I can’t let that happen.
I won’t.
Halley Sparks ismineto protect!
Chapter Eight
Halley
It takes a moment for my brain to catch up. At first it’s just the shock. The pain doesn’t register as anything but pressure and heat in my thigh.
I stare stupidly at the spreading red.
Then the burn hits.
It knifes up my leg, sharp and sudden, and a sound saws out of me in a ragged, pitiful whimper.
I drop to a knee.
So much for being an unstoppable power.
Something massive barrels into me, knocking the air from my lungs and driving me into the pavement so fast I don’t even get to scream.
A weight crashes down over me. Heavy. Solid.Alpha.
A fresh hail of bullets screams overhead.
I can’t breathe. Can’t see.
The body on top of mine jolts. Once. Twice. Over and over.
Hot blood splashes across my cheeks, slides down my neck, and slips beneath my bite collar.
It takes a second too long for my brain to catch up. And then it hits.
An Alpha is taking bullets for me.
Oh frack, oh frack, oh frack.
The barrage goes on and on, relentless and deafening.
My savior is an Alpha and they’re built to take damage. Built to outlast. But notthismuch.
Finally. Mercifully. A different sound cuts through the chaos.
A volley of clean, practiced bursts of gunfire comes from somewhere to the left.
The body on top of me grunts as another bullet rips through his ear and a splatter of blood sprays over my face, hot and sticky.
The assault ends.
He doesn’t move and, for a second, I’m worried I’m laying underneath a corpse.
I gasp in relief when the Alpha shifts, groaning low in his chest like someone gutted him and then asked him to run a mile.
My head’s spinning, the sky’s tilted sideways, and I still can’t breathe right. But the weight lifts enough for me to twist my neck and look up.
And I freeze.
