The chatting is over.
In the next second, the oldest Tanner lunges at me…
I let out a desperate squeal, and he knocks me to the ground with one shove. I try to flip onto my back right away, but he holds me down almost effortlessly with one hand.
His other hand hooks into my pants and starts yanking them down; pale fear sweeps through me, and I start screaming as loudly as I can, but the second one crouches beside me and clamps his hands over my mouth.
When my ass is already exposed, I hear a strange dull thud behind me and a sound like something’s breaking.
The hand pinning me down suddenly lets go.
That gives me enough momentum to twist onto my back and see what is happening.
One of the brothers is on the ground holding his arm near the elbow.
Another lies nearby and seems unconscious.
And the oldest one, who has just pushed himself to his feet, starts running like crazy.
A man is standing over them.
Wearing a mask.
I freeze, staring at him with a blank, stunned look, unable to understand what just happened.
The brother clutching his elbow scrambles up with some effort and grabs the other one under the arm, trying to hoist him up.
But the masked man has no intention of letting them get away with this.
The strike is so fast I barely catch it, and the middle Tanner, the one trying to lift his younger brother, collapses back to the ground, now both of them lying unconscious.
Then the man slowly turns toward me.
My eyes meet his, or more like meet the thin mesh covering his eyes, and everything goes quiet.
I inhale and catch the scent of an unfamiliar alpha, a foreign, mostly neutral scent that stirs neither negative nor positive reactions, the kind typical of people with low-to-half compatibility.
I don’t recognize the individual note of the scent; I’ve never smelled it before.
The man is very tall, taller than Bay by at least three inches, and Bay was solid, but this one is even broader and more massive.
He slowly lifts his hand and points toward the path leading to my house.
What the fuck?
He’s staying still, silently showing me the way out; it’s pretty obvious he wants me to leave.
"Tha… thank you," I manage to mumble.
I get to my feet and tug my pants up in a frantic motion.
The man does not move as he watches me, or at least I think he watches me since I can’t actually see his eyes beneath the mask.
I start backing away, glancing over my shoulder. He still stands over the two motionless Tanner brothers.
Right then I hear footsteps from the opposite direction, some students approaching, and I turn back for another look only to find that the masked man is gone. The Tanners, however, are still lying on the ground.
Pulse spiking, I walk past the group, pretending I have no idea what’s going on and that I have nothing to do with those two people lying sixty-six feet away.
