It was like I was in heat again, except that I was so full and everything was so right with them that nothing would ever break it.
“Hey!” Kai shouted, flying back from me. “What the fuck are you—”
Pain exploded through the bond as something slammed into my back, and Caspian was suddenly thrown from his chair.
He slipped, and I cried out as one of his dads shadowed me.
Chairs clattered to the floor, and I toppled, hands grabbing me from behind, dragging backwards across the floor away from my mates.
Everything was too fast. Pain slashed through my arms as two of his dads hauled Caspian away.
I choked out, my body suddenly jerking. The farther they pulled us apart, the tighter my chest grew, until I was wheezing and crying out.
“Caspian!” I screamed. “No! Stop!” But I could barely get the words out before the alpha twisted my arm, and I cried at the sharp burst of pain.
I couldn’t let him go. They couldn’t take him.
Caspian fought as much as he could, but his dad smashed his fist into his stomach before another hit his face, and the thuds reverberated in my own body.
The two alphas trapped him, one on each arm, and pulled him back towards the main doors of the restaurant. No matter how big Caspian was, they kept hitting him until he stayed down. Their faces were neutral, as if it didn’t matter to them that Caspian was their own son.
It was like I was being ripped in two. Another scream tore from me as Caspian roared, but there was nothing we could do to stop him.
“Mel! Get the fuck off me! Mel!” he shouted, reaching out for me. But they knocked his head back, and my vision blurred as it thumped in my own body.
Not touching him was like death. I was fading away the further he went.
Shouts came from the table as Caspian’s other dads attacked Kai and Sin. My scalp pinched, and I gasped as one of them grabbed Kai’s hair and threw him to the floor. Pain thundered through us before there was a sudden hiss, and the alpha jumped back from him, yelling as he grabbed the hairpin in his shin.
“Try that, you fucking piece of shit,” he snarled.
“Kai, watch out!” I called, but he wasn’t quick enough, and another alpha tackled him from behind.
I cried out, but they kept pulling Caspian and I apart. The wood of the floor chafed across my skin as the huge alpha dragged me up to stand.
He grabbed my wrists, pinning me down, and I cried out. “Caspian! No! Stop!”
I snarled, struggling against him, kicking out at his legs, throwing my weight forward.
Even having the alpha touch me was disgusting. I recognised him instantly as the leather alpha who trapped me at the party.
The alpha tripped, but it wasn’t enough to get free. I had to do something; I had to stop them from taking him away.
Caspian reached for us, shouting our names, but they forced a rag over his face, and he suddenly went limp.
His energy vanished inside me, like he’d been cut out with a rusty knife.
I screamed again, my legs giving way to pure horror as I went limp, tugging Caspian’s dad with me.
“Shit,” he swore as he dropped me.
I crawled away across the hard floor. I could only see Caspian’s body, and my panic burst through the haze of the bite.
I had to get to Caspian. I had to protect him. He couldn’t go. My alpha couldn’t leave me.
A slam rang through the room as they pulled him through the double doors of the restaurant.
“No,” I gasped, still crawling forward. “No, they can’t…” The shock to my body was so severe that even when I tried to push myself to my feet, I couldn’t stand.
