed open.

"What's going on here?"

"Posy!"

"Posy? Is that her name?" I asked glancing over my shoulder to see Wyatt and Ash had blocked the two newcomers from approaching our mate.

"What's it matter to you?" The first one glared at me. "Give her here! How dare you touch her!"

"I dare because she's ours! Our mate!"

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