by Paige Tyler
He sat up straighter in bed, steeling himself for the coming confrontation. Gage had been his alpha and his best friend for a long time. He’d have been lying if he said walking away from the Pack and that friendship wasn’t going to hurt.
But before Gage could tear into him, the door opened and a gray-haired man in a white coat came in. The doctor ignored the obvious tension in the room and walked over to the bed.
“Let’s have a look at that wound,” he said, gently pulling Xander’s hospital gown aside.
Xander instinctively grabbed the man’s wrist, pretty sure it was a bad idea to let a doctor get a look at his wounds. The man raised a brow, then looked at Gage.
“It’s okay, Xander. Doctor Saunders knows what we are.”
Khaki had told him about the doctor.
Xander released the man’s wrist. After only being around the team’s medics, it was weird having a human doctor poking around the rapidly developing scar tissue on his chest, but he put up with it. He spent most of the time eyeing Gage instead of paying attention to the doctor. His boss looked as if he was biting his tongue for the doctor’s benefit, but just barely.
Saunders glanced at Gage. “He’s recovering quite nicely. The wound is completely closed, which is remarkable when you think about it.” He turned back to Xander, taking off the little sensors from his chest and hanging them over the monitoring equipment. “It’s been nice meeting you, Corporal Riggs.”
Xander nodded, never taking his eyes off Gage as the doctor quietly left the room.
“Dammit, Xander,” Gage snarled. “What the hell were you thinking, sleeping with Khaki?”
A part of Xander wanted to explain, wanted his friend to understand why he’d done what he’d done, but he knew it would be a waste of time. Gage had already made up his mind. Besides, even if he’d had a chance to do it all over again, he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
“This wasn’t about thinking,” Xander said, surprised at how calm the words came out. “It was about doing what was right.”
“Right? Are you frigging kidding me?” Gage’s eyes flared gold. “You broke every rule in the department: sleeping with a subordinate; sleeping with a member of your squad; sleeping with a fellow officer; sleeping with a teammate!”
Xander ground his jaw. It took everything in him not to shout back at Gage. Not that it would have mattered. Clearly, his alpha wasn’t done.
Gage shook his head. “You’re lucky I don’t suspend both of you.”
Xander knew Gage was trying to intimidate him into falling back in line. It wasn’t going to work. What he and Khaki had was complicated, but it wasn’t wrong. And he’d be damned if he was going to let anyone—even his best friend and alpha—try to convince him otherwise.
“As of right now, Khaki is on Mike’s squad,” Gage said.
“Like hell she is,” Xander growled, throwing back the sheet and pushing himself up. The move hurt, but not bad enough to make him stop.
Gage put a big hand on Xander’s shoulder, shoving him back down. “You don’t have a say in the matter.”
Xander snarled, baring his teeth. If Gage wanted a fight, he was going to get one.
“He might not have a say in the matter, but I do.”
Xander glanced over to see Mac standing in the doorway. Cooper, Hale, Trevor, and Alex flanked her on either side.
“Gage, you can’t keep Khaki and Xander apart.” Mac walked in the room, quickly followed by the others. Trevor closed the door firmly behind him, then stood guarding it. “She’s The One for him.”
It took a moment for Mac’s words to sink in. “Wait a minute,” Xander said. “How do you know Khaki is The One for me?”
“Because she told me.” Mac’s lips curved into a smile. “You’ve been the topic of conversation between us from the day she got here.”
Gage’s golden eyes narrowed. “Mackenzie, you knew Xander and Khaki were sleeping together?”
“Yes.”
Ignoring the glower Gage sent her way, Mac came over and gave Xander a hug. Then she poked him in the shoulder. “You scared the hell out of us. Don’t ever do that again.”
“Mackenzie?” Gage growled. “You knew and didn’t tell me?”
Mac turned and glared at Gage. “Isn’t that what I just said? Honey, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t because I knew how you’d react. Or maybe I should say overreact, which is what you’re doing right now.”
Gage clenched his jaw so hard Xander could hear his teeth grind. “Mackenzie, I don’t expect you to understand, but Xander and Khaki can’t be a couple and be on the same squad. It’s against every rule in the book.”
“Those are department rules,” Cooper said, crossing the room to stand in front of Gage. “We might be cops, but we’re werewolves first. You know that sometimes you aren’t going to be able to follow the book when it comes to the Pack, and this is one of those times.”
The look Gage gave Cooper could have melted steel. “Let me frigging guess. You knew about Khaki and Xander too?”
Shit. There was no need for Cooper to get himself in hot water trying to cover for him and Khaki.
“Cooper,” Xander warned, but Cooper ignored him, shrugging in that “whatever” kind of way that frequently got him in trouble.
“Yeah, I knew.”
“You should have told me,” Gage ground out.
“It wasn’t my job to tell you,” Cooper shot back.
The idiot probably would have said more, but luckily his cell phone rang before he could. He dug it out of his pocket and held it to his ear as he walked over to the far side of the room. “Cooper.”
“Gage,” Mac said, “I know you think you’re doing what’s best for the team, but in this case, Cooper’s right. You can’t apply all the department’s rules to the Pack, especially this one. Khaki and Xander have to be together as much as you and I do.”
“We don’t work together,” Gage pointed out.
“But if we did, would you want me on anyone’s squad but yours?” When Gage didn’t answer, she sighed. “Honey, if you try to split them up, you’re going to lose both of them. They’re ready to walk away from the Pack. Is that what you want?”
Gage looked at Xander in shock. Gage hadn’t even considered he and Khaki would leave the Pack. Xander thought for a second that might sway his boss, but instead Gage’s jaw tightened. He was going to call Xander’s bluff.
Xander’s chest constricted. He’d known it was going to come to this, which was why he’d talked to Khaki about it, but it was still tough to say it out loud and make it official. But putting it off wasn’t going to make it hurt any less. He took a deep breath, ready to cut ties with Gage and the Pack once and for all when Cooper’s angry words interrupted him.
“What the hell do you mean she gave you the slip?” Cooper demanded into his phone. “Khaki’s driving a frigging Mini and you have a Camaro. How the hell could she lose you?”
Xander hadn’t been paying attention to Cooper’s conversation before, but at the mention of Khaki, he immediately tensed. On other end of the line, Max was saying something about her driving down an alley too narrow for him to fit through.
“She did it on purpose,” Becker added. Clearly they were on speakerphone. “She was trying to shake us.”
Xander could hear the squeal of tires in the background and knew that Max was driving fast after Khaki. But why?
“What’s going on?” Gage demanded.
Cooper didn’t answer. “Tell me exactly what you heard up on the roof,” he said into the phone.
It took everything in Xander not to jump out of bed and grab the phone from Cooper. Something was wrong; he knew it.
Cooper cupped his hand over the phone and looked sharply at Xander. “You know somebody named Jeremy?”
“Fuck,” Xander snarled.
Untangling his legs from the blanket, he leaped out of the bed and hurried over to the closet on legs that were a little unsteady but getting stronger by the second.
He yanked open the closet door, praying someone had put his uniform in there. No uniform, but there were jeans, a T-shirt, boots, and a leather jacket.
He reached for the jeans when a heavy hand slammed the closet door on him. He turned to find Gage scowling at him.
“Is he talking about Jeremy Engler?”
Xander nodded and opened the door again. He grabbed the jeans and pulled them on, then yanked off the hospital gown and put on his T-shirt. He glanced at Gage as he shoved his feet into his boots and tied the laces.
“Engler confronted Khaki earlier in the week, begging her to go back to Lakefront with him. Then a few nights ago, he followed us to a restaurant. I roughed him up pretty good and I thought for sure he left town.”
Gage frowned. “You thought a guy who was so obsessed with Khaki that he not only forced her out of her previous job, but followed her halfway across the country left town because you knocked him around?”
Xander tried to muster up some righteous anger but couldn’t. Gage was right. He should have known better. “Do we need to discuss this now?”
Gage’s jaw worked for a moment, but then he shook his head. “If Khaki deliberately gave Becker and Max the slip, that probably means she ID’d Jeremy as the shooter. Any idea what she might be up to?”
Xander was about to admit he wasn’t sure, but Mac spoke before he could.
“She’s going to go kill him. If Khaki thinks he tried to kill Xander, she’ll want to tear him to pieces.” Mac shook her head, her blue eyes a mix of consternation and worry. “I can’t believe I have to tell this to a pack of werewolves.”
Gage swore, then strode over to Cooper. He held his hand out for the phone. “Max, which way was she heading? Mesquite? No, I don’t want you to try to find her. I want you to get Becker to a computer. I need him to track Khaki’s cell phone signal. We need to stop her from doing something crazy.”
Xander jerked open the door and walked out of the room. He was halfway down the hall before he realized he didn’t know where the exit was. He looked around for a directional sign, found one, and headed that way. Gage was right behind him, still giving instructions to Becker and Max. Behind him, Trevor was on the phone with Mike, telling him to get his squad together and head toward Mesquite, while Mac and the others practically had to run to keep up. Xander’s legs still felt a little weak and every step made his chest throb like hell, but he ignored the pain and kept moving.
He glanced over his shoulder at Gage. “Tell Becker I’ll be with Alex, Hale, and Cooper. I want Khaki’s location as soon as he has it.”
Xander expected Gage to demand he sit this one out—as if that was going to happen—but his boss only nodded.
“I’ll link up with Mike and bring in the cavalry,” Gage said. “You find Khaki.”
* * *
Khaki sat with her back against an old Honda Accord and tried to stop the blood pouring out of her stomach with her hand. It hurt.
Confronting Jeremy hadn’t gone the way she’d planned, not even close. Then again, she hadn’t really had a plan. She’d been going off pure animal rage. She should have realized Jeremy wanted to meet her at a deserted junkyard for a reason.
She didn’t have her backup gun since she’d gone directly from the recovery center to the crime scene, then here, but she also hadn’t thought she’d need one. She’d envisioned chasing Jeremy through a helter-skelter maze of rusted hunks of metal as he shouted in terror. She’d even deliberately parked her car a good half mile from the junkyard, wanting to make sure she didn’t tip him off that she was there. The place had been as quiet as a church, and with only a few dingy pole-mounted streetlights throwing the place into shadows, she was sure she’d have no problem sneaking up on Jeremy.
But that hadn’t happened. She’d just started weaving her way among the piles of old cars when she felt a stab of pain in her midsection. A moment later, the boom of a rifle echoed around her. No doubt it was the same rifle Jeremy had used to shoot Xander.
Khaki pressed her hand against her stomach harder, waiting for the initial wave of pain to pass and the worst of the bleeding to stop. She reached around behind her back with her free hand and felt the warm patch of blood there. The bullet had gone straight through. That was good. Alex had told her that werewolves healed faster when there was no foreign material in the wound.
Footsteps sounded on the gravel. Jeremy was coming to finish her off. Her heart pounded overtime, though whether it was because she was afraid he intended to shoot her again or anticipation at the thought of ripping out his throat, she wasn’t sure.
She closed her eyes and willed her claws to extend, savoring the sensation of punishing Jeremy for all the crap he’d put her and Xander through.
But when she opened her eyes, her nails looked as human and unthreatening as always. Khaki growled in frustration and tried harder to shift as she heard Jeremy coming closer. Her fingers tingled in response, but her claws refused to come out. Dammit!
She kept pushing…right up until the moment another bullet smacked into the far side of the Honda she was hiding behind.
That’s when she knew she had to move. She forced herself to her feet and hobbled toward the remains of an old pickup truck thirty feet away. She moved as fast as she could, but even though the pain was starting to lessen, it was still hard to stand up straight. Getting shot in the stomach was worse than getting stabbed there.
She made it to the truck just as Jeremy came around the side of the Honda. The sound of his mocking laughter made her grit her teeth, but she kept going. She had to bide her time until she could heal enough to turn the tables on him.
She moved silently past a truck and two more cars until she reached a fifty-five-gallon drum that reeked of old oil. She went down on one knee behind it, taking a moment to check her wound before peeking around it to keep an eye on Jeremy. She reached into her back pocket for her phone to call in the cavalry, but then remembered she’d left her phone in her purse, which was in her car…half a mile down the road. She hadn’t wanted anything to distract her from what she’d been planning to do. Not her best idea. Like everything else about this trip out to a desolate junkyard, anger had clouded her thinking.
“You are one tough little bitch!” Jeremy shouted as she saw him kneel down and trace his fingers through the bloody patch of ground where she’d been hiding. Then he stood and turned in a slow circle looking for her. “But you’ve got nowhere to go now. You’re sure as hell not scrambling back over that fence like you did coming in, not with how much you’re bleeding.”
As Khaki watched, Jeremy turned and started moving off to the right, as if he had no idea which way she’d headed. But that didn’t keep him from trash talking.
“Why don’t you come out and just let me finish this nice and fast? I promise I won’t leave you flopping around on the ground like that SWAT boyfriend of yours. What’s his name…Riggs? What did you ever see in him? You could have done so much better. Hell, you did do better—me.”
She knew she should have kept quiet. Jeremy was only trying to get her to snap and say something to give her position away. She should have kept going the other way until her stomach closed up enough to allow her to move fast again. But the second he spoke Xander’s name, the anger she felt burning inside her was worse than the bullet wound.
“When did you get so screwed up, Jeremy?” she shouted. “You stalked me all the way to Dallas, tried to kill the man I’m dating, tried to kill me. All because I dumped your ass and left the Lakefront PD?”
She knew she was stupid for exposing her location, and sure as hell, Jeremy spun in her direction and started shooting. The clank of the high-caliber rifle rounds hitting the metal drum forced her back to her feet.
Jeremy’s boots thumped on the gravel behind her. But her stomach was starting to feel better, and she easily pulled away from him.
Then a random bullet bounced off the heavy bumper of a car as she ran past, clipping her right thigh and almost putting her on her ass again
as it tore its way through her leg. Getting hit with the ricochet hurt worse than a straight shot, and she didn’t even want to look down. She knew the damage was bad. Some of the bullet was still in her leg but Jeremy was coming fast and she didn’t have time to check. She’d barely crawled under the rusted-out remains of an old clunker when Jeremy raced into the clearing.
Jeremy saw the blood on the ground. Khaki knew that Jeremy had spent a lot of time hunting in Canada and Alaska. He enjoyed tracking animals, especially after he’d shot them and they tried to run. He never let any of them get away from him alive.
She was a werewolf, but Jeremy was a monster. She was twice wounded and unable to get her inner animal to come out; he was armed and in his element. She’d seriously screwed up by coming here to face him alone.
Khaki peeked through the grass and weeds that grew around the car, trying to see if she’d left a trail of blood. She didn’t see anything, even with her werewolf-enhanced vision. But still, she held her breath as Jeremy bent and searched the ground. After a moment, he looked up and swept the area with his gaze.
“You think all of this is about you leaving me, you stupid bitch?” Jeremy shouted into the night. “Was I pissed that you decided to leave town rather than stay with me? Hell yeah. Not as pissed as when you tricked me with that candy-ass martial arts move and put me on the floor of the bull pen in front of everyone before you left though. I almost shot you then. If there hadn’t been a room full of cops around, I would have.”
Jeremy crossed the clearing as he spoke, disappearing between two cars. Now that the nasty smells of the junkyard had faded into the background, she was able to pick out Jeremy’s distinct scent and use it to help pinpoint his location. He was definitely moving away from her.
Khaki resisted the urge to immediately roll out from under the car and run the other way. She needed to calm down, figure out how badly she’d been hit, then come up with a plan. The hell with that. She needed to shift, now.
“But I calmed down after you left, especially after I realized that it was your loss and that I could move on to any woman I wanted,” Jeremy continued. “Then a day later, Silver calls me into his office. He had internal affairs in there with him, and they started asking me about all kinds of bullshit about whether I harassed you, blackballed you, and convinced other officers not to respond to your calls for backup. They even asked whether I had lied on official police reports to make you look bad. I told them that was crap and that you were the one who’d been screwing up. That I’d tried to help you. But internal affairs pulled out statements and reports saying otherwise.”