“I have wanted to mount a human. Do you prefer facing up or down?” Taking a few deep breaths, Shanna stared up at the asshole in terror. “Down,” she lied. “Back up and let me roll over and get my pants off.” He backed up, moving to let her turn over. Shanna struck, kicking the son of a bitch hard in the crotch with everything she had while clawing for the edge of the table. She wrapped her hand around it and pulled herself hard for the side, kicking out at another man who lunged for her. Shanna screamed out again, kicking the man who nearly grabbed her. She hit him in the stomach and then fell off the table.

Shanna hit the floor hard on her knees, the action sending pain shooting up both legs, but she ignored it, diving under the table to crawl frantically away from two of her would-be rapists. Someone snarled but she didn’t care who it was. She just wanted to get away. She shoved at a chair and pushed up with her hands when she cleared the table, getting to her feet. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement but didn’t turn her head. She sprinted for the doorway as fast as she could.

A roar sounded out behind her from one of the men, probably Ssshal expressing his rage, but the frightening sound only spurned Shanna to run faster. She made it to the doorway she’d come through, rushing past the five Zorn uniformed guards, who surprisingly didn’t lunge in her path to try to stop her. If she wasn’t imagining things they actually stepped back to clear her path. Are they helping me escape? She didn’t have time to think about it as she heard rough, heavy breathing and a growl was hot on her heels letting her know someone was pursuing her.

She almost slid into the wall when she had to turn for the curve of the hallway, her shoulder and hip bouncing against the wall, and then she was sprinting down the hallway. She saw it widening into one of the living rooms she had passed. She had no idea where to run for safety but as long as she got away from those men she didn’t give a damn where she ended up. She heard the man or men behind her closing the distance on her as the heavy breathing got louder. She turned her head to look, almost screaming, when she realized it was Ssshal running after her, and that he was only feet behind her. His arm reached out to grab at her.

Shanna opened her mouth to scream but instead she slammed hard into a firm, unforgiving large body. Two strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her off her feet, and spun her around in the air as the body turned with her in his arms, the sudden motion making her dizzy. When they stopped she jerked her head up and stared in shock at a frowning Vinlotti. The dark mocha-colored man with the flaming red hair looked as shocked as she did at seeing him after she’d run right into him.

He eased her to her feet. “Watch where you are going,” he huffed out. “That hurt.

You might be small but be glad that I saw you quickly enough to cushion your impact by turning enough to just grab you. A direct hit would have sent you to the floor or worse.”

Ssshal growled. Shanna jerked her head around to stare in horror at the hairy asshole. He growled again at her, showing teeth, looking super pissed off.

“Hand her over. She ran from me,” Ssshal snarled. His evil-looking black eyes fixed on Shanna, showing his rage. “You will pay for kicking me and tricking me.” Another whimper escaped from Shanna. She realized she was fisting Vinlotti’s black tank top. She jerked her head back to stare up at the huge Zorn male. “Please help me. Don’t let him touch me. You’re a friend of Berrr’s. Alluwn tricked me into coming here and she gave me to them to mount and you know Berrr doesn’t want anyone touching me.”

Shock made the dark-skinned man noticeably pale. “Not even Bratha Alluwn would be that cruel.”

“She was given to us,” Ssshal snarled. “Hand her over now. You may mount her after I am done with her.”

The hairy Zorn moved forward, reaching out to grab Shanna, but before his hand could close over her arm, Vinlotti spun away, yanking Shanna off her feet again and nearly tossing her into the corner as he released her. Shanna hit the floor on her feet hard and stumbled into the wall, barely throwing her arm up in time to stop her forehead from smacking into it. She was shocked that Berrr’s friend had thrown her.

She was also shocked to realize she was still fisting parts of his shirt she’d been gripping so hard that his sudden action had torn his shirt when he’d tossed her away from him. A vicious snarl sounded behind her. Shanna turned around, keeping her back to the corner, to stare in horrified fascination at what was happening.

Vinlotti had his back to her, just feet in front of her, trapping her in the corner. He faced a very furious Ssshal, blocking the asshole’s path to Shanna, it taking her a few seconds to realize that Berrr’s friend was protecting her. He’d thrown her into the corner to put her in a safe location. Ssshal was furious as he roared out in rage and tried to move around Vinlotti.

“Do you want to do this?” Vinlotti snarled the words. “I will fight you for the human, Ssshal.”

“She was given to Hyvin’s guests to mount.” Ssshal snarled again, sounding similar to a dog about to attack. “You have no right to interfere.” Terror struck Shanna as movement from the corner of her eye made her turn her head to see that the eight other men had followed them into the larger living room area and on their heels was Berrr’s uniformed guards. Vinlotti was outnumbered, there were too many of them to fight and Shanna realized he’d get killed if he didn’t move out of the way for those men to hurt her.

Shaking hard, Shanna reached out and put her hand on her would-be rescuer’s back. As much as she didn’t want to face the fate that Alluwn had set her up for, she didn’t want this friend of Berrr’s to die. Her voice shook as she touched him.

“They’ll kill you. Thank you for trying but it won’t stop this.” Vinlotti didn’t even turn his head to look at her. “Shut up and be still, human. I have this.”

Biting her lip, Shanna let her hand drop and backed up to press into the corner. Her gaze ran over the big man in front of her. Vinlotti was Berrr’s size, bigger than the men he faced off, but he was still outnumbered. She didn’t care how good a fighter he was, no one could win against those odds. She swallowed hard and kept silent. Maybe he could stall for time and Berrr would come home.

“I called her first,” Ssshal snarled. “Move.”