“Come on,” Jessie said, beckoning toward me as she bounced lightly on her feet. “Let’s see what you got.”
She wanted it?
Fine.
I went left.
She fell for it. Again.
I jerked right, grabbing her by the arm, spinning her around until her back was against my chest. And still she laughed like she was having the time of her life. I wrapped my arms around her and began to squeeze as hard as I could, intent on breaking her ribs.
“Not a victim,” I heard her whisper before she kicked her legs up off the ground, throwing her entire body back against me. I couldn’t stay upright, and for what felt like the millionth time in the past five minutes, I found myself on my back, staring up at the blue sky.
She was up before I could even consider moving. She stood above me, head cocked. “Huh,” she said. “That was easy. I expected more from—”
She grunted as I returned the favor, sweeping my legs against her, sending her to the ground.
“Oh,” Rico breathed from the porch. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Jessie wasn’t smiling anymore.
I turned, planning on running from these idiots, but I came face-to-face with another woman, this one smiling serenely. I hadn’t even heard her approach. She was barefoot.
“Hello, Robbie,” Elizabeth Bennett said. “You’re looking less pale today. All this exertion is doing wonders, I think.”
I punched her in the face.
Well, I tried to punch her in the face.
Except she caught my fist with one hand before I could connect.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” Rico said from the porch. “I’m going to enjoy this. Destroy him, mamacita.”
She squinted at me. “I don’t know if all this violence is necessary.”
I threw another punch.
She caught that one too.
She shrugged. “Okay, maybe a little necessary.”
A bright flash exploded in my skull as she fucking head-butted me, her forehead crashing into mine. I gasped as stars shot across my vision. I staggered back, blood trickling down my face. Before I could recover, I bumped into something big. Something hairy.
I turned slowly as I wiped the blood away.
A gigantic timber wolf stood there, jaws open, fangs bright in the sunlight. Its eyes were violet, and before I could get a handle on the fact that there was yet another Omega, the large blond man standing next to the timber wolf said, “Hey. My mom just fucked your shit up. That’s hysterical.” He tried to take a step toward me, but the timber wolf moved between us, crowding against him. The man turned his blue eyes toward the sky as he sighed. “Dude, we’ve talked about this. Boundaries, okay? Just because you’ve got this stupid idea in your wolf brain that you need to be my shadow doesn’t mean you can stop me from punching Robbie. Everyone else has gotten a chance. I want a turn.”
The timber wolf growled.
The man scowled. “Don’t you take that fucking tone with me. I don’t need you to—”
“Robbie.”
Grass.
Lake water.
Sunshine. So much sunshine. As if the world was on fire.