Howl for It (31 page)

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Authors: Cynthia Shelly; Eden Laurenston

BOOK: Howl for It
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“We can’t run forever,” Gage said. It was a lesson they all needed to learn. Maybe it was time for Billy to face his own demons.
Time for them all to face that darkness.
Gage kept his hands by his side. “You want to run at me, come the fuck on.” Billy deserved his pound of flesh. The first slice would be free. After that, Gage would slice back.
Billy shook his head. His claws were out, but he made no move to attack. “I don’t like fuckin’ silver.” He turned away. “But I like this pack. Pack first.
Always.”
Gage knew that Billy understood. The pain, it didn’t matter. Not when there was a pack to protect.
“Next time,
ask,
” Billy snarled over his shoulder.
Before the wolf could storm away, Gage grabbed his arm. “I will.” He exhaled a rough breath. “And for now, right now, I’m
asking
you to help me.”
Billy’s brows shot up as he glanced back at Gage.
“We’re goin’ after Lyle. Taking out the last SUV that comes onto our land because Kayla says he’ll be in that one.” Minimum bloodshed. Right. He knew that was what she wanted. Wolves—well, they liked the blood.
A lot.
But for her . . .
“I want a scent blocker.” It would be the only way they could sneak up on Lyle. Lyle couldn’t know they were closing in if he couldn’t smell them. “I know you’ve got a stash.” Another reason he’d suspected Billy. “Get it.”
The shifter nodded and rushed away.
Gage watched him go. He’d try it Kayla’s way, for a time. He’d give the orders for all of the other wolves to stand down. But if her plan didn’t work, if one of those hunters fired at them first . . .
The wolves would be the ones to finish the battle that the humans had started.
C
HAPTER
T
EN
T
he SUVs slid onto the old, broken road just after midnight. The vehicles crept forward in a long, snaking line, with their headlights off and their engines barely growling, just as Kayla had predicted.
“Now I know why you picked this place,” Kayla whispered from beside him. “One way in, one way out.”
Damn straight. He’d laid his trap so carefully. The hunters had miles to go before they were even close to the safe houses he’d set up for the pack. And they didn’t know it, but the hunters were already surrounded by the wolves.
Easy kills.
“That’s him.” Kayla pointed to the last SUV. One a bit bigger than the others. “That’s the one Lyle always uses.”
Because he liked to send the others in first. Gage knew the bastard was a coward at heart. Why else would he send humans to do the dirty work for him?
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand and headed into the darkness. The goal was to separate that SUV from the others, but they wouldn’t have much time. The hunters were the shoot-first variety, and he’d already told Kayla what would happen if some trigger-happy dick fired back at him or her.
Death.
He had a wolf stationed nearby, one who knew to take out the SUV as soon as Gage gave the signal. The guy wasn’t just a shifter, he was one grade A, first-class sniper. Gage waited, wanting that SUV closer.
Closer
.
He lifted his hand. In the dark, humans couldn’t see so well.
Wolves could.
There was no thunder when the weapon fired, but the SUV’s front left tire blew out. Then the right tire exploded. The SUV swerved, flipped, and thudded into the earth.
And Gage and Kayla were already moving. Racing toward the wreckage even as the other SUV drivers slammed onto their brakes.
Hurry. Hurry.
Gage punched his fist through the already broken passenger side. He yanked open the door, nearly ripping it away from the vehicle.
Lyle hadn’t been driving or waiting in the passenger seat, but the bleeding bastard was slumped in the back of the vehicle. Gage pushed past the two groaning men in the front and grabbed his prey.
“Judgment time, asshole,” he snarled. Then he kicked out at the back doors of the SUV, knocking them wide open, and he dragged out that sorry excuse for a wolf.
Blood poured from a gash on Lyle’s forehead. He was bleeding . . . and laughing. “Y-you’re . . . dead,” Lyle gasped out.
“Dead!”
“No,” Kayla said, voice clear in the night. Footsteps thudded, coming close. The other hunters were swarming. “You are,” Kayla told him.
Then Gage heard the snick of a gun.
One shot.
That was all it would take.
The pack would attack.
Kayla whirled around and used her body as a shield to block Gage and Lyle.
“Stand down!”
she screamed. “Or we’ll all die!”
Not her. The others, yes, but Kayla wasn’t leaving him. He wouldn’t let her go.
He could see the hunters now. Three were already close enough for him to kill easily. Gage could leap forward and slice their throats in seconds. Did they honestly think the guns in their hands made them stronger? Fools.
“Let him go,” one of the hunters ordered from behind his black ski mask. Masks. These bastards were always hiding. And they said shifters were the ones who pretended to be something they weren’t.
“He’s been lying to you all,” Kayla said. Wait, hold the hell up . . . had she just put her weapon down?
Kayla lifted her empty hands in the air.
She fucking did.
Gage growled.
Lyle shouted, “Shoot her!”
Gage slapped his hand over the bastard’s mouth. “No matter what else happens here tonight,” he whispered into Lyle’s ear. “I’m cutting you open.”
Lyle heaved in his hold, but Gage was stronger. He just tightened his grip around the jerk.
“No one has to die tonight,” Kayla said, proving, quite clearly, that a human’s hearing was nothing compared to a shifter’s. “I’ve worked with you all—so many times—just give me a chance to prove that what I’m saying is true!”
They weren’t lowering their weapons. “Move back, Kayla,” he ordered. Because his wolves were going to spring up soon, and he wanted her away from the coming bloodbath.
“Let him go,” the guy at the front of the growing pile of hunters said. “Let Lyle go, then we can talk.”
Such a lie. Once Lyle was clear, the hunters would open fire. They were holding back only because Gage was a claw away from killing their precious leader.
“If Gage lets him go,” Kayla said, “Lyle will kill me.” After the briefest of pauses, she told them, “Then he’ll watch while you all die, too.”
The men shifted restlessly, from one foot to the other.
“Don’t you wonder why he’s never touched silver?” she questioned them. “Why he always uses his black gloves when he’s near the silver cells?” Kayla shook her head. “You’ve seen all this, just as I have. Only . . . I didn’t put the pieces together. I didn’t want to believe he was the real monster.”
The tension in the air thickened.
He didn’t like this. Every muscle in Gage’s body was battle ready. The hunters hadn’t fired yet, but Kayla’s small body had no cover if the bullets were to start raining on her.
Too vulnerable.
Standing in front of him, offering herself up to the hunters. Hell, no, this wasn’t acceptable.
He heard the faint snap of a twig. To his left. Gage inhaled and pulled in the scents around him.
“I can prove what he really is,” Kayla said, her voice loud for all to hear. “I can—”
Gage leapt toward her. Lyle broke from him as he moved, rolling to the ground. Gage didn’t even look back at that prick. He grabbed Kayla even as the thunder of a gun echoed around them.
First shot.
Now it would be his turn to attack, and all the bastards would die.
The bullet blasted near him, scraping over his arm and ripping open the skin. Gage didn’t cry out. He was too long acquainted with pain for that. He twisted his body and took the impact when he and Kayla slammed into the earth.
Then he opened his mouth and roared the order, “Kill!”
The wolves had already shifted. They were ready. Eager for the fight to come.
The foolish hunters . . . they wouldn’t have a chance.
“No!”
Kayla cried out, but it was too late. He’d given the order.
Streaks of black, gray, and white burst from the darkness and lunged for the hunters. The humans were trying to fire, but they couldn’t aim well at their targets. Not in the dark. Not with so many wolves rushing around them and moving so quickly.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Kayla whispered, then she shoved away from Gage. “It
won’t
be like this.”
She ran right into the battle.
Dammit,
no.
His claws burst out of his fingers as he took off after her. Lyle had raced to a nearby SUV. Big surprise, he was trying to jump inside and make a run for it. Coward to the core.
“Going someplace?” Kayla demanded, then she grabbed a gun right out of the hand of a nearby hunter. She slugged the guy, and he fell to the ground with a thud.
Nice punch.
That right hook was really killer.
Kayla aimed the gun at Lyle. “Get away from the vehicle. Get your ass out here right now, shifter!”
Two hunters jumped in front of Gage. He could have just slit their throats with one long swipe of his claws.
He knocked them out instead. Just slammed their heads together and stepped over them when they fell.
Another hunter was rushing up behind Kayla. Why were they all in their damn ski masks? Why—
Too close.
Gage leapt to take out the man sneaking up to attack Kayla but a gun blasted and, in the next breath, a bullet slammed into Gage’s upper back.
Son of a bitch.
The bullet went through right under his shoulder, and blasted out the front of his body. Snarling at the pain, Gage whirled around. Saw the hunter just steps away. The guy giving off the heavy scent of fear and sweat. The guy with the shaking hands. And the gun that was about to fire again.
“Bad mistake,” Gage told him. Then he attacked. His claws cut deep into the fool’s wrist. The gun clattered to the ground—and the hunter fell, too, crying and begging for mercy.
Mercy? What the fuck did he look like?
Kayla screamed.
Gage whirled back around. A hunter had her in his arms. Held tight against his chest. The masked man had a gun.
No.
Not her.
“Kayla!”
His roar thundered across the gunshots and the howls of the beasts around him.
“Shoot her!” Lyle screamed. He was hanging with his body half-in, half-out of the SUV. Lyle’s hand was rising. He’d gone into that SUV to get something . . .
A weapon?
Kayla slammed her head into the hunter’s ski mask-covered face. Then she jabbed her elbow into his side and kicked down hard on his foot.
The guy’s hold eased on her. She moved, spinning around, and knocked the gun from his grip even as she put that hunter down on his ass.
Gage had never seen a better alpha female.
Never.
He ran toward her, grabbed her, and pulled her close. “I fucking love you.”
Her gasp filled his ears.
Then, because Gage knew what was coming and he didn’t have time to do anything but protect the woman he loved, Gage twisted his body to shield her.
And when the bullet hit him—the bullet that had been fired from the gun clutched in Lyle’s white-knuckled fist, Gage felt the burn of the silver in every inch of his body.
“Gage!” Kayla’s scream. Her hands were on him, nails digging into his chest.
He tried to fight through the burning agony. Kayla wasn’t safe. Lyle would shoot at her again. The bastard had to be stopped.
The beast was coming out.
Gage lifted his hand and saw that the shift had already started. He hadn’t even felt the break and snap of his bones, but his hand—
not the hand of a man.
Kayla lifted up her gun and fired at Lyle. Again and again. “Shift,” she whispered to Gage.
“Shift!”
The hunter she’d pounded was trying to lift himself off the ground.
And the shift was too damn slow. Kayla was battling Lyle on her own, and Gage tried to force his body to transform faster. But the silver was in his blood and every breath hurt.
Her bullets slammed into Lyle, but they weren’t silver. She’d grabbed a hunter’s weapon, but the idiot hadn’t packed silver. Why? Lyle’s order? Had he
wanted
the humans to die?
When her bullets hit Lyle, the bastard just laughed as his blood flowed. And he took aim at Kayla again.
“No!”
Not Gage’s scream, because he couldn’t scream right then. He could roar and howl, but speech was lost to him.
The desperate cry came from the hunter that Kayla had attacked and knocked down. He was lunging for her now, but Lyle had already fired his weapon.
Kayla leapt to the side. The bullet tore across her hip and the scent of her blood broke Gage and his wolf.
The shift finished in a white-hot burst of agony. The pain didn’t matter. Kayla did. Gage leapt up and charged at Lyle. Lyle took aim on him then. Lyle’s finger tightened around the trigger. His total focus was on Gage.
You want me, asshole?
Gage snarled.
Lyle just kept smiling. Completely out of the SUV now, the sick freak stalked forward. Smiling, watching Gage, and aiming his gun.
The fool never saw the wolf closing in behind him. The wolf with a coat tinted red. The wolf who would want his own justice.
Shamus leapt at Lyle before he could fire again. His claws dug into Lyle’s back as the red wolf took him down.
Lyle screamed.
The chaos around them seemed too quiet for a moment. Hunters spun around. They’d ignored gunshots, too immune to the sound, but Lyle’s echoing scream of pain and rage—they hadn’t ignored that.
Two men immediately fired at Shamus.
He jumped away from Lyle’s bleeding body.
Lyle rolled clear of Shamus, then he managed to stagger to his feet. “K-kill—” Lyle began.
“No.” It was the other hunter again. The one who kept going after Kayla. The one who was now holding her arm. Holding
her
.

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