she's mine.

75

Eli's POV

When we were in middle school we used to watch these stupid animal planet videos on the days our science teacher was out sick. They were such a waste of time; I usually skipped out on those classes even when I was a good kid. But I do remember this one video where a lioness, while the lion slept, mauled this deer and dragged it back to the lion. It was freaking awesome. It was so gruesome that it caused the cheerleaders to all cry out and pout in the corner for the poor deer while the freshman boys' eyes went wide when the lioness's jaw clamped down on that deer's neck.

In this moment, Rai was that lioness.

I was confused when I saw her face pale and her feet stop moving in the doorway. Her eyes met mine and I saw a flash of fear that made my stomach twist then a flash of something I had never seen in them before, something dark. For some reason my mind instantly drew back to the lioness on animal planet, Rai's eyes, although still blue unlike the golden of the lioness, shared an ice cold, deadly shiv that saw blood and only blood. It was the opposite of the beautiful blazing fire I always saw within those blue eyes. My body went cold when I caught her jaw clench. She took a step to spin out of the grasp of someone behind her, and I felt my blood begin to instantly boil when I saw of a hand drop from her backside.

I

WILL

KILL

SOMEONE.

My legs were moving before my brain could think about any thing else. I ran to her. But before I could get close enough to do anything, Rai put everything she had in her little body into a nasty right hook. My eyes were blurred with fury, but I could faintly make out Alex's face as it made contact with Rai's fist.

I watched his body stumbled back and I couldn't tell if she really hit that hard or if it were more out of shock. The look on that moron's face said it could have been either. Rai was tough, but this guy was trained to take a hit for a living. That didn't seem to phase her though, she was relentless. The lioness took the opportunity as he was off balance to sink her teeth into the man in front of her. She threw both hands to his shoulders to steady herself while she forced a knee to his groin with so much force I swear every man in this hallway felt it. Some even grabbed themselves as if it were them getting hit. Yup. Even our grandsons felt that one.

Alex tumbled to the ground just as some of his team wrapped their arms around Rai's small frame to pull her back.

IF ONE MORE PERSON TOUCHES HER.

I pivoted to run through them. I grabbed one of his guys, ripping him back as I warned him to let her go before I killed him. Of course, I used choice words that would cause Rai to slap my arm if she could think straight.

It wasn't until I had already ripped the guy back, causing him to stumble to the ground, that I noticed the others.

Jonny wasn't as gentle with the man on the other side of Rai, he didn't hesitate to grab him by the shoulder and throw an upper cut to the man's abdomen. Then another. Three hits later and the man crumpled, uncontrollably losing his breath and strength to stand. Jonny didn't hit him the way he hit in training, he hit him to hurt him, he wanted to destroy the guy.

I saw a flash of blonde hair next to dark skin and knew JP and Caleb were meeting the rest of Alex's team head on.

I could see people's mouths move as they screamed and yelled, yet I heard nothing. Jonny and the boys thrashed with the others while I turned to Rai. She stood breathing heavy through her nostrils. Her hands were clenched and her body was motionless besides her chest rising and falling rapidly. She was staring at something past me, even when I walked to her.