Page 194 of Claimed

“You kick the shit out of him?” Mase asks Jase.

“Woulda liked to, but Sher did that,” Jase says.

“Good goin’, Sherry. Where is she?” Linc looks around. “She should be here for this, no?”

Other than Bailey who sits near the stage next to Aphra, my present pack members are all against one wall just inside the hall right near where we were when Meadows walked in here with a knife pointed at my woman.

“Naw, Ma took her home,” Jase says. “She didn’t wanna be here. He and Sher had a tussle when she shifted after giving him that poison, planning to tear him apart. She hesitated and he backhanded her wolf and commanded her to shift back. She shifted back but gave him a right hook.”

There’s laughter from the crowd. Some of these people really like the idea that Meadows’ new mate gave him a black eye.

“Why didn’t she rip his throat out when she had the chance?” Linc asks.

“Mate bond,” my father pipes up. “As angry as you can get with your fated mate, truly harming them… it’s not something easily done. Just about impossible in fact.”

Dad’s eyes bounce to me and I see how wrecked he is with the memory of Soleil and what went down today.

Brody’s voice booms with, “Right, so, let’s get the guest of dishonor up here, yeah? Time to make some decisions.”

55

Stacy

Not even a full minute after they drop him on the stage in front of everyone, things go crazy. Three men and two women rush the stage and are kicking him. Jasmine, who got very sick from the soup stomps on his belly, and Dennis, nephew of Roger, my old teacher hoofs him in the crotch.

Wyatt grunts and writhes, but he’s either not even fully conscious or it could also be he has a debilitating headache.

More people get up there and join in. Rudolph, a thirty-something pack member with a limp that I know Wyatt was particularly terrible to kicks him in the gut with the bad leg I’ve seen my brother kick more than once.

Right on the heels of Dennis’s crotch kick, Caroline kicks Wyatt in the chest. I look at Brody, expecting he’s about to rein everyone in, but he watches casually as my little cousin Luke walks up and spits on my brother’s face twice, saying, “one of those was for Jimmy who hated your fucking guts, too, especially for what you did to Stacy. Wish he was here to see this.”

This surprises me, but I don’t get to lament on it for long what with the commotion I now see in the rows of chairs. Someone has hauled off and hit Larry who’s sitting in the back row by the door that leads to the library. And now two more people are shoving Larry and getting in his space, shouting obscenities as he hides his face. Patsy shouts he should be up there with Wyatt for poisoning so many of his pack. Larry and his chair tumble tothe ground. Warren punches Floyd and Floyd backs off, looking like he’s apologizing.

Several are undressing, shifting, and I’m in shock as I see more and more people doing it, too.

Aphra snickers from her chair by the stage, Halla tucked to her side, hiding her face in her stuffed butterfly, which Linc handed to her when we pulled in. I completely understand why Aphra is amused by this. As for Halla, she’s such a sweet little girl and I’m again filled with relief that we found her, that she’s back with her mother. There are other kids here, too, though, so I wince and call out, “Maybe someone should…” but I trail off watching more people drop their clothes to shift to wolf shape.

“Is someone going to stop them?” I ask as I see blood gushing from Larry’s nose. Larry curls into a ball and does his best to shield his head with his hands.

Brody looks my way and shrugs, speaking loud enough for his voice to carry. “I think this is long overdue. These people have had all their choices taken away, even their very nature denied them. They’re doing what they should be doing. What they should’ve done long ago. You want me to stop them from standing up for themselves?”

I expect the now-shifted pack members to rush my brother and start attacking, but that’s not what they’re doing. There are at least twenty in wolf shape standing in front of him, growling and showing their teeth but standing together. I think they’re all waiting for him to regain consciousness so they can show him they’re shifted because he no longer has the power to tell them they can’t be who they are. I think they want him to attempt to shift and try to intimidate them with his larger wolf and are eager to watch him fail.

My brother is blinking, squinting, looking disoriented, but paying his own pack no mind.

Malachi squats and yanks the thick layer of silver tape off his mouth.

No doubt about it, Wyatt is wide awake now.

He hisses at the pain, “What the fuck?”

He groans, face looking pained and I hope he’s got a killer headache.

Brody is still looking at me with his eyebrows raised, waiting for my answer.

I shake my head.

“Stacy? You upset? Someone should hear from Stacy before anyone else does anything,” Malachi calls out. “Stacy is the reason we’re all safe from Wyatt. Stacy endured his abuse for her whole life. I want to know what she thinks.”

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