Page 33 of Twilight of Embers
“Go to the forest,” Knox ordered Easton.
“I am,” he clipped back.
Knox was careful not to touch me, but he got in my face. “I’ve got Ian looking out for her until I go back to pick her up. She’s safe. Totally fine.”
Easton made a sharp turn, dropping us onto a gravel road.
“He touched her,” I gritted out.
Knox’s eyes went gold, and I knew it sent him into just as much of a rage as it had me—someone’s hand on our mate. He just had better control than I did.
“And he’s been dealt with,” Knox assured me. “He’ll likely piss his pants the next time she walks across his path.”
That should’ve been a relief, but it wasn’t. I wanted to hunt. To kill.
I needed to end the threat to my mate. To make him suffer for thinking he could ever touch her.
Easton screeched to a halt, sending gravel flying. “Get him the hell out of my car before he torches it.”
Knox opened the door, sliding out and giving me space to do the same.
I stumbled out of the vehicle, falling to my hands and knees. The shift was pleasure and pain in equal measure, but when you fought it happening, it was only pain. But I knew if I let my beast free right now, he’d go straight for the diner.
He’d rip the asshole to shreds and then take Hayden and never let her go.
“Jesus,” Easton muttered.
“He’s getting it under control,” Knox shot back.
Easton began to pace, gripping the back of his neck. “This is exactly what I warned you about. The mate bond is already making him unstable. That’s going to happen every time someone touches her.”
Agony ripped through me. It wasn’t just fighting the shift now; it was knowing that I was hurting my brother by not keeping it together. But the pain helped. It gave me a fraction more control.
Knox gritted his teeth. “It’s going to be a period of adjustment. We’ll all be more possessive than normal at first. More protective. But we’ll find our rhythm again.”
My breathing eased a fraction as I sat back on my heels.
Easton shook his head. “It’ll be a disaster. It’s going to end us.”
Pain flashed in Knox’s eyes. “We’re not Ryan. What happened to him isn’t going to happen to us.”
Easton’s gaze went gold. “Look at Cáel already. That’s just when someone grabbed Hayden’s ass. What happens if someone really hurts her? What if the worst happens?”
A red haze passed over my vision as fury pulsed through me. I felt the scales ripple over my skin, but I quickly called them back. Hayden was fine. She was safe. And we’d keep her that way.
As if Knox read my mind, he glared at Easton. “We’re going to keep her safe. Nothing’s going to happen to Hayden.”
Easton just scoffed. “You might like to think you control the universe, but you don’t. Anything could happen to her. When the supernatural community finds out what she is…”
Easton’s words trailed off, but I knew what he was going to say. When people found out the truth, they’d want Hayden for themselves, to use her in any number of ways.
“That’s why we’re going to protect her,” Knox snapped.
“How?” Easton challenged.
I pushed to my feet. “We bring her back to the compound. We can keep her safe there.”
He turned to me. “And what are you going to tell her to get her there?”
