Page 10 of Bubblegum Pop

There was a crack, a surge of pain, stars blinding me as something solid slammed into the back of my head. A gasp ripped from me, and suddenly, I was falling forward.

Falling.

Falling.

My arm out, reaching for my mate.

Apollo’s muffled yells echoed in the background, screaming for me as the alpha who pinned him laughed.

All I saw was the glint of a knife in the alpha’s hand before my back hit the floor. Odin’s wound vibrated in my right eye, and pain exploded in my abdomen before the darkness took me.

Iroared as I shot out of bed, panic overtaking me as I threw out my fists, trying to find Apollo in the darkness.

“It’s okay.” Cold hands fell on my shoulders, Apollo’s soft voice in my ear. “I’m right here. It’s okay.”

My heart thundered too loudly to hear him. The beta bartender hit me in the head with a bat before I could reach Apollo, but I was still going. I could take them all on.

I had to get to them. I had to kill the fuckers who stabbed Odin and Apollo, who took my pack from me. I wouldn’t stop until they were dead. I’d tear into every one of them until they—

“Zeus.” Apollo cut through my fear with his low tone of command, the voice of our pack leader. “Come back,” he ordered.

Chest heaving, wheezing, I choked as his hand traced up my back, his finger etching the sharp lines of my lightning scars until he reached the two half-moons below my left ear. His bite, the one he put there twelve years ago to claim me and mark me as his mate.

He rubbed his cheek against my back as he sent me love so powerful I melted.

“Turn around, baby.” Apollo tried to stay calm, but I could feel his tension, too. There had been times when I’d lost control after a nightmare and, in my frenzy, I hurt him or Odin, and spent weeks rolling around in guilt.

I fucking hated myself for it. I hated everything about the day I almost lost them.

I twisted my torso, meeting his unsure smile. He was total perfection: gorgeous blonde curls, sky-blue eyes, the softness of his rounded cheeks and thick lips made me fall in love with him all over again as he held me.

“We’re here, we’re all good.” Apollo sketched gentle patterns on my back, and I eased into his touch.

I pressed my palm against his abdomen, sighing in relief as I felt the heavy ridge of the scar where he was stabbed.

There was no blood, no screaming. We were safe.

My gaze jumped over his shoulder to meet my brother’s. His face was hard, glaring at me with one stormy-grey eye. His empty right socket, with a harsh gash splitting his face, was a mark of how I fucked up so badly that I’d never be able to fix it.

Odin looked up at me from beside Apollo. Breathing, waiting. He already knew what had happened.

They could both feel it when the nightmares came.

But Apollo and Odin were here, in bed with me, safe in the soft light spilling from the bedside table.

“It’s too new,” I groaned as I rocked back, letting Apollo wrap his arm around my neck as my head hit the pillow.

He leant above me, my panic dissipating as the memories scattered, drowned out by the love of my mate.

My brother’s worry pulsed quietly through our bond, his jealousy a faint whisper under his concern.

I surrendered as Apollo dropped gentle kisses on my cheeks, his fresh mango scent fanning around me, over me, in me.

My heart pounded as the fear gave way to pure fucking lust as my mate loved on me. “It’s gone now,” Apollo murmured, stroking his bite mark. “It’s all in the past.”

Five years ago, I sat between two hospital beds, desperately fighting to stay connected to them. Apollo woke up hours after his second surgery, and he fucked up his stitches by dragging himself out of bed to reach Odin and try to bring him back.

And that’s when Michael came.