Chapter 155: When the Captain Breaks the Rules
Rhys
I saw the wooden bat being lowered, and as it was about to hit Kayden, my feet moved quicker than I expected.
I launched myself across the concrete floor.
I slammed into Julius with the full force of a professional athlete’s momentum, my shoulder connecting with his ribs in a hit that would have gotten me a lifetime ban on the ice.
But this wasn’t the rink. This was a rescue, and I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt Kayden.
Julius let out a wheeze as the air was forced from his lungs when my shoulder collided with his ribs.
He was sent flying backward, the baseball bat clattering uselessly to the floor as he tumbled over a pile of construction debris.
"You bastard!" I yelled, then turned towards Kayden, who was lying on the ground, the blood matting his hair and the terrifying way he was unable to move.
"Kayden!" I shouted his name and tried to touch him, but before I could even reach for him, Julius tried to scramble back up and raised the wooden bat to hit me, but Miller arrived and kicked him out of the way.
With the bat in his hand, he took down the other boys, knocking them off their feet.
But that didn’t stop me from attacking Julius.
I rushed towards him in the blink of an eye, got on top of him, and drove my fist straight into the center of his face.
The sound of my knuckles connecting with his nose was a sickening, wet crunch.
I felt the bone give way under the impact, and even though I could feel a shock of pain radiating up my arm, I didn’t stop.
This was nothing compared to what he had done to the man I loved.
A few minutes ago, when Kayden had called me to call the cops, I knew something bad had happened, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.
I never expected that he would be in a condition like this.
Fortunately for us, the investigator had found him, and I had driven through the streets like a madman only to see him lying like that on the ground.
"You son of a bitch!" I yelled as I continued hitting Julius.
His head snapped back, blood spraying across my knuckles, but I didn’t care. I didn’t let him go.
"You actually thought you could touch him and walk away from this?"
I punched him again. Left hook. Right cross. Each blow was fueled by the days of worry, the leaked videos, and the sight of Kayden slumped on the cold concrete.
"Rhys! Stop! You’ll kill him!" Miller’s voice echoed from the side of the room. "Let the cops take care of this."
"No! This bastard deserves to be punished! I’ll make sure you never see the light of day again! You’ll rot in prison!" I yelled and had him pinned against the debris, my fist pulled back for a blow that would have likely ended his life, when I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around my chest.
"Rhys, enough! Look at him! He’s done!" Miller yelled, straining as he hauled me backward with everything he had.
I struggled against him, my boots skidding on the grit and glass, my eyes still fixed on Julius’s slumped, bloodied form. "He touched him, Miller! He was going to break his hands!" I roared. "That bastard was about to kill him, and if we had not walked in here, if we had not found him, then he would be..."
"I know! I saw it!" Miller shouted back, finally managing to pull me a few feet away. He held up a camera in his hand. "I found it at the scene. It was set to be recording. It’s all on this camera, Rhys. Everything that we need. He’s finished. Don’t let him take your career down with him!"
I stopped fighting then, my chest heaving as the adrenaline began to sour in my gut. I looked at the camera in Miller’s hand, then back at the monster groaning on the floor.
"Hold on to that," I hissed, my voice trembling. "Don’t let that footage out of your sight for a single second. If that video disappears, then we won’t be able to put this fool away!"
"I’ve got it, man. I promise," Miller muttered, his own face pale as he looked over at the corner.
In the distance, the first loud wail of sirens sounded through the night, and it grew louder as it neared us.
The cops were finally here. But none of that mattered to me except the broken figure lying a few feet away.
"Kayden," I muttered as my legs moved towards him.
I dropped to my knees beside him, my heart shattering at the sight of him. He looked so small against the cold concrete.
Blood was pooling at the corner of his mouth, his head, and even from his face where Julius must have hit.
"Kayden," I whispered, my voice breaking as I slid my arms beneath him, lifting his head into my lap with the gentlest touch I could manage.
His eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open. When his gaze finally landed on mine, he smiled at me. "Rhys..." he whispered. "You... you are really here."
"I’m here, softie. I’m right here," I choked out, my vision blurring as tears finally stung my eyes.
I reached up, my thumb trembling as I wiped a smear of blood from his chin. "Don’t talk. Please, Kayden, don’t say another word. Just breathe for me. Just stay with me and everything will be fine," I assured him.
As soon as I finished saying that, he started shaking in my arms, his body racked with tremors from the shock and the paralysis in his back.
The sight of him made me see red. He was in this condition because of a coward’s jealousy, and it hurt worse than any injury I had ever taken on the ice.
It was like a physical ache in my chest that felt like it was crushing my ribs.
"You are going to be fine," I murmured as I held him tighter in my arms, and just then the place was flooded with blue and red light as the police and paramedics swarmed the floor.
Their boots thudded on the stairs, and voices began barking orders to apprehend Julius and the boys on the ground, but I didn’t let go of Kayden.
Even when the EMTs approached with a stretcher, I didn’t let them take Kayden.
"I’ve got him," I told them as I stood up and carried Kayden’s limp body in my arms.
I carried him down the stairs and didn’t bother to say anything even when Julius was being cuffed by the police. He was lucky I didn’t kill him.
When we reached the ground floor, I ignored all the reporters flashing their cameras at me and asking questions.
I walked straight to the back of the waiting ambulance and carefully laid him onto the gurney. I stood back just far enough to let the paramedics work, my hands clenched at my sides as I watched them cut away his shirt and press gauze to his wounds.
They began checking his vitals, their faces grim as they discussed the potential spinal trauma from the bat. Every time he winced, I felt a phantom blow to my own body.
He was so badly injured, his skin pale and his breathing shallow.
The realization of how close I had come to losing him hit me like a physical blow. It made me wonder, with a sickening hollow feeling in my gut, if I could ever truly protect him like I had promised.
I had failed. I had let him walk into this alone while I was busy being a captain on ice.
"Rhys, sit down. You’re shaking," Miller muttered, pulling me onto the narrow bench at the back of the ambulance as the vehicle started moving.
The sirens above us from the ambulance were deafening, reflecting the chaos inside my head.
I clenched my fists tightly as I watched the paramedics hovering over Kayden.
Suddenly, the heart monitor’s steady beep-beep turned into a high-pitched, erratic sound. Kayden’s body suddenly went rigid. His back arched off the gurney, and his limbs began to jerk with violent, uncontrollable tremors.
"He’s convulsing! Seizure! Get his head—watch the C-spine!" the lead paramedic shouted, bracing Kayden’s shoulders to keep him from throwing himself off the bed.
"Kayden! No!" I surged forward, but Miller threw his arm across my chest, pinning me to the bench.
"Stay back, Rhys! Let them work!" Miller yelled at me.
"But..."
"Kayden will be fine. Let them do their work!"
I watched in silent horror as they tilted Kayden’s head, trying to clear his airway while his eyes rolled back, showing only the whites.
Blood and foam bubbled at the corner of his mouth, and seeing him like that made my heart feel like it was ripped out of my chest through my throat.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to be safe now that I was here.
"Kayden..." I muttered, running a hand through my hair.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think straight because he was in pain right in front of me.
"I have to do something," I shouted and placed a hand on his shoulder, releasing my soothing pheromones on him.
I didn’t care about what anyone would think at that moment, what they would say, I just wanted him to be fine, and since he was already used to my pheromones, this would calm him down.
The paramedics stopped and looked at me. "Put your pheromones away!" their leader shouted at me. "He is..."
I cut her off by pointing towards the monitor screen, and his heart rate had returned to a normal rate, and he was no longer shaking.
"He is fine now," I told them.
They just stared at me in awe because they never expected that an alpha’s pheromones would be able to soothe another alpha.
Lucky for me, Kayden was my omega.