Chapter Nine
1150 Words
The wolf who had burst through the back door was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"They're here," he managed to say.
The leader frowned. "Who?"
He pointed toward the parking lot without taking his eyes off the doorway.
"The Alpha's men."
The leader pushed past him and looked outside.
Rain covered everything in a grey curtain, but there was enough light from the diner sign to make out the figures waiting beyond the cars. Some stood with their hands in their pockets. Others watched the building without moving. No one shouted. No one tried to force their way inside.
They were waiting.
The leader counted them for a few seconds before he clicked his tongue.
"So you brought company."
Liam walked over, stopping a few steps away from him.
"I told my Beta where I was going. He made his own decision."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I don't care what you believe."
The answer earned a hard smile.
The leader turned back to his men.
"They think they can scare us." He spread his arms. "Look around. We've got more wolves in here than they've got outside."
A few of the men nodded.
A few didn't.
The youngest among them kept looking through the broken doorway.
His fingers wouldn't stay still.
"You," the leader snapped.
The young wolf looked up.
"Close your mouth. You're embarrassing me."
He straightened at once, but the fear didn't leave his face.
I understood it.
I couldn't explain why, but something told me the men outside weren't here to start a war.
They were here because their Alpha had walked into danger alone.
That thought made me look at Liam again.
He hadn't asked them to charge in.
He hadn't hidden behind them either.
He had come inside first.
Alone.
Why?
I didn't know him.
He didn't know me.
Yet he was standing between me and the people who wanted to drag me away.
It didn't make sense.
The leader looked over his shoulder and caught me staring.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"I've been wondering."
My stomach tightened.
"What makes you so special?"
Before I could answer, he closed the distance between us.
Everything happened too fast.
His hand shot out and caught my wrist.
Pain ran up my arm as he pulled me toward him.
I lost my balance.
My injured ankle gave way, and I crashed into his chest.
The customers cried out.
Sal rushed forward.
"Leave her alone!"
One of the wolves shoved the old man so hard that he stumbled into a table.
Plates crashed to the floor.
"Sal!" I shouted.
"I'm fine," he grunted, trying to push himself back up.
The leader didn't even look at him.
His attention stayed on Liam.
"Now we're talking."
He reached behind him, grabbed a carving knife from the counter and pressed it against my neck.
The metal was cold.
I froze.
"Nobody move."
Liam stopped.
Not because he was afraid.
Because he had seen the knife.
For the first time since he arrived, something crossed his face that I could understand.
Worry.
Not for himself.
For me.
Our eyes met.
He didn't tell me to be brave.
He didn't promise everything would be fine.
He simply held my gaze, as if he wanted me to know one thing.
He wasn't leaving.
The leader laughed under his breath.
"I knew it."
He tightened his arm around me until it hurt.
"You came here for her."
Liam answered without taking his eyes off me.
"I came here because someone needed help."
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not."
The leader leaned closer to my ear.
"Looks like you've found yourself another hero."
The knife trembled against my neck.
Not because the leader was nervous.
I tried but couldn't stop shaking.
I tried to breathe slowly, but every breath reminded me how close the blade was to my skin.
"Let her go."
Liam's voice was steady.
It wasn't a command.
It sounded more like a final chance.
The leader laughed.
"Why would I?"
"Because this doesn't end the way you think it does."
"You don't know me."
"I know enough."
The leader pressed the knife a little harder.
A sharp sting made me flinch.
I felt something warm trickle down the side of my neck.
Sal sucked in a breath.
"Oh, God..."
One of the customers covered her little daughter's eyes.
"Please," she whispered. "Don't let her see this."
The little girl started crying anyway.
The sound filled the everywhere.
It was small, frightened, and painfully real.
Liam heard it too.
His eyes shifted for only a second.
That was all the leader needed.
You've threatened an old man , You've terrified children.
His eyes moved to the family huddled near the window.
"And now you're hiding behind an injured woman."
The words landed exactly where they were meant to.
The wolves standing behind the leader glanced at one another.
One of them looked away.
Another shifted uneasily.
The leader noticed.
His face hardened.
"What are you looking at?" he barked.
No one answered.
"You all followed me in here."
Still nothing.
The silence seemed to annoy him more than Liam's words.
He shoved me forward just enough to make me stumble before pulling me back again.
Pain shot through my ankle.
I cried out despite trying not to.
Liam took a step without thinking.
The leader reacted at once.
The knife nicked my neck again.
"Stop!"
Liam froze.
For a moment neither man spoke.
Rain drummed against the roof.
Behind me, a coffee pot slipped from the counter and smashed on the floor.
Nobody even turned to look.
The leader kept his eyes on Liam.
"I've heard all the stories about you."
He gave a dry laugh.
"They forgot to mention one thing."
"And what's that?" Liam asked.
"You hesitate."
"I think."
"No."
The leader shook his head.
"You care."
Liam didn't argue.
He looked at me instead.
"Elisa."
My head lifted.
It was the first time he had said my name.
I frowned.
"I never told you..."
"You didn't."
A faint smile touched his face.
"I heard Sal call you."
I glanced at the old man.
He was still holding on to the edge of the counter, his face pale but determined.
My chest tightened.
These people barely knew me.
Yet they were risking themselves because they didn't want to see me dragged away.
The leader followed my gaze.
His expression changed.
Without warning, he shoved me hard toward Sal.
I lost my footing.
"Get down!" Liam shouted.
Everything happened at once.
The leader spun toward Liam and drove his fist straight at his face.
Liam caught the punch on his forearm, but the force pushed him back into a table.
Wood cracked beneath the impact.
Before anyone could react, two more wolves rushed him from the side.
The fight had begun.
- Writer
