by Paige Tyler
Becker felt his canines elongate and knew his claws weren’t far behind. “I’d tell you why I did it if you’d give me a fucking chance to say something without you trying to rip my head off!”
Gage’s nostrils flared and Becker braced for impact, sure his alpha was going to come at him again regardless of how many guys were trying to hold him back. But then Gage took a deep breath and retracted his fangs and claws.
“Okay. I’m listening,” he said. His eyes still flared gold though. “Let’s hear the reason you think will justify putting a criminal before your pack.”
The barb stung like hell.
“Jayna isn’t a criminal,” Becker growled. “She didn’t even want to be in that warehouse. But her alpha has aligned their pack with the Albanians and she didn’t know how to say no to him.”
Becker knew he was pressing his luck, but he also knew he had to take advantage of the time Gage was giving him to explain everything.
“I know it was stupid to go in undercover, but once I tracked her down and realized how much danger she and the other members of her pack were in, I didn’t have a choice.” He took a breath. “This is probably a good time to also tell you that I gave Jayna my word that she and her pack wouldn’t be arrested.”
Gage’s mouth tightened. “That isn’t your call to make.”
Becker took a step toward his boss, baring his fangs. The hell with playing nice. If Gage wanted to fight, bring it on.
“Jayna and her pack didn’t do anything wrong. They’re betas that have an asshole for an alpha who cares more about money and power than he does about his own pack,” he said. “If it were Mackenzie, you’d have done the same thing.”
Gage’s fangs and claws were back, but he didn’t say anything.
“What’s a beta?” Max asked from beside Cooper.
Becker glanced at his pack mate to see Max looking at him in confusion. Well, at least someone else on the team was as clueless about werewolves as he was.
“It’s a werewolf who isn’t as strong as an alpha and has an almost overwhelming need to be part of a pack,” Gage said tersely, then, giving Becker a pointed look, added, “Typically, they also aren’t as reckless as alphas.”
“Speaking of werewolves,” Khaki interrupted, “one just walked into the compound.”
Jayna.
Becker swore under his breath and raced for the door. He was so focused on getting outside before his teammates that it took him a moment to realize the scent coming from the other side of the door didn’t belong to Jayna but to Megan. His stomach lurched. If Megan was here, something bad had gone down, he could feel it.
He ran outside to find Megan standing in the middle of the compound as if trying to decide what to do next. There was a gaping hole in the chain-link fence where she’d torn her way in. The scratches on her bare arms and the blood spotting her shirt proved it hadn’t been an easy task for the beta.
Her big, dark eyes darted from him to each of his teammates as they surrounded her. They were obviously scaring the hell out of her, but she stood her ground.
Becker strode forward to put himself between the small werewolf and the rest of the SWAT pack. Cooper broke through the ranks and moved to stand with him.
She glanced at Cooper, then ducked her head. “Glad to see you aren’t dead. Sorry about shooting at you last night.”
Cooper’s mouth twitched. “Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time.”
Becker appreciated Cooper’s support, but there were fifteen other SWAT werewolves aligned against them. But then Khaki walked over to stand beside Cooper.
She glanced at Becker. “Is this Jayna?”
“No, this is Megan. She’s Jayna’s pack sister,” he said, then rushed on before Khaki or anyone else could ask more questions. “What are you doing here, Megan? Where’s Jayna?”
“Jayna’s in trouble. So are the guys,” Megan said, nervously eyeing his pack again. “Liam’s figured out that you’re a cop, and he knows Jayna and the rest of us have been helping you. When I left, Jayna was trapped with the guys in their apartment, and Liam was threatening to send in his omegas if they didn’t come out. I’m really scared for them. I think he’s going to kill them.”
Shit. This was exactly what he’d been afraid of. If Liam thought Jayna and the guys had betrayed him, there was no telling what he’d do. “I’ll get them out of there, Megan. I promise.” He glanced at Cooper. “I could use some backup. You in?”
“I’m in,” Cooper said. “You get the weapons. I’ll grab the tactical gear.”
Becker nodded and turned to head for the armory, but Gage caught his arm. “Where the hell do you two think you’re going?”
Becker bared his canines with a snarl. He didn’t have time for this. “Jayna’s in trouble. I’m going to get her out.”
“On your own?”
“Looks like it.” Becker glared at his boss. “I realize I’m a newbie in this pack and the fact that the woman I love is in danger doesn’t concern you as much as when Mac was in trouble, but I’m going to go rescue her. If you want to stop me, you better be ready to kill me.”
Gage didn’t flinch. Instead, he stared at Becker like he was contemplating whether to take him up on the challenge.
“Are you saying you’re willing to walk away from the Pack for this woman?” Gage asked.
“Yes.” Becker didn’t even have to think about it. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect Jayna.”
Gage slanted Cooper a hard look. “That go for you too?”
“Damn right,” Cooper said. “I’m sure as hell not letting him go alone.”
“He’s not going alone,” Xander said, stepping up to stand beside Khaki. “We’re coming too.”
Becker would have thanked Xander and Khaki, but he didn’t think their support would change Gage’s mind. But then one after another, the rest of the Pack fell into place behind Becker, leaving Gage by himself on the imaginary line their alpha had drawn in the dirt. Even Tuffie walked over to stand with them.
Gage pinned Becker with a look. “I guess I don’t need to ask whether you think Jayna is The One for you, do I?”
Becker shook his head.
Gage sighed. “This team was a whole hell of a lot easier to run before any of us had ever heard about The One. You know that, right?”
“Maybe.” Becker grinned. “But it wasn’t nearly as interesting.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Gage looked around. “Okay, let’s get loaded up and get out of here.”
* * *
“Where’s Megan?” Liam asked.
Jayna tried to look casual as she shrugged. Well, as casual as she could with Caleb, Brandon, and half a dozen other omegas pointing automatic weapons at her, Moe, Joseph, and Chris.
“She left an hour ago to pick up breakfast at McDonald’s,” Jayna said. “She’ll be back soon.”
Liam looked around the room, his hazel eyes suspicious, but after sniffing the air a few times, he jerked his head at the door. “Downstairs. Now!”
“Chris still hasn’t healed,” Jayna said. “He’s in no shape to be running up and down stairs.”
That wasn’t a lie, and it might buy them some time until Eric got there. She wasn’t sure what he’d do when he did, but she’d feel a lot better with him here.
Liam didn’t even look at Chris. “Frasheri wants all of you downstairs. What part of that don’t you understand?”
Jayna bit her tongue to keep from telling her alpha—make that former alpha—to shove it. Pissing Liam off more than he already was wouldn’t help. Moe and Joseph must have thought so too, because they carefully helped Chris to his feet, then positioned themselves on either side of their injured pack mate, supporting him as he slowly shuffled toward the door.
Brandon brought up the rear as they made their way down the stairs, a smirk on his ugly face. Clearly, the bully was enjoying the view from the top.
Jayna ignored the urge to kick Brandon in the groin and grab his gun as Liam led them
into Frasheri’s ridiculously large office on the second floor. The Albanian was sitting at his monster of a desk, leaning back in his chair, watching them intently. Jayna’s stomach clenched at the sight of the big handgun on the desk in front of him, and at the two Albanian guards behind him, their backs to the huge plate glass window that covered half the wall. The window gave a beautiful view of the loft’s inner courtyard area, but at that moment, Jayna couldn’t appreciate it. She was too worried about what was going to happen to her and her pack.
The omegas shoved Moe, Joseph, and Chris down on the leather couch against one wall while Liam took Jayna’s arm and sat her in the lone arm chair positioned in front of the desk, so she was uncomfortably close to the gun there but still far enough away that she’d never be able to lunge for it before Frasheri could grab it.
Jayna gripped the arms of the chair, her nails extending just enough to dig into the polished wood. Just stay calm and keep them talking, she told herself. According to Eric, the SWAT compound was fifteen minutes away by car. That meant she had to figure out a way to stall for at least thirty. Her life and the lives of her pack mates depended on it.
“Liam tells me that Eric’s a cop,” Frasheri said. “Is that true, Jayna?”
Okay, she hadn’t expected that. She’d expected the Albanian mobster to order his men to kill her and her pack immediately, then get as far away from Dallas as he could.
So why wasn’t he?
Because he didn’t want to believe Liam—not only because Liam was Kostandin’s right-hand man, but because Frasheri had already invested so much of his trust in Eric. And Eric knew where Frasheri was hiding his stash of money and weapons.
But if she tried to deny it, Liam would only prove her wrong. So she wouldn’t deny it. Instead, she’d use it to her advantage.
Jayna lifted her chin and met Frasheri’s eyes. “Yes, Eric is a cop. He’s one of the SWAT werewolves.”
Frasheri swore, the vein at his temple pulsing, his hands curling into fists. From the corner of her eye, Jayna saw Joseph and the other guys looking at her in shock.
“He was a cop right up to the moment he decided to save my life that night in the warehouse,” she added quickly. “When his alpha found out, he fired Eric from the team and kicked him out of his pack. That’s why he came here.”
Liam snorted. “Oh, please. You don’t really expect us to believe that, do you?”
Frasheri held up his hand, cutting Liam off. “What do you mean, he saved your life?”
Jayna shrugged, trying hard to project that total sense of calm confidence Eric seemed to wear like a jacket. “I thought I was about to die, or get arrested if I was lucky. But then Eric came around a corner and instead of shooting me or arresting me, he hid me in a packing crate.”
“Bullshit,” Brandon muttered.
Jayna had an insane desire to stick her tongue out at the omega but settled for glaring at him. “How do you think I got that expensive perfume all over me? He smashed the bottles on top of the crate to cover my scent from his pack mates.”
Frasheri stared at her for a long time. “Why would a cop do that?”
Liam came around from behind her so he could look her in the eye when she answered the question, no doubt so he could determine if she was lying. She knew he wasn’t that good at detecting lies, but in this case, she didn’t have to take the risk—not when it was easy to tell the truth.
“Because he’s not just a cop—he’s a werewolf. And werewolves will do anything when they meet The One for them.”
Frasheri let out a short laugh. “You’re kidding, right? You’re telling me that Eric took one look at you and decided to chuck his whole career because you’re hot?”
“It has nothing to do with looks,” she said. “It’s deeper than that. You’ve heard about wolves in the wild mating for life, right? Well, it’s like that for werewolves too. Some of our kind say that there’s only one mate out there for us. When we meet The One, we know it right away, and nothing can come between us.”
“That’s crap,” Liam snapped. “I’ve never heard anything like that.”
“I have,” Caleb said slowly as if unsure whether he wanted to get involved in the conversation. “I never thought it was true, but I’ve heard a lot of older werewolves I’ve met talk about it. It’s kind of like an urban legend.”
Frasheri’s gaze traveled from Caleb to linger on Liam before coming to rest on her. “So you’re saying this is some kind of werewolf love at first sight? So strong that Eric immediately turned against his own pack to be with you?”
She nodded.
Liam snorted. “Jayna, you are so frigging naive. I guess it never occurred to you that Eric might just be playing you to get inside the pack so he could arrest us?”
Jayna narrowed her eyes at Liam. “Right. It was all an elaborate ploy to get inside so he could arrest us. Did you forget that Eric went out and killed one of the members of his own pack last night? Then again, maybe you did forget since you should have been the one there putting a bullet in that SWAT werewolf’s head instead of letting Eric do it.”
Liam jerked as if she’d slapped him. “What the hell are you trying to say?”
There had been a time when Jayna would have refrained from saying anything hurtful to Liam, but that time had long passed. Right then, she barely felt the normal alpha-beta connection that had always been there. It was like it had never existed at all.
“I’m saying that you stopped being our alpha a long time ago. First, you bring us into this arrangement without talking to us. Then, you bring in the omegas.” Brandon growled at that, but she ignored him. “And if that isn’t bad enough, you start sending us on jobs that could get us killed while you stay behind where it’s safe.”
Liam had the good grace to look a little chagrined. But then his lip curled. “I had to stay back here and coordinate pack operations.”
Even Caleb and some of the other omegas snorted at that.
“Right,” she scoffed. “Because that’s what we need from an alpha. Not someone who will take a bullet for another member of the pack, like Eric did for Megan. Not someone who will dig a bullet out of another member of the pack, like he did for Chris. Hell, not even someone who will lead us in a fight when we’re in over our head, like he did last night. No, we need someone who will stay inside where it’s comfy, cozy, and safe, coordinating the next job.”
Liam’s eyes flared, a growl of rage rumbling in his throat. Jayna’s claws extended all the way, along with her fangs, as he took a step toward her. She tensed, ready to launch herself at him.
The sound of guns coming out and safeties clicking off echoed in the room, reminding Jayna where they were and what they were doing there. She froze.
But Frasheri had his weapon pointed at Liam, not her. The omegas had theirs pointed at Frasheri. And the Albanians had theirs pointed at the omegas. All it would take is one little sneeze to start everyone shooting.
Jayna glanced at the guys still sitting on the couch. They were tense but alert. Both Moe and Joseph had one arm draped over Chris’s shoulders. If things went from bad to worse, she knew they’d get Chris out of here.
She turned back to see that Liam’s fangs had retracted. But his eyes still swirled with gold.
“I won’t bother to ask if you and the other members of your pack consider Eric your alpha now. I think that’s obvious,” Frasheri said, his gun still pointed at Liam’s head. “But I do have one question.”
Jayna’s breath caught in her throat. Crap, what had she missed?
“You said that Eric is so attracted to you he was willing to turn his back on his career and his pack, but you haven’t said anything about whether you feel the same.”
She frowned. Why the hell would Frasheri ask her something like that?
She knew the easy answer would be to say she felt the same about Eric. But she couldn’t. She knew she was extremely attracted to Eric, more than she’d ever been to any other man. She wasn’t quite so sure of an
ything beyond that though. While Eric might have bought into the whole The One thing, she was still on the fence about it.
But as the silence stretched on, she knew she had to say something. She couldn’t make anything up either, on the off chance that Liam might pick up on the lie. On the other hand, she needed to say something that would satisfy Frasheri, or that big gun in his hand was likely to be pointed at her next.
“When I’m alone with Eric, I feel happy for the first time in…well…ever,” she said softly.
Her answer must have satisfied Frasheri because he didn’t turn his weapon her way. Liam, however, was staring daggers in her direction.
Frasheri seemed to be considering what to say next when the door opened and Kostandin strode in with two of his own soldiers. Kos regarded the scene, his mouth twitching as he took in the weapons.
“I leave for a few hours and I miss all the fun,” he said. “Who wants to fill me in?”
Liam swung his gaze to Kos. “I discovered that Eric is one of those damn SWAT werewolves. The asshole’s been playing us the whole time.”
“Son of a bitch,” Kos muttered. He glanced at his uncle. “So why is everyone sitting around in here instead of hunting that traitor down?”
“Because Jayna has him believing Eric abandoned his pack for her,” Liam said. “That he’s in love with her or some shit like that.”
The look Kos gave Jayna made her skin crawl, and she had to fight the urge to squirm in her chair.
“I can certainly understand why a man might throw everything away for a chance to be with a woman like our she-wolf,” he said.
Liam snorted. “That doesn’t explain why Eric let those drug dealers you told him to kill walk away.”
Kostandin’s head jerked up. “What did you say?”
“He didn’t kill those drug dealers like you ordered.” Liam turned to her. “Maybe Jayna can tell us why.”
Jayna felt the full force of Liam’s gaze. Crap. What the hell was she going to say to explain why Eric had done that?
She threw a quick look in Frasheri’s direction to see where he came out on this. But instead of regarding her, he was locked in a staring contest with his nephew. That’s when she remembered how much the two Albanians distrusted each other.
