Page 17 of Brutal Alpha Bully

He might as well be licking his lips. The big bad wolf.

“She thinks we’re cryptids,” another voice says, a little higher, more nasally.

I put my arm around Nora, turning to see Farris Sorel emerging from the other side of the clearing. I realize the strangesmell I caught earlier wasn’t the woods at all. It was the thick, minty scent of his hair gel.

“It’s a lot worse than that,” Dallas says, grinning when another figure emerges, and Tanner—looking more bored than anything—appears, sighing and leaning against a tree, crossing his arms like he’s ready to get this over with.

“Just let me go,” I say, voice small. Why did I use all that magic to get out of there? We could have tried to sneak through the front door, or made a rope from sheets. Then I would have more power available now to fight off these assholes.

“While that’s very convincing,” Farris says, his eyes glinting like the knife in his hand as he circles around us, “we are under strict ordersnotto let you go.”

“You don’t have to do what he says,” I try, thinking I might just be able to appeal to them. “Think about your father—”

“You don’t knowshitabout our father!” Tanner surprises me by slamming his fist into a tree, which shakes the thing so violently that daemonic ash shifts around us, twinkling through the air. It would be beautiful if it weren’t so chilling.

“He’s right,” Farris shrugs, looking pleased that Tanner has joined in on the fun. Farris opens his mouth to say something else, but at that moment, Tanner lunges forward, reaching for Nora.

A scream rips out of her when he catches her around the wrist and yanks, and when I turn toward him, I don’t see anything. I don’t see him, or the trees, or the sky, or even my daughter.

Only a swirling rage of red and black as I reach into the stores of magic I have left, scooping at the very bottom of the barrel and drawing some life from myself, bottling up that anger,condensing it, and firing it at the man who has dared to try taking Nora from me.

Chapter 9 - Xeran

I come around the corner just in time to see Seraphina blast Tanner back into a tree.

Her magic sparks and snarls, singing through the air with the might of a lightning bolt as it stretches out from her fingertips and zips through the night, hitting him in the center of his chest and hurtling his body.

Nora is untouched, but Seraphina crumples to the ground.

Her daughter steps in front of her, looking impossibly small with her hands out. From the back, I can’t see her face, only hear her voice when she says, “Stayback!”

Farris laughs, “Oh, are you going to stop us?”

When Dallas lunges toward her, it sends my wolf into a frenzy. Hurtling toward them, I kick up pine needles and dust, snarling and sliding over the ground in front of Seraphina and Nora just in time to keep Dallas from reaching toward her.

He jumps back, startled. Maybe he was too invested in the exchange, too single-minded to keep his nose up for scents. If he had, he would have noticed me heading this way. Would have caught the signs of me shifting and running through the woods for the past five minutes, just after I woke up and realized the girls were gone.

I should have thought to do more than stick one of those little trackers on Seraphina’s car. If I’m being honest, I didn’t think she would do anything but climb in and start to drive. I thought that the notification coming through my phone would wake me up quick enough.

If I was in my human form like the rest of them, I might respond to Farris’s question with, “No, I am.”

But I can’t speak—can only snarl at them. Through the eyes of my wolf, I have to lower my head to see their faces, which are brimming with barely contained fear, a thin veneer of anger slapped over it.

I could rip them to pieces right now, just for deigning to threaten my… what?

What right do I have over the woman and girl behind me right now, except for Declan “giving” Seraphina to me?

Tension grows taut between us, the air sharp with the sense that a single wrong move could send blood spattering over the dirt. Deep down, I know the truth of why I haven’t already sunk my teeth into their necks.

Because when I look at Dallas, I see him as he was ten years ago, fifteen years ago. I see him as the cool teenager I looked up to, the guy driving the black Mustang that I thought was so awesome. The guy who’d bring back little treats after a weekend of hunting with Dad.

I see Farris as the snotty kid we’d all make fun of, but still the kid I protected on the playground like my own life was in the balance.

And maybe they still feel some resemblance of brotherhood, too, because when Tanner gasps and groans, writhing on the ground by the tree he slammed into, both Dallas and Farris turn to him, their gazes showing the worry behind their eyes.

“Fuck,” Dallas snaps, glancing at me, then to Farris, then back to the brother with steam rising from the scorch mark in the center of his chest.

I have a feeling that if Seraphina had put just a fraction more juice into her blow, Tanner wouldn’t be moaning in pain right now.

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