Brooks pulled Selena into his arms, hugging her as she buried her face in his chest and cried. He wished he’d heard the entire story Ernesto had given her, because maybe that would have helped. But even without the full story, he knew Selena was going to need a lot of time to deal with it. She was completely wrecked.
Because he couldn’t do a damn thing about what was making her cry, he turned his attention to the problem he was going to have to fix, namely explaining what the hell had happened here. A broken window, a crying teacher, and a gangbanger ranting about monsters. This was going to be damn tough to cover up, but he was sure as hell going to try.
Brooks was so focused on Selena that he didn’t realize how far Ernesto had crawled until he heard a slight creaking sound and looked up in time to see the man pointing an automatic at them, already squeezing the trigger.
Brooks didn’t think. He just slung Selena around in a circle and tossed her behind him, then lunged toward Ernesto. The automatic went off before he got there, and he felt a punch as the first round took him in the shoulder and the second one got him in the gut.
It said something about how bad the hunter bullets had felt when he realized traditional 9mm ball rounds didn’t even feel like a bee sting in comparison. But still, getting shot and having another uniform fucked up by the man who’d killed Selena’s brother was enough to piss anyone off.
He hit Ernesto hard, knocking the gun out of his hand and slamming him to the floor. On the way down, they knocked over one of those industrial metal trash cans, which made a shit ton of noise as pieces of glass large and small flew out.
They landed in the glass and fought for a dominant position. It should have been laughably easy for Brooks to slam the asshole through the floor, but it had been a shitty past few days, and he had just been shot twice. Not to mention the fact that Ernesto was a big guy raised on the street and taught to fight since the day he was born.
They rolled back and forth in the broken glass, cutting the shit out of themselves, punching and shoving. Brooks could have finished this quickly if he’d wanted to, but he was still trying to take Ernesto down alive. For Selena’s sake.
He just about had the man pinned until Selena landed on top of them, growling, clawing, and biting like the out-of-control omega she was.
Brooks was trying to shove Selena aside without hurting her when Ernesto’s hand came up in a blur. That’s all he saw before a long shard of glass slammed into his throat and snapped off. The pain was intense, and blood went everywhere. But the worst part was that Selena completely lost her mind after that. She let out a snarl, not caring that Ernesto had another piece of glass in his hands and was aiming for her neck this time.
Brooks forgot the pain and the blood pouring down his windpipe, which was choking the hell out of him, as he threw himself forward to protect Selena, lashing out with his claws and ripping out Ernesto’s throat.
Brooks turned and looked at Selena to see her growling and snarling as she stared down in blue-eyed rage at the man dying on the floor. Then a movement caught his eye, and Brooks glanced over to see a stunned and silent Ruben standing in the doorway, staring at a scene he couldn’t understand.
It didn’t help when Brooks stood up, a glass shard in his neck and bleeding like a stuck pig as he moved over to Selena to pull her into his arms and calm her down all over again. She continued to stare at Ernesto’s body but didn’t resist the comfort Brooks gave her while she sobbed like crazy.
Brooks looked past her to Ruben, who still stood there gawking like this was the most extreme thing he’d ever seen in his life, which it probably was. Damn, this was going to be difficult to explain.
Zane walked up behind Ruben a few seconds later. He looked like he’d been in a pretty good fight. He was holding his injured arm stiffly, like it was hurting him, but he had a satisfied look on his face that Brooks hadn’t seen in a long time. Maybe that fight with the two gangbangers had finally proved something to him.
His friend took one look at the scene and winced, then put a hand on Ruben’s shoulder.
“Come on, kid,” he said. “Let’s go talk about this.”
Brooks thanked him with a nod, then went back to comforting his mate. He tried to make the same shushing sounds as before, but his throat wouldn’t work. He pulled back a little from Selena, hoping she wouldn’t notice, and tried to get a grip on the piece of glass still sticking out of his throat.
He couldn’t do it without being able to see what he was doing. He tensed, knowing the wound would heal while the glass was still in there. He wondered if he needed to go get Zane when Selena realized what was going on. Reaching up, she gently tugged the shard out.
Brooks sighed in relief the moment it was out, wrapping his arm around her and urging her into the hallway where he hugged her to his chest again and let his body have time to heal itself.
After a moment, Selena pulled back to look up at him, her brown eyes filled with concern. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, because it was all he could do at the moment, asking her the same question with his eyes.
She glanced back at her classroom, then nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. But I’m not sure if I’m processing everything that happened. I just found out my brother didn’t die because he was in a gang. He died because he was trying to protect me from someone he thought wasn’t good enough for me. I also found out my best friend, the man I spent years leaning on, was the person who killed him. And now that Ernesto is dead, I don’t feel anything but relief.”
Brooks tried to say something, but the words still wouldn’t come out. Dammit. So instead, he hugged her again, trying to say everything he felt with nothing more than his touch.
“I love you,” she said against his chest. “I’ve known for a while but couldn’t seem to find the time to tell you. It’s probably not the best time to say it now, but you came and saved my life…again. The least I can do is muster the courage to tell you how I feel.”
Brooks swallowed experimentally, relieved it didn’t feel nearly as painful now. “I’ll always be there to save you,” he whispered in a rough voice. “I love you, too.”
Selena leaned against him, squeezing him tightly. “I know, and it feels really good.”
They stood there like that until Brooks heard the sounds of approaching sirens. No doubt Selena heard them, too.
“We need to figure out what we’re going to tell them,” he whispered. “But once this is over and we’re home, I’m going to tell you about the werewolf legend ofThe One. Okay?”
She smiled up at him. “You get me home before midnight, and you can tell me any legend you want.”
