“But…we could have…I…you and I, we could have mated, we could have been pack, been happy.”
I press my lips together and step away from his reaching hand. “Liam, I think who you are came out loud and clear. I wouldn’t have been happy living a life with someone like you.”
“You don’t mean that. We were best friends.”
“Friends don’t abandon their friends. Friends don’t set their friends up time and again to be humiliated and abused by the pack. And friends don’t sit back and watch while their friends rape their-” I cut my words short, staring at the screen door.
Dumb. So dumb. I should not have said that.
“Liam, you need to leave now. Right now,” I hiss under my breath urgently.
“Too late,” Hazard snarls in a feral tone and flies through my screen door, changing in mid-air and barrelling into Liam.
I fling myself forward, tackling Hazard on his second lunge. We collide mid-air, and I roll with him to the side.
Hazard struggles in my arms, clawing the dirt and dragging me easily after Liam, who is scampering backwards.
“Hazard! Stop, please! It was a long time ago!” But he’s possessed; he doesn’t hear me. I scream out for help and see Wrath and Riot appear. They immediately get hold of Hazard and pin him to the ground.
“What the fuck!” Liam shouts. He gets to his feet and takes three more startled steps back when Hazard manages to move all three of us.
“Leave, Liam!” I order coldly.
“He’s feral!” Liam shouts at me.
“No, he’s not. But he’s mine, and I’ll protect him.” I leave ‘the way you didn’t protect me’ unsaid.
Liam blanches and looks around. “The pack isn’t going to sit back and be okay with this.”
“Get lost!” Riot roars.
Liam loses even more colour and climbs into his truck. We sit tense in the yard until he’s gone, and only then do Riot and Wrath roll off Hazard.
He turns, snapping violently, his teeth closing on air just in front of Riot’s face. To his credit, Riot doesn’t even flinch.
I look at the house and see Khaos and Angel standing there.
“You could have helped.”
Khaos stands up straight. “I agree; we could have helped kill him. Next time he comes here, he will die.”
I gape at the arrogant alpha.
Angel simply trembles, his eyes burning into my very soul.
“I heard what you said,” Khaos says calmly. “Both comments. And just so you know, as we are yours, you are ours, and we will protect you.”
Something goes between the five of them, something I don’t understand. I turn, taking them all in, the steady glares they are all sending me. The shimmers in the air that get brighter as our bond deepens.
Hazard transforms and takes me in his arms, picking me up. I wrap my legs around his waist and stare down at him.
“They hurt you.”
My concern melts away. “They’ve been hurting me since my mother died. I got away. It’s in the past.”
Hazard growls, and there’s so much pain and helplessness in his eyes. I glance behind us at Angel, who is staring at his twin with his own agony and helplessness. It would be hard to watch the people you love be hurt over and over, unable to fix it.
“Hazard,” I pause, knowing I’m going to be giving a whole lot of the wrong signals but needing to do something to ease the pain in his eyes. “Do you want to take care of me today?”
