he jumped out of his seat and whirled on Dean, slicing at the tendons in the bobcat’s arm. A gun dropped to the floor. Fired. But the bullet harmlessly sank into the sofa.
Still, Mila flinched with a curse. She would have made a grab for the fallen weapon if it wasn’t somewhere behind Dean. Joel was currently trying to wrestle the second gun from the bobcat, both his hands locked around Dean’s wrist.
Dominic whipped out his phone and called Trey. “Need a little help in the greenroom. Alert security. Keep people away.” He ended the call without waiting for a response.
Mila bit her lip. “I know it’s dumb to get between two dominant shifters when they’re fighting, but I feel like we should do something.”
Intervening in such fights wasn’t done in their culture, but Dominic had every intention of doing so at some point. He was happy for Joel to beat the shit out of Dean, but Dominic was set on being the one to kill the bobcat. “Not yet.”
Mila shifted from foot to foot, wishing one of the brawling males would somehow kick the fallen weapon her way. Just when Joel seemed close to snatching the second gun from Dean, the bobcat managed to train it at Joel’s thigh and attempted to tighten his finger on the trigger. With a snarl, Joel used a surge of strength to shove the gun aside, inadvertently making it point at Dominic.
Her heart in her throat, Mila threw herself at Dominic, knocking him to the floor. The gun fired, and an unbearable heat blazed across her arm. She let out a pained “pissed-the-fuck-off” hiss.
Dominic rolled her beneath him, shielding her. “You okay?”
“Flesh wound,” she assured him. Which was true. But it still burned like a bitch.
“I’ll kill that piece of shit.” The bullet had merely grazed her, to his relief, but it had taken off a good few layers of skin. His head snapped up as his pack mates rushed inside and skidded to a stop, causing Zander, Derren, and Ally to almost crash into them.
“Need a healer over here!” Dominic called out. Mindful of her wound, he carefully pulled Mila to her feet.
She waved Ally off. “I’m fine, it’s just a flesh wound. My kind are fast healers, remember?”
“Then think of this as calming Dominic,” said Ally, placing her hand on Mila’s injured arm.
Taryn squinted. “Is that Dean Preston? I’d ask how the hell he managed to bypass security, but that disguise is damn good. He looks nothing like the pictures I saw of him.”
Trey grimaced at the blood Mila was now wiping from her healed arm. “Your brother and parents are gonna be pissed when they get here and find out you were hurt.”
Joel slammed Dean’s hand against the wall, making the gun clatter to the floor. Joel kicked it aside and then laid into Dean.
Dominic scooped up the weapon as the two male cats tore into each other, snarling and hissing. The fight was ugly. Fists flew. Teeth bit. Claws slashed and stabbed. Dean’s wig and fake beard soon toppled to the blood-specked floor.
Joel was faster. Stronger. But Dean was driven by the anger he’d harbored against Joel since his first vision of Adele, and he was venting every ounce of that rage. It was giving him an edge and making him a little crazy—hell, he even tried to tear a chunk off Joel’s ear with his teeth. Worse, Dean’s padding seemed to be making it hard for Joel to deliver maximum pain.
Zander winced when Dean raked his claws over Joel’s crotch. “That bobcat is a vicious fucker, isn’t he?”
“He knows that even if he defeats Joel, we’ll kill him,” said Mila. “Knows he’s gonna die tonight. He wants to take Joel down with him.”
“The only person who’ll die here tonight is Dean,” said Dominic. Although Mila was healed, the smell of his mate’s blood fed Dominic’s anger until it was agonizing for him to hold back and let Joel have his moment with the bobcat. Both males were tiring, and he knew it would only be a matter of—
Joel doubled over with a grunt as Dean’s claws stabbed him right in the gut. Eyes wide, the pallas cat staggered backward, heaving in a breath.
Smirking, Dean advanced on his opponent. So Dominic fired at the fucker’s ankle. Dean roared in pain, his leg almost crumpling beneath him. Dominic pulled the trigger again. The bullet sank into the bobcat’s foot, eliciting another agonizing cry out of him. And then Dean collapsed