Page 4 of Unbreakable Bond
Chapter 3
Fists were flying.There was growling and snarling. Zoey felt the shimmer of magic in the air, knew that Michael was close to shifting and her gaze automatically darted to the idiot dumb enough to attack a PackAlpha.
Her eyes widened when the attacker easily rolled Michael to his back and landed a brutal punch to the jaw that snapped his head around. Not possible, her brain screamed. He’d gotten the best of Michael and that shouldn’t have beenpossible.
Michael was big. He was a dominant shifter. All of the male shifters she’d come across were big and muscular but Michael, being Pack Alpha, was the biggest she’d ever seen. Until now. Because she was certain from the growls, from his sheer, massive size and from the fact that he had just overpowered Michael, that the attacker was a shifter as well, possibly even anotherAlpha.
Because he was kicking Michael’sass.
She watched in horror as the two men, two werewolves, rolled again, splashing into the soggy, swampy riverbed. Michael came out on top momentarily, getting what looked like a lethal hold around the other man’s neck, but by the time she’d blinked he was on his back again, taking a punch to the gut thistime.
Oh God, she winced at the brutal, bloody scene. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t very well get between them. She was human. They’d rip her to shreds with one misplacedswing.
“Help!” She screamed instead, “Somebody help! I need help outhere!”
“Zoey.” Michael choked out amid pants, “Run.”
“Mine!” The attacker only growled again and slammed a fist into Michael’sjaw.
“Stop it!” She screamed in horror when she heard what sounded like bones cracking, “Stop it! You’re hurting him!Stop!”
Nobody was more shocked than she was when the attacker instantly stilled. It was almost as if her words had broken through his rage and he heard her. His head snapped up, his gaze connecting with hers, and she sucked in a startled breath as a flash of recognition struckher.
“Mine!”
“Goddammit, Rafe!” Michael shouted, scrambling to his feet, water splashing as he struggled back up onto dry land, “You stay the hell away fromher!”
Rafe? She took a step forward, towards the two men, then caught herself and locked her legs. What was she doing? What was going on? Had he just called the other manRafe?
“What’s going on outhere?”
A third male voice cut into her thoughts and she turned in time to see Sherriff Wiley go storming past her to position himself between Michael and the other man, who had frozen on the edge of the river as soon as she spoke. She realized as they all glared at each other that Michael had put himself in front of her, blocking her from the man that had attacked him. Even still, she could feel the other man’s eyes on her and her own gaze was immediately drawn back to him, past Michael, past the Sherriff, as if the only person that mattered was the one being carefully sequestered away fromher.
“He’s not taking her.” Michael was beginning to catch his breath and his words came out steady, “This is my pack. She’s part of it. He’s not takingher.”
“Mine!” The other man snarled and took a step forward, clearly intent on causing Michael more damage before the Sherriff shoved him the otherdirection.
“Get yourself under control Rafe!” Wiley ordered loudly and then lowered his voice, “I can arrest you and you can cool off in a cell at the station or you can snap to and tell me why the hell you just attacked our PackAlpha.”
“Mine!”
Almost in slow motion, Zoey watched Wiley turn to face her. His eyes were wide as he looked her over. A shiver ran down her spine when his brows furrowed and a wary, worried expression took the place of the usually staid, Sherriff’s face. He glanced from her to the other man and then finally toMichael.
“Is ittrue?”
Michael shook his head, “No. He’s unstable. You knowthat.”
Wiley put his hands on his hips, “What I know is that he just attacked you, a Pack Alpha, something no wolf in his right mind would ever dounprovoked.”
“I just told you he’s out of his mind! He’s practicallyferal!”
“Yeah, but I also know he’s saying he has a claim on that girl behind you and from the looks of it, you interrupted.” Wiley scowled, “You know better Michael. Nobody is allowed to interfere when it comes to a bond. Not evenyou.”
Zoey watched the two men argue, or rather, she listened. Her eyes never left the man staring at her. He looked wild, savage and unkempt, though she wasn’t sure how much of that could be owed to the violent fight he’d just won. And it was clear to her that he had won, or that he would have if he hadn’t stopped when she begged himto.
His hair was unruly, falling over her his eyes in disheveled strands, and with only the moon as her light, she couldn’t tell if it was black or just a really dark brown. His eyes were similarly dark, though for a second there they’d glowed with the gold of his wolf. His face was hard with its strong jaw and stubbled chin, his lips pulled tight over his teeth each time he snarled andgrowled.
He was handsome, her brain told her and her body agreed, warming as he continued to stare at her. He had the same coloring as Michael but where her friend’s features were almost pretty this man’s were rougher, jagged. He was handsome in a more overtly masculine way than Michael, which she wouldn’t have thought was possible if she hadn’t been staring at it with her owneyes.
