Mine.
Gage belonged to her.
New clothes were brought to them. A good thing, because the ripped look wouldn’t have worked so well for Kayla. She dressed quickly and tried to peek at Gage’s ass only three times.
Four.
Clearing her throat, she turned away. “I need to talk with the demon.” Curtis might be able to tell her more about what had happened to her brother. She’d drill him, then start a search plan.
If her brother had left the compound, that meant he’d realized the truth about Lyle. He’d known she wasn’t lying.
He believed her.
“I’m afraid that’s not gonna be possible.”
Frowning, she glanced back over her shoulder. Gage was dressed now. No more sexy peeks at his ass. Pity. “Why not?”
“Because I had two of my pack . . . escort Curtis to a safe location.”
Her eyebrows rose. She’d thought they were already in a safe house. “Then escort me to this same location.” Seemed simple enough to her.
But Gage didn’t exactly look agreeable as he said, “I didn’t want the demon knowing where I’d hidden the rest of the pack, so I didn’t let him get close.”
Right, okay, sounded fine to her. “He probably had a tracker on him anyway.” Unless he’d dug it out. Without Lyle knowing? Maybe . . . the demon seemed to have plenty of secrets. “I would have mentioned that tracker bit to you,” she muttered and some nice, remembered fury spiked her blood. “But you know, you drugged me first.”
His lips tightened.
Speaking of trackers . . . “We need to check Davis’s body. If he was tagged, then Lyle could already be on his way here.”
Gage didn’t look particularly worried about that. “Yes,” he said slowly, with a faint nod. “He could be.”
Just like that, the light finally dawned. “You . . . want him here.” Gage wanted Lyle to come after them.
Gage held her gaze. “I dug the tracker out of the demon before I let him go to the safe house.”
So he hadn’t been so clueless after all. Tricky wolf.
“And I brought it here with me.”
What? Her breath expelled in a rush.
“So I figure with Curtis and Lyle both giving off a signal to this place, we’ll be having company soon.”
The killing kind of company. “Why?” Why would he want to bring the hunters to him?
“I brought in reinforcements,” he said with a shrug and didn’t even look a little bit concerned about the coming attack. “Wolves from other packs. Wolves who are tired of being hunted.”
She couldn’t read his expression. Nothing showed past the stoic wall of determination that hardened his strong features. “You’re setting your own trap.”
“It was my turn.”
Or had it been his plan all along? Suspicion slipped through her.
“Shamus will be coming soon. He’s going to make sure you’re taken away from this place during the battle.”
Was the guy saying she couldn’t handle a fight? What? Did she look like a piece of fluff? “I’ve been battling since I was sixteen years old,” she pointed out.
“So aren’t you due for a break?”
She blinked at him, then forced her clenched jaw to relax. They’d gone from hot sex straight to him kicking her out? That was too fast of a one-eighty for her. “I’m not going to leave you when you need me.” That was not who she was.
His lips tightened. “And I don’t want you to see what I do to the men you once considered friends.”
Her heart was about to slam through her chest. “You’re not killing them all.” That wasn’t an option. “They think they’re making the world a better place! That they’re out there fighting monsters—”
“Then they should be prepared for when the monsters fight back.”
She shook her head. No, no, she wouldn’t let a bloodbath happen on her watch. “They only thought they were taking out killers. We had files, reports! We didn’t attack innocents!”
But he just stared back at her, and her words seemed so hollow to her own ears. Nausea rolled through her.
So many lies. Lyle had fooled them too well.
They’d let themselves be fooled.
“He’s the one who should be stopped,” she muttered and refused to back down. “The others—give them a chance, Gage.”
“So they can fill my heart with silver? Cut off my head?” His smile held a cruel edge. “Sorry, sweetheart, that’s not happening, not even for you.”
A light rap sounded at the door.
Gage’s nostrils flared. “Shamus.”
“I don’t want you to lose your damn head.” She didn’t move. She could still feel the guy inside her. She wasn’t walking away and leaving him to a bloody battle. This was more than sex. The guy had better realize that.
“I won’t. I’m rather attached to my head.”
He was driving her crazy. “This isn’t a joke!” She tried to keep her voice calm and make the wolf see reason. “The hunters . . . they’ll come in expecting a trap. Lyle will be ready to use and lose them all, if he can take you out.” Because she’d seen the fury in Lyle’s eyes. He wasn’t stopping, not until he’d taken over this town.
And if he had to kill a few dozen humans and wolves? So what? He could always recruit more hunters, and he sure didn’t care about the wolves.
“There’s another way,” she said, desperate. “There’s always another way.”
Gage shook his head. “There’s no time.” His steps were slow as he stalked toward her. His hand lifted and the back of his fingers slid down her cheek. “The wolf ’s at the door, and I’m gonna tear him apart.”
Or he’d get torn apart. The humans would die.
This didn’t have to happen. “My brother . . .”
Gage looked at the door. “We’ll find him when the fight’s over.” Then his hand fell away. He slipped around her. Opened the door.
The redheaded wolf waited, with his arms loose at his sides.
“Take her back home, Shamus,” Gage said.
Home?
The thought was so foreign to her that Kayla blinked at first. But . . . she did have a home. An apartment in the city. One that gave her a night-time view of the strip that took her breath away.
So why didn’t that place feel like home?
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Sorry, Shamus,” she said—and then she slammed the door in the shifter’s face.
Gage blinked. He looked . . . surprised. Really? He should know her better than that.
Kayla jabbed her finger in his chest. “I don’t walk away from fights. Not ever. I don’t tuck my tail between my legs and run—”
His brows shot up. Whoops, okay, wolf reference. Her bad.
Kayla cleared her throat. “I don’t run because things get tough, got it?”
“This isn’t—”
She jabbed him harder. “You don’t get to spout ‘mine’ bullshit one minute and then toss me out the next.” And it . . . hurt. To go from the best sex ever to a cold toss out the door, yeah, that was tough. But she wasn’t about to let him see her pain. She’d never let anyone see.
Only Jonah.
Where are you?
“Those men don’t deserve death, and I’m not letting you claw your way through humans because a psychotic wolf has been jerking us all around.” Kayla took another deep breath. Weren’t deep breaths supposed to calm down fury? She wasn’t feeling calm. “I’m working with you, and we’ll make sure we take out the real monster.”
There was still no emotion showing on his handsome face. “Just how are we gonna do that?” Gage asked.
Yeah, how the hell were they gonna do that? Plans and options spun through her mind. Think. “When the hunters come, don’t send any wolves out. Not a single one.” This was crazy, she knew it but . . . “I’m the only one who will face them. I’ll make them see reason.”
“Uh, sweetheart, no one believed you before.”
“You broke out of your cell. You ran from them.” His lips tightened. “Those assholes will just shoot first and dump your body later. No dice.”
He reached for the door handle again. Yanked open the door.
Shamus was still there. One red brow was up. With his shifter hearing, like a closed door would really stop him from eavesdropping on their little conversation.
There had to be a way of stopping this hell. She just had to show the others what Lyle really was.
But Lyle . . . he wouldn’t be in that first wild rush of hunters who came to storm the place. He always held back. Gave the orders from a distance. Moved in when the targets were secure.
When the hunters attacked, they’d be out for blood. Mine. Dammit, yes. And Gage’s. So to save all their sorry asses . . . “We have to attack first.”
Shamus whistled. “Bloodthirsty. I like that.”
Gage punched him.
“They’re coming after us. Getting ready. Moving out.” Kayla was talking faster now because she had this. “So this is the time when we go for them. We attack while they’re en route. We close in on Lyle, we take him out of the caravan.” When heading into new territory, the hunters swept in on a straight line. “The last SUV.” That was his. Always. “We take him out, and we make the others see what he is.”
They’d drag his sorry ass out of that SUV. Tie him in silver. When he started to burn, the other hunters would be forced to see him for what he truly was.
“And you think that’s gonna stop them?” Gage demanded, his voice full of doubt. “They’ll just shoot him and then keep coming after my pack.”
Because hunters hated wolves. They thought shifters were monsters that needed to be put down.
It was Kayla’s turn to shake her head. “We’re not all like that.” I’m not. She needed him to recognize that truth in her eyes. “Give us a chance to show you that we can be more.” Better. I can be better.
Not just a lost soul seeking justice for crimes long ago. A woman now, wanting to fight for the man she was craving more than life.
Slowly, very slowly, Gage nodded. “But if this doesn’t work . . . if they keep attacking . . .” He lifted his claw-tipped hands. “They will be stopped.”
And she knew that he really meant . . . they will be dead.
Gage paced down the hallway with Shamus. Kayla was arming herself. Getting bullets. The silver that the pack handled only with reinforced gloves.
She was hot when she got battle ready.
She was also dangerous.
“Hunt for me,” Gage told Shamus, because no one in the pack hunted like the red wolf.
Shamus gave a slight nod. “The prey?”
“Her brother.”
Surprise flickered briefly over Shamus’s face. “You want me to kill him?”
“No.” If he did that, he’d lose her. “I want you to make sure his fool ass stays alive.” Gage yanked out a scrap of cloth he’d taken from the compound. Cloth that had once been Kayla’s shirt. “His blood’s on this.” When it came to humans, Shamus could track a scent with deadly accuracy. “Take him out of the fight.”
Because Jonah would be coming, Gage had no doubt about that. Coming for his sister and coming for vengeance.
Shamus took the cloth. Turned. Walked quickly away.
“You can’t lie to her.”
Billy’s voice. Coming from a few feet behind him. But then, he’d known Billy was there, watching.
Slowly, Gage turned to face the wolf he’d considered his friend. The burns from the silver had faded. Mostly. “I’m sorry.” For the pain Billy suffered.
Billy lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “You’re alpha. You do what the hell you want.”
Not when it meant that he hurt the ones he cared about. So he tried to explain, even though an alpha wasn’t supposed to justify. Just act. Rule. Dominate. There was more to Gage than that, there always had been. “Only you and Davis knew Kayla and I were at that cabin. And you two were both close with the other wolves who went missing.” It was easier to be lured out into the open, easier to be attacked, when the one luring you wore the guise of a friend.
Shamus had told him that both Davis and Billy were near the site when he was taken. He’d broken away from them and attacked the hunters. Gotten trapped, but the other two had both gotten away.
And when Faye had gone missing, they’d been there, too. Been there, but hadn’t managed to save her.
“So you shackled me in silver.” Billy exhaled and glanced away. “Damn painful, hoss. Damn painful.”
For the pack. “The silver wasn’t about pain. It was to make sure neither of you ran before I could find the real traitor.”
Billy glanced back up at him. “You could have asked me first.”
Asked him. Asked Davis. One wolf would have lied, and no matter what the stories said, Gage wasn’t the sort of wolf who could actually smell a lie.
He didn’t think those guys existed.
So Gage just stared back at Billy. “Davis wanted you to look guilty.” He’d been setting the other wolf up all along. Timing their guard duty together, even tossing seeds of suspicion out among the pack. “He planned to let you take the fall.”
“Yes, I figured that. The guy probably thought he’d kill me.” Billy’s claws flashed out. “But I’m tough to kill.”
So others had discovered. There was far more to the shifter than met the eye. He’d run from his home in the South because he’d wanted a fresh start.
But Gage knew what he’d left behind. That death and hell that waited in the South, that was one of the reasons he’d suspected Billy.
“We can’t run forever,” Gage said. It was a lesson they all needed to learn. Maybe it was time for Billy to face his own demons.
Time for them all to face that darkness.
Gage kept his hands by his side. “You want to run at me, come the fuck on.” Billy deserved his pound of flesh. The first slice would be free. After that, Gage would slice back.
Billy shook his head. His claws were out, but he made no move to attack. “I don’t like fuckin’ silver.” He turned away. “But I like this pack. Pack first. Always.”
Gage knew that Billy understood. The pain, it didn’t matter. Not when there was a pack to protect.
“Next time, ask,” Billy snarled over his shoulder.
Before the wolf could storm away, Gage grabbed his arm. “I will.” He exhaled a rough breath. “And for now, right now, I’m asking you to help me.”
Billy’s brows shot up as he glanced back at Gage.
“We’re goin’ after Lyle. Taking out the last SUV that comes onto our land because Kayla says he’ll be in that one.” Minimum bloodshed. Right. He knew that was what she wanted. Wolves—well, they liked the blood.
A lot.
But for her . . .
“I want a scent blocker.” It would be the only way they could sneak up on Lyle. Lyle couldn’t know they were closing in if he couldn’t smell them. “I know you’ve got a stash.” Another reason he’d suspected Billy. “Get it.”
The shifter nodded and rushed away.
Gage watched him go. He’d try it Kayla’s way, for a time. He’d give the orders for all of the other wolves to stand down. But if her plan didn’t work, if one of those hunters fired at them first . . .
The wolves would be the ones to finish the battle that the humans had started.
CHAPTER TEN
The SUVs slid onto the old, broken road just after midnight. The vehicles crept forward in a long, snaking line, with their headlights off and their engines barely growling, just as Kayla had predicted.
“Now I know why you picked this place,” Kayla whispered from beside him. “One way in, one way out.”
Damn straight. He’d laid his trap so carefully. The hunters had miles to go before they were even close to the safe houses he’d set up for the pack. And they didn’t know it, but the hunters were already surrounded by the wolves.
Easy kills.
“That’s him.” Kayla pointed to the last SUV. One a bit bigger than the others. “That’s the one Lyle always uses.”
Because he liked to send the others in first. Gage knew the bastard was a coward at heart. Why else would he send humans to do the dirty work for him?
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand and headed into the darkness. The goal was to separate that SUV from the others, but they wouldn’t have much time. The hunters were the shoot-first variety, and he’d already told Kayla what would happen if some trigger-happy dick fired back at him or her.
Death.
He had a wolf stationed nearby, one who knew to take out the SUV as soon as Gage gave the signal. The guy wasn’t just a shifter, he was one grade A, first-class sniper. Gage waited, wanting that SUV closer. Closer.
He lifted his hand. In the dark, humans couldn’t see so well.
Wolves could.
There was no thunder when the weapon fired, but the SUV’s front left tire blew out. Then the right tire exploded. The SUV swerved, flipped, and thudded into the earth.
And Gage and Kayla were already moving. Racing toward the wreckage even as the other SUV drivers slammed onto their brakes.
Hurry. Hurry.
Gage punched his fist through the already broken passenger side. He yanked open the door, nearly ripping it away from the vehicle.
Lyle hadn’t been driving or waiting in the passenger seat, but the bleeding bastard was slumped in the back of the vehicle. Gage pushed past the two groaning men in the front and grabbed his prey.
“Judgment time, asshole,” he snarled. Then he kicked out at the back doors of the SUV, knocking them wide open, and he dragged out that sorry excuse for a wolf.
Blood poured from a gash on Lyle’s forehead. He was bleeding . . . and laughing. “Y-you’re . . . dead,” Lyle gasped out. “Dead!”
“No,” Kayla said, voice clear in the night. Footsteps thudded, coming close. The other hunters were swarming. “You are,” Kayla told him.
Then Gage heard the snick of a gun. One shot. That was all it would take.
The pack would attack.
Kayla whirled around and used her body as a shield to block Gage and Lyle. “Stand down!” she screamed. “Or we’ll all die!”