Unbroken

“They’re not allowed to talk shit about you, Skye,” Leo cut in suddenly. “Hunter was right to hurt him.”

“Don’t get into trouble because people think I’m a slut, okay?” I snapped. Leo immediately looked away from me while Hunter’s eyes narrowed on me.

“You’re not a slut,” Hunter said. “I’ll kill anyone who says it—”

“Calm down, Rambo,” I interrupted again. “Don’t tell me you didn’t expect this. I hang around you two like a bad fly. We doeverythingtogether, and sometimes it looks weird. But I’m not choosing one of you over the other just because people are going to call me names. They don’t understand, and that’s fine. I don’t care what they think.”

Of course I sort of cared. It hurt.However, I reasoned with myself that time would show everyone that it wasn’t so black and white. They’d understand.

But Leo was back to staring at Hunter, and he was staring right on back, too. They were silently communicating, and I wanted to smack them both to snap them out of this weird possessive funk they had whenever someone talked about me.

“Enough,” I pressed, softening my voice now.“Enough.”

Leo stiffened a nod at me, giving me another reassuring smile. “Enough,” he agreed.

If I was expecting Hunter to say the same, I was wrong. His face was hard as he picked his backpack up and swung it over his shoulder. “If you can’t fight for yourself, Skye, then someone has to fight for you. I’m not letting a bunch of dog cunt fucks talk shit about you. That’s just the way it is.”

With that, he trudged down the hall, not waiting up for us to follow. My sweet, violent Hunter. His anger rolled off him in hot waves. I tossed my bag at Leo and chased after him. I dissolved his anger by jumping on his back. His arms immediately came around me, grabbing at my legs to secure them over his front.

Kissing him on his neck, I whispered in his ear, “My hero.”

“I’m a savage,” he retorted, though his tone was lighter now. “Isn’t that what everyone calls me?”

It was. I hated it, too.

Despite still feeling rattled, I grinned. “My savage, my hero. Come back to me.”

I felt the vibrations of his laughter, the way his grip around my legs tightened.

His anger receded, and my Hunter was back.

Hunter

“You gotta know that your girl is fucking around with Leo,” that cunt said. “You gotta know that she’s been touchy-feely with that rich punk.”

When Hunter didn’t respond, the little cunt had followed him with his posse of dickheads down the hall. This little shit had been floating around the same circles as Hunter for years, but they’d never collided. Not until now.

Hunter wondered why this fucker was being so bold all of a sudden? Was it because he was a year older than Hunter? Did he think that the age difference made him stronger somehow, more feared?

Bullies loved to push, and when you didn’t push back, they took it as permission to keep going. Up until then he’d never bothered with Hunt, but now that they shared the same halls, a flip seemed to switch in this shit’s head, and he was treating Hunter like easy fodder.

Hunter’s spine tingled, his ears grew hot, his pulse jumped as that venomousthinginside him stirred awake as it listened to this dickhead’s words.

It wasn’t the first time people assumed Skye was with him. He never corrected anyone, never explained that technically she didn’t belong to him, but then he’d be lying.

Because shedidbelong to Hunt.

(She belonged to Leo, too.)

The boy—Kevin?— grinned widely. “Unless you’re into that sort of shit, Hunt. You like when a dude fucks with your girl? They call that cuckold, did you know that? It’s when a guy lets hisslutget railed by an alpha—”

And that was why Hunter twisted around, grabbed him—Ken?—by the collar of his shirt and swung him like a bat, slamming him into the ground before punching his face in.

Thethinginside him glowed, ravenous, delighted. His head floated like a cloud as his body burst with endorphins. He pulled him—Kyle?—up and slammed him into the locker, his strength overwhelming the boy—whatever the fuck his name was—until he’d gone limp, shutting his eyes from the violent onslaught.

Hunter didn’t like to hurt senselessly, but this wasn’t senseless. He reasoned this was a display of dominance. It might not stave the shitheads away for good, but over time it would. He wanted these idiots to fear him. He wanted them to be mindful of who they called a slut.No onespoke ill about Skye without getting punished for it.No one.

“You gotta learn to channel that rage. You gotta learn how to wield it like a weapon.”