"Have you lost it, what the hell are you doing?"
But I am already charging inside.
The sight that greets me freezes my blood.
Salt is being restrained by two alphas, thrashing and struggling, blood trickling from his mouth, while another alpha stands behind him, tearing at his jeans.
"Step away from him right now," I roar, releasing a low, vibrating warning sound in AO meant for other alphas, followed by another one, a clear confirmation of my claim on Salt.
The sequence does nothing to stop them. At that exact moment, the alpha who was trying to rape him pulls out a taser and fires it at me.
Of course.
The familiar surge of electricity tears through my body. If I had never experienced this before, my reaction would have been far worse, but I have been electroshocked since I was a kid. You never become immune to electricity, but my tolerance is higher than most, for which I am, ironically, almost grateful to Uncle Anzo. This is also a mental thing.
I grab the wire and yank the device out of the alpha’s hand.
The next second, I slam my full weight into him. The other two try to draw their tasers as well, but Salt grabs one by the wrist and lashes out at the other, attempting to kick him in the face. It buys me enough time, maybe two seconds before they shove him away, to knock out the main instigator with a sharp elbow strike. Muay Thai techniques never fail in situations like this.
My movements are a little less coordinated because of the shock, but I am effective enough to land a solid punch on the next alpha, who cannot move freely because he is wedged between the bus seats. The third manages to get a hit in, catching me in the brow, but I have taken worse hits more times than I can count. I fire back immediately with a fast right cross, and he drops unconscious.
I turn and see the beta driver standing behind me, a gun raised and pointed in my direction.
I can tell from his eyes that he is not sure about any of this. His gaze flicks to the covered windows, then to Salt, whose jeans are still dragged halfway down his thighs, exposing his narrowhips, black tattoo lines crawling along his side…like tangled threads of a spiderweb, covered with spiders and various insects. His pale, rounded ass catches my attention for a split second before I force myself to refocus.
"What the hell is this?" the beta demands.
"What is this? Are you blind? It was an attempted rape!" I snap, teeth clenched. "They covered the windows so I wouldn’t see and tried to get to him."
Not waiting for his answer, I pull the burner phone from my pocket and call Storm, immediately putting it on speaker.
He picks up almost instantly.
"Get here now. We’re fifteen minutes from the detention center, on the main state road. The three alphas escorting him tried to rape Salt. I stopped it. They’re incapacitated."
Storm swears viciously. "All right. I’m calling Gessler and Gomez. Stay where you are."
The call ends, and only then does my gaze finally settle on Salt’s face.
If I was expecting any kind of grateful look, I was very wrong.
Salt looks at me darkly, his lips pushed out slightly, almost like he is offended and humiliated that he needed help at all, and from me of all people.
I decide to ignore it for now. Salt cannot easily pull his jeans up on his own with his hands cuffed in front, so I step in behind him, catching the scent of his warm skin and prison shower gel. I grab his jeans and yank them up in one quick motion, my hands briefly settling around his waist as I fasten the fly.
Then I cuff the three unconscious alphas with their own restraints and drag them toward the front seats of the bus.
Two of them are already starting to come around.
"Shit…" one of them mutters, while the other spits blood onto the floor.
"What the fuck is this, Gross?" the bleeding one snarls. "Why did you let him cuff us?" He turns his fury on the beta driver, who is still standing there, uncertain and clearly torn about what he should do next.
"Did you try to rape him? Why were his pants pulled down?" the beta asks.
"That’s none of your damn business. You were only supposed to get us to the destination," one of the alphas snaps.
"It is my business. I’m responsible for the safe transport of prisoners too," the beta replies through clenched teeth. His morals are clearly intact, and he has no intention of protecting would-be rapists.
