Page 132 of The Enforcer's Rejected Mate

“I dunno, I’m pretty pissed off at you right now.”

Keiran doesn’t react. He’s only a few steps away from me. We both size the other up and then he lunges for me. I throw myself to the side and swing my chains at him. They make contact and he snarls in pain. I can smell his burning skin when one of them wraps around his throat. I grab the chain with both hands and yank as hard as I can to pull him off center. It works but only for a second. Keiran turns and backhands me so hard that I almost pass out. I hit the ground and try to keep fighting. The chain is around his neck still. I kick a foot out and loop the chain around it before I pull with both hands to jerk him forward. Keiran’s head snaps forward before he grabs the chain and stops me.

“Fucking bitch. Useless omega.” He comes for me but we both hear the door open with a resounding slam. From the sound of it, it hits the wall. Pine and fiery ice hit my nose.

It’s him.

“Thorne!” I scream, scrambling back from Keiran. He stops me from getting away by yanking me back by the chain. I slideback on the floor towards Keiran with a shriek. “Thorne! I’m in here!”

Keiran yanks me back again. My shoulder aches from how hard he’s pulling and It feels like my wrist is going to snap but I keep fighting him. Thorne appears in the cell door a half second later and roars.

“Get away from her!”

Keiran lifts me by the chain, forces me up onto my feet with another pull of the chain. “She’s mine.”

“You lost the right to her when you rejected her.” Thorne steps into the room. Behind him I can hear shouts. It sounds like there’s a commotion. Smashing glass and breaking furniture. Whatever is happening out there is an outright brawl.

“You’re outnumbered,” Thorne tells Keiran. “It’s over.”

“It’s over when I say it’s over.” There’s a snick of a knife unfolding before Keiran holds it to my throat. “You think I’m going to let you have her? If I can’t have her, no one can.”

Fear and anxiety washes over me. The fear feels like a bucket of cold water hitting me in the face. My breath freezes in my chest. I gasp and choke, trying to get a breath in but it’s no use. There’s no getting out from under the fear that’s settled over me because it’s not mine. It’s Thorne’s feelings. His fear at losing me chokes me with how strongly he feels it. It’s panic and anxiety so loud it drowns everything out, or at least it feels that way until?—

“Sweetling, look at me.” My eyes come to his and he smiles at me. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for fucking things up at the dance. I’m going to get you out of this. We’re going home. I promise.”

Home.

Keiran grabs the chain and pulls me against him. “You’re going to tell him you don’t want him. Reject him or I’m going to kill you.”

My eyes water. There’s so much I want to say to Thorne. That I know Cassidy was lying, that I want to go home with him, andthat I do trust him. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to say those things to him but I do know I won’t say what Keiran wants me to. My next move is a gamble, but being free is worth the gamble.

“Reject him. Now.”

“No.”

I feel the shift in Keiran. He’s about to strike, but for once, things go my way. Even if I’m weak right now, I can fall just fine so that’s what I do. I drop to the ground and the blade grazes me but there’s nothing but air waiting for Keiran when he slices the knife across the space where I used to be.

“You’re never hurting her again.”

With me out of the way, Thorne is on him in the next second. I roll to the side and the chain on my wrist gets dropped when Keiran takes on Thorne. Thorne lands two punches in quick succession. Keiran’s not quick enough to dodge the knee Thorne throws. He doubles over, the knife dropping to the ground before Thorne grabs him and throws him into the cell door bars. Keiran hits the bars like a ragdoll and crumples to the floor like a puppet whose strings have been cut. Then he gets up, movements jerky and uncoordinated. He falls back against the bars and looks between us both before he shakes his head and sprints from the room.

I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t that.

“Did he just run away?” I ask.

Thorne nods. “He did.” He moves and I know he’s going to go after Keiran so I hold out a hand to him.

“Don’t.”

He looks at me. I see the war across his face. The need to protect me, to put Keiran down indefinitely. His sense of duty and anger, all of it comes through our bond.

“Please, don’t. Stay with me.”

Chapter

Fifty-Six

THORNE