Hungry Like the Wolf

by Paige Tyler

  Mac was almost afraid to move closer, but she couldn’t hang back anymore, either. As the minutes slowly ticked by, she lost more and more hope. There was just so much damage. No one could survive a blast like that, no matter how much training they had or protective gear they wore.

  She couldn’t explain why, but it felt as if she’d lost something that would have been very important in her life. Not something—someone.

  Mac didn’t realize she was crying until she tasted tears on her tongue. She choked back a sob. She couldn’t stand here and watch while they pulled Gage’s body from the rubble.

  “Over here!”

  She spun around, her heart pounding. Trevino was clawing at the chunks of concrete and pieces of brick like he was possessed.

  Mac hurried over, trying to see around the cops who’d stopped searching other parts of the house and moved to help. She was afraid to hope, afraid to believe.

  Alex grabbed a section of what used to be part of a brick wall and tossed it aside like it weighed nothing. Underneath, there was a set of steps leading under the house and into the basement. Mac’s heart beat even faster. Just because some of the SWAT officers might have made it to safety and survived the explosion didn’t mean Gage had been one of them. But as Trevino reached down into the blackness, she couldn’t stop hope from surging through her.

  A bloody hand grasped Alex’s. The team’s sniper pulled, yanking a man from the rubble. He was covered in black soot and bloody scrapes, but there was no mistaking Xander. A uniformed cop tried to throw a thermal blanket around the squad leader, but Xander shrugged it off, instead turning to help pull someone else out of the basement.

  Men climbed out one by one. First Cooper, then Delaney. And after them, Becker, Lowry, and McCall. Mac hadn’t realized she’d climbed into the wreckage of the house until Trevino and Xander had dragged the last man out of the basement.

  When she saw Gage, Mac’s tears flowed even harder and faster than before. He was covered in soot from head to toe, but he was alive.

  Thank you, God.

  Mac heard Weaver ask Xander if there was anyone else in the house, but she didn’t hear his answer as she stumbled through the rubble at a run and threw herself into Gage’s arms. She almost knocked him back down into the basement, but he didn’t seem to care. He hugged her to his dirty uniform as she buried her face in the curve of his neck and cried.

  She completely forgot they weren’t alone until she pulled away and saw Cooper standing there with a knowing grin on his face. Embarrassed, she lifted her hand to wipe the last traces of tears from her cheeks when she caught sight of Xander’s arm. He was bleeding. So were Lowry and Becker.

  “Oh God, I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know you guys were hurt. I saw Gage and I…”

  Xander’s mouth edged up in what looked like a smile, though it was difficult to tell under all the soot. “Don’t worry about it. We’re fine.”

  “Like hell you are,” Weaver said. “You’re all a bunch of bleeding pincushions and everyone is getting a free ride to the hospital.”

  None of the SWAT guys looked too happy about that. Remembering how Martinez had declined medical attention when he’d been shot, Mac wouldn’t be surprised if they got in their vehicles and went back to the compound to treat their cuts, scrapes, and abrasions themselves.

  But Gage squashed that idea. “He’s right. Everyone’s getting checked out—no exceptions.” He grinned at her, and suddenly she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “You ever ride in an ambulance before?”

  ***

  Gage knew he wasn’t the only one who was steaming mad. His entire pack would walk out of the hospital with him if he gave the word. Unfortunately, the doctors and nurses weren’t going to let them out of here anytime soon. Which meant he had to lie in this damn hospital bed and stew. He wasn’t really mad at the medical staff. They were just doing their jobs, even if they were a pain in the ass with all their stupid tests. No, he was pissed because that freaking meth lab they’d been lured into had been a trap, and he knew exactly who was behind it.

  Walter Hardy had tried to kill them, and if they’d been regular cops, he would have succeeded. The only reason they weren’t dead was because werewolves were damn hard to kill.

  That said, they were still beat up. Of all of them, Xander and Becker had gotten the worst of it, which meant they’d probably be staying in the hospital overnight for observation. But as soon as Gage could leave, he was going to pay Walter Hardy a visit and let him know exactly how SWAT took care of its own.

  Gage dropped his head back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. Werewolves or not, he and his men had been lucky. They’d all sensed something was wrong the second they’d breached the doors and entered the house. Instead of coming face-to-face with people wielding automatic weapons, the place had been empty. It had smelled wrong, too. Gage hadn’t been able to place the odor, but Cooper recognized it. Gage and the others had already begun to spread throughout the first floor with weapons at the ready when the explosives expert had shouted out one word—bomb.

  Gage knew in his gut that there was no time to get everyone out of the house before the device detonated, especially since whoever had set it was probably somewhere nearby with his finger on the remote. Even if they managed to escape, they would never have survived the blast and frag that went with it. That was when he’d ordered everyone into the basement.

  Unfortunately, he, Cooper, and Delaney had been too far away from the stairs leading under the house to even consider them. So, he’d done something he rarely ever did anymore and let the beast inside free, allowing most of his upper body to shift more than it had in years. His shoulders, arms, and chest had bulked and twisted so quickly it was painful, but the temporary agony was worth it as he crouched down and drove his fist into the cheap linoleum floor in the kitchen. Two savage punches later, the floor caved in, leaving a ragged hole barely large enough for him and the other two men to fit through.

  He’d shoved Cooper and Delaney ahead of him, then followed. He hadn’t even hit the basement floor when the explosion came. It smashed him into the concrete of the basement floor like a jackhammer, knocking him senseless. When he came to, Cooper and Delaney were dragging him toward the far side of the basement as the floors above rained down on top of them. Thick black smoke filled the air, making it hard to breathe, and he feared he’d saved his men from the blast only so they could burn to death in the fire. But luckily, the fire only smoldered after the blast and the smoke cleared. In the dark of the partially collapsed basement, he, Cooper, and Delaney had crawled around until they found the rest of the Pack.

  Becker and Xander had been trapped under hundreds of pounds of rubble, but not before they’d gotten skewered by jagged pieces of wood. While Cooper and Delaney worked quickly to free them, he’d searched for Lowry and found him pulling a piece of metal from his leg. Werewolves were tough and hard to kill, but they still needed oxygen like every other living thing on the planet—which was in short supply underneath the collapsed house.

  Gage had just been looking for a way out when a shaft of sunlight penetrated the darkness of the basement. Even though he and the other guys had only been trapped down there for a few minutes, it seemed like a hell of a lot longer. Probably because he’d hurt like a son of a bitch all over. But all the aches and pains had disappeared when he climbed out of the basement to see Mackenzie running toward him.

  She’d been crying so hard she was shaking all over. But that was nothing compared to how fast her heart had been beating. That made him hurt worse than anything. He’d wrapped her in his arms, wanting to protect her from every pain in the world. But of course, he couldn’t do that because she wasn’t crying over her pain—she was crying over his.

  As dumb as it sounded, the ride to the hospital together in the ambulance had been one of the most pleasant times he’d spent with a woman. Mackenzie had simply sat beside him and held his hand, leaning down to kiss him whenever th
e EMT wasn’t fussing over him. That was when he’d finally decided to accept Cooper’s silly-ass theory that she was The One because as far as he could tell, she was.

  Apparently, the rest of the Pack had come to the same conclusion. After seeing the way she’d reacted, it was obvious she wasn’t playing him. Even Xander couldn’t dispute that.

  Gage turned his head on the pillow, looking for her. She’d been in and out of his room several times over the past two hours, but kept getting chased out by the nurses and their damn tests. He smiled when he saw her. She was sitting in the hallway with Mike and Zak. His senior squad leader had gotten to the hospital minutes after Gage and the rest of the guys had been brought in. The photographer showed up fifteen minutes later, telling Mackenzie he’d heard about the blast on the scanner.

  Gage was just about to get out of bed and go join them—screw the nurses—but then he saw Mackenzie, Mike, and Zak stand up quickly. That could only mean the doctor had finally come back. About damn time. They’d been taking X-rays, running a dozen tests, and re-checking his vitals to cover their asses. He couldn’t blame them, he supposed, but he needed to get out of here. He had someplace to be.

  The doctor walked in with Mackenzie on his heels. She looked concerned and more than a little scared. Shit. Gage hoped that look meant the good doc hadn’t told her much of anything. Zak and Mike followed, but stayed near the door.

  “What’s the word, Doc?” Gage asked.

  He smiled at Mackenzie. She smiled back, and some of the aches and pains that still lingered magically felt better.

  “You’re damn lucky, that’s the word.” The gray-haired man gave him a surprisingly stern look. “You came through the explosion surprisingly intact, but whatever accident you had recently caused a lot of damage. You have stress fractures to half a dozen bones, including two ribs and both bones of your right forearm. You shouldn’t even be on duty, much less raiding a meth lab.”

  Mackenzie’s eyes went wide. “You were in an accident? When? What happened?”

  Gage swore under his breath. Between punching his way through the kitchen floor and getting smashed into the basement, he’d done more damage than he thought. Of course his X-rays wouldn’t show much. Just a couple of two-week-old stress fractures—werewolves healed fast. If the doctor took X-rays again in a couple of days, they wouldn’t show anything at all. But Gage would make sure that didn’t happen.

  “It was nothing. Just a training accident while rappelling. I didn’t even realize I’d hurt myself,” he told Mackenzie.

  The doctor’s eyes narrowed suspiciously behind his glasses. He was probably wondering how a cop with all those stress fractures had walked around for two weeks without major painkillers.

  “I’ll get some rest, Doc. Promise,” he added. “What about my team?”

  “They’re doing as well as can be expected considering they almost got blown up. I’ll be keeping three of them…” He glanced down at the clipboard in his hand. “Becker, Lowry, and Riggs. They’re fine, but I want to keep them overnight to watch for signs of concussion. They should be able to leave in the morning.”

  All three men would hate staying here, but it was actually a good thing. Cooling his heels for the night would give Xander time to calm down, not to mention keep him from doing something stupid, like inviting himself along when Gage confronted Walter Hardy.

  After putting on the spare uniform Mike had brought him, Gage stopped in to see Xander, Becker, and Lowry before meeting up with the other guys. Mackenzie hovered beside him the whole time as if she was worried she’d have to catch him any second when he fainted from exhaustion. He had to admit, it was kind of cute.

  When they reached the parking lot, he automatically followed Mike and the others, but Mackenzie darted in front of him and put a hand on his chest.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To the compound for a few hours to catch up on some paperwork,” he told her.

  It wasn’t entirely a lie. He did have to write up the incident report for the raid on the meth lab that wasn’t a meth lab. But his main purpose was to find out where Hardy lived, then go scope out the place. One look at Mackenzie told him she wasn’t going to cooperate with that plan.

  “No way,” she said. “You just promised the doctor you’d get some rest, and I’m going to make sure you do. Your paperwork can wait.”

  He’d known Mackenzie Stone was strong willed, but he didn’t know she could be so fierce, too. But damn, she looked as if she could make a grizzly bear back down. He knew where she was coming from—he really did. She’d watched someone drop a house on him, and it had scared the hell out of her. But he needed to send a message to Hardy that the shit that’d happened today would never be allowed to happen again, and he needed to do it fast.

  But as he stood there gazing down at Mackenzie, he realized something. If Cooper was right about them being cosmically connected—a possibility that was looking more and more likely by the minute—then he needed to make decisions based on what was important to her, too.

  That was a big leap for him.

  “Okay,” he agreed. “But I do have to brief the deputy chief on what happened today.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but Mike cut her off.

  “I’ll brief the deputy chief,” he said. “Go home and get some rest. Don’t worry. I know what to say to Mason.”

  Which was Mike’s way of telling him that he wouldn’t say anything about the bomb to the deputy chief. If Mason knew it was an assassination attempt, he’d want to put the entire SWAT team in protective custody until they could bring Hardy up on charges. Luckily, it would take a while for the arson investigators to piece everything together.

  But Gage still hesitated anyway. Then he noticed that Mike and the other men were all grinning at him. Gage shook his head. He was outnumbered.

  He turned his attention back to Mackenzie. She still had her hand on his chest as if she could hold him back with nothing more than her willpower. He was starting to think she could probably do it, too.

  “So, Ms. Stone, what do you have in mind?” he asked. “To make sure I get my rest, I mean.”

  She gave him that devastating smile. “Well, I did offer to make you dinner, so how about we start with that?”

  “I don’t suppose we’re invited, too?” Cooper asked.

  “No,” Gage said before Mackenzie could answer. “But since you’re being nice and filling out the reports on the explosion at the meth lab for me, I’ll make sure Emile gets you a table at Chambre Francaise the next time you want to impress a woman.”

  That seemed to satisfy them. After a reminder to take it easy, they headed across the parking lot, leaving Gage and Mackenzie with his senior squad leader and her photographer.

  “Mind if I talk to Mike for a second?” he said. “If I’m going to blow off work early, I need to make sure a few things are taken care of.”

  Mackenzie regarded him suspiciously. “Okay, but don’t be too long. You need to get some rest.”

  Gage wasn’t sure how much rest he was going to get if he went home with her, but he nodded anyway. As soon as Mackenzie and Zak were out of earshot, Gage turned to Mike.

  “I need you to find out where Hardy’s going to be tonight.”

  Mike lifted a brow. “We’re moving on him tonight?”

  “Not we, just me. I’m going to deliver a message to him—one he’ll be sure to understand.”

  Mike’s brows drew together. “You sure you want to do this on your own? A man like Hardy is going to have a lot of muscle protecting him, especially after what he pulled today.”

  “I know, but that’ll make the message that much more effective. I walk in there all by myself and show him I can get to him anytime I want,” Gage said. “I want him focused on me. I don’t want him targeting the entire team like he did today.”

  Hardy might have sent his goons to the restaurant yesterday to pick Gage up, but there was no way for the bastard to know Gage would
be in that house today. He’d kill everyone on the SWAT team to get to Gage if he had to.

  Mike glanced at Mackenzie and Zak. They were standing beside the photographer’s car, talking. “I’ll text you the information,” he said. “But how the hell are you going to slip away from Mac? She’s not stupid. If you say you’re running to the store for a carton of milk, she’s going to know what you’re up to. And I don’t think she’s the kind to let you do it.”

  No kidding. She was already looking at him impatiently. “Then I guess I’ll have to make sure she’s so exhausted when I leave that she won’t know I’m gone.”

  And he knew exactly how to do it.

  ***

  Mac knew what Gage had been talking to Mike about before they’d left the hospital parking lot and it sure as hell hadn’t been paperwork and duty rosters. They were discussing what they were going to do about Walter Hardy and the assassination attempt he’d made on Gage and his team. While she’d been waiting in the hallway outside his room, she’d overheard Cooper tell Mike there’d been a bomb in the house. She’d been terrified Gage was going to make up a reason to leave so he could go to Hardy’s place and beat the hell out of him, at the very least.

  But that had been an hour ago, and since they’d arrived at her place and she’d started throwing together another simple pasta meal, he hadn’t indicated he was going to bail. So maybe she’d been wrong. Or more likely, he simply knew how worried and upset she’d be if he left. And there was really only one reason she could think of that Gage wouldn’t want to worry her. Somehow in the last few days, he’d come to care for her.

  She’d realized Gage had feelings for her earlier today, while she’d been waiting for the doctors to come out and tell her how badly hurt he was. When he’d climbed out of the rubble left by the explosion, she’d been the first one he’d looked for. And when he’d found her, the emotion on his face had been real. She’d seen it, and so had his men. That certainly explained why they’d been so tense around her yesterday, and why Cooper had asked all those strange questions. They knew their boss was falling for her and were worried she was playing with his heart just to get a story.