Howl for It

by Shelly Laurenston

  What else was new?

  Gage almost smiled. He would have, if he hadn’t still been so pissed off. She’d betrayed him.

  He jumped from the truck and slammed the door shut behind him.

  The blond approached. “Thought you’d be here sooner,” Davis Black said, rubbing his chin as he surveyed the pack alpha.

  “Um . . .” This came from the dark wolf. A grin lifted his lips as William “Billy” Tanner glanced over Gage’s shoulder and back at the truck. “Trouble with the missus?” The light hint of his native Mississippi drawl rolled beneath the shifter’s voice.

  Gage slit his eyes. “Nothing I can’t handle.” The other members of the pack wouldn’t be making an appearance. That was the plan. Only his top two enforcers were supposed to meet him here.

  The others would wait, until he needed them.

  “Is everything set up?” Gage asked as his gaze swept the area. The place looked deserted. With its sagging roof and busted windows, the cabin seemed damn near uninhabitable. But appearances could be deceiving.

  Why didn’t humans ever seem to truly understand that fact?

  The truck door squeaked behind him. So Kayla was coming after him now?

  Control. He just had to hold on for a little longer. A few more minutes, and he’d have her in the cabin. They’d be alone. Just a few more—

  He saw Billy’s nostrils flare. “Oh, man, she smells good. Like sex and—”

  His control snapped and Gage slammed his fist into Billy’s jaw. Though he was stronger than a human, Billy wasn’t an alpha, and that blow had him stumbling back.

  “Billy,” Gage barked out as the wolf howled inside of him, “don’t push me right now.” The thread of his control had been stripped raw.

  The easygoing façade he’d worn for Kayla was gone. All that remained right then was animal instinct. He hadn’t realized just how wild he’d be after claiming Kayla.

  A little matter of betrayal could break a guy.

  But he didn’t want Billy sniffing around her. Pity he needed the guy, for the moment. A moment that wouldn’t last much longer if Billy kept pushing and eyeing Kayla like she was some kind of tasty meal.

  Kayla’s feet crunched over the graveled drive. Gage turned and took in her wide eyes as she gazed down at Billy. What? Like this was the first time she’d seen a guy get decked? In her line of work, not likely. She’d probably decked more than her share of assholes. The lady packed a pretty good punch. She’d sure hit him a few good times back at the hotel.

  “She doesn’t look like much of a hunter,” Davis said and he was still rubbing his chin. The guy always did that. His eyes swept over her. “Kinda small, don’t you think? A little weak.”

  That whipped her gaze off Billy and got it locked on the other wolf.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Gage said. Who knew that fact better than shifters?

  Most folks—those who knew the truth about supernaturals, anyway—thought that shifters were born to deceive. A beast, wearing the skin of a man or woman. How did you get more deceptive than that?

  They were good at lying. Tricking. And killing.

  Kayla’s head turned toward him. Her eyes weren’t flashing her emotions. No, she had whatever emotions she was feeling masked too tightly.

  Humans were good at deceit, too.

  She kept walking until she was by his side. “You didn’t make any calls once we left the hotel.”

  There hadn’t been a need. Gage shrugged and knew the gesture would say, yeah, so?

  He saw the understanding in her eyes and the flush of fury on her cheeks. Her mask was fading.

  “You really did know what I was,” Kayla snapped. “The whole time, you knew.”

  Ah, but knowing was just the first part. Knowing and actually springing his trap—two whole different things.

  But Gage let a cold smile lift his lips. He had to do the show right. “Hunters have been after my pack ever since the moment we took over this town.” And that’s what he’d done—taken over. Every paranormal in the city knew that Gage’s pack were the alpha dogs. They’d kicked demon butt, terrorized the vamps, and made sure that the fools knew who was dominating Sin City. It had been perfect.

  Then the hunters had come along and started their dumbass little cat and mouse game. Supernaturals had been dying. Going missing.

  He’d lost two wolves.

  No more.

  When members of his pack had fallen under the gun, Gage had known it was time to attack.

  He just hadn’t realized part of his attack plan would be so sweet. At least, not until he’d met Kayla.

  Now she was bound to him, body and soul, just as he was bound to her.

  A shifter and a hunter. How insane.

  He caught her hand and led her toward the cabin. For the first time, the lady dug in her heels and his jaw almost dropped. Now? Now she was gonna start fighting?

  Not when they’d jumped from the window.

  Not when they’d been in the hotel parking lot and she could have escaped.

  Not even when they’d been at that one-stop gas station.

  Now?

  The timing was so perfect, he almost smiled.

  Instead, he tightened his hold on her and hauled her closer. “You need me to carry you in?” He injected a note of menace in the words. He was rather proud of that low growl.

  Her breath huffed out. “Maybe you’re forgetting, I dropped that knife, I—”

  He heaved her over his shoulder. The lady was in one serious fighting mood now and she kicked and punched and, ouch, hell, yeah, he’d have bruises from that one.

  Luckily, he healed fast.

  She didn’t though, so he made sure his hold didn’t hurt her. Unbreakable, yes, but painful? Not to her.

  Hurting her wasn’t part of the plan he’d crafted.

  But he knew some pain couldn’t be avoided, no matter how hard he tried.

  As they headed for the cabin, Billy rose from the ground and swiped away the blood that dripped from his nose.

  Gage spared him one glance. “We gonna have a problem?” If they were, he was more than ready to kick ass. This, too, was part of the plan.

  Kayla dug her nails into his back, and he almost shuddered. Did she know he liked that?

  Later.

  Billy shook his head. “No.”

  “Good,” Gage almost purred the words. “Now go stand guard.” Cause company will be coming. Soon.

  Davis dogged Gage’s steps as he made for the cabin. Kayla was yelling now, at the top of her very powerful lungs. Yells wouldn’t do her any good. The folks close enough to hear her weren’t exactly the helping sort.

  “You sure this is a good idea?” Davis’s voice was low. “Maybe you should just kill her and dump her—”

  Gage knew his lethal gaze had stopped the tumble of the guy’s words. Davis had always been too quick to kill. Gage had recognized that weakness, but he’d still taken the guy into the pack. He’d needed Davis’s strength, and he’d thought that the pack bond might temper the beast’s savagery.

  Maybe I thought wrong.

  Kayla stopped struggling. Even over her own screams, she would have heard the guy’s dark words. Figured.

  “I’m not done with her yet,” Gage said, and that was all that he’d say to the enforcer. “Now guard the fucking perimeter, and make sure we don’t have any uninvited guests.”

  A muscle jerked in Davis’s jaw, but he didn’t argue. Good. Gage took Kayla up the cabin steps and inside. He kicked the door closed and dropped her on the floor. Not too hard, but, she had pulled a knife on him.

  Drop. Her sweet ass slammed into the old, hard wood.

  “This makes two times, wife . . .”—he said deliberately as he leaned his shoulders back against the doorframe—“that I’ve carried you over the threshold.”

  She shoved the hair out of her eyes. Oh, yes, those golden eyes blazed with fury. “I’m not a sack of fucking potatoes!”

  No, she wasn’t. He didn�
��t want to fuck potatoes.

  Kayla leapt to her feet. “I protected you! Dumbass wolf! I. Protected. You!”

  The anger in his own gut burned. Gage lunged forward, making sure he towered over her. “You set me up.”

  “I—” She snapped her lips closed then gave a curt nod. “Fine, I did.”

  He blinked at the easy admission. He hadn’t quite been expecting things to move so . . . fast.

  “But . . .” Her chin tipped up. Every time she did that, he wanted to kiss her right on that stubborn, sexy chin. “But I didn’t go for your heart when I had the chance.”

  Didn’t she? Why the hell did she think they were in this mess? “I saw the knife. Most wives don’t exactly go around bringing silver knives into bed with them.”

  Her arms crossed over her chest. Did she huff? Sounded like it, and then she said, “I’m not most wives.”

  No, she wasn’t. Gage stepped away from her and paced around the room. The place was pretty bare as far as furniture was concerned. An old, sagging bed. A wooden table. Two chairs. A dark brown refrigerator that hummed.

  The cabin wasn’t a place of comforts. He used this area for only one reason—interrogation.

  It was the perfect place to learn the truth from his enemies. And the desert was perfect for making unwanted bodies disappear.

  He’d buried his share of enemies out there. Vegas could be vicious. Only the strong survived. The weak . . .

  They fed the animals in the desert.

  He circled around her and headed toward the fridge. Gage grabbed a small bottle of water and drained it in just a few gulps.

  The wooden floor creaked beneath Kayla’s feet. “So . . . you really knew who I was, the whole time?”

  He sat the bottle aside and turned back to her. “Yeah, I did.”

  Her chin was still up, but he saw the move for the defense that it was more than anything else. “Then why marry me?” Kayla asked.

  Wasn’t that the big old million dollar freaking question? “I didn’t do it because my boss told me to.” The jab burst from him. He didn’t have a boss. Others jumped when he crooked his finger.

  Kayla flinched. “That wasn’t why I married you.”

  Did he look stupid? Was he supposed to buy her BS because she was good in bed? Very good. “How many?” He gritted and his claws were ripping from his fingertips. Faint lines of red bled into his vision. The wolf inside wanted out.

  “How many what?” She fired right back as her brows rose and her small fists went to her hips.

  “How many men have you screwed for the sake of your cause?” He’d like to kill them all. Every single one. Slowly. Painfully. The wolf was good at giving pain. “In order to get close, how many times did you strip and—”

  She moved fast for a human. No wonder she was such a good hunter. In two seconds, she was across the room. Her index finger jabbed into his chest. “Watch it, wolf, or you’ll make me lose my temper.”

  Right. Cause that was scary. Last week, he’d beheaded a four-hundred-year-old Born vampire. So compared to him, a curvy brunette was oh-so-terrifying.

  He lifted his claws and let them skate down her cheek. “Don’t make me lose mine.” His threat was lethal. Or it should have been, but it was complete bullshit. He’d never use his claws on her. He’d already seen the marks on her beautiful skin. When they’d made love, he’d felt her scars.

  Other wolves had sliced her sweet flesh. He never would.

  Her breath stilled on a rasp, but she met his gaze. No fear showed on her face. She should have been terrified. Instead, her lips tightened, and she gritted out, “None, okay? There haven’t been any others.”

  Wait . . . none?

  “Despite what you think . . .” She jabbed him again with that finger. “I’m not a whore. I don’t sleep with men just because of my job.” Then she whirled away.

  I hurt her. Her shoulders were up, her back straight, and Gage felt like shit. But he still asked, “So what made me different?” As a hunter, she should have been repulsed by him. All the other hunters he’d met sure had been.

  Hunters. Humans who’d learned the supernatural secrets and were out to keep the world safe—by getting rid of said supernaturals.

  They were as vicious as any shifter, as ruthless as the vamps, and as conniving as the demons. In short, hunters could be damn near perfect at killing.

  Unless you found their weak spot.

  His gaze drifted over Kayla’s body. Hello, weak spot.

  “Maybe I wanted you,” she said, not glancing back at him, but striding nice and slow toward the opposite wall.

  Good thing she wasn’t looking or she would have seen his shock.

  “Sometimes, you want something so badly . . .”—her voice dropped now, but because of his enhanced hearing, he had no trouble making out her words—“that you’ll do anything to get what you want.”

  He knew that feeling. Hell, he was looking at the thing he wanted most.

  Enough to risk the pack.

  She turned to face him and her features were a blank mask. “So, no,” she said, “I didn’t screw you for the job. I did that part all for myself. Because I wanted to be with you.” Kayla shook her head. “Sometimes, I make dumb choices. Sue me.”

  He’d rather screw her again. And again. But they’d get to that fun task soon enough.

  “What’s your excuse?” Kayla wanted to know as one dark eyebrow rose. “So you tagged me as a hunter day one, fine, I get that. Go you. But why keep pretending? Why do the whole courting bit? Why marry me?”

  Was she really that blind? Had to be. Otherwise she’d realize she was the one who held all the real power. “Poor little hunter.” He shook his head and tried to look like he felt sorry for her. “What happened to make you this way?”

  Her other eyebrow arched, and a faint line appeared between her brows.

  “So untrusting . . .” He continued slowly, softly, and the memory of her scars beneath his mouth flashed through him. Poor little hunter . . .

  “You’re a werewolf, of course, I don’t trust—”

  “Wolf shifter,” Gage corrected as he cleared his throat. She knew the distinction. Calling him a werewolf was just insulting. “The moon doesn’t make me howl. I do that, whenever I want.” Nothing controlled him. No one. Werewolves were monsters made up by Hollywood. He was the real deal.

  “And you do whatever you want, right?” she snapped. Her hands were fisted. Someone was feeling all feisty. Good. He didn’t like her emotionless mask.

  “Yes,” he told her clearly, “I do.” That was the benefit of being alpha.

  “No matter who you hurt.”

  Ah, now she was getting personal. “I’ve never physically hurt you.” Wouldn’t. He protected those who fell under his charge and he’d never attacked an innocent. No matter what the supernatural rumor mill might say.

  But other wolf shifters weren’t like him. There were some psychotic bastards running around loose in the world. He knew it, and the scars on Kayla’s body said she knew it, too. Of all the shifters, the wolves were the ones who danced the closest to the edge of insanity. Their beasts were just too strong to always be controlled by the men and women who carried them.

  Wolf shifters needed a pack to hold them in check. To provide them with security. That was why he’d started the Vegas pack. Someone strong had needed to come in and take over, and the wolves—hell, yes, they’d needed to band together. No one wanted to start a bloodbath. No one wanted to turn feral.

  But sometimes, no matter what you wanted, the beast could still take over. He thought of Kayla’s scars again. The lightly raised flesh on the curve of her hip and on her shoulder. The narrow lines that slid down beside her spine. Someone had hurt her badly. From the looks of those scars, the wounds had occurred long ago.

  When she’d just been a kid.

  “In the dark . . .” he said, and tried to keep his voice emotionless. A hard task, when so many emotions wanted to break free. “All monsters aren’t
the same.” She should know that. Good and evil didn’t really exist. The lines were too blurred for that vague distinction in the paranormal world.

  Her lashes lowered to shield her gaze. “I know. That’s why you don’t have a silver knife in your heart.”

  Bloodthirsty little vixen. He’d known she’d make the perfect alpha female. You had to be willing to fight to the end in order to be an alpha.

  Kayla was a fighter.

  “You were the wrong bait,” he said simply. The words were the truth. “Your bastard of a boss should have been brave enough to come after me himself.” Instead of hiding in the shadows and slowly picking off the paranormals who crossed his path.

  Instead of taking my wolves. Two wolves gone. He’d better get them back.

  Now that he had Kayla with him . . . it was gonna be his turn to use her as bait. He sighed, and with a genuine trace of regret, told her, “I’m sorry.”

  Her lashes lifted and she frowned at him. “For what? Kidnapping me? Bringing me to this rundown shack?”

  Hardly. Those were just the start of his sins. Gage waved them away with a negligent flick of his fingers. “For what’s coming.” Then he took her chin in his hand, and kept his touch featherlight. He could already hear the approach of vehicles outside. The others had come much faster than he’d anticipated.

  Gage had thought that he’d have at least another hour. But, no, the guests had arrived too soon.

  They shouldn’t have gotten to the scene so quickly, not unless . . .

  His hands swept down Kayla’s body. Idiot. He should have realized the truth sooner. She’d come far too willingly. He’d thought she was just changing her mind about him. That she wanted to escape with him.

  But she’d still been setting him up.

  His hand slid under her shirt.

  She slapped at him. “Now isn’t the time to—”

  “You’ve got a tracker on you.” Shit. Shit, shit. And all those scars that pissed him off—one of them could easily have been left on her flesh when a tracking device was implanted. Hunters often used those devices, he knew that. But he’d been thinking with his dick, not his head. Should have checked her. He should have sliced beneath her skin and checked like he would have with any other hunter.