Howl for It (28 page)

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Authors: Cynthia Shelly; Eden Laurenston

BOOK: Howl for It
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But this time, things were different. It wasn’t just about blind faith. Because this time, Kayla had a way to help Gage. After all, this really was her area of expertise. “Lyle’s sent other folks undercover in packs before.” He liked to do that. Divide and conquer, that was his strategy.
“Like he sent you?” Davis demanded. His hands stilled as he looked up at her. “He just tossed you right at the big boss.”
“I’ve been working with Lyle for years, so he didn’t track me.” No, when Gage had first asked her about a tracking device, she’d immediately denied having one. But, actually, years before, Lyle had implanted one just under her right shoulder.
She’d dug it out. She wasn’t a dog to be tracked. Not even by the man she’d put up on a stupid pedestal.
And he sure did fall.
So Lyle checked in with her via regular calls. He didn’t use the calls with his other hunters. That would have been too risky. Or so he said. He’d given her special privileges, because she’d been his top hunter.
So he’d said.
Lying asshole.
“They all have trackers,” she whispered. “All the other hunters. In case they’re ever captured or for when they find a target . . .” The better to apprehend them. The better to send in the team.
Just like the team had come for her and Gage.
The chained men frowned at her. The silence in the room seemed heavy. Too thick.
“And you
don’t
have a tracker, Kayla?” Gage asked, voice deep and rumbling as he broke through that silence.
She shook her head. But, hell, maybe that wasn’t good enough. She pulled over the neck of her shirt, revealing the thin scar that sliced around her shoulder. “I took it out two years ago.”
She’d thought it would be hard to figure out which member of the pack was betraying Gage. Checking all the pack for trackers? Yeah, she’d see that going over real well. Like they’d all be willing to strip for a hunter and let her search their bodies.
But with just two men . . . finding the tracking device would be a piece of cake.
“Who has it?” Kayla whispered as her gaze darted between Davis and Billy.
“Search me all you want, sweet thing,” Billy invited, his slight accent thickening. “Strip me. Feel me up. I don’t have—”
Davis lunged away from the wall—and his hands were free. Tricky wolf, he
had
been breaking out of his bonds.
But she’d suspected that. She dodged when he came at her, slicing with his claws. Kayla hit the floor and missed the claws that could have cut her open. Davis twisted, trying to come at her again.
But Gage had him. He caught the other shifter’s hands and held them above Davis’s head.
“You sold us out!” Gage snarled.
But Davis just laughed. “So the fuck did you. You’re the one screwing a hunter.”
Kayla grabbed the silver chain that had fallen behind Davis. “No, he’s not just screwing me.” She wanted to set that record straight. “He
married
me.” She slammed the chain into Davis’s side and watched him fall, howling. “So don’t forget that!”
Then she turned to the other wolf. Billy. The guy was watching her with a slight grin on his face.
The silver.
Okay, if he was innocent, then it was time to free him. She rushed to him and started jerking on the chains.
“If Gage hadn’t married you,” Billy said as his grin widened a bit more, “then I would’ve. I love it when a woman kicks ass. There’s nothing sexier.”
The door opened. More wolves came rushing in. Wolves and that enhanced hearing of theirs. She guessed the guards outside had heard everything.
One shifter, a woman with short red hair, tossed Kayla a pair of keys. While she went to work on Billy’s chains, the other wolves closed in around Davis.
This wasn’t gonna be pretty. Shifter battles never were.
“Why?” She heard Gage demand. “Why would you turn on your pack? You let them take Shamus and Faye. You let them take our own damn family.”
Because to the wolves, pack was family. A bond that went even deeper than blood.
“They’re not my family. They’re strays. Strays that didn’t belong in
my
pack.”
Shamus shoved through the crowd of wolves. His claws were out and his face twisted with his fury. It took three other wolves to hold the guy back when he went for Davis’s throat.
Free now, Billy stalked to Gage’s side. Good. He was showing that he stood with the alpha. Even if the alpha had ordered him chained.
“You were a stray, too,” Gage said, voice lethal. “We all were. That’s why we came together. To be more. To be stronger.”
“With you at the lead.” Davis’s lips turned up in a sneer. “Cause you think you’re the only damn alpha around.”
“And you thought you could take me?”
“When the time was right, I fucking was!”
The right time . . . “When was that gonna be?” Kayla asked, her own body tight with fury. “When you’d let the hunters take out all the other wolves? When you thought no one would come to Gage’s aid? When you thought he was gonna be weak—”
“And I would be strong!”
Davis yelled.
More growls from the wolves.
Kayla caught sight of Faye. Faye’s claws were out. She wanted her pound of flesh, too. From the look on the shifters’ faces, they all did.
Did Davis realize just how screwed he was?
“You think you’re strong?” Gage challenged as he yanked off his shirt and tossed it to the ground. “Then come and see if you can take me out. Fight
me.”
Oh, damn. She’d heard of this before. When one wolf turned on the others in his group, the guy would have to face—
“Trial by pack,” Billy said grimly.
Gage nodded. “Damn straight.” Gage stared at the wolf who’d betrayed him. “And I’m going to rip you apart.”
Kayla felt a shiver go down her spine. These men and women . . . right then, they were all barely human. She could feel the rage and wildness in the air. The wolves wanted out. They wanted to rip and tear and kill.
The line between human and beast was blurring.
“Here. Fucking now,” Gage said.
The other wolves stepped back. Formed a circle around Gage and Davis.
Um, here?
Now?
Gage began to shift. No wonder he’d tossed his shirt aside.
“I
should’ve
been alpha,” Davis shouted. His eyes were wild. Shining too brightly. “I’m stronger, smarter. You’ve been in my way for years.” His bones popped.
Broke.
She hated the sound of shifting wolves. The growls. The pain.
The fury.
“It’ll be over soon,” Billy told her. His shoulder brushed against hers. The guy seemed to be trying to comfort her, when he’d been the one caged moments before. “Gage doesn’t play with his prey.”
That was supposed to make her feel better?
Kayla glanced around the room. She saw claws and lengthening canines everywhere she turned. It looked like every wolf there—except Faye—was about to shift.
She remembered another time. Another place.
A big black wolf, one that came at her with his fangs bared.
Gage had finished his shift. He stood in the middle of that snarling circle. Big, strong, dark. His body vibrated with fury as he bared his fangs
.
Her mother had still been alive. Broken, bloody, but breathing.
Davis had shifted. His coat was white. His eyes burning so brightly. He pushed down with his hind legs, then leapt at Gage.
She’d shaken her mother. Begged her to get up. Then Kayla had heard the growl.
A growl broke from Gage’s beast. He swiped out with his claws, and blood spilled on Davis’s white coat.
“First blood,” Billy said, excitement thick in his voice. “Alpha always gets—”
The wolf had sprung at her from the shadows. She’d tried to run, and his claws had raked down her back. She’d slammed into the floor, and he’d been on top of her. His mouth had gone for her throat.
The white wolf leapt up and sank his teeth into Gage’s throat.
Then the door had opened. She’d told Jonah to wait outside. When they’d first arrived back at the house, something had been wrong. She’d known it. Because she’d heard her mother cry out for help. And she’d smelled the blood when she’d stepped onto the back porch.
Jonah had said that he’d wait outside for her. Jonah had promised. She’d made him promise.
Gage shook off the other beast. More blood flowed. The shifters in the room were shouting. Lifting their clawed fingers up as they cheered.
Cheering for death?
He’d broken his promise. Jonah had come in. Had she screamed? She couldn’t remember. Would never remember, but she thought . . . she thought she had. She’d screamed and he’d come to help her.
Gage slammed his body into Davis’s. They both hit the floor. Didn’t get up.
The wolf had attacked her brother. Biting and clawing and Jonah had screamed. She’d been crying. Begging the wolf to stop.
“Stop,”
Kayla whispered.
The black wolf’s head jerked toward her. In that wild stare, was there any of Gage actually left?
Only the beast.
But when he turned to look at her, Davis used that moment to attack. His claws sank into Gage’s shoulder.
Gage howled and the memories blurred in her mind. “You can’t distract him,” Billy growled to her as his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her back. She didn’t even remember stepping forward. “He needs to kill the bastard.”
Killing . . . that’s all she’d known since that long ago night.
She’d managed to get to the drawers near the kitchen sink. She’d crawled her way there. Kayla had yanked open the drawer and grabbed one of the knives inside. “Get away from him!” Her yell had distracted the wolf. He’d let go of Jonah.
Gage knocked the other beast away. Attacked again. Again. More blood. More howls. Gage was definitely stronger, but Davis was a dirtier fighter. And Davis wasn’t giving up, no matter how much blood soaked his white coat.
The wolf came at her. She screamed and thrust the knife out. The silver handle glinted in the light before it sank into the beast’s thick fur. The wolf stared at her, eyes burning bright, then leapt away.
With that knife still in him, he’d run through the open door.
Gage had his teeth at Davis’s throat now. No more cheering calls came from the wolves. Only silence filled the room.
Like the kind of silence she’d known when the wolf left her alone in the house that reeked of death.
Her mother hadn’t been moving. Her brother—he’d been so broken. Eyes shut, barely breathing. All because of a wolf.
“Stay with me, Jonah! Stay!” Her hands had grabbed him. Shook him. “It’s gonna be all right . . .”
Her father was due home soon. He’d get there. He’d take care of them all. Everything would be all right.
Gage wasn’t ripping the guy’s throat out. Why not?
Her breath burned in her lungs. She didn’t want to watch this anymore. She’d never wanted to watch.
Couldn’t she have more than blood and death? Just once?
She turned away and pulled from Billy’s arms.
She’d managed to drag and stumble her way into the living room. She’d grabbed the phone so that she could dial nine-one-one, then, there, in the corner, she’d seen—
Her father had already made it home.
“What the hell is the alpha doing?” Billy asked, voice whisper soft. “He can’t let him live, the pack won’t let—”
Kayla glanced back. Gage was shifting. Muscles and bones reshaping. The fur seemed to melt from his flesh. Golden, strong flesh.
Davis was on the floor. Bleeding. Chest heaving. But not fighting, not anymore.
The shifters—at least a dozen, maybe two—were muttering. Glancing around uneasily. But they weren’t attacking. For the moment, no one was.
“You wanted to join Lyle,” Gage snarled and his voice was still closer to that of a beast’s than a man’s. “Then you fucking will. I’ll deliver you to him and the hunters.” His hands clenched. Hands now, not the paws of a beast. “From this moment on, you’re out of this pack. Banished. If any one of us ever sees you again,
you’re dead.”
Gage wasn’t killing Davis? He wasn’t going to rip the other shifter open right then?
“You’re Lyle’s bitch, so he can cut you up himself. And I’m sure he will.” Gage turned away from the wolf. “You’re not worth my claws.”

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