Defy The Alpha(s) 2: Rebel Beast

If there was one talent Charlotte Greenwood excelled at more than anything else, it was causing trouble.

~ Rebel Beast

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Charlotte went silent, unable to utter another word. Her mind raced as she stared at Mimic, trying to understand how the hell the girl knew any of that. Then it hit her.

Someone must have told them.

Yes. That was the only explanation. Someone who knew her, someone who had the power to dig into her private life and hand everything over to these two.

"It’s Karen, isn’t it?" Charlotte raised her voice at Mimic, pointing an accusing finger at her. "She paid you guys to do this? How dare you behave so arrogantly when you’re nothing but another gossip column making a living out of people’s pockets?"

Behind her, whispers immediately began to spread, the atmosphere in the common room shifting with alarming speed.

"Has the human lost her mind? How dare she speak to Mimic and Plumage like that?"

"Who does she think she is to raise her voice at one of our own?" another Aetheris beast snarled.

"Oh shit," Zainab muttered when she noticed the way public opinion had suddenly turned against them. Or more precisely, at Charlotte.

What in the world had Charlotte been thinking? Did she seriously believe these beasts would choose a human they’d known for barely two days over two of their own?

To think they had followed Charlotte out of pure survival instinct, hoping she would become the leading figure among them and, together, they would somehow survive this place. But the reverse seemed to be happening. Charlotte wasn’t increasing their chances of survival. If anything, remaining beside her was quickly becoming a threat to it.

Zainab, Indigo, and Meredith exchanged a look. Not a single word needed to be spoken between them.

While every beast in the room had their attention fixed on Charlotte, the three girls carefully slipped out of their seats and began moving toward the entrance. Charlotte had done this to herself. They weren’t going to die with her.

"Uh-oh..." Charlotte muttered when she finally noticed the same beasts who had been laughing with her only minutes ago were now closing in around her.

She laughed nervously and lifted her hands. "No, you don’t understand. I was only joking."

Nobody laughed.

Charlotte hastily turned toward Mimic, silently pleading with the girl to say something that might calm everyone down. Surely Mimic could tell them it wasn’t that serious. One word from her and they would probably back away.

"Right?" Charlotte asked, forcing another laugh.

Mimic stared at her with the most spectacular resting bitch face Charlotte had ever seen. Then the parrot shifter calmly rose to her feet.

"I suppose your parents will be receiving news of your unfortunate demise today," Mimic said haughtily, smoothing down her clothes. "Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to put in a good word for you in our next article."

Charlotte’s face dropped.

Mimic turned toward her brother. "Let’s go, Plumage."

Plumage pushed himself to his feet, a sadistic little smirk pulling at his lips. He didn’t spare Charlotte so much as a sympathetic glance.

Even for parrot shifters, neither sibling seemed particularly concerned that the human might actually be torn apart the moment they walked away. Then again, Charlotte should have remembered where she was.

Beasts were beasts.

"No, wait! Please—!"

Charlotte tried to go after them, but she didn’t make it two steps. The surrounding beasts moved in.

Someone shoved her hard enough to send her stumbling backward. She crashed onto the seat Plumage and Mimic had just abandoned, her hip slamming painfully against its edge before the rest of her body followed.

"Fuck!"

Sharp pain shot through several parts of her body as she tried to push herself upright, only to freeze when she realized just how many beasts were surrounding her now.

These were the birds she’d been laughing with minutes ago. Who had smiled at her, asked her questions, and practically begged for every juicy detail she could give them.

Now their faces weren’t friendly at all.

Fuck.

Charlotte’s heart slammed violently against her ribs. She was about to be publicly lynched. This was definitely not how she had planned to die.

Her gaze darted frantically through the crowd, desperately searching for Zainab, Indigo, or Meredith. She couldn’t find a single one of them.

Charlotte’s stomach dropped. Those bitches had abandoned her. She was completely on her own.

"Make her kneel," someone said, and before Charlotte could even process the command, several hands were already on her body, dragging her up from the seat.

"No, don’t touch me!" Charlotte struggled against them, twisting and shoving at whatever hands she could reach, but there wasn’t much she could do against several beasts at once. They forced her down, and her knees struck the hard floor with enough force to make her wince.

Charlotte stopped struggling.

Her chest rose and fell heavily as she looked around at the beasts surrounding her. Fighting them would only make things worse, and despite the panic threatening to consume her, she wasn’t stupid enough to believe she could overpower an entire room of beast shifters.

"What do we do with her now?" one of the birds asked, sounding less certain than the others. "Remember Maverick’s rules. We’re not supposed to harm the humans. Are you sure Prince Rhydian would be fine with this?"

"Fuck Maverick’s rules."

The voice boomed across the common room with enough authority to silence everyone.

Heads turned. Charlotte followed their gazes and felt whatever little hope she’d had disappear when she saw a dragon shifter approaching the gathering.

Quest.

Aetheris beasts immediately created a path for him, moving aside without needing to be told. Quest walked through the opening at an unhurried pace, and Charlotte remained on her knees as he came to a stop directly in front of her.

She had to tilt her head back to look at him and the sadistic glint in his eyes made her stomach twist.

Charlotte swallowed. Her heart began pounding so violently she could hear it in her ears. She swore to the heavens that if she somehow survived this, she would never run her mouth recklessly again.

At least not around beasts.

Quest looked around at the gathered students. "I don’t care what rules Maverick Nightshade put in place. The human insulted one of our own, and we cannot simply let that go."

Several beasts murmured their agreement.

"If we allow one human to disrespect us without consequence, the others will eventually think they can do the same," Quest continued. "They sleep beneath our roof. They eat our food. They enjoy the protection of our house, and yet she thinks she can stand in the middle of Aetheris and say whatever she wants?"

Charlotte’s anger immediately overpowered some of her fear.

"That wasn’t an insult. I was—"

The slap came so quickly Charlotte never saw it except her head snapped violently to the side. For several seconds, she heard nothing but a faint ringing in her ears. Heat exploded across her cheek, followed almost immediately by a sharp sting that brought tears rushing into her eyes.

She slowly turned her face back. Quest lowered the hand he’d struck her with, a sneer twisting his features.

"You don’t get to speak unless I order you to, human."

Charlotte pressed a trembling hand against her burning cheek. Tears blurred her vision, but she refused to let them fall. Her lips trembled as humiliation settled alongside the pain.

She hated him. She hated every single beast standing around watching this. Most of all, she hated herself for being stupid enough to end up here.

Then Charlotte’s gaze suddenly shifted past Quest and her eyes widened dramatically.

"Prince Rhydian?"

The effect was instantaneous. Quest spun around, and so did nearly everyone else.

For one glorious second, every pair of eyes left Charlotte.

Except there was no Rhydian.

By the time Quest realized he’d been tricked, Charlotte was already moving. Her hand shot toward the chair Mimic had abandoned moments earlier. She grabbed it with both hands, surged to her feet, and swung with every ounce of strength the panic and adrenaline could give her.

The chair slammed straight into Quest’s face and a sickening crack echoed through the common room. Quest stumbled backward with a furious grunt, crashing into the beasts behind him and sending several of them staggering.

Charlotte didn’t wait to see the damage.

She simply dropped the chair and ran for her life.

She was so dead. So, so dead.

Behind her, commotion broke out.

"Quest!"

"Are you alright?"

Several beasts rushed toward the dragon, helping him regain his balance. Quest shoved the first pair of hands away from him, his face burning with humiliation as much as pain.

A human had just struck him in front of his entire house?

His eyes snapped toward the doors Charlotte had disappeared through and pure fury filled them.

Quest seized the nearest beast by the front of his shirt and dragged him close enough that their faces nearly collided.

"Get that human," he snarled. "Right fucking now!"

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