My contract husband’s face darkens.
"Oh, you really know a lot about missing balls, don’t you?" Salt fires back, rage in his eyes as he glares at Jeff.
"What did you just say?" Jeff growls.
"Cuck!"
The word rings out across the dance floor.
A horrifying silence falls.
Everyone stares at Salt and Jeff.
Jeff, apparently, didn’t get the memo the first time, because he is about to make the same mistake. He raises his hand, about to take a swing at Salt, but I see it literally in slow motion. The fighting mode grants me that.
I charge at Jeff like a raging bull and slam him to the ground.
He learns slowly? He’ll learn this time!
Blow after blow lands on Jeff’s face, turning it into red pulp in seconds. All I hear is my breath and my pounding heart, and the smell of blood drives my adrenaline even higher.
Then… right next to Jeff’s battered head, someone drops to their knees.
It’s Shane.
His hands are clenched at his chest in a pleading gesture, his face soaked with tears.
"Please, alpha! Please don’t kill him, I’m begging you. I love him!"
His scent, with its distinctive hint of vanilla, immediately reveals pregnancy. That snaps me back to myself, even though it’s incredibly hard in the state I’m in.
Focusing on reining in my energy, I stop punching, aware that I’ve already done plenty of damage.
Slowly, I stand up, leaving Jeff’s unconscious body on the floor. Shane bends down over his bloodied face, as if trying to shield him from me. I turn in a slow circle. A heavy silence has settled over the room, and someone has even turned the music off.
That is when I notice a small group of betas grouped near Sidorov, dressed in staff uniforms. They are holding tasers, but none of them makes a move to use them. They just stand there, watching passively.
Sidorov also observes it almost indifferently.
Of course. They had no intention of interfering with the spectacle. Why am I not surprised?
I look at the alphas still standing, and at those sprawled on the floor or struggling to get back up.
"If anyone here ever tries to touch him, I swear I’ll make you suffer. And I mean it."
Silence answers me, no one dares to say a word. I assume they took me pretty seriously. When someone speaks while in fighting mode, it is hard not to.
I look back at Salt. He is staring at me, lips parted, breathing fast.
I walk over, bend down, grab him around the waist, and sling him over my shoulder like I’m some damn caveman.
With a grim expression, I head toward our unit, leaving the silenced aftermath behind.
Not for long, though.
To my astonishment, once I am about sixty feet away, someone turns the music back on! What the fuck? Just another night here, apparently.
It is shocking, and yet somehow not. This island really is a strange place.
