Page 74 of Scapegoat

I was starting a new day at a new job, wearing the mating marks of my mates on my neck and the others they’d left on me in a far deeper place, so everything should’ve been amazing, right? I felt amazing. I should’ve been tired, irritable. I had mosquito bites all over my skin from sleeping rough with the guys, but they’d woken me early in the morning so I had time to have a shower and get a change of clothes before reporting for breakfast. But when we went to start work, George had the guys stay behind to have a quick chat to them, leaving me to walk alone to the shed.

Well, not entirely alone.

“So which one is it?”

My eyes jerked up to see that Ned was keeping pace with me. That shit-eating grin of his was back, but his eyes now glittered with a hard light I didn’t like.

“What’re you on about?” I asked, not bothering to be polite.

“Jayden took you off on that bike of his, but his brother wasn’t anywhere to be found either last night.” His lips twisted. “So which one was with you? Jayden or the big fucker?”

“Pretty sure it’s none of your business—”

I felt myself puffing up, the wolf coming to attention and growling inside me, ready to attack. I had to hold her back. Not here, I told her, not now. But she wasn’t going to listen to me because he grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him.

“No, I don’t ’spose it is, not if I get my turn.”

“Your turn?” I gasped, then burst out laughing, going to tear my arm from his grip. “You won’t get shit from me.”

“Shouldn’t say stuff like that,” he said, eyes intent and staring, his fingers digging down deep enough to bruise. “If there’s no hope, then there’s no need to be nice.”

He thought he had me pinned, but he didn’t. I wrapped my hand around his arm and he thought he had me beaten because my fingers weren’t able to span his thicker forearm. But he didn’t have claws. I let mine spring from my fingers, digging into his flesh until I watched that glare lose its power. Sweat sprung across his brow as blood began to drip on the ground between us.

“What the—?” he started to say as he snatched his hand away.

“What the hell are you up to?” Vicki said, crossing the distance between us and the shed, then getting in Ned’s face.

“Nothing you need—”

“Don’t you start trying to pull that shit with me, Ned Harris!” she snapped. “I saw you grab the girl.”

“And she grabbed me right back. Fuck!” When he pulled his arm up, I shrank back, because there was clear evidence of my other nature in the neat punctures in his skin. “What kind of fucking nails you got.”

“Ones you don’t want to be on the business end of,” I shot back. “Steer clear of me, Ned.”

“What’s going on?” I heard Xavier’s voice from the house, then the three of them appeared beside me. Jay and Xavier got in the man’s face, but it was Atlas that shoved him several feet away from me.

“All right, all right, everyone needs to calm down,” George said, joining the fray.

“He grabbed Kai,” Vicki said, outrage vibrating in her voice. “And he didn’t have anything too nice to say to her by the look of it.” She reached over then and took my arm, twisting it gently so that the mottled bruises were apparent to everyone.

“You fuck.”

That was the only warning Ned got, as Jay smacked him straight in the jaw. But one hit wasn’t enough. Next, he and Atlas were lunging at Ned, belting the living shit out of him, not stopping even when they had the man on the ground. I sucked in noisy breaths, hearing my heart beat furiously in my ears, one half of me horrified at what was happening, the other wanting to shove them to the side as I tore off Ned’s head.

“Enough!” Xavier said, wading into the melee, stopping his brothers from kicking the other man while he was down, only to haul him upright, leaving Ned’s feet dangling in the air. “You worked it out yet? No one comes near Kai. No one but us. You look at her, breathe the same air as her, even say hello or good morning, I won’t stop my brothers next time.” He gave Ned a shake, the man’s head lolling on his neck. “Because I’ll be right there at the front, kicking the living shit out of your useless hide.”

He tossed the man aside then like a discarded doll and Ned fell in a messy heap like his limbs were made of cotton rather than flesh and bone.

“Is this finished?” George asked Xavier, not Ned, ignoring the other man’s friends as they clustered on the veranda.

“As long as he keeps the fuck away from Kai,” Xavier growled from between gritted teeth.

“Fair enough.” George nodded, then looked at the other men. “That all clear to everyone? Kai is not interested in anything you lot have to say and neither am I. Get your arses in the shed and start shearing. There’s sheep waiting.”

“You going to be all right, love?” Vicki asked me in a concerned voice. “Maybe we should put some ice on that.”

I shook my head, but shot her a smile, because I wouldn’t need that. My wounds were already beginning to heal, which was more than could be said about Ned. He’d moved slightly, groaning when he did so, then reconsidered that decision, staying collapsed down on the dirt until we were inside the shed. As I cast a look back, I saw one of his mates step forward to take Ned to his bunk.

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