Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

back in, but the only thing that caught my eye was him. Lorcan stood, gripping me tight, so tightly, staring at me like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, his whole body shaking, those green eyes boring into mine.

“What the actual fuck!” he spat. “You do not fucking do that ever again. I don’t know what the fuck they taught all of you in that fucked-up town, that endless bloody misery is better than having a damn life, but you all need to stop this shit!” He wrenched me in against him, holding me so tight, I couldn’t take a full breath, but instead of clawing at him, pushing him away, as my lungs screamed at me to do, I softened into him.

I let Lorcan hold me, let him keep me up. Let Lorcan take responsibility for me, for breathing, for existing, because right now, I felt so very tired. What the fuck was all of this? Why the hell were we back here? I’d taken Mason back fair and square, but it seemed that by taking him, I’d opened something else up. A doorway for the man with the black hair to step free.

Like he did just now.

I felt Lorcan tense, shove me behind him, heard the sound of strange feet against the concrete, and over my mate’s shoulders, I saw him. Smiling now, cruel as a knife, the black-haired man straightened up, then punched his fist into his other hand.

“I have to fight for her, is that what this is?” Lorcan’s body snapped into readiness. Not with the well-trained stance of a fighter, but the loose one of a street scrapper. Someone who’d been through hundreds of grubby little spats, the survival of which formed a more essential form of training. “Then fucking bring it, cunt. I’ll take down you and any other bastard that tries to get between me and her. You better beat me to a bloody smear, because that’s what it’s gonna take. She’s mine.” His voice went to a roar at that last assertion, the challenge ringing through the maze.

“She’s theirs,” the other man replied with a tilt of his head. “You’ll never have all of her, ever. When you want her, they’ll be with her. When you need her, they’ll jostle you out the way. When it’s been so long since you’ve touched, when you fear just a tiny gesture will unman you, they’ll be there, monopolising her attention. Then the children will come.”

“Is that it?” The sheer disgust in his voice made even the black-haired man start. “That’s your big psy-op, is it? I won’t have enough of her? I’d never have enough of her, even if she shucked off every one of the other fellas and was left with only me. What I feel, burning true inside me, is her. A need for her, sure, a desire, a pleasure, a sheer fucking joy at being around her, breathing her in. But that always came with a price. No matter that my beast paces back and forth inside me, wanting to drag her away to somewhere where no one can find us, I never would.”

My hand went to his shoulder at the sound of raw pain in his voice, and I felt something settle when I did.

“Because I love her, and that means all the petty bullshit that you describe doesn’t fucking matter, except for kids, because if she wants that, I’m one hundred percent in. I’ll be the best fucking dad I can be with everything I am. It’s her, she’s what matters. What she wants, she needs, she desires, because…” I moved around so I could see Lorcan’s face. He wouldn’t let me get too close, holding out an arm to stop me approaching the Father Wolf, but when his eyes slid to mine, I saw it. A wonder spread across his face, and for a second, I saw that dazzling smile. “Because she’ll do the same for me. What I want, what I need, what all of us need. She’ll work her arse off to make sure we get it too.”

“Very sweet,” the man said with a smirk. “Then I guess you must fight for your love. It would be much better if you surrendered. One of you will, you know. I am coming back, coming through.”

“You’re gonna get a smack to the face, you jacked up piece of shit,” Lorcan snapped back and then struck out.

This was a messy, savage, brawling thing. Defence and fancy footwork were thrown out the window for sheer bloody instinct. I winced when I heard the crack of glass as one threw the other into a mirror, but then knees thrust up, arms locked around necks as they pushed away, each clawing at the other. The black-haired man pulled away for a moment, breathing hard as his hand went to his nose, catching a trickle of blood, then licking it from his finger, his eyes now a steely grey.

Grey?

I squinted my eyes, dancing out of the way in the small space, trying to keep clear of them before the guy launched himself at my mate. Lorcan dodged right, hoping to send the other man back into the mirror, but he corrected at the last minute, shoving Lorcan at me, sending me pinwheeling backwards. I hit a mirrored door, the glass swinging open so I might slip through before slamming resolutely shut.

“Paige!” Lorcan called, throwing his shoulder into the mirror when it wouldn’t budge, inspiring me to do the same, especially as the other man advanced upon my mate, but I froze in what I was doing when I realised who was doing that.

“He’s mine.”

The black-haired man stepped up beside me, looking through the glass like one would an animal at the zoo as Micah stalked over to Lorcan. I’m not sure why that was scarier, seeing those well honed fists smacking into each other, ready to administer a beatdown. Lorcan spun around quickly enough, ducking under the incoming blow, and the next