Page 57 of Rejected Mate

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Itsoundedlikeanimalstearing each other apart.

One moment, I was squished between Ares’s massive body and the wall, and the next, I was witnessing the worst knock-down, drag-out fight I’d ever seen.

The three vamps—two I had never seen before and Callan—attacked Ares with such vicious ferocity, I was stunned. Fangs and claws flashed as they grappled with him. They were trying to kill him!

“Pin him down!” Callan growled as he held the blade aloft.

But the other two couldn’t contain Ares. He dodged and fought, catching one in the stomach with a backward kick, before ducking under the arms of the other and using his momentum to send that vampire crashing into the wall.

The room shook. A candle fell over and set the tablecloth on fire. The smell of burned fabric flooded the air.

The cameraman ran past me, blasting through the kitchen doors with unprecedented speed. Ares’s eyes tracked the escaping man as he circled away from Callan and his knife, his back to the wall, and his eyes flicking between his opponent and me.

“Wren, go. Get out of here!”

Go? He wanted me to leave him to fight three against one? The two henchmen were getting up and blocking the exits as Callan advanced around the destroyed table, blade at the ready. Ares was unarmed. How long could he fight all three?

This isn’t your fight, a voice inside me said. I should slip out and warn someone, but what if something happened to Ares? He’d protected me. Could I really leave him here alone?

No. The fight wasn’t fair. Time to even things up.

I grabbed a heavy metal candle holder and raised it over my shoulder like a baseball bat.

“Wren.” Ares’s voice cut off with a strangled sound.

My eyes cut left as Callan pressed the blade to Ares’ throat. The henchmen didn’t even glance my way. I wasn’t a threat to them.

I tore forward.

In two bounds, I was on Callan. I raised the candle holder and smashed it down with as much force as I could muster. It cracked into his skull hard, then reverberated back, making me stumble.

It was a solid blow. Callan let out a strangled sound, one of surprise and anger. But he whirled on me, moving lightning fast as he shifted the blade to the other hand.

I felt a slash along my side. White-hot pain blotted out all thought as a yelp escaped my throat. I stumbled back as I felt warm, wet liquid begin to slide down my abdomen. He stared at me, surprised, as if he had no intention of cutting me. But then his face morphed from surprise to anger.

“You should have stayed out of this,” he said, looking at the blood—myblood—on the knife. “But you’re a very stupid girl, and that’ll be your downfall.”

“Stay away from her!”

Ares lunged like fighting was all he’d ever known. He swung fast, hitting Callan three times before I could even process what was happening. Even with his vampire senses and speed, Callan barely knew what hit him. He dropped the blade, crying out as Ares got him in a headlock.

The two henchmen started forward, but I stepped in their way. They stared, unsure of what to do. It had been clear in Callan’s reaction that they weren’t here to hurt me. Or at least that was what I was counting on. The confusion gave Ares the seconds he needed. He threw Callan to the ground, bent down, and picked up the dagger.

Chest heaving, he stared at the blade. “An iron blade slathered with garlic, Callan? Even I wouldn’t have thought you’d stoop that low.”

Callan groaned. “You and William won’t be in control forever, Raith. Someone will take you down.”

“Not you, and not today. What you didn’t count on was the bravery of our guests.”

Ares turned to me, but his triumphant smile turned to fear. “Wren, you’re bleeding.”

Was I? I’d forgotten.

I had enough time to glance down at my torn dress covered in blood, before the world began to dim. The last thing I remembered before it all went black was Ares’s arm slipping around me.

I awoke in a bed in a candlelit room with no idea of where I was.

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