howled. He released Jack Henry and swung around to face Elias.
“Get away from my mate,” Elias ordered with all the confidence he could muster.
Lon laughed, seemingly more annoyed than alarmed by Elias’s presence. “Your mate? We know whose mate he really is. Is Jasper hiding behind that curtain too?”
Elias wished to fuck he was. His lack of response gave Lon the answer.
“Then tonight Jack Henry’s going to be my mate. As soon as I deal with you.”
“Don’t let him hurt you,” Jack Henry pleaded. “Run and get Jasper.”
Elias shook his head. Going for Jasper would take too much time, would allow Lon to do what he’d come to do. Jasper had trusted Elias to protect Jack Henry, so he would. “Get behind me,” he ordered.
Jack Henry scrambled around the edge of the room, trying to obey, but Lon made a grab for him. While Lon’s attention was on Jack Henry, Elias took another crack at his head. Fuck, that fucker had a hard head, but this blow opened a gash on the side of it. Lon turned to him, shaking sweat and bangs out of his eyes. A trickle of blood ran down his temple. Elias swung again, but Lon parried the blow, knocking the cane from his hand. He approached Elias, claws out.
Lon had good claws, but they were nothing like Jasper’s, and Elias had been practicing with Jasper. He could do this. He spread his arms wide and forced his own claws out as far as they would go, circling to keep himself between Jack Henry and Lon until Jack Henry could reach the door. Seeing his prey about to vanish, Lon dove, but Elias didn’t allow him to get by. They met with a ferocious crash of body against body. Lon was so much bigger than Jasper that Elias was surprised by the lack of force in his attack. He was bigger but not stronger, and Elias managed to wrangle him to the floor.
He ended up beneath Lon, but the hours of training paid off as he used his claws, fangs, and determination to overcome Lon’s size and position. He snapped at Lon’s throat and got a mouthful of flesh. He’d occasionally managed to get his teeth into Jasper’s neck, but never deep enough to do any real damage. Now he put every ounce of his alpha power into piercing and tearing Lon’s skin. Lon emitted a gurgling scream. His body sagged as he lost strength along with blood until Elias was able to roll them and claim the top spot.
Blood streamed from Lon’s temple and neck. It welled from dozens of puncture points all across his body. His breath spluttered in wet gasps from his lax mouth. His fangs were dull and dry, visible through his open mouth but harmless.
“Should we call an ambulance?” Jack Henry asked. He hadn’t run when he’d had the chance. Of course. He was behind the desk, phone in hand, watching Lon convulse between Elias’s knees. “Or should we just let him die?”
Elias was a civilized person. More human than wolf. Not an uber-alpha. In all his geeky dreams of olden times when wolves were strong and feral, when heroes roamed the earth, he’d never seriously considered being a real-life alpha of that sort—the kind who defended his omega by smiting his enemies. But now he was.
He didn’t tell Jack Henry to call an ambulance. Instead, he placed the tip of a claw against Lon’s jugular and slashed it wide open.
JASPER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jasper should’ve gotten there faster. With the bond pulling him in both directions, he’d driven halfway to Galvetta before his sense of unease had him making a gravel-spraying U-turn to head for home. Only to arrive too late. Saul was a limp and broken mass of bloody flesh and exposed bone, surrounded by eight men who didn’t seem to think they’d done enough yet.
The roar of Jasper’s bike got their attention. They turned, one by one, not understanding what they were in for as Jasper removed his helmet and climbed deliberately off the bike. They were going to die. Every last one of them. He stood there a moment, committing their faces to memory in case anyone managed to escape the fury he was about to unleash, then popped his claws and sprang.
They thought they could take him because there were eight of them and only one of him, but they were wrong. They’d never seen what an uber-alpha could do. A furious, anguished uber-alpha fighting over the body of his