Chapter 9
Melanie
Ididn’t know life could be so perfect and wonderful. Every single barrier between me and Caspian had totally shattered, and all I could feel was his heart bleeding into mine.
There was nothing to stop us. No anger, no hate, no disappointment or agony storming through us. We were just two souls, and our skin was the only reason we couldn’t merge into each other and become one.
Everyone had left the restaurant, and we were the only ones in the entire room. It meant I could show them how I really felt as they soothed me.
Kai’s hands kept massaging my thighs as he leaned forward, kissing me softly as he fell into the bond as well.
He was there with us, his energy dancing and spinning with ours, and Sin pulsed there, too. If this was what it was like with one alpha bite, then what kind of ecstasy would I feel if Sin sunk his teeth into me, too?
Because I wanted to stay wrapped up in them forever. Sin needed to join us as well, but the haze of pleasure was so thick and addictive that I couldn’t think past whoever was touching me.
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.
Kai still snarled and flung out his fists on my right, and I stared blankly at the door as my world collapsed.
“Brandy, it’s just the bite! Fucking focus! You need to get to Sin!” Kai yelled.
A huge hand landed on my shoulder, and I flinched, wrestling out of his grasp. But the leather alpha dug his thick fingers in, and he yanked me back as he laughed.
“We just need to keep you two apart long enough for your bond to break,” he said. “The sooner you cleave from Caspian, the better it will be for everyone.”
I fell back on my ass, my hair blocking my view.
My heart sank as I felt another blow to my head.
One of Caspian’s dads had come back to the room, and Kai and Sin were still fighting.
Just when I thought something good happened, bonding with them was turned on its head.
“Fuck. You,” I snarled, kicking out, aiming the point of my heel at his shin.
I groaned as I struck him; the impact travelling up my leg.
“You bitch!” he cried out, leaping at me. I kicked out again, but he was too fast and dodged as I edged back over the floor.
“You’ve already used that trick,” he laughed as he shot forward, grabbing my wrists and yanking me towards him.
If I were a fighter, I might have head-butted him or punched him or done anything but pitch forward so he could pin my wrists to the floor under one huge hand, squeezing me hard enough that I was scared he’d snap them.
My aim had been to piss Zania off by biting Caspian, but I didn’t realise she would go this far. I thought if I shared a bite with him, she would leave us alone. It seemed every day that I understood more and more how na?ve 1I had been.
There was a sudden crack and a yell from my right, and I gasped, terrified that Sin had been hurt. But another one of Zania’s mates tumbled to the ground in front of him.
He calmly adjusted his lapels before tucking his right hand into his jacket.
Sin’s cool gaze flicked to me, but he didn’t show he was bothered that I was being held down by an alpha twice my size.
“Gentlemen, if we could please calm yourselves. I would rather not make this any messier than it has to be.”
Panic burst through me as Sin pulled a gun from his jacket.
He lifted it and aimed, but in that second, the alpha under him shot his hand upwards, smacking away the gun.
It skidded across the floor, and Sin instantly reacted, grabbing the arm, twisting it enough for the man to scream, before dropping his knee straight onto his chest.
“I was going to use that,” he said simply, and I would have laughed had the alpha above me not suddenly growled, pressing even harder on the back of my neck.
I would never have thought that they practically raised Sin from how easily he took the alpha down.
Kai used the distraction to snarl and scratch at the alpha subdued him. He was like a raging cat, spitting and hissing at the alpha to reach me. But the alpha reacted too quickly.
I moaned, nausea hitting me as a fist flew into Kai’s face and pain exploded through us. He slipped backwards, tumbling to the floor, and horror plunged through me.
I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe, I just needed to get to my mate.
Throwing my head back, I surprised the alpha as his nose crunched and my skull bloomed with pain. He lost his balance with a yell as he fell hard onto his side.
I shot forward, scrabbling across the floor, but it wasn’t enough.
A yelp rang from me as a foot suddenly sailed into my stomach, and I was hurled across the floor. Red-hot pain burned through my body, so intense my vision went white, and I gasped as I tried to focus.
“Brandy! Fucking hell!” Kai shouted, dragging himself up, and he rushed towards me.
Out of the corner of my eye, Sin smirked as he pressed his knee even harder into the alpha’s chest. I’d never seen him make an expression like that before.
Darkness filled his face as Sin shifted his weight. I wanted to watch him sink deeper into that, to see how he would change the further he pressed down with his foot.
But Kai shouted, and my head whipped left to see him fling his hairpin at the alpha who kicked me, catching him in the throat.
It still wasn’t enough.
The needle clattered to the floor, and the alpha slapped a hand over the side of his neck. His face grew harsher as he stumbled towards me.
I had to move before the leather alpha got to me.
I battled through the pain in my stomach and the emptiness of the bond. Groaning, I slammed my palms on the floor, pulling my knees under me.
I could deal with the pain; it was the emptiness in my new bond that slowed me down.
But I did it. I got to my feet just in time to meet the triumphant grin on the leather alpha’s face as he grabbed my throat.
The air was knocked from me, and I choked as he spun me so my back crashed against his chest. I was shorter than him, so it was easy for him to squeeze my throat. It was another sign of how useless I was as Kai fought to get to me.
I gasped as he suddenly gripped my head, his fingers digging into my skull, wrenching it so far over my shoulder that I screamed at the sudden jolt of pain.
“You make another move, and I’ll snap it,” the leather alpha growled out.