“You’re going to be okay. I’m going to carry you to the back so Brielle can come fix you up.”
Thunder boomed ominously outside, and the plane shook under our feet.
“Shit,” Reed swore under his breath. “Can you stay here for a second? Fiona is upset.”
“What?” My brain was moving in short, staccato bursts, trying to catch up over the shock of my sudden injury. But he was already gone, grabbing Fiona around the waist and dragging her away from the two males, both half shifted as they tussled in the aisle of the jet.
“That motherfucker nearly took her head off! I’m gonna kill him.” Fiona’s voice dropped half an octave with the threat, her skin flashing blue faster than my blurred vision could follow.
“She doesn’t want that! He’s still her mate. And if you lose control, you’re going to do more damage than he did. She won’t survive a plane crash, Stormy, you know that!”
The growl that tore out of her throat was properly canine, and I had a moment of pride that my friend had so fully embraced pack life, which was quickly replaced by embarrassment as I violently puked into the nearest plush leather seat.
Brielle appeared at my side like an apparition, slapping her hand directly over my bleeding head wound as she murmured soothing things into my ear while I heaved up everything in my stomach.
The agony vanished almost instantly, but the nausea was a little harder to get rid of, with all the adrenaline coursing through me.
A fresh wave of alpha dominance nearly knocked me to my knees, but Brielle held me up, and then Fiona and Elodie were there, bracketing me.
The nausea finally left, winking out of existence as if through sheer force of Brielle’s will.
“You’re okay, you’re going to be okay,” Elodie murmured, rubbing my back and giving me a soft smile. “Nobody’s going to let him touch you again.”
“I don’t think he meant to. His eyes??”
“There is no excuse for putting your hands on a woman. I don’t fucking care what he’s been through, he hurt you, he’s dead to me.” Fiona’s voice was like ice, brittle and sharp as she cast a scathing look over her shoulder, where the men had formed an impenetrable wall between us and Lucien.
I couldn’t see what was happening, and that was nearly as bad as getting cut. I knew they were all mad at him, but they hadn’t seen his eyes. It was like something else had taken him over.
“I don’t think he could help it. His eyes weren’t right. And why would he attack Samuel like that? Samuel saved him from the Hungarians. He wasn’t aiming for me. I don’t believe he’d hurt me on purpose. Please,” I begged, though I wasn’t sure what I was even asking for. Fiona’s amber-shifted eyes flickered, her usual mismatched blue returning for a second.
“Let the guys calm him down first, okay?” Elodie, ever the voice of reason, squeezed my arm supportively, and I wanted to weep.
Why was everything determined to go wrong between us? It was like unseen forces were yanking us apart, when mates were meant to be drawn together. And it made me furious, but in a way that made me want to curl up in a ball and sob for a week at the injustice of it all.
Reed was the first to turn toward us, his expression grim. “Are you okay?” he asked me.
Not even a little bit.
“I’m fine. I need to see Lucien.”
He grimaced. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
No.
“Yes.” I lifted my chin, refusing to show how shaken I truly was. But I just knew at a soul-deep level that he didn’t want to hurt me. Why he wanted to attack Samuel was a mystery, but he didn’t want to hurt me, and that had to be enough for now.
“All right, hold on.” He held up a hand and turned, talking quietly to the other men. It was a long, tense moment before he turned and reluctantly waved me forward.
I would be lying if I said my knees weren’t jelly as I walked back up the plane aisle. But when I squeezed past Reed and Samuel, my heart broke, and I forgot all about my own fear. Because as soon as I caught sight of Lucien, flat on the floor, canines still protruding, partially shifted and stuck under the high alpha’s dominance and Gael’s knee… I had no doubt that he hadn’t meant me harm.
I dropped to my knees at his side, resisting the urge to stroke back his hair as his eyes found mine, the only part of him he could move.
“What’s happening? Are you hurt?”
He grunted, no words forming as frustration twisted his features.
I turned so I could see the high alpha, careful not to cause offense by making direct eye contact. “Are you keeping him from talking, or…?”
Kane shook his head. “No, just from moving, and only until he reverses his shift. We can’t have him starting a brawl while we’re in the air.”
I nodded. He was right, even if I hated to see Lucien like this. His eyes still had those flecks of red, the feral tinge making me sad as well as confused.
“Can you guys give us a little space? I’m not saying let him up, just that I’d like to talk to him. See if I can help him calm down.”
“Alpha, I don’t know about that.” Gael spoke up, rubbing his jaw anxiously. Then he looked at me guiltily. “Are you sure
? I don’t like leaving a female with a volatile male. Giving you space is what got you hurt the first go-around.”
“I’m sure. He wasn’t trying to hurt me, just Samuel for some reason.”
“Clearly,” Samuel muttered.
“Sorry, Samuel.” I grimaced in his direction.
“You have nothing to apologize for. And for Goddess’s sake, don’t ever put yourself between two alpha males again.” He eyed my still-bloody forehead with true regret.
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