Terrell's POV
Merrick heard me half a second before I reached him. I saw him start to turn - just beginning to register the sound - and then I hit him.
We both went down hard.
He was not a small man and he was not untrained - we had fought each other enough times over the decades that we knew each other's rhythms the way only brothers do. He got his arms up. He deflected the first strike and nearly landed the second.
Nearly.
But he was not the Alpha.
I drove him into the ground and put a knee in his chest and looked down at his face and for a moment neither of us moved. Merrick looked up at me with an expression that was - even now, even here, in the mud with the breath knocked out of him - more annoyed than afraid.
"Terrell, what are you…"
"You had your hands on her," I said. Very quietly.
"I was helping her…"
