by Paige Tyler
Anger made it hard to see, but she had no doubt that everything would be better after she killed Jeremy. The mere sound of him choking was already a calming salve to the injuries she’d sustained at his hands.
She heard herself growling and knew she was going to choke the life right out of him. A little voice in the back of her head told her she shouldn’t be doing this, that nothing would be better simply by killing him. But the animal part of her viciously dismissed that little voice.
Jeremy kicked with his feet, struggling against the grip she had on his throat, but Khaki barely even felt it.
She felt Xander’s gentle hand on her shoulder though, as well as heard his soft voice in her ear. “Khaki, it’s okay. We got him.”
She knew she should release Jeremy, but she couldn’t make her inner wolf obey.
Xander stepped closer. “Khaki, if you do this, you’ll be the monster and the freak he claims you to be. Sweetheart, please.”
Xander’s words tamed the wolf inside her and as her anger slowly disappeared, Khaki released Jeremy and backed away. He dropped to his knees, coughing and gasping.
Khaki looked at Xander, feeling the last of her rage slip away. Her claws and fangs quickly followed. The realization that she’d almost killed a man who couldn’t defend himself against her suddenly hit. Knowing she had that much anger and hatred inside her scared her, and she thanked God that Xander had been there to stop her.
She threw her arms around him and held on tightly, burying her face in his neck. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shh,” he whispered, his arms holding her close. “It’s okay.”
It was okay…now. She pulled back to kiss him when a shout behind her made her whirl in his arms just in time to see Jeremy coming at her with his makeshift weapon again. Except this time, she wasn’t in a position to stop him from hitting her or Xander with it.
She shoved Xander away, hoping she could at least protect him, but he spun her in his arms like she was a toy, yanking her to the side and blocking the length of metal with his arm. Something cracked and Xander grunted, but he shrugged off the pain from the blow, then ripped the club from Jeremy’s hand. Then he just as casually shoved her ex-boyfriend, knocking him on his ass.
Jeremy scrambled to his feet and lunged for the piece of metal again, but a deep growl from the side stopped him. Khaki looked over and saw Hale and Alex stride out from between two vehicles, gold eyes glinting, fangs flashing, and claws flexing. Then they stepped aside and made way for a huge wolf so tall he almost reached the other guys’ chests. The wolf stopped and stared at Jeremy, his eyes glowing and his lips pulled back to expose a lot of long, sharp teeth. Khaki had never seen any of the other guys in full wolf form, but the beast’s scent told her it was Cooper. She’d always thought of him as laid-back, but in wolf form he was intense.
All of them together must have been too much for Jeremy. He gave up on the piece of metal and instead took off running. Xander made a motion with his head and a moment later, Cooper, Hale, and Alex chased after Jeremy, their snarls and howls filling the night.
Sirens echoed in the distance as Xander pulled Khaki back in front of him and kissed her. She kissed him back even harder, so thankful he was okay, but then she cut the kiss short as she remembered the crack she’d heard when Jeremy hit him with that piece of metal.
“Your arm,” she said, gently cradling his forearm and carefully checking for breaks.
“It’s fine.” Xander cupped her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She grimaced. “Jeremy shot me a couple times, but it’s nothing that Alex or Trey can’t stitch up. Otherwise, I’m fine.”
Xander relaxed, but then frowned as the sounds of a struggle reached their ears from the other side of the junkyard.
“Do you think we’re going to regret letting Jeremy live?” she asked quietly.
“Probably. But it was the right thing to do.”
Khaki hoped Xander was right as they both limped their way toward the front of the junkyard and the unavoidable confrontation with Sergeant Dixon.
* * *
Xander insisted that Alex and Trey Duncan, the team’s other medic, take care of Khaki’s wounds first, but then she watched along with the rest of her squad as they dug around in Xander’s hip for the pieces of Jeremy’s .308 round that had broken up when it hit. She had no idea how the two medics did it, but it was as if they had some supernatural ability when it came to knowing where the bullet fragments were.
Mike and most of his squad were still out clearing the junkyard. Even though Jeremy was cuffed and safely tucked away in the back of one of the SWAT team’s SUVs, Mike was a stickler for procedure…and the procedure in this case was to clear the entire area before turning the scene over to the rest of the DPD.
Sergeant Dixon and Trevor were holding everyone—including Deputy Chief Mason—at the outer perimeter. That was good. If anyone saw the way Alex and Trey were digging around in Xander with forceps and scalpels, it might be a bit hard to explain. It looked more like torture than first aid.
The guys were just finishing up with Xander when the sound of fast-moving feet dragged Khaki’s attention away from Xander. Jayden ran into the clearing, carrying a big, bloody dog limply in his arms.
“Alex, get over here. Trey, you too,” the big man shouted. “This dog is still alive.”
Alex was up and running toward Jayden. Trey only waited long enough to swipe most of the blood off Xander’s hip, and then he was gone too.
Khaki helped Xander get his jeans back on; then they both gathered around with everyone else to watch as Trey and Alex administered medical attention to the dog.
Tears pricked her eyes as she realized the dog she’d thought was dead had been lying out there hurt the whole time. She’d been sure Jeremy had killed the poor dog along with his owner.
But Alex and Trey were doing their best to make sure that didn’t happen. As Trey got an IV started, Alex slid an air tube down the dog’s throat and started working the squeeze bottle. Under all the blood, it was hard to see exactly how bad the pit bull mix was injured. It looked like all three bullets that had hit the dog’s owner had hit the animal too, and she heard Alex say something about a collapsed lung. Could a dog, even one this big, survive that?
Khaki was so focused on the dog, she didn’t realize Sergeant Dixon and Deputy Chief Mason had shown up until Alex and Trey were loading the dog into one of the SWAT trucks for an emergency ride to the nearest vet.
“I’m really looking forward to reading the official report on this one, Gage.” Mason slowly surveyed the scene, then Xander’s and Khaki’s blood-soaked clothes. “As of this morning, all I knew was that Corporal Riggs would be recovering from major surgery at a private facility for several weeks. Yet, here we are twelve hours later, and I find out that Corporal Riggs was one of the first officers to respond to the scene where the man who tried to kill him was intending to murder a second SWAT officer. A man who is not only a suspended cop from Washington State, but is also Officer Blake’s ex-boyfriend.”
Gage opened his mouth to answer, but a ranting Jeremy cut him off.
“I’m telling you, they’re monsters!” he shouted. “They have claws and fangs and these glowing eyes—”
The uniformed officer didn’t even slow down as he led Jeremy from the SWAT SUV to a patrol car. “Uh-huh. Tell it to your lawyer.”
“A suspended cop who is apparently going for an insanity defense,” Mason added.
Shaking his head, he walked off to talk to a DPD officer who was setting up crime scene tape around the perimeter. Khaki couldn’t believe the deputy chief hadn’t wanted a complete report right then and there, but she was glad he didn’t because she wouldn’t have been able to explain half the stuff that had happened, at least not to someone who wasn’t a werewolf.
But Mason’s departure had left them completely alone with Sergeant Dixon. Well, except for the rest of the Pack standing a few feet away. Unlike the deputy chief, Dixon looked pissed.
“It was bad enough that you two decided to get involved with each other, but since then your mistakes have gotten even worse,” he said.
“Getting involved with Khaki wasn’t a mistake,” Xander growled, his eyes flaring.
Khaki tensed, ready to get between Xander and their commander. The rest of the team was standing off at a distance, ready to help her if things got out of hand. But they knew this was something that she, Xander, and their pack alpha were going to have to work through on their own.
“But I’ll concede that I haven’t made a lot of good decisions besides that one,” Xander finished quietly.
Dixon glowered at Xander for a moment, then pinned Khaki with a look. “Xander told me that your psycho ex was in town since earlier this week. You never thought to mention that to me?”
Beside her, Xander flushed beneath his tan. Khaki knew he felt just as stupid as she did about ignoring the threat that Jeremy had represented. But Xander’s pride wasn’t going to let him admit that, and neither would hers.
“We thought we could handle it,” Xander grated out, his jaw flexing. “It wasn’t something we wanted to involve the Pack in.”
Khaki expected Dixon to tear into Xander for even trying to justify what they’d done—or rather, failed to do—but instead he snorted.
“That didn’t work out too well for any of us, did it?” Dixon asked. “Now there’s a psychotic killer on his way to prison who knows we exist.”
Khaki felt her legs weaken as all the air whooshed out of her lungs, and she tightened her grip on Xander’s hand. She opened her mouth to tell Dixon that she never wanted Jeremy to learn about the Pack, but her boss cut her off.
“Were you planning to kill Jeremy when you came out here, Khaki?”
“Whether she did or not doesn’t matter,” Xander said before she could answer. “She didn’t kill him, and that’s what’s important.”
Dixon gave him a hard look. “I was asking Khaki.”
Khaki squeezed Xander’s hand. “It’s okay,” she said, then looked at Dixon. “I did come here to kill Jeremy. When I realized that he was the one who’d shot Xander, all I could think about was tearing him apart. I knew in my heart that if I didn’t stop him, he’d come after Xander again, and I couldn’t let him do that.”
Dixon sighed. “I get that you had an overwhelming urge to protect Xander. Believe me, I get that. A few months ago when Mackenzie got kidnapped, I lost my mind. But when I went after the man who’d taken her, I went to get her back, not to kill him. In the end, the man ended up dead, but that was never my intent. Do you understand why that’s an important distinction?”
“I do now. I realize I let my rage and fear control me.” She gave him an embarrassed look. “I guess there’s still a lot I need to learn about being a werewolf.”
“But don’t worry, Gage,” Xander said. “You and the Pack won’t have to be responsible for teaching her. We’ll have our transfer requests on your desk in the morning.”
Khaki braced herself, expecting Dixon to tell them he wanted them that night. But after staring off into the darkness for a long time, he shook his head.
“Don’t waste your time. I’d only tear them up.”
Khaki did a double take. Beside her, Xander looked as baffled as she did.
“Back at the hospital you were more than ready to let Khaki and me walk away,” Xander said. “What changed?”
“I never said I wanted you out of the Pack.” Dixon’s mouth tightened. “I’m pissed at both of you, that’s for sure. Not for falling for each other though. I know more than anyone you had no control over that. I’m mad because you two forgot that at the end of the day, no matter how bad things get, the Pack will always have your back—that I’ll always have your back. If you had, maybe this situation with Jeremy wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand. You’ll be a member of the Pack forever, even when you screw up. What kind of hypocrite would I be if I booted you out after everything I put the Pack through with Mackenzie? Besides, she’d kill me if I even tried it. But no more secrets. Understood?”
Khaki let out the breath she’d been holding. She turned to smile at Xander, but then realized he was still staring at Dixon intently.
“What about Khaki?” he asked. “Is she still on my squad? Because that’s nonnegotiable.”
Khaki tensed again. Standing twenty feet away, the other guys on the team stiffened as well.
“That depends,” Dixon said, leveling his gaze at Xander. “Can you be her squad leader and her mate at the same time? Because that’s nonnegotiable, too.”
Crap. Just as it looked like everything was going to be perfect, reality intruded.
“Can you treat her like every other member of your squad when you’re on duty?” Dixon asked. “Can you put her at risk when the mission calls for it? Can you let her do her job without you having to be there every minute to keep tabs on her? Because if you can’t, she can’t be on your squad. Regardless of what the other guys on your squad might say now, sooner or later, it’ll cause problems. Can you really do what it takes be both her squad leader and her mate?”
Khaki’s breath caught. Xander’s jaw was so tight, she thought it might crack. He was going to say something he’d regret; she just knew it.
“He can do it because I won’t have it any other way,” she interrupted. “If I’m on his squad, I’ll do my job just like the rest of the guys. If that puts me in danger, then that’s the job. And if Xander tries to stop me, I’ll transfer to Mike’s squad on my own.”
Xander wanted to argue, but when she frowned at him, he closed his mouth.
Khaki turned to Dixon. “That work for you, Sergeant?”
“That works for me.” He glanced at Xander. “You okay with that?”
Xander scowled. “Do I have a choice?”
“No,” she and Dixon said together.
Chapter 16
Khaki leaned back against the picnic table with Mac and her photographer from the newspaper, Zak Gibson, dining on Becker’s incredible barbecue ribs and smoky bacon-stuffed burgers while watching the guys play volleyball in the big sand court that dominated the area behind the training-slash-maintenance building.
Mac sighed. “I never get tired of watching sweaty, muscular men playing around in the sand.”
Khaki couldn’t agree more. She’d played a few games but decided it was much more fun to watch sixteen shirtless men run around in the sand as they spiked the ball than it was to participate. Jeremy’s sniper attack had left Xander with some seriously spectacular scars across his chest, something all the guys were quick to point out. Khaki had never thought much about the sex appeal of scars, but on Xander, they looked good.
“Should you be saying that out loud?” Zak asked in between bites of food. “Seeing as you’re engaged to be married.”
Mac laughed. “Probably not. But it’s not my fault that I have a thing for sweaty, muscular men. It’s a weakness we women have to deal with.”
Khaki couldn’t help laughing. She was insanely in love with Xander, but it was hard not looking at all that hunkiness running around out there.
Even Tuffie, the pit bull mix they’d saved from the junkyard, was sitting there watching with her tongue out and a smile on her face—when she wasn’t begging Becker for more food. Khaki couldn’t blame Tuffie. Becker knew how to work the grill. His burgers were to die for, and he looked damn good wearing nothing but cargo shorts and an apron.
The dog still limped a little if she ran around too much, but she was doing well, and the vet was sure the dog would make a complete recovery. After all the work Alex and Trey had put into making sure the dog survived, it was a foregone conclusion that she’d come to live with the SWAT team. Tuffie spent her days at the compound, and each night, a different member of the team took her home. There was supposed to be a duty roster, but most nights she ended up going with Alex or Jayden, who had really bonded with Tuff
ie during her rehab.
Tuffie wasn’t the only one getting along well. It had been about a month since all the craziness with Jeremy, and the rift between Sergeant Dixon and Xander had been pretty much repaired. Things had been a little tense between them for the first week or two, but after she and Xander ran a few incidents together, Dixon finally realized everything was going to work out. Xander still had a protective streak that Khaki had to constantly keep in check, but they made it work. The alternative wasn’t something either of them wanted to think about.
Deputy Chief Mason showed up as the game was winding down. While the rest of the guys grabbed food, Dixon went over to talk to him.
Khaki forced herself not to eavesdrop. She’d been shocked when Mason hadn’t called her and Xander in to give their statements. But the deputy chief never said a word to them. She wondered if he was one of those hide-your-head-in-the-sand types, but it didn’t fit. The way he looked at them made her think he knew something was going on. He just never asked.
Mason’s lack of apparent concern with the details of the case could have stemmed from the fact that the media had made Jeremy Engler out to be as nutty as a fruitcake. The ex-cop, who’d been dropped from the Lakefront PD like a hot potato, had carried on about the Dallas SWAT team being full of monsters the whole time he was in the local lockup. He’d even tried to bring it up during his arraignment, which had gotten him a seventy-two-hour visit to a mental facility for a psych evaluation. The media assumed the man was a stalker-turned-killer who was working an insanity defense. Regardless, no one paid attention to a single word he said.