Outliers

Twenty Nine

Jack wouldn't last five minutes if this continued.

"Alpha Harris can command Alpha Athen to stand down. Why has he accepted the challenge at all?" Eli asked in a sharp tone.

Jack lunged again but left his right unguarded. Thane was there in a heartbeat, and ripped a small chunk of fur and flesh from his front leg.

"He didn't challenge him as an Alpha. He didn't issue an official challenge," the male enforcer - who had not looked away from the fight since it began - answered simply.

"Then do something!" Eli snapped.

"Your Alpha," the female enforcer seethed, taking one step forward, "threatened his mate. He disrespected her, and he disrespected their bond. It is within his rights to retaliate in any way he sees fit. Right now he is not an Alpha, he is a pissed off male who has been disrespected one too many times."

I felt their eyes on me, but didn't dare look away from the fight. Not as Thane's movements turned towards the offensive, his movements quicker, harsher and more determined to force Jack into a painful submission as he attacked again and again before Jack could defend himself. It was brutal to watch. And yet I couldn't tear my eyes away from the horrid scene.

"Oh Gods," Beta Maria whimpered. "Oh Gods."

A wolf's whine hit painfully sharp against our ears. Thane had his mouth around Jack's legs, teeth digging deeply into the flesh as Jack did his best to buck and writhe from the hold.

I felt sick.

Gore didn't bother me, violence didn't bother me. But this? Watching two males I cared deeply about tearing into each other without hesitation?

"If you don't do something he'll be slaughtered!" Eli thundered.

Jack's claws were swiping at Thane, finding purchase in his stomach and slashing at the vulnerable flesh. But Thane didn't flinch, and his teeth didn't release from Jack's leg, his jaw clenching tighter and tighter.

"Eli..." Beta Kyle breathed, grabbing the angry male's forearm to hold him back as if he thought the Idaho Head of Training really was stupid enough to fight an enforcer.

"Then your Alpha should have behaved better." The female enforcer flashed her canines at Eli and I saw the male blanch at the sight. "No one interferes."

"Fuck that," I spat.

Everyone looked towards me.

I didn't meet their gaze.

No one stopped me as I strode towards the fight, every instinct in my body screaming at me to stop. What I was about to do was insane. It was dangerous. It was fucking stupid, and I'd be lucky to survive.

But I wasn't about to let Jack be torn apart. And my fear wasn't enough to stop me.

Because I was angry.

Angry that either of these males thought they could fight for me as if I had no free will, as if I could not protect myself, or claim retribution for my own. And Jack had no right to fight for me at all, when it was clear all he was fighting for were his own misguided, selfish desires. I had made my intentions towards Thane clear. I had told Jack no.

So I walked right into the middle of their battle, despite the thundering of my heart in my chest, or the way my hands shook at my sides, or the way my body tensed with every step closer.

The two wolves continued to thrash against one another, heavy paws kicking up the dirt around them. It was a whirlwind of movement too frantic to decipher any safe route into the centre of the carnage.