Ezra did not answer. He went in again, faster, and the exchange turned meaner. A strike to the jaw. A body shot.
Alpha John recovered and slammed his forearm across Ezra’s throat, and the bond spiked hard enough to make me flinch even though I kept still.
He was hurt. Not badly. But I felt it.
A dark immediate rage that flashed through the bond like heat under my skin.
He said something about me. I knew it before my mind even caught up. Ezra reacted half a second too fast, and Alpha John used it instantly.
He shifted aside, hooked Ezra’s leg, and drove his shoulder into him hard enough to send both of them crashing to the dirt.
The crowd gasped. Ezra hit the ground first. Alpha John came down on top of him. The bond detonated.
Pain flared through my chest so hot and sudden that for
