Dex scoffed. "You'll have to excuse me if I find that a little hard to believe."
"I don't care what you believe, Daley. I'm telling you how it is. What you choose to do with that information is your problem. All I'm saying is don't be so quick to judge before you really know someone. Where the hell are these guys? They get lost or something?"
"We're right here."
Dex stood and turned to face the six Therians, Austen at his side. The jaguar Therian stepped forward, a smug grin on his face.
"Your friends won't be joining you. They're a little stuck right now."
So there were more of them. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"We got no beef with you. Turn over your little spotted friend, and you get to walk away."
"Sorry, pal, but that's not happening." Dex put himself between the thug and Austen.
The guy stopped before he let out a bark of laughter. "Are you shitting me?" The rest of his crew joined in. "You shouldn't have involved the Human."
The jaguar Therian's friend looked nervous, and he leaned in to murmur quietly, though not low enough for Dex not to hear, "Mack, we're not supposed to leave a mess. Just grab the cheetah Therian."
A smile crawled up Dex's face.
Austen looked at Dex, his expression wicked. "You ready for this?"
"Oh yeah."
Time to see how his TIN training was going.
Dex's heartbeat quickened, his muscles tightened, and his blood temperature rose. This time, the threat was real. This wasn't a supervised training session. It wasn't a THIRDS callout. It was six Therians ready to rip him apart and leave him for dead. Dex unbuttoned his coat and tossed it onto the jungle gym, barely feeling the cold through his T-shirt.
Mack grunted. "Looks like we got ourselves a couple of crazy fuckers."
"Oh, baby, you have no idea." Austen turned and bolted for the slide, with Mack taking off after him, followed by another three of his guys, leaving the two cougar Therians to charge Dex. He almost felt sorry for them. Dex ducked under a right hook and dodged a left jab. They moved fast, but he was quicker. Both Therians came at him, punching, kicking, and trying to grab him when they couldn't land a hit. He spun away from one guy and the other guy threw his arms around Dex. He tried to lift Dex off his feet.
"What the hell?"
"What?" the first guy asked, stopping in front of Dex.
"He weighs a fucking ton."
"Stop fucking around, Lonny."
Dex used Lonny's weight to prop him up as he kicked out with both legs, his boots slamming into the guy in front of him and sending him reeling back and onto his ass, but not out.
"What the--"
Dex thrust his head back, the crack of Lonny's nose resounding through the playground. Lonny released Dex, cursing up a storm. Dex dropped to one knee and punched Lonny with all his strength on the side of Lonny's knee. The howl of pain as he hit the ground caught the attention of his friends. Austen took advantage, grabbing on to the steel rod from one of the swing sets and hurling himself around it, using the momentum to swing himself up and wrap his legs around one Therian's neck. While the guy flailed in Austen's iron grip, Mack left the other two with Austen and headed for Dex.
"What the hell is going on? You two can't get rid of one Human?"
Lonny shook his head and garbled something unintelligible as he writhed in pain. Dex stood serenely as Mack and the first guy Dex had knocked down circled him.
Mack narrowed his eyes at Dex. "You're not just any Human. Are you?"
Dex smirked. "Nope."
Mack scoffed, then froze. His eyes went wide. "No way." He looked Dex over. "That's just a bullshit rumor."
A belt whipped around the remaining lion Therian's neck. The guy flailed and grabbed the thick black fabric belt before he was hauled off his feet, hitting the ground with a painful thud. Dex had to hand it to Austen, the guy was resourceful. Size meant shit to a TIN operative, and Austen proved as much. He used whatever he had on hand to get the job done.