Page 78 of Midnight Hunt

“Vi,” I rasped, reaching for her. Kolton and Jagger let go of my arms, and I quickly gathered her against me. She pressed her face to my chest, her tears soaking through my shirt in seconds. I held her tightly, trembling with the need to carry her far, far away from here.

No one said a word for several long moments. The air was deathly quiet, and I realized too late the sin I’d just committed.

But I suddenly didn’t care.

Mason never should have touched her like that.

If he ever did it again, I’dkillhim.

25

VIOLET

I’d seen Griff mad at his brother before, but not like this.

Something was wrong.

He was shaking, holding me so tightly that I could barely breathe. He almost seemedferal, which didn’t make sense. This was Griff. Griff didn’t lose control like that.

But he had. He’d completely flipped out.

At anAlpha Meeting, no less. Physical altercations weren’t allowed at these meetings. If anyone broke the rule, they were automatically banned from all future events.

Even so, it wasn’t the repercussions that had brought me to tears. Not even his anger. It was the panic I’d seen in his eyes, thefear. He’d been frantic when his brother had snatched me up. He was still frantic, his arms like a steel wall of protection around me, keeping everyone and everything away. Almost as if . . .

He’s terrified that someone will take you away from him like the hunters almost did, Sable finished the thought for me.

Yeah. That. It was a feeling I knew all too well, a feeling that I’d been struggling with long before the hunters came into the picture.

“Griff, it’s okay,” I spoke to him in soothing tones, sliding my hands around him to rub comforting circles on his back. “He’s not going to take me. No one is.”

He shuddered against me, his heart continuing to loudly thunder. “You’re mine. You’remine,” he said, the words muffled against my hair.

“Okay. Okay, I’m yours. But we’re safe here. You can let go.”

“Mine,” he repeated, his heartbeats gradually slowing.

“Yours,” I assured him, coaxing him to loosen his grip. When he did, I shifted in his arms to face the deathly silent crowd.

Normally not a self-conscious person, the mix of curious and critical looks made me feel naked, and I heard more than one person try to catch a whiff of my scent.

They were searching for answers too, most of them familiar enough with Griff to know that he wasn’t one to make a scene. Aviolentone, at least. And especially not at an Alpha Meeting where violence was a huge breach of trust.

I could see them forming conclusions, all of them wrong. Even if they could smell that we’d had sex recently, Griff and I weren’t newly mated. He hadn’t even claimed me. If he had, most here would at least understand the reasoning behind his outburst, but once they figured out that wasn’t the case, they’d banish him from the meeting. Forlife. His reputation would be ruined, and they might even question his place as Kolton’s third in command.

I couldn’t let that happen. I had toprotecthim. So, before I could think better of it, I said loudly for all to hear, “Griff isn’t to blame for this. He was only trying to keep me safe. We just got back from being hunted by rogue males, and the trauma of that is still fresh on our minds.”

No one spoke for several long moments, and I thought for sure my words had fallen on deaf ears. Just as I was about to lose hope, Alpha Abernathy said, “Rogues? Are they the ones who’ve been kidnapping females?”

I flicked a glance at Kolton. When all he did was slowly nod, relief filled me. Bolstered by his approval, I stood taller and answered, “Yes. There are several of them, but we don’t know how many or where they’re keeping the females. We do know that they’re only targeting unclaimed hybrid females and that they plan to use them for breeding.”

“Breeding?” a female alpha from Germany gasped.

Just like that, the attention shifted from Griff’s indiscretion to the troubling news. Shouts erupted from the crowd, several expressing their outrage. Not every pack had female hybrids, but kidnappinganyfemale from her pack to be used for breeding was something every pack leader feared.

As Kolton stepped forward to address the crowd’s concerns in more detail, Nora came to stand beside me and Griff. Griff’s arms tightened around me again, then relaxed when he realized it was her.

Leaning over, I quietly murmured in her ear, “Do you think they’ll kick him out?”

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