Unremarkable (Anything But) by Lindy Zart

throwing punches when he saw an opening. His training had made him cold, precise, and focused. The pain in his knuckles was fleeting and barely registered in his head before it was gone.
    “ Ryder!” Honor’s fingers grazed his arm and his control broke when she was dragged away from behind.
    Suddenly, it wasn’t Honor they were taking from him—or it was her, but it was also his dad—it was Ryder’s hope, his happiness, it was anything that made him feel anything good and he couldn’t let them take it away, not again.
    Animalistic, angry sounds burst from his throat as he unseeingly pummeled anything and anyone that kept him from Honor. He didn’t feel the hits that landed to his face and back, or the blade that sliced through his shoulder. He didn’t hear any noises but those of Honor as she screamed; he saw only her as she wrestled her way back to him and was captured and pulled away again and again. The distance between them widened, turned insurmountable, the obstacles from him to her never-ending, and still he battled. The only thing he knew was that he had to get to her, that nothing would be okay until he had her, and that he couldn’t lose her.
    “ Enough! ”
    The roar came from behind Ryder and vibrated through the clearing, halting all movement. He spun around, fists raised, but no one wanted to fight anymore. They shied away from him with averted eyes. He dropped his hands and straightened, his chest heaving with each breath he managed to suck through his mouth. A cut above his left eyebrow stung and sweat and blood mixed, dripping into his eyes. His shoulder was on fire, a steady stream of red flowing from the wound.
    His eyes searched for and found Honor, and next to her, stood Christian Turner, his hand firmly wrapped around her bicep. Ryder's feet were moving before it registered in his head. “Get your hands off her.”
    Christian’s eyes narrowed on him, his jaw tight. “I should have known you would be responsible for this.”
    “For what ?”
    He didn’t speak, his gaze moving along the fallen UDs dumb enough to try to take down Ryder in an enraged state. When Christian looked at him, one dark eyebrow was lifted. “You beat up six men. We’re supposed to be stronger and faster than you, and yet you took down six UDs.”
    Ryder rolled his shoulders. “I can add one more to that list.”
    “ Ryder,” Honor said warningly.
    Christian took a step toward him. “The last time the three of us were together, I recall you shooting Honor. Why would I ever give her up to you?”
    Honor chose that moment to yank her arm out of Christian’s grasp. Glaring at the two of them, she put distance between them. “I am not an object. I don’t belong to either one of you.”
    “How did the two of you come to be here?”
    “ We found them,” the brown-haired woman told Christian.
    “ Together?”
    “ She was ahead of him. I don’t know if they were together or not. He attacked Seth in Lodi. Hank saw it happen and knocked him out, then tossed him in the tunnels some ways back. Lodi is compromised. We have to warn others they need to move on. Who knows how soon more UDKs will show up and take over where he left off?”
    “ I didn’t attack him,” he cried in exasperation.
    Christian looked at Honor thoughtfully. “Were you with him or trying to get away from him?”
    “You know, it doesn’t really matter,” she replied conversationally.
    “ Why is that?”
    “ Because more UDKs are in these tunnels, and sooner or later, they’re going to find us all.”
    Stiff-jawed, Christian turned his attention away. “We need to move. Now .”
    “ How did they find us here?”
    “ I don’t know if they found us, Juli, or if they’re tracking them .” He jerked his head in the direction of Ryder and Honor. “Either way, we need to move . Jax, Dominic, tie Ryder up.”
    Two men approached Ryder and he braced himself. “Try it and you’ll regret it,” he promised as they advanced.
    Christian