Chapter 32

“You think you can humiliate my brother and get away with it? You’re nothing but a spoiled, pathetic little—”

I was on my feet seconds later, snarling at her. “Keep your fucking hands off me, and keep your pathetic little brother away from me.”

“You—”

“And don’t think for a second you’re going to get away with assaulting me!” I screamed at her. “You have a lot of fucking nerve—”

“Don’t act like the victim. Everyone knows you were cheating on my brother. You humiliated him—”

“I was cheating?” I hissed. “You must be as dumb as he is and twice as deaf since you were there when I Philip compelled me to answer all those humiliating questions! When your brother had dirty fucking underwear in his suit pocket too many sizes to small to fit me!”

The gasp that rippled around us was enough. She flinched, her eyes wide. Her jaw drop.

“What? Didn’t expect me to say anything? Expected me— poor, little me, no pack, no parents—to just let you talk shit about me to my face?” I laughed, coldly. “You know me even less than your cheating brother. I didn’t humiliate him. He did that all by himself.”

Her eyes widened. For a second, I thought she might hit me again.

Then, her gaze went cold. “Drag her outside.”

“Don’t fucking touch me!” I screamed as they closed in. I recognized them as members of Brightclaw. I kicked out, my heart started racing as their hands fell on me and started to drag me. I thrashed, tearing out of their grip. One of them shoved me to the ground. The solidness of it slammed into my face before I could turn my head. Pain exploded in my face. I was dazed, realizing that I was on the ground with blood rising in my mouth, trickling down my nose. I looked up at Tyler’s sister, who stood over me like she owned the world, her lips pulled into that cruel, haughty smirk that I’d always hated.

“You should learn that spreading lies about your betters will get you in trouble. You thought we’d let you off lightly after the way you humiliated my brother?” she sneered and crouched down, glaring down at me. “You should have just married him and known your place.”

I worked up a wad of saliva, coppery with blood and thick and spat up into her face. She reared back in disgust, swiping at her face.

“Your brother deserved worse than being called out in public, and he’ll get what he deserves soon enough.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re the only one getting what they deserve. Now.”

The hands that had shoved me, grabbed me and hauled me up off the ground. I twisted, but there were two—no, three—more Brightclaw members surrounding me now. All of them pack loyalists, and all of them clearly here for one thing.

“Let go of me!” I shouted, struggling as they yanked me backward and slammed me against the metal railing.

Panic bloomed sharp in my chest as the memory struck me. The pain, the tilt, the panic of it. I could hear the ocean wind rushing by, smell it. I could see Tyler’s face flying away from me, turning back inside before I had even hit the water. That moment of weightlessness—then pain. The lurching feeling in my stomach as I fell from the balcony.

I was falling, I screamed, but instead of water, my shoulder slamming into cold stone.

The present came back in such startling clarity, I was left breathless. The first person I saw was Tyler’s sister.

She surged forward and slapped me across the face so hard I saw stars. I hit the ground again, panting and blinking the stars out of my vision.

“You were always an ungrateful bitch!” she hissed. “You didn’t deserve the chance given to you. You don't deserve his name. You should’ve just killed yourself if you were so unhappy instead of embarrassing him like this.”

And that was the last thing I heard. Something roared from within me, sparkling, sparking, striking—surging through me. Darkness floated in my vision, darting and slashing through the image of her and the idiots that she brought. My leg connected hard and fast with someone’s shin. My elbow in someone’s face. My knee in someone’s gut. Then, I was on her, tackling her into a table. Someone screamed as I got my hands around her neck, squeezing.

I wasn’t talking. I wasn’t thinking, but I was slamming my fist into her face while she squirmed and tried to push me off. She tried to shove my face away and I bit her hand, hard enough to draw blood. The darkness swirled with this deep red haze.

Fight.

My fist connected with her jaw so hard my knuckles screamed in protest, but I didn’t care.

Someone yanked me back and off her. I roared, jerking and twisting hard to shove them off, to the ground, clawing at their face. Another person rushed up toward me and I shoved her back. She went flying away from me.

Fight.

I heard war drums and howling in my ears. It was as if moonlight filled my veins. The mark of the Goddess on my chest burned and seethed, flooding my veins.

Fight!

I grabbed a chair, swinging and slamming it into one of the Brightclaw men, a gamma probably based on his uniform. It made me think of Tyler. I swung harder. The fear of those last moment of my past life, the panic and pain were all gone. I couldn’t even feel the throbbing in my face any longer.

Something else had taken place of everything in me. Darker. Older. Furious and unforgiving.

The gamma was on the ground, groaning when someone else grabbed me, wrestling the chair from me. I I threw my weight forward, getting them off balance and brought them down with me. I slipped free and charged at

Tyler’s sister as she stumbled back. I grabbed whatever on her I could reach first and yanked her hard, slamming my fist into her face again, and I followed it up with a shove that knocked her into the side of a trash bin.

“You want me dead?” I snarled, advancing on her again. “You’re going to have to kill me!”

People were gathered around, watching. Someone was calling for campus security. Some just recorded with their phones like this was a damn spectacle. But none of them stepped in.

And none of them stopped me when I lunged again.

She came at me this time, blood on her lip and murder in her eyes. We collided like a tangle of claws and fury, her nails catching my skin, my fists landing wild and fast. I didn’t have martial training, but I wasn’t above fighting dirty and I was too pissed off to care about what sort of trouble this would cause. If I’d get expelled, if Dominic would be forced to give away my guardianship. I didn’t care.

I was just starting to get the upper hand, slamming her against a wall and pummeling her when hands grabbed at me again—this time more brutal, more coordinated. A foot kicked into my side. Someone yanked my hair. I screamed and twisted, nails raking, legs kicking. I fought like I was never going to let anyone do this to me again.

But I was losing. I knew that.

I saw someone from Frostborne standing nearby, just watching. No one jumped in to help as I was overwhelmed. I went flying, tumbling over a table and slammed into the side of the fountain in the center of the courtyard, breathless, body screaming in protest. My vision blurred as someone grabbed me by my hair. I saw a large man standing over me, hand reached back to strike me again, and I braced myself for the pain.

“Stop.”

The word cracked through the air like thunder, layered with a force that hit me straight in the chest and made my bones vibrate. It wasn’t a yell. It wasn’t a scream.It was a command. An alpha command, far more powerful, more sinister in its intensity than Philip’s could ever hope to be.

And everyone felt it.

“Release her.”

The hand in my hair unclenched, letting me fall forward. I pushed away from the man, sliding my body across the floor until my back hit the side of the fountain.

“Back off.”

Silence rippled through the crowd as Brightclaw wolves—all of them—backed off with wide eyes, their heads instinctively lowering, parting to reveal the mess that the fight had created. Footsteps drew closer to me. I could barely breathe around the pain. I think they’d cracked a rib. I felt it trembling, wavering towards a break.

I didn’t want to look up to see who was coming though my blurry vision, but I did.

It was Neil.

Fear, gratitude and a deep sense of trepidation filled me.

How was he so powerful?