both him and Mac looking at me, and then two of the male guards head for the car. I turn toward the door, my body tense and ready to spring. I lean back and pull my knee up in front of me, counting down their steps as they approach.
Three, two, one…
The moment my door is thrown open, my boot connects with the shifter’s shin in greeting. The guard goes stumbling back with a violent curse, but I’m already out, hitting him in the chin with the heel of my palm, making his head snap up.
He nearly falls to the ground, but he’s not going to go down easily. Adrenaline pumping, my fist flies into his stomach, and then I turn and sprint away, hoping that I was fast enough to get a head start at least.
I’m not.
The second guard slams into me from behind and lifts me straight off the ground. With both my arms wrenched against my back, he hauls me back toward the gate while I kick and struggle and spit curses at him the whole time.
“Let me go!”
He doesn’t let go, of course, not even when I manage to break an arm free and elbow him in the gut. Two more guards come rushing over, and then I have four sets of hands trying to hold me down as I fight, madder than a puffed up toad.
“Enough!”
The voice rings out, shocking me into stillness. The alpha power that emanated from that single word is so powerful that it makes me break out into a cold sweat. And he’s not even my alpha.
I look over at him, taking him in for the first time past the bodies of the guards. He has a scruffy brown beard and hair, pale blue eyes locked on me and strong, scarred arms crossed in front of his chest.
With feet spread out, the alpha stares me down. “If you continue to harm members of my pack, I will set you loose, and you will be picked up by Pack Rockhead in a matter of hours. Believe me, you don’t want that. We’re trying to help you.”
My chest heaves, my fight instinct riding me hard, especially when I see all of his pack’s eyes latch onto my collar. My body tenses when the alpha opens his mouth, and I ready myself to hear his questions about my owner. Either that, or he’ll demand I face a challenge with his pack. Looking around at the guards warily, I think I’d rather face my chances with Rockhead. Especially since I’ve already pissed these guys off by attacking them.
But before Alpha Hugo can say anything, I hear a feminine voice chirp up behind him. “Holey moley!”
I look for the source of the voice and find a female rushing forward, pushing past the guards as she goes. They don’t try to stop her or shove her back, even though she’s clearly much smaller and weaker than they are.
“Jetta?”
My entire body goes stiff, and my heart pounds in my chest. What. The. Fuck.
Eyes wide with panic, I look around, like an escape route will suddenly pop up for me, because that one word just tipped my world over and dumped out my senses. She knows my name. She must know Kaazu. And that means that she’s going to make me go back to him. She’s going to tell the alpha. She’s going to—
“It’s me. Aderyn Locke.”
My brain screeches to a stop.
I frown, trying to make the connection past my rising panic. As I study her, my nose takes in her scent, and a memory sparks—a memory of a blonde girl sneaking into the back after one of my fights. It was a long time ago, but...I remember.
“Addie?”
She was younger, of course. We were both teenagers back then. But she had the same pretty, friendly smile. She helped me sneak into her pack’s cafeteria that night. Kaazu wouldn’t feed me since I lost my fight, but Addie made sure I didn’t go hungry.
We only got to hang out and talk for a short while, but I always remembered her. The lonely girl who wasn’t allowed to watch the show because her pack hated her for being a duck. I remember feeling a bond with her. We were both lonely outsiders. But unlike me, always surly and pissed, Addie somehow kept smiling.
I never saw her again after we left her pack, of course, but she left a lasting impression on me. And right now, even with colored highlights in her hair