Hungry Like the Wolf

by Paige Tyler

  “Yeah, I bounced my head against the window, but I’m okay,” she said. “Put me down. We’ll be able to run faster.”

  Gage wasn’t so sure of that. But what he was doing sure as hell wasn’t working.

  He caught sight of a barbwire fence up ahead. He sprinted to it and set her down on the other side, then vaulted over it while she was facing away from him. Their pursuers were only about sixty feet behind them and closing fast. Gage aimed at the man closest to them, but held his fire. He only had one magazine in the Sig, which only carried eight rounds. He might be good with a gun, but he didn’t have ammo to waste on a low-percentage shot.

  Unfortunately, the bad guys didn’t have that issue. Every one of them was carrying an MP5 submachine gun and had lots of spare ammo. The moment they realized he and Mackenzie had stopped, they painted the area with 9mm ball rounds.

  Gage turned to grab Mackenzie’s hand and was shocked to see her holding that damn camera of hers. She was videotaping the freaking gunmen as they shot at them!

  “What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.

  “I’m a journalist. If someone is shooting at me, I’m going to film it,” she explained, trying to hold the camera steady as he pulled her away.

  Then Mackenzie frantically motioned to the left, her camera dangling from her wrist. “I saw a building over there.”

  The “building” was a barn. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any doors. But right now, they didn’t have a better option.

  He headed for the back of the barn, then tugged Mackenzie down to the hay-strewn dirt floor with him.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “Did you get hit?” The thought alone was enough to almost make his head stop working.

  “No, I’m fine.” She searched his face. “What about you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Gage took out his cell phone and swore. No service. So much for more bars in more places.

  Mackenzie held up her camera, pointing it at the entrance. He knew she was scared because he could hear her heart thundering, and yet she kept filming. Damn, she was amazing—or insane.

  “What are we going to do?” Mackenzie asked.

  Gage shoved his phone back in his front pocket, hoping for inspiration to tell him how to answer that question when gunfire sounded from the front of the barn.

  He pushed Mackenzie to the floor, covering her body with his as bullets zipped over their heads. Ragged chunks of wood went flying every which way thanks to the six men and their automatic weapons.

  No, not six—four. Where the hell were the other two?

  He lifted his head as he caught their scent. They were in the barn, just inside the door. All at once, the gunfire stopped. It had only been a diversion to make him duck so he wouldn’t see the men come in.

  Shit.

  In a minute, they’d start spraying the place with bullets. He and Mackenzie would never survive that much firepower in this small barn.

  Gage pushed himself up to his knees and took aim around the support post he was using for cover. Both gunmen had taken up defensive positions similar to his, which didn’t leave Gage with much of a target. But he had to shoot. Every second he wasted gave the bad guys more time to shoot at them.

  He leveled his Sig and squeezed the trigger. He was pretty sure he grazed the guy, but he didn’t have time to check. The moment he fired, the second shooter immediately emptied a full magazine in his direction.

  Gage felt a bullet hit his right shoulder, then another clip his left leg. He ignored the white-hot flash of pain and adjusted his sights on the second gunman. He caught the guy just as he was reloading, putting two rounds in his chest. Then he turned his attention back to the first guy to find him lining Gage up for the kill shot.

  Gage squeezed off a round in the man’s general direction, praying it found its target. Unfortunately, it was about half a foot above the shooter’s head. It made the man flinch and jump out from his hiding place, though. That was all the opening Gage needed. He put the gunman down with a shot dead through the center of his chest.

  Gage waited for the four men outside to rush in, guns blazing. Maybe they’d figured things hadn’t gone according to plan. They probably thought Gage had killed their buddies and was waiting for the rest of them to come in so he could do the same to them.

  They had no way of knowing Gage had been hit twice, but neither shot was life-threatening for a werewolf. Right now, he was more concerned with the fact that he only had two rounds left in his Sig—and four gunmen still waiting outside.

  “Oh, God. Gage, you’re bleeding!” Mackenzie cried.

  She caught his arm, trying to pull him down with her. He resisted, keeping his gaze trained on the door. If the bad guys came at them now, he wasn’t going to have many options. But he’d protect Mackenzie, no matter what.

  “Gage,” she said. “You’ve been shot.”

  If he thought her heart had been beating fast before, that didn’t compare to how it was racing now.

  He glanced at her. “I’m okay. It’s just a graze wound.”

  “Let me see,” she insisted.

  “Not now. The rest of those assholes could come in here any second and I’m almost out of ammo.”

  That got her attention. “You’re not carrying another magazine?”

  He shook his head. God, what he wouldn’t give to get his hands on those two machine guns lying on the ground on the far side of the barn.

  It’d be crazy to try it, though. The men outside knew those weapons were there, too. Going for them would require him to step directly into their line of sight. In his human form, he wouldn’t be fast enough to pull that off without getting hit a lot. And contrary to pop culture, you didn’t need a silver bullet to kill a werewolf. A good old-fashioned lead one would do the job just fine.

  But what choice did he have? If he could have shifted, it would have drastically improved his odds, but with Mackenzie here, he couldn’t do that.

  Gage tensed, ready to sprint across the barn, when he smelled smoke. “What the hell?”

  The men had set fire to the barn. If they couldn’t come in, they were going to burn him and Mackenzie out.

  Shit.

  He jerked around to see flames creeping along the walls behind them.

  “Gage, the barn’s on fire.”

  Mackenzie’s voice was much calmer than it should have been in a situation like this. She was even filming again. No doubt about it—she was crazy.

  Or maybe she didn’t realize how screwed they really were. The men had started the fire to drive their prey out of the barn. They were standing out there with every weapon pointed at the entryway and the weapons lying on the floor in the opening. When Gage made a move for them, they’d take him out before he even had a chance to pick them up.

  And then they’d come for Mackenzie.

  But if they stayed where they were, they’d roast. And Mackenzie would still be dead.

  His mind raced at a thousand miles an hour as Mackenzie began to cough. There was a third option. A way to take out the men, or at least distract them long enough for Mackenzie to escape.

  He was going to have to shift. He might still not survive the hit he was going to take from their automatic weapons, but Mackenzie would be safe. And that was what mattered.

  But if he did this, everything would change—no matter how it turned out.

  Gage took the camera out of Mackenzie’s grasp to let it hang by its cord from her wrist, then he gently pushed his pistol into her hand. “I have to get rid of those guys before this whole place goes up in flames, and there’s only one way to do it. And it’s going to the scare the hell out of you.”

  She tried to push the gun back into his hand. “Gage, what are you talking about? How can you get those men without a weapon? It’s…”

  He didn’t know if she had been about to say it was crazy, or stupid, or impossible because she started to cough from the thick smoke rolling off the back wall.

  He wrapped her fingers a
round the pistol grip and curled her index finger in the trigger guard. “This is going to be hard on you, but you have to do it, no matter how scared you are. I need you to count to five, then follow me outside. You only have two rounds. If there’s anyone left out there when I’m done, you need to make those two rounds count. Do you understand?”

  She coughed again, tears running down her face. He told himself it was the smoke making her cry, but he knew that was bull.

  He slid his hands in her hair and kissed her hard. He wanted to tell her what she meant to him, tell her how he felt about her, tell her what he really was, but one kiss was all he had time for.

  When he lifted his head, she was gazing up at him with tear-filled eyes, and the sight of them tore at his heart. “Remember—count to five, okay?”

  “Why? Gage, what are you going to do?”

  “Whatever I have to do to protect you.”

  The whole back of the barn was engulfed in flames now. He rose to his feet, ignoring the pain of his wounds.

  “I’m sorry,” he said raggedly, then turned and ran toward the door, shifting as he ran.

  It was almost a relief to finally allow his teeth to elongate and his claws to come out. He wouldn’t need the MP5s on the floor now. With his speed, strength, claws, and fangs, he was a killing machine.

  Mackenzie didn’t know that, of course. And as he ran out of the barn, she screamed his name.

  ***

  Mac knew Gage was going to do something reckless and dangerous when he’d shoved his pistol into her hand—she just hadn’t known what.

  When he’d said he was going to get rid of the men, she thought he was going to grab one of the machine guns the thugs had dropped, but he hadn’t. Why would he do something so insane?

  She wiped away a tear with her free hand. She had to get it together. Gage was depending on her to go out there in five seconds.

  How long had it been?

  Longer than five seconds she was sure.

  Outside, the sounds of gunfire filled the night, followed by shouting. Mac’s blood turned to ice in her veins. There was no way Gage could survive that many bullets.

  She jumped to her feet and ran across the barn. The fire and smoke had sucked the oxygen out of the place and it was hard to breathe. Pieces of hay and wood floated through the air like dandelion fluff, burning her skin, but she ignored them.

  Fresh air hit her like a slap to the face when she got outside, but it was nothing compared to what she saw that completely took her breath away again.

  Two of the gunmen were already dead, their bodies torn and bloody. A third lay on the ground trying to reach a machine gun a dozen feet away, his leg twisted at an odd angle and badly bleeding. Dear God, the men looked as if they’d been mauled by a wild animal.

  She searched around wildly for Gage and saw him locked in a struggle with the fourth man. They each had a hand around the other’s throat, trying to squeeze the life out of their opponent. The man twisted the machine gun in his free hand and pointed it at Gage.

  Suddenly remembering the pistol in her hand, Mac aimed it at the man and squeezed the trigger, praying she shot him and not Gage. The bullet hit the man in the leg, and he made a strangled sound, relaxing his grip on his weapon.

  Gage let out a growl, then lifted the man off the ground and flung him into the air. Mac cringed as he smashed into the burning barn to be consumed by the flames. She didn’t realize she’d made a sound until Gage spun around to face her.

  Mac gasped. At first she thought the smoke from the fire was still affecting her, or that shock was making her too dizzy to see straight. Because what she saw couldn’t be real.

  Gage’s shoulders were broader; his brow heavier and more furrowed; his hair longer; his stubble thicker; his ears slightly pointed at the tips; his jaw wider; his canine teeth now long, dangerous-looking fangs; and his eyes no longer a soulful brown, but a deep yellow-gold so bright they almost glowed. And on each hand, his nails had turned into wickedly sharp claws.

  She was so focused on Gage, she completely forgot about the man with the leg wound until Gage growled and leaped fifteen feet to land behind the guy. The man grabbed the machine gun on the ground and rolled over to shoot, but Gage caught the weapon and ripped it out of his hands. He punched the guy in the face—hard.

  That was it—one punch and it was over. But Gage still picked him up and slung him at least ten feet through the air to land in a crumpled heap near the entrance of the burning barn with his companions.

  Gage turned to her, his body tense, his eyes on fire, and his lips pulled back in an angry snarl. Mac took a step back, her hands bringing up the pistol before she even realized what she was doing. That was when she noticed she was holding the camera, too. She was a journalist. Catching action on film was second nature to her—she did it without thinking.

  When Gage stepped closer, she stepped back. He stopped and raised his hands in a silent gesture. He locked eyes with hers, and despite how afraid she was, the sadness there made her heart squeeze in her chest.

  Mac shoved the camera in her rear pocket so she could use two hands to steady the gun. She wanted to think Gage wouldn’t hurt her, but she didn’t even know if the thing in front of her was Gage anymore.

  “What are you?” she asked.

  As she watched, the monster in front of her slowly shifted back into the form of the man she knew—or thought she knew. But the four dead bodies made it impossible to forget what she’d seen.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” Gage said quietly. “And I’m sorry I scared you.”

  The hurt in his eyes tore at her, but she refused to give in to it. “Answer my question. What are you?”

  The muscle in Gage’s jaw ticked. “I’m a werewolf.”

  A werewolf?

  It was insane.

  And if she hadn’t seen the sharp claws and wicked fangs with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed it.

  But she had seen them, and every suspicious thing she’d had no explanation for now made perfect sense—the feeling that Gage and the rest of his SWAT team were hiding something, the fact that they didn’t use their night vision goggles during their missions, the lack of concern over Martinez’s injury.

  She looked at Gage’s shoulder. The gunshot wound that had been bleeding freely just a few minutes ago in the barn was now miraculously healed.

  She thought back to how the SWAT team had reacted at the restaurant when Hardy’s men had come in, how hard they trained, how they’d survived a freaking house collapsing on them. And finally, she remembered the wolf-head tattoo that every member of the team wore.

  She lowered the gun. “You’re all werewolves, aren’t you? The whole SWAT team?”

  Gage’s eyes widened in alarm. “I know what you’re thinking, Mackenzie, but you can’t tell anyone.”

  Was he kidding? This was huge, bigger than huge—the biggest story she’d ever stumbled on. Werewolves were real and she’d captured one on camera.

  She took a deep breath. Crap. Werewolves were real, and a whole…pack…of them were employed by the city of Dallas. Did the chief of police know? What about the mayor? Were they werewolves, too?

  How was any of this possible?

  There was so much she wanted to know. Like who’d turned Gage into a werewolf and whether he’d turned all the other men in the unit.

  But she couldn’t ask any of those questions yet. “The public has a right to know the truth.”

  The worried look disappeared, replaced by one of irritation. Gage snatched the gun out of her hand and shoved it back in his ankle holster.

  “Damn it, Mackenzie, this isn’t a game.”

  What the hell did he have to be angry about? He was the one who’d lied to her.

  That thought led to a place she didn’t want to go. Had Gage played her over the last several days, had he slept with her, because he was worried she’d find out he was a werewolf?

  She opened her mouth to ask him when he slipped one arm under
her legs and the other around her shoulder and swung her up in his arms like he was some damn caveman. She immediately struggled to free herself. “Let me go!”

  He did, but only after carrying her thirty feet away from the burning barn. She stumbled backward and fell on her butt.

  She glared up at him. “What the hell was that about?”

  “That.”

  Gage pointed at the barn, which was nothing more than a huge bonfire now. As she watched, the front wall fell in on itself, beams and flaming pieces of wood going everywhere, including where she and Gage had been standing.

  He had saved her life—again.

  She frowned as she realized the structure had collapsed on top of the three bodies lying outside the door of the barn, too. There’d be no mangled bodies for Gage to have to explain. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he had orchestrated that.

  He held out his hand for her. After several long moments, she finally took it and let him help her up. But the moment she was on her feet, she put some distance between them. It was a joke—she’d seen how fast he could move.

  In the distance, she could hear sirens approaching. Someone had called the cops. Gage swore under his breath.

  “Mackenzie, you have to promise me you’ll never tell anyone about what you saw. If you breathe a word of this, my life, and the lives of every man on the SWAT team will be destroyed.”

  His face was so earnest, it almost brought fresh tears to her eyes. “It won’t be like that, Gage. You’re a cop. You were defending us. You’ll be a hero. That’s the way I’ll write it.”

  The sirens got louder as they drew closer.

  Gage’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, if your editor doesn’t demand you change it,” he said bitterly. “Even if he doesn’t, what happens after that, huh? When the other reporters who aren’t as idealistic as you get ahold of the footage on that camera of yours and see how I tore that man apart? You think they’ll treat us like heroes? They’ll think we’re monsters.”

  Mac flushed. She couldn’t very well say he was wrong when she’d thought the same thing a few moments ago. “It’s like I told you back at the restaurant. Secrets are better when they’re out in the open.”