Page 5 of Her Cold Brute

Someone put their hands on my mate, harmed her, and they’re going to pay.

No.They’re going to die.

I don’t care if they’re part of my pack. They’re going to die.

The closer we get, the more her blood calls out to me, shows me that she’s not what we anticipated finding all these years. She’s not a shifter that can match my strength. Oh no. She’s human, which makes her a target. Why she’s here I don’t know, but no one is taking what belongs to me. The Mother gives us one true mate—one. Only in rare circumstances is a shifter ever given a second true mate, a second chance to have that eternal happiness, or have it again, and I will not be like Thomas and reject mine simply because she’s not what I expected, originally desired.

The need to protect her floods me, sending my wolf across the distance faster. As I near the yard, a wolf moves to attack her, and it makes my blood boil. Not because it’s one of mine attacking my mate, but because it’s one of that pissant alpha’s sons doing it. His stench is unmistakable, and I won’t allow anyone to touch what’s mine, especially not to harm her further.

A snarl leaves my mouth as I jump, knocking him aside. He tries to lunge for her again, and my teeth snap through his neck, making him fall. I toss my head, sending the scum’s body into his brother, knocking him over as well. I’ll deal with him in a moment. First, I want my mate.

My first real sight of her knocks me for a loop. She’s gorgeous. More stunning than any woman I’ve met in my entire life. She’s short, tiny compared to my wolf, which means she’ll be even smaller compared to me, but that means I can protect her more easily. I can wrap around her, hold her close and keep everything from touching her.

The scent of her blood calls to me even more and I spot the large bite on her leg, a leg that appears to have already been injured, with the remaining piece of brace wrapped around the lower part of it. It pains me to know something’s harmed her, hurt her.

I have to make it better. Make it up to her for not finding her sooner. Soon enough to keep her safe—unharmed.

I begin to move when something slams into my side, making me stumble, pushing me away from her. Another attack puts more space between us, and I flip around, growling at the wolf that moves between me and my mate.

The forward movement of my pack, their stances ready to attack makes me see red and I flip around, growling out the warning to them. If they attack, they could harm my mate and I won’t allow that to happen. No one is getting close enough to hurt her further.

My gamma moves forward more, and I let out a new snarl. No one moves! Mine! Mate!

We understand Alpha, Rennick returns, as my mate’s scent changes, alerting me to someone else near her.

I turn back to get her, snarling when I see another’s arms around her, holding her. He’s near her age, far more than I likely am, and it makes me see red entirely. No one is taking my mate from me. No one!

I move to get her when something knocks into me once more. I flip around, taking note of the pack’s beta. The scent of the man holding my mate far too similar to not be his son, and no way in hell are they keeping her from me.

I attack before he has the chance to move, sending him across the yard. Following it instantly with another, and while the man is quick, he’s not quick enough to escape me entirely. I throw him onto the ground, prepared to end him, then his sons, not solely for being part of Thomas’ pack but for daring to touch my mate.

My teeth are poised just centimeters from his neck when sobbing, heartbroken cries flood me with pain. A single word stop me cold, and I move off the man, shaking off the conflicting urges.

My mate’s terrified, pain-filled cries win out. That desperate, inconsolable shout of Daddy haunting me already.

I snarl when he steps in between us, wanting my mate and nothing more. Needing her in my arms, not in another’s. Rennick’s attempt to negotiate a truce only makes more anger flood me when the boy holding my mate notes her injury came from someone in my pack. That and the fact that he’s dead and I can’t kill him for touching not only a human—an unmated human at that, but also my mate makes me snarl further. It’s only calmed by the fact that the kid calls her his sister. Not his girlfriend or fiancée—mate-to-be as I’d been expecting, but his sister.

Rennick’s warning to me to calm down as the kid’s twin moves between us as well does nothing for me. The need to have my mate in my arms, to make her better, take away the pain my pack caused her erases all common sense until I’m on top of them, pulling the two away from her.

I stop when she’s before me all alone, just staring at her beauty. This near and it’s overwhelming. But the scent of her blood draws me out of her beautiful eyes that are a dark amber honey, and my tongue swipes over the bite, erasing the worst of it. I’m about to do it again when something slams into me from both sides, knocking me away from her.

I snarl as she gasps, the sound frightened and worried, as the kid lifts her up to stand. Another of the boys gets in my way and I push him aside to get back to my mate as the beta tells his son to let her go.

He finally releases her, and I slide up to my mate, able to see just how tiny she really is as my wolf stands with her exact height. The scent of her neck draws me closer, and I can’t stop from getting a taste of it as she shakes. It sends electric shocks straight through my body and I move back to her leg, needing her healed so I can make her mine, claim her entirely.

I lick the wound there away, hoping it will also heal whatever other injury she had forcing her to wear that heavy brace. As my bones reform, returning my hands to me, I undo it, so it’s not dragging on the ground any longer, possibly tripping her. Then stand, needing to feel her tiny body against mine.

“Mine,” I growl, caging her up against the door, my hands lifting to her face. Panic floods her eyes as my lips come down towards her.

“No…no,” she cries softly, pushing at my chest. “No, not again…”

Anger and pain flowed through me as I caught sight of her eyes, the terror in them something I’ve never seen. Not once have I seen anything that could compare to that look, not even when I’ve been looking my enemy in the eye as I’ve killed him.

“Shh, you’re safe with me, my mate,” I whisper to her, brushing a kiss to her lips, but it simply made that look deepen, flooding me even deeper with pain.

“Don’t touch me,” she cries pushing at my chest again. Her hands pulled back quickly when they came into contact with my bare skin, and my wolf howled inside me, furious that our mate would dare reject us. A human dare reject an alpha like us.

“You are my mate. Do you not understand what that means?” I demand, my tone darkening as her scent makes my body wake entirely. My hardness presses into her belly and she jerks back, shaking further, that look in her eyes deeper still.