by Paige Tyler
Did she dare exploit that?
“Well, Jayna?” Liam prompted.
“Eric said he let them go because Mr. Frasheri told him to,” she said as innocently as she could manage. “Something about them working for us.”
Frasheri jerked his head back to look at her so fast she thought he might hurt himself. He stared at her in confusion, his bushy brows coming together to meet in the middle.
Kos pulled out a big handgun and pointed it at his uncle. “You piece of shit. I knew you were trying to fuck me over.”
Frasheri opened his mouth to say something, but Kos pulled the trigger before he got the chance. Jayna wasn’t sure if the bullet found its target because the whole room erupted in gunfire. Frasheri’s and Kostandin’s men began shooting at each other while the omegas shot at anyone and everyone, including each other.
Jayna leaped out of the chair, scrambling on her hands and knees over to where Joseph, Moe, and Chris had taken cover behind the couch. She didn’t make it more than a few feet before the sound of the shattering glass made her whole body lock up.
She threw herself flat, covering her head with her arms as something exploded. The blast was so loud, she couldn’t even think, much less figure out which way the couch was. She carefully lifted her head to get her bearings, but thick smoke swirled in the air, making it hard to see who was moving around her, who was shooting whom, and most importantly, who was winning.
Then someone grabbed her by the hair, yanking her to her feet and dragging her from the room. Her heart thumped as she caught Brandon’s scent. She growled and lashed out with her claws. They dug into something, but it didn’t seem to bother the big omega. A moment later, she figured out why. Instead of flesh, she’d shredded his heavy leather jacket.
Dammit!
Within seconds, Brandon had her out the door and was dragging her down the hall.
That’s when she caught a whiff of another scent, this one sweet and delicious.
Eric.
She fought the grip Brandon now had on her neck, trying anything to get away and ignoring the pain as he tightened his hold in her hair. But she couldn’t break loose, not without breaking her neck.
Time for a new plan—one that involved screaming her head off.
“Eric!”
Chapter 13
Becker’s heart beat a million times a minute as he and Cooper slowly rappelled down the exterior of the loft and moved into position on either side of the big row of windows that stretched almost all the way across Frasheri’s office. The glass was double paned, making it hard to hear exactly what Jayna was saying inside. But he didn’t care. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.
He lifted the slack portion of the descent rope and brought it up to wrap around the snap link on his harness, locking himself in place, then checked the tie-off point twice before glancing at Cooper to make sure his friend was doing the same. The last thing he wanted was to be so worried about saving Jayna that he screwed up a basic rappelling maneuver and ended up sliding down the rope in an uncontrolled fall at the wrong time.
He edged a little closer to the window, staying out of sight of whoever was inside but near enough that he could pick up Jayna’s words. She was saying something about him digging a bullet out of Chris. It was obvious she was stalling for time. Pride surged up inside him.
That’s right, babe, keep them talking just a little longer. Give us time to get everyone in place.
It had taken him and the rest of the SWAT team barely ten minutes to get to the loft on Canton Street. He’d been tense as hell the whole way. Every time he thought about Jayna, he had a horrible vision of her lying there hurt—or worse. He kept telling himself she was fine, that he’d know if something had happened to her, that he’d feel it in his soul. But that hadn’t stopped him from looking at his watch every two seconds and growling at Alex to drive faster.
As soon as they’d pinpointed Jayna’s location on the second floor, Gage had sent him and Cooper up to the roof. Now, they were just waiting for Gage and the rest of the team to get into place to take down the other Albanians and omegas scattered throughout the building.
There was only one problem—no one else on the team knew what Jayna’s pack mates looked like. If one of them aimed a weapon at anyone in the SWAT pack, they were going to get shot. It was up to Becker to get Joseph, Moe, and Chris out of there. And save Jayna.
Becker shifted a little, so he could see where Jayna’s pack mates were or if they were even in the room at all, when he caught sight of Kostandin barging into the room.
Shit.
Becker immediately pulled back, worried the Albanian would see him. But the brief glimpse he’d gotten of the inside of that room had scared the shit out of him. There were at least nine bad guys in there, and every one of them had a weapon pointed at someone.
“Gage, we have a situation,” he whispered into his mic. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we have a Mexican standoff up here. There are weapons pointing everywhere. Cooper and I might need to go in early.”
“Roger that,” Gage said. “I need another minute to get the last of the team into place, so hold if you can, but go if you have to. We’ll improvise from there.”
Becker was about to confirm receipt of the instructions, but the sound of gunfire stopped him.
“We’re going in!” he shouted at the same time he kicked away from the wall and swung toward the window. A movement to his right told him that Cooper was doing the exact same thing.
When he reached the apex of his swing, he lifted his M4 and put a three-round burst through the window. Pieces of shattered glass were still falling as he and Cooper swung into the room. Becker yanked the quick release on his rappelling harness and dropped to the floor. There was a light thud beside him as Cooper did the same. The second their feet touched down, they both tossed stun grenades, immediately followed by smoke grenades. Becker ducked, covering his eyes from the brilliant flash; then he was up and wading into the smoke-filled room, searching for Jayna and her pack, slugging whoever got in his way.
His nose led him to an overturned chair in front of Frasheri’s desk, then across the room to the flipped over couch. Behind it, he found Chris flat on his back and in pain, with Moe and Joseph kneeling over him holding pistols and shooting anyone who tried to get near them. Relief crossed their faces when they saw Becker.
“Where’s Jayna?” he shouted.
Panic flashed in Moe’s eyes as he frantically looked around. “She was here just a second ago.”
Shit.
“Cooper,” he said into his mic. “I’m going to find Jayna. Her pack is over by the couch near the wall. Three males—one African American, two white, one injured.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when he heard Jayna shouting his name. Becker ordered Moe, Joseph, and Chris to stay put, then raced for the door, slowing only long enough to rip the MP5 away from the Albanian blocking his way and smacking the man aside with it. He charged down the hallway in the direction he’d heard Jayna’s voice.
Becker growled as he caught sight of Brandon dragging Jayna into a room at the far end of the hall. He’d never felt the urge to just plain tear someone apart before, but seeing the omega manhandling Jayna made him want to do that and more. He should have killed Brandon that first day he’d shown up here.
Becker ran through the doorway, skidding to a halt to avoid falling through the huge opening where the floor should have been. Thanks to the construction crew, sections of the floor and walls were gone, revealing rebar, plumbing pipes, electrical conduits, and AC vents. That should have made disappearing difficult, but parts of the floor were piled high with junk, toolboxes, and other construction materials, all of which provided excellent places to hide.
Becker was so focused on tracking them by scent, he didn’t see Brandon appear from behind a tool chest with Jayna in front of him as a shield until the omega began shooting at him.
Getting shot didn’t bother Becker, but th
e sight of Brandon’s claws wrapped around Jayna’s throat so tightly that blood ran down his fingers sent him into a rage like he’d never felt before. He dropped his M4, letting it hang by its strap across his chest, and rushed the omega with a snarl that shook the dust off the walls as he leaped from rebar to rebar. He felt one round, then another smack into his tactical vest. He ignored them, just like he ignored the one that drilled straight through his unprotected right shoulder. The pain didn’t even register. It only pissed him off more.
Becker hadn’t been a werewolf very long, but unlike some of the guys on the team, he’d never really had a problem with controlling his anger or the random shifting that came with it. But at that moment, he gave in to the instinct to let go and become the animal inside. He’d always been fast, but as his body twisted and rippled into a form that was nearly as much wolf as man, he was practically flying across the floor.
Brandon’s eyes flared and he issued a growl of his own as he tossed Jayna aside like a rag doll. Becker’s heart tore apart as the woman he loved bounced off a steel support column to land in a crumpled heap. He wanted to race to her side, but that would have left him open to even more bullets. One fatal shot and there’d be nothing to stop Brandon from shooting Jayna too.
Brandon raised his weapon for a head shot as Becker hurtled a tool bin and slammed into the omega like a two-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound truck. Bone crunched—both his and Brandon’s—as his momentum drove the omega backward through the air and into the concrete wall. But as violent as the impact had been, Brandon shook it off and came at Becker, eyes like that of a berserker and fangs ready to rip and tear anything they could.
Becker bared his teeth with a deep, menacing growl, more than ready to fight.
* * *
Jayna wanted nothing more than to lie there on the floor and hide in the comforting darkness enveloping her, offering a respite from the pain emanating from every part of her body. But the growls and snarls somewhere on the edge of her consciousness wouldn’t let her drift off. Eric was fighting Brandon to protect her, and it sounded like he was fighting for his life. She wouldn’t let him do that alone.
Gritting her teeth against the pain, she rolled over and pushed to her knees, fighting the darkness threatening to pull her down again. But even when her vision cleared, it was hard to understand what she was seeing because Eric and Brandon were little more than blurs of ripping claws and flashing fangs.
She flinched and looked away as Brandon shredded Eric’s tactical vest with his vicious claws, drawing more blood. That was when she saw the handgun on a section of the floor that was still intact. She lunged for it, but Brandon must have seen the move because he gave Eric a shove and headed her way with a snarl.
She rolled onto her hip, ready to defend herself when Eric slammed into Brandon and sent him flying. The omega’s claws missed her throat by inches.
Jayna whirled around, expecting them to hit the ground rolling and keep right on fighting, but they both just lay there. Her heart thudded so loudly it echoed in her ears. Why weren’t they moving?
After what seemed like forever, Eric finally rolled away from Brandon, onto his back. Jayna cringed at the rusted piece of rebar poking out of Brandon’s chest. It must have been sticking up from the floor and impaled the omega.
Eric pressed a hand to his ragged tactical vest, his fangs and claws retracting. Blood seeped between his fingers, running down his hand.
Oh God. The rebar that had pierced Brandon’s heart had stabbed Eric too.
Jayna didn’t remember moving, but the next thing she knew, she was kneeling by Eric’s side, gently pulling his hand away to see how bad the wound was. She ignored the bloody slashes that crisscrossed his face and arms, barely even looking at the bullet wound in his shoulder, more concerned about the ragged laceration caused by the rebar.
Her hands shook so badly, she could barely see what she was doing, and she couldn’t understand why. She’d seen him injured before, when she’d dug a bullet out of his chest. But right now, her heart was pounding like nothing she’d ever experienced. She was on the edge of losing it.
She was still trying to control her trembling hands when Eric gently took both of them in his much larger, calloused ones.
“I’m okay, Jayna. It will heal.” He released one hand to tenderly run his fingers over her neck. “That bastard scratched you.”
The careful way he touched her neck, his fingers tracing Brandon’s claw marks as he said the words, it was like they pained him more than the wound in his chest. She was going to cry—she knew it.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time to stop this,” he said brokenly.
While his voice was just as soft, there was fire in his eyes, and she pressed a shaking finger to his lips. The thought that he blamed himself for the minor scratches on her neck was ridiculous and precious at the same time. No one outside her pack had ever cared about her until now. But his concern for her went beyond that of a pack mate. As her heartbeat slowly began to return to normal now that his arms were around her, Jayna admitted that maybe her feelings for him went further than she’d thought.
Eric started to say something else, but she shushed him. “I got scratched, that’s all. And like you said, it will heal. You got here in time. That’s all that matters.”
Leaning forward, she kissed him on the mouth. Eric cupped her face, kissing her back. She gasped a little, startled by how fast the fire kindled in her body at the touch of his lips. There was no way in hell she should have been thinking those thoughts at a time like this, not when Eric had just been shot and stabbed. And definitely not when she should be worrying about her pack mates.
Oh God. She hadn’t even thought to ask about Megan. Was she okay? Had she been arrested?
Jayna pulled back so suddenly Eric almost fell over. His eyes flew open in surprise, revealing beautiful gold irises. She pushed that distracting observation aside and focused on her first priority—her pack.
“Where’s Megan? Is she all right?”
Eric blinked, obviously caught off guard by the question. But then he grinned. “She’s okay. She’s waiting for you downstairs in our operations vehicle.”
Jayna opened her mouth to ask if Megan was in trouble with the law—if all of them were—but then a cough from the doorway interrupted her. She looked over to see Cooper standing there with that same lopsided grin he’d had on his face at Eric’s apartment. She smiled back, happy that she’d been right about Eric not killing his best friend. She’d never doubted it for a second—okay, maybe for a second.
“Speaking of the operations van, maybe it’s time we get you two down there,” Cooper said as he walked over to them. “This place will be crawling with uniformed officers and crime scene techs before long.” He looked down at Brandon and grimaced, then turned back to Eric. “What, you couldn’t just shoot him?”
Eric stood up and did that manly handshake thing that involved grabbing the other guy’s shoulder and squeezing the hell out of it while trying to crush the hand you were shaking at the same time. Eric didn’t even complain when Cooper put pressure on the shoulder that had the bullet hole through it. Jayna thought the men in her pack were strange—the ones in Eric’s pack were even more bizarre.
Eric shrugged as he reached down and gently helped Jayna to her feet. She couldn’t help but wince as she straightened up. Crap, she must have really done some damage bouncing off that column. Eric immediately had an arm around her waist, that concerned look on his face again—the one that made her heart beat funny.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, giving him a small smile. “Just a little sore.”
Eric frowned but didn’t press. He glanced at Cooper. “How’d it go down there?”
“Most of the omegas didn’t go down easy—the animals lost their frigging minds. But a good portion of the Albanians and even some of the more rational omegas gave themselves up once they realized they were outgunned.” Cooper pointed at the radio ea
rpiece hanging in tatters against Becker’s tactical vest. “You would have already known that if you’d left your earpiece in.”
Eric ignored the comment, turning back to her. “You want me to carry you down the stairs?”
Jayna was touched. While the idea of her big, alpha werewolf carrying her out of there held a certain romantic appeal, how would it look for him to carry her when he was bleeding all over the place and all she had were some bumps and bruises?
“I’m okay. I’ll just walk slowly.” She smiled at him. “But thanks.”
He nodded, keeping his arm around her as he guided her toward the door. In the distance, Jayna could hear what sounded like hundreds of sirens approaching the loft. “Eric told me that Megan’s okay, but what about Moe, Chris, and Joseph? They haven’t been arrested or…”
She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
“They’re all fine,” Cooper said. “They’re down in the operations vehicle with Megan. One of our medics is looking at Chris.”
The huge weight on her chest lifted and she could finally breathe again. She didn’t know what the future held for her or her pack, but at least they were out from under the Albanians and safe for now.
“What about Liam, our pack alpha?” she asked when they reached the top of the steps. “Is he…?”
“It got a little crazy in that office, especially when everyone started bolting for the exits,” Cooper said. “I don’t know who was killed, who was arrested, and who escaped.”
Eric frowned. “Some of them got away?”
Cooper nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know who though. I was a little busy at the time.”
Jayna got a sinking feeling in her stomach, her instincts telling her that Liam had been one of the people who’d gotten away. A small part of her was glad. He’d been important to her at one point in her life. But she also remembered how angry Liam had been when he’d realized he was no longer pack alpha and that Eric had taken over. Liam had looked like he was ready to kill. If he was still out there, she hoped he’d leave Dallas and get as far away as he could. She just wasn’t sure he would.
