Chapter 31 - You'll Never Believe...

It was Juan. And the gleam in his dark eyes scared the shit out of her. "What are you--"

His hand covered her mouth, as he stepped in closer, until she could feel the heat of him against her, just barely not touching chest to chest, "You smell better than any bitch I've even been near. A woman like you doesn't need a mate. You could walk all over these assholes. Men would kneel before you."

Rose felt the pressure of the counter against her back. He'd trapped her. Lifting her arms between them, she pushed back. "You're making me--" Before she could finish, his mouth covered hers in an overly wet, messy, kiss. Rose did the only thing she could think of. She brought her knee to his groin and he staggered just enough that she squeezed away from him. "Help!" She called. The fire alarm started blaring. Well, there went dinner. As she ran, she collided with another large chest. This one covered in a hard vest with hundreds of little pockets full of even harder things. As if by instinct, an arm wrapped around her and turned her away, putting himself between her and Juan. "Stay close. It's not safe out there either."

"Thank you." She hid behind him. But she could hear the remarks coming from them.

"You're all going to die."

"Just wait!" Another deep voice yelled, "You look like a tasty snack."

"Oh, this is going to be fun. I'll be the first to get you when the hunt starts."

Rose shivered behind the large man. Trying to keep their voices out of her head. Juan was on his feet marching toward them. "Don't tell me you don't smell it? She's what they're after. Anyone would be a fool to not fight for that. But does Henry deserve to just win her? We can all have our--"

"Don't finish that sentence." A growl came from around the corner, and though she couldn't see him, her heart soared. It was Henry. Her heart dropped then. He looked absolutely terrifying as he stalked into the room.

Juan growled back, "You don't own her. That makes her free game, and you know it." Jaun said, taking on a pose like a cat ready to strike.

Then they both charged at each other. Rose gasped and the soldier between them raised his arm protectively. "They're going to hurt themselves." Rose cried, trying to push through. The lights in the kitchen flickered. At one point dropping the room into complete darkness for about five seconds. Flicker, flicker. Though the men didn't seem to be aware of the change, Rose felt a chill run over her body every time it happened.

The soldier's cold dark eyes turned on her, ignoring the flickering lights. "They're fighting over you. No one can enter an Alpha fight. Now that they've started it, they must finish it." Beyond, Henry had already blackened Juan's eye as they were squaring off again. That's when Juan suddenly turned and Rose gasped. His shoulders hunched, and large sharp claws grew from his elongating fingers. Where his nose was became snout, hair sprouted randomly over his skin as fangs appeared. "Henry, no!" Rose tried to break through again. This wasn't a fair fight. Henry was already broken and bruised, and they should both be more concerned with saving their strength for tonight.

The soldier smiled down at her. "Don't worry, Henry's won against all of us. This kid thinks he's going to win with that getup? Ha. You have nothing to worry about. Henry's got this in the bag."

A moment later, Henry mimicked the shift which made the soldier keeping her back laugh, "Yeah, kids screwed. Especially because I don't think I've ever seen Henry this angry." The lights flickered again, and smoke was billowing from the oven. It felt suffocating that no one seemed to be aware of what was happening around them.

Juan went for an opening, but Henry dodged, taking a chunk from Juan's arm. Aiden stormed down the stairs. "We're on a mission, you idiots! We need to conserve our health and strength!" he bellowed, pressing his palms to his bald head. His green eyes were large and shining with rage.

Juan tried to go in again, but Henry sidestepped, taking the other man to the ground. Now that Aiden was screaming at them, circling but not touching, she realized it was just getting worse. As Henry started smashing the other man's, or beast's, face Aiden looked like he was about to try to break them apart. All the emotion broke through, and tears started streaming down her cheeks, "PLEASE STOP!" Both men froze. She sobbed his name, "Henry..." but it was barely out of her mouth before he had her wrapped in his arms. Jaun looked confused, fully back to his regular-looking self. Aiden was now staring at her, mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Are you okay?" Henry looked like himself again as he pulled back to look her over, "Did he touch you?"

"Mostly just scared me." She smacked his hand as he started to paw at her, pulling up the bottom of her shirt and sleeves as if to check himself. "Aiden was right though, we can't fight among ourselves. We need all our strength to make sure we're okay tonight."

Aiden and Dominic were currently in the kitchen, pulling the food off the stove and looking at it with disappointment. She had to imagine they were all probably starving. Dominic was waving a hand towel at the alarm. Once it stopped screaming, the man sighed, "Welp, there goes dinner I guess."

Kai just arrived downstairs as the alarm kicked off. "What the hell happened down here?"

"Stop Kai. Everyone's already in a mood." Rose only had to snip at him once for everyone else to fall silent.

She didn't miss the look that shot between the men in the room. The only one who seemed unaffected was Kai. Irritated a fight broke out like it was normal behavior, she'd nearly been assaulted for cooking and that just made her feel worse about the whole thing.

Though the meat was well overcooked, and the last batch of the bread was definitely burnt beyond eating, Rose started working on getting plates together. Pulling out cups and milk and the sugar bowl. She got it all onto the island and grabbed the eggs and started whisking them again. At least she hadn't tried to cook those already. Soon, all the guys were grabbing plates and talking among themselves. Henry's eyes were glued to her every movement. But Rose felt even stranger because she felt like it wasn't just him.

"What do you think that was?" He heard one of the guys ask.

Juan was the one who answered. "You'll never believe..." but his words trailed off and Rose didn't catch the last part.