"I guess I was supposed to have figured it out when Garth dressed and danced better than me," Mimi spat out sarcastically, "But how dare you? What, you think I’m so pathetic, so ugly that no other guy would want me? Better pair me up with the gay guy because nobody else could ever possibly be interested in me? What kind of sick game are you playing here, Brady? Do you really hate me so much that you’d want to torture me like this?" Mimi had to fight to hold back the tears, as she scrambled off the bed. All of her insecurities about herself and her appearance had completely flooded her mind with Brady’s one simple statement.

Brady looked at her, stunned. "Mimi, no. You have it totally backwards."

"Oh, do I?"

"Yes, I told Garth to stay with you so that I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone making a move on you. What guy in his right mind would be able to resist you? The only insurance I had was someone that wouldn’t be interested in you, and that ruled out any heterosexual males."

Mimi tried to process this new information, but she was still infuriated that Brady was trying to mess with her life like that. She wanted to get away from him. "You know, I’ve changed my mind."

"Great! Does the new one work any better?" Brady asked, as the pain started to subside.

"No, I meant I’d rather be back in that stupid game drunk and naked than be here with you." Mimi turned to leave, and Brady leapt from the bed. He situated himself between Mimi and the door, bracing his hands in the doorframe.

"Wait just a second," he said. "I went through a lot of trouble tonight to get you here."

"Am I supposed to be impressed? Flattered maybe?" she said scathingly.

"No…just pick a number between one and ten," he responded.

"What?" she asked.

"Pick a number. If you pick the right number, I’ll let you out. If you don’t, then you have to stay and do what I want."

Mimi frowned at him and crossed her arms. "All right, I pick seven."

Brady made a buzzer sound. "Damn. You lose. Off with your clothes." Mimi couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh. "Brady, you’re not nearly as bad as people say. You’re much, much worse."

"Tell you what - to show you what a nice guy I really am, I’ll give you a second chance. Prove to me that you don’t want to be here with me," Brady breathed, his eyes darkening. "Kiss me. You kiss me, and show me that you don’t want to stay. I’ll even keep my hands to myself."

"You keeping your hands to yourself would probably involve some sort of lock-up facility and one of those Hannibal Lecter masks," Mimi scoffed. He hadn’t done a very good job up to this point of reining in his hormones. Her body unwillingly started to tingle at the thought of kissing Brady again.

"Prove it, Mimi," Brady challenged.

Anything to get away from this man, she thought. Mimi stood on her tiptoes, and grabbed Brady by the back of the head. She led his face down to hers and placed a quick smack on his lips. "Satisfied?" she asked.

"Not hardly." Brady grabbed Mimi by the shoulders and crushed her against him in a hungry and demanding kiss.

"Hey, you said…" she began to protest.

"I lied," Brady growled. Mimi found herself caught up yet again in the whirlwind that was Brady.

**************************************************

Chloe started to feel sick. The room was spinning, and not in a good way. She put her hand to her forehead and reached out with the other to brace herself. With nothing to lean against, she fell to the floor. Mike crouched down and helped her back up. "I’m not feeling too well," she complained.

"Come with me up to my room. You can lay down on my bed," he yelled. He put her arm around his neck and placed his arm around her waist. He crossed the crowded room, supporting Chloe the entire way. He helped her up the stairs, and began down the hallway towards his room.

Philip threw open the front door. He knew Chloe was still there – he had seen Brady and Mimi’s cars out front. He began to quickly scan the room. Chloe shouldn’t be too hard to find – he was sure there weren’t very many tall girls with waist-length hair. He didn’t see her. He didn’t see any of them. Philip’s head whipped from side to side, desperately looking for even one of his friends. Where were they? Philip started to feel sick to his stomach. It was like something was whispering to him that there was trouble. He looked up to the second level and caught a split-second glimpse of Chloe being led away. "Chloe!" he called, but there was no way she would have been able to hear him over the music.

Philip began barreling through the crowd, pushing and shoving to get people to move. A vein in his forehead began to throb. What the hell was that guy doing with Chloe?

Mike led Chloe into his room and shut the door behind him. Some alarm bell went off in Chloe’s befuddled mind. This definitely was not right…where was she?

Mike started nuzzling Chloe’s neck. "I’ve been waiting all night to get you alone." Chloe’s heart started to beat faster out of instinctual fear. A low sick feeling began in her stomach. She tried to muddle through the haze in her mind. This was all wrong….

"Get off me," she protested and pushed against him.

"I don’t think so," Mike disagreed. "You’ve made me wait all night for this."

Philip ran up the stairs and stopped as he looked down the hall at the row of doors. How many rooms did this place have? He started going to doors and flinging them open. "Chloe?" he yelled as he opened each door. So far the only response he got was half-naked people swearing at him.

Philip threw another door open, knocking into something. "Chloe?"

Brady paused. "Philip?"

"Brady? Have you seen Chloe? Something’s happened to her," Philip said frantically. Brady opened the door the entire way and Philip saw Mimi looking disheveled. "You have to help me find her, man."

Brady came out into the hallway. "She’s supposed to be with Mike. We can check his room."

Chloe started pushing against Mike, and turning her head from side to side and screaming. "Leave me alone! Get away from me!" But Mike was too strong. He pinned her arms against her and started pulling her towards his bed. He threw her down, and ignoring her whimpers, started to undo his pants. Chloe was overcome with terror and tried to crawl away from him.

Brady threw Mike’s door open and flipped the light on. Philip took one look at the scene in front of him – Chloe crying and this guy’s hand on his zipper, and ran across the room in two bounds and tackled Mike. "You son of a bitch!" he screamed. Philip quickly sat up on top of him and pinned Mike’s arms under his knees. Philip started pummeling Mike’s face. Mimi ran into the room to check Chloe out. Brady came up behind Philip to try and get him off of Mike. "Philip, stop!"

Brady put a hand on Philip’s shoulder and Philip turned around and punched Brady in the face, knocking him backwards, and immediately resumed beating Mike. He was like a man possessed. The thought of this slimeball touching Chloe, of him trying to…he couldn’t even finish the thought. Philip started punching him harder. He could see blood pouring out of the guy’s nose and mouth and felt a primal satisfaction. The sickening sound of crunching bone filled the room.

Brady came up behind Philip again and wrapped his arms around Philip’s, preventing him from punching Mike any further. He pulled him away and Philip continued to kick at Mike with his feet. People were drawn to the commotion, and some of the Alphas came into the room and helped Brady hold the wildly flailing Philip down. Mike lay on the floor, in too much pain to move.

"Enough!" Philip shouted. He looked at Brady. "I just want to get Chloe out of here. Let me go." Brady studied Philip for a moment, and then nodded. The other guys released Philip and Philip crossed to the bed. He put one arm under Chloe’s knees and the other around her back, picked her up and cradled her in his arms.

"Philip," she cried, and slipped her arms around his neck. "Ssshhh," he whispered, his mouth against her forehead. "It’s okay. I’m going to take care of you. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again." Chloe buried her face into Philip’s neck.

"We’re staying over at Belle’s house," Mimi offered quietly.

Philip nodded. He left the room and went out into the hallway. The crowd that had gathered quickly parted to let Philip pass. Mike had unsteadily gotten to his feet. He placed a shaky hand to his face.

"I think that a**hole broke my nose," Mike said.

Brady crossed over to him and jabbed his finger into Mike’s chest. "You’re lucky he didn’t kill you, you bastard. You deserved it after what you just tried to do." Brady grabbed Mimi’s hand. "Let’s find Belle and Shawn and get out of here."

Brady stormed down the hallway back to the room where they’d played the game, with Mimi scrambling to keep up with Brady’s long strides. Brady flung the door open, and went over to the closet. He pulled open the door to see Shawn slipping his hands under the back lacing of Belle’s shirt, and kissing her passionately.

"What the hell are you doing, Shawn?" he asked.

Mimi raised her eyebrows in surprise as Shawn and Belle hurriedly pulled apart. "Looks to me like he’s rounding second base." Brady glared at Mimi and grabbed his little sister by the arm, pulling her from the closet while Mimi ran to the center of the room, stepping over naked passed out people to retrieve her discarded shoes. "Come on guys, we’ve got to go. Something’s happened with Chloe," Brady said.

Belle looked up at Brady’s angry face. "What happened to Chloe?"

"We’ll explain it later. Right now let’s just go." Brady felt horrible. This was all his fault. People had been hurt because of his raging hormones and ego. This was not how things were supposed to have happened.

Philip carried Chloe down the stairs, through the party, and back out the front door. He crossed the lawn and headed towards his SUV. He clicked the alarm off with his keyring, and went to put Chloe in the passenger side of the car. He placed her in as gently as he could and then leaned the seat back so that she could lie down. Chloe struggled to open her shut eyes to look at Philip. She placed her hand on his arm, wanting to thank him. Philip gently took her hand and kissed the back of it. "You’re safe now," he said. She nodded, and closed her eyes again.

He looked back at the frat house and saw Brady, Shawn, Mimi and Belle coming out of the front. He shut Chloe’s door, and went over to the driver’s side. He got in, started the car, and waited to follow the other four home.

**************************************************

They reached the apartment building and Philip parked next to Brady in the building’s parking lot. He went over to get Chloe out of the car, once again carrying her in his arms. He followed silently behind Brady and Shawn. They reached the elevator and got in. Brady noticed Philip struggling to retain a grip on Chloe. "Hey - she’s got to be heavy. I can take her for a second if you want."

Philip glared at Brady with an intensity that was frightening, his blue eyes storming. "Back off. I told Chloe I’d take care of her, and I will."

"Sorry man, just trying to help."

They rode the elevator up to the penthouse in silence and upon entering the apartment Philip started up the stairs to the Black’s guest bedroom. He entered the room and laid Chloe on one side of the bed. He untied her shoes and pulled them off, throwing them on the floor. He carefully slipped her socks off as well, and briefly admired her daintily painted toenails. Philip crossed to the other side of the bed and turned down the covers. He climbed onto the bed, lifted Chloe up, and placed her on the cool sheets, pulling the blanket back up over her. He looked at her lying there, and a strange emotion passed through him. He wanted to protect her, to keep her safe. He’d never felt anything like that before. He reached out and tenderly brushed some of her hair off of her face. She turned on her side towards him, nuzzling into the pillows. Philip found himself resisting the urge to kiss her forehead, and instead elected to leave the room. He returned downstairs to get some water and the aspirin he knew she’d need in the morning. Belle and Mimi had just arrived home and looked at him anxiously.

"Is Chloe okay?" Belle asked. Mimi had filled her in on what had happened with Chloe during the drive home.

"I think she will be," Philip responded.

"Thanks to you, Philip. I’ve never seen anything like what you did tonight. It was awesome," Mimi started to gush. She’d read romance novels where men defended women, but had never witnessed anything like it firsthand.

"Yeah, well, I’m going to get her some water, and then I’m going back upstairs to take care of her. Is there aspirin in the kitchen?" Philip asked.

"Yes, in the cabinet above the fridge," Belle responded. Philip went into the kitchen.

Shawn and Brady were standing in the living room looking at Belle and Mimi. The quiet in the room was almost thunderous as each person was encapsulated in their own memories of the evening. Philip came back out of the kitchen and without making eye contact with anyone, returned to the guestroom. Belle and Mimi followed him to check on Chloe. Philip went over and placed the water and the medicine on the nightstand next to the bed. He pulled a stuffed armchair from against the wall, and dragged it across the room next to where Chloe was sleeping.

"Do you need us to do anything?" Belle queried softly.

"No. I’ll take care of it," Philip said gruffly. He couldn’t believe what everyone had almost let happen. Where were they? Why hadn’t they been taking care of Chloe? Who let her get this drunk and almost molested by that scum? He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his house. "Henderson? I won’t be home tonight. I’m over at the Blacks’ house. Thanks."

Belle and Mimi took the hint and returned quietly to Belle’s room. Belle flicked her light on, and shut the door. They stood there looking at one another.

Mimi cleared her throat. "So…kiss any good boys lately?"