He and his small team would slip quietly around to the airfield side of the hangars, approaching from downwind, while the rest of the Pack headed straight for the front entrance of South Salinas Air and the crowd of armed men they’d seen there. He told Mike and his team to be as loud as possible when they initiated contact to draw Hardy’s men away. Then he and his entry team would slip into the hangar, find Mackenzie, and get her out before anyone even knew they were there.
This would have been a pretty simple hostage rescue op if it wasn’t for one factor—a lot of the hangars in this part of the airfield were constructed of lightweight metal. Without knowing exactly where Mackenzie—or any other innocent bystanders—were, there was no way his team could risk firing their weapons in the direction of the hangar. The bullets were likely to go straight through every wall in the place and keep on going.
Mike and his team were going to have to deal with Hardy’s men without weapons. Well, without traditional weapons anyway. For the first time ever, Gage had given his pack the freedom to fight the way they preferred.
“Claws, fangs, or muscles. I don’t care how you do it,” he’d said. “Those men took Mackenzie. By the time we’re done, I want them to be sorry they were ever born.”
Gage only prayed the pure and simple shock value of a pack of werewolves hitting them would be the kind of distraction he needed.
When they reached the airfield side of the hangars a few buildings down from South Salinas, Gage tapped his radio mic three times in rapid succession—the go signal.
Immediately, a long, drawn-out howl shattered the normal background noises of the airfield. Moments later, another howl sounded a little farther away, and then another one closer. At the same time, Gage knew Mike would be killing all power to the hangar, throwing everything in the area into total darkness.
“I think that should do the job of attracting some attention,” Xander whispered.
A few seconds later, Gage heard gunfire coming from the front of the South Salinas hangar, followed closely by shouts as Mike’s team hit the men there.
“Yup, that’s a distraction all right,” Brooks agreed.
Gage started toward the hangar when the sounds of running footsteps caught his attention. Shit, Hardy must have had some of his men stationed along this side of the hangar, too.
Time for Plan B.
He pointed at Xander and Brooks, then in the direction of the footsteps. He pointed at himself and motioned he’d continue on to the hangar.
Xander frowned, clearly less than thrilled with the idea of Gage going in alone, but his squad leader didn’t argue. The goal here was to get Mackenzie out, and Gage wouldn’t be able to do that with bad guys chasing him from behind.
Gage hesitated for half a second as Xander and Brooks stepped out from behind the concealment of the little alley they were in and streaked toward the approaching men. Their attack was so sudden and vicious that Hardy’s men barely had time to raise their weapons and fire.
Gage didn’t wait to see more. Turning, he sprinted toward the target, hoping the noise on this side of the hangar didn’t ruin their plan.
The savage growls behind him told him Xander had shifted at least partially—human vocal cords couldn’t make those sounds. He had no doubt that at some point Brooks would be dropping his tactical gear and shifting to his full wolf form. While several of the team’s members could handle a full wolf shift—Xander, Cooper, Brady, Remy, and Carter included—Brooks was the only one besides Gage who could handle anything close to an instantaneous transformation. Gage imagined when that happened, the shouts were going to get a lot louder. He needed to get to Mackenzie out before that.
Gage was nearing the big open doors of the South Salinas hangar and the private jet running its engines when an unexpectedly powerful scent hit him, forcing him to slow. It was Mackenzie’s. But the scent wasn’t coming from inside the hangar. It was coming from outside. And it was close.
Then he saw Mackenzie step out from an entry alcove twenty feet away. Gage almost dropped to his knees in relief. She’d gotten away and was already safe. That was when he realized she wasn’t alone. Hardy was right behind her, holding that big Desert Eagle of his to her head.
“You and your cop friends are going to let me get on my plane and fly out of here,” Hardy ordered from where he hid behind Mackenzie. “If you don’t, I’ll shoot your girlfriend right in front of you.”
***
Mac tried to run to Gage, but Hardy tightened his hold in her hair, yanking her back. She stifled a scream and attempted to twist in his grip, but it was useless. He literally had her by the scruff.
She tensed, ready to jab her elbow back and smash the jerk in the face, but immediately went still as Hardy pressed his pistol harder against her temple.
“Drop it, Dixon, or I’ll shoot her right now.” Hardy pulled her backward so that most of his body was hidden by the edge of the door. “I swear I’ll put a bullet right through her head.”
It took everything in Mac not to give in to the overwhelming urge to struggle against Hardy. Now wasn’t the time to do anything stupid. Gage was here and obviously had a plan on how to deal with the situation. This was what he did for a living. She just had to be ready to react once she figured out what his plan was.
She searched Gage’s face, silently begging him to give her a hint, but he was focused on Hardy. Then, faster than she could have imagined, he moved in a blur, slipping inside the open door of the hangar with them, and disappeared into the darkness. The rapid move shocked Hardy just as much as it shocked her. The man turned, yanking her around with him like a shield.
“I’m telling you—I’ll shoot her!”
A low chuckle came out of the darkness. “Then what will you do without a woman to hide behind?”
Hardy moved slightly away from the corner he was hiding behind, careful to keep her in front of him as he tried to get an angle on Gage. Now the thug couldn’t seem to figure out who he wanted to cover with his pistol—her or the patch of darkness where Gage was hiding.
“Come out and show yourself, Dixon,” Hardy ordered. “And you’d better not be holding a weapon, or we’ll both get to find out what I’ll do without her to hide behind.”
No answer.
Mac strained to see in the darkness. She couldn’t even guess where Gage was. Could he shoot Hardy while the man was hiding behind her?
Hardy backed out of the hangar and onto the tarmac, the pistol still firmly planted against her head. “Come out where I can see you, Dixon, or I’ll kill her!”
Mac gasped as a shape moved out of the shadows. For a moment, her eyes couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. The tall, broad-shouldered figure she’d expected was instead replaced with a large gray wolf.
Gage.
He’d told her he could turn into a wolf, but she hadn’t expected him to be so…so…
huge
. Or so beautiful. All Mac could do was stare at him, transfixed by his amazing presence.
“What the hell…?” Hardy muttered.
Gage bared his teeth in a snarl as he charged, moving so fast he was nothing more than a big, gray blur.
Mac barely had time to scream before Gage slammed into her and Hardy. The blow probably would have broken her in half if Gage had actually struck her squarely, but his big front paws skimmed over her right shoulder, hitting the taller Hardy with the force of a moving truck.
Still, the glancing blow sent her flying. She hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from her lungs.
Hardy’s gun went off, but the sound was drowned out by Gage’s snarl. Heart in her throat, Mac rolled onto her hip to see Gage clamp down on Hardy’s arm with his enormous teeth. After a few savage shakes, Hardy cried out in pain and dropped the gun.
Mac lunged for the weapon. She didn’t know if Gage needed her help, but she was determined to give it to him anyway. She scrambled to pick up the gun, cursing as she fumbled to get her hands around the large grip. She turned around just in time to see Gage going for Hardy’s throat.
She quickly looked away. Even after everything that Hardy had done to them, she knew this wasn’t something she wanted to see.
When she looked back a few moments later, Gage was standing over Hardy’s lifeless body. As if sensing her eyes on him, Gage turned his big head toward her. He gazed at her with those mesmerizing gold eyes she’d come to love. They were filled with so many emotions that she almost cried.
He took a slow step toward her, then another and another until he was right in front of her. He seemed even bigger up close. She set the gun on the ground, then went up on her knees so she could look him in the eyes. Then, because she couldn’t help herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his soft, thick fur.
Movement off to the right caught her attention. She lifted her head a little, expecting to see the rest of the Pack, but instead it was Roscoe Patterson. Something glinted in the glow of a distant airfield light—a gun.
And he was aiming it at Gage.
Without thought, Mac grabbed the pistol from the ground, somehow getting both hands around it on the first try, then instinctively aimed it like Gage had taught her. She squeezed the trigger as smoothly as her thundering heart would allow.
The boom from the thing was deafening, but that was nothing compared to the shockwave that reverberated through her. She’d planned to fire a second shot, but found herself sitting on her ass, the gun somewhere on the ground. She threw a quick glance in Patterson’s direction as she frantically searched for the weapon and was stunned to see him lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving, and in the darkness, she could see the big stain slowly spreading across his chest.
Oh, God. She’d killed him. She’d done it to save Gage’s life, and would do it again if she had to, but still…
Gage ran over to check anyway. He sniffed the body once, then loped back over to her. His eyes searched her face, as if asking,
Are
you
okay?
She sank her fingers in the fur around his ears, tugging him closer. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck again and buried her face in his scruff like before.
She might have cried a little then—she was doing a lot of that these days—but she couldn’t be sure. Gage didn’t seem to mind. He simply rubbed his muzzle against her face and let her hold him. God, she could really get used to doing this.
After a while, Mac realized she couldn’t hear gunshots anymore. That must mean it was all over. She prayed the rest of the Pack was okay.
She pulled back to find Gage appraising her with questioning eyes. She smiled at him.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, but he didn’t look convinced. “They didn’t hurt me.”
That seemed to appease him. He nuzzled her neck with his huge snout and chuffed quietly.
“Yes, I love you, too,” she said with a soft laugh.
If someone had told her that one day she’d be carrying on a one-sided conversation with a werewolf, she would have called them crazy. But as she gazed into Gage’s expressive eyes, she decided that maybe the conversation wasn’t one-sided after all.
She ran her hand over his fur. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
He chuffed again in answer, then jerked his head toward the hangar. It took her a moment to realize he wanted her to follow him. When she nodded, he began walking that way. Now that Gage was here, the pain in her knee didn’t seem as bad as before and she fell into step beside him, admiring how graceful he was for a creature so big. It was like walking with a pony.
They hadn’t reached the hangar yet when she heard the sirens approach. Inside the building, Gage stopped beside a pile of something on the floor. It took Mac a second to figure out what she was looking at, then it struck her.
“I never thought about that. You’re naked under all that fur.”
It probably should have been obvious, but she hadn’t actually thought about it until now.
He chuffed again. Not once, but three times. When his big, red tongue came rolling out, she realized she was hearing the werewolf equivalent of a laugh.
“What? You think that’s funny?” she asked, as she crossed her arms and looked at him. “Wonder how much you’ll be laughing if the cops show up and find you standing here naked after you turn back into a man—I’m assuming you are planning to change back before the cops get here, right?”
Now it was her turn to laugh as she got to see what a werewolf looked like when he blushed.
“You still working on your story?” Zak asked, gesturing to her laptop as he slowly sat down at the picnic table where she’d been parked for the last fifteen minutes enjoying the unseasonably mild day and the very pleasant view of Gage and his pack playing volleyball with their shirts off.
She was never going to get tired of that.
Mac dragged herself away from all that eye candy to turn her attention to her friend. Zak had been out of the hospital for a full ten days, and he still looked beat-up. The swelling around his eyes and mouth had gone down, but it would take time for the bruises on his face and body to heal completely, and he was going to have to baby those broken ribs of his for weeks. She just thanked God he was up and about. Judging by the pile of food on his plate, his appetite was finally coming back, too. That was a relief. He was tall and lanky at the best of times. She was pretty sure he’d lost at least ten or fifteen pounds since Hardy’s goons had beaten the crap out of him.
“Yeah,” she said in answer to his question. “But I’m having a hard time coming up with a story that won’t get Gage and his men into hot water—or me for that matter.”
Zak glanced up from cutting his burger into small pieces. “I can see why you might have a problem with that. It’s kind of hard explaining how the SWAT team came to your rescue on their own, killing Hardy and most of his men before the rest of the DPD even knew where they were.”
“And don’t forget the part about me shooting Patterson,” she added. “I’m pretty sure that little tidbit doesn’t even show up in the official police report.”
He laughed, then winced.
“Sorry,” she said.
He waved a hand at her until he could talk again. “Just a suggestion. I know how much it’d bother you to drop the whole thing and let people figure out for themselves what happened to Hardy, but I think this is a case where the world is better off not knowing the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Mac didn’t say anything. Actually, that same thought had been bouncing around in her head for the past few days. There’d be questions, but most people would assume the ruthless business mogul had gotten what he deserved. Would it be so awful if the world didn’t know the details?
“You know, you might be right about that,” she told Zak.
He did a double take before going back to cutting up his burger. “Well, damn. Getting engaged to Gage must be good for you. I never thought I’d hear you agree to drop a story, even if it’s for your own good.”
She grinned, glancing down at the beautiful diamond ring on her left hand. Funny how a piece of jewelry could change your perspective on a lot of things. “He’s taught me there are some things more important than the great and almighty journalistic search for truth.”
Zak nodded as he ate. Then he closed his eyes and groaned in appreciation. Mac couldn’t blame him. Apparently, SWAT held these cookouts at their compound at least once a month, and it turned out that they really knew what they were doing. Xander—the officer in charge of the grill at today’s cookout—had put out a spread worthy of that cute chef on the Food Network. She’d eaten more than her fair share of barbecue as proof.
She put her hands on the table behind her and leaned back, happy to sit there with Zak while she watched Gage run around playing in the sand. He was going to look like a sugar cookie by the time he was done. Not that she minded. She definitely enjoyed spending time with him in the shower getting squeaky clean.
Taking a shower was the first thing they’d done when they’d gotten back to her apartment after the rescue at the hangar that night. Then Gage took her to bed and made love to her until they were both exhausted. When they woke up, they did it all over again. The only time they got out of bed was to get something to eat. Well, that wasn’t quite true. Gage had insisted on leaving once so he could run some mysterious errand.
And when he’d come back, he’d taken her back to bed again, then slipped the diamond ring on her hand and asked her to be his
One
.
They’d made love, then spent the rest of the day talking about the future. Mac even convinced Gage into shifting into his wolf form again.
He’d looked stunned. “Right here?”
She’d nodded, refusing to let up until he did. Then she’d curled up against his big, furry body and fallen asleep while he’d rested his chin on his huge paws. It had been perfect.
Laughter coming from the volleyball court interrupted her daydreaming. Mac jerked out of her thoughts to see the game breaking up.
“Sure you don’t want to play in the next game?” Gage asked as he swept in and hugged her.
“Nah. My knee’s still a little sore. I’d rather watch anyway,” she said.
“Okay. But if you change your mind, there’s always room for you.” He leaned in to kiss her, groaning softly. “Mmm, you taste good enough to eat.”
“Said the Big Bad Wolf.” She laughed as he nuzzled her neck. “Down, big boy.”
“I’m right here,” Zak reminded them. “My face might be messed up, but I can hear just fine. And if you keep talking like that, I’m going to be ill.”
Mac laughed. She knew she should behave herself because Zak was still recovering, but she couldn’t resist teasing him. “Maybe we can slip off to the operations vehicle again,” she said to Gage. “You know I love all those cameras in there.”
“Okay.” Zak picked up his plate and got to his feet. “I’m going to find another place to eat that’s better for my digestion. See you two lovebirds later.”
Gage chuckled as Zak slowly walked over to join Xander by the grill.
“Keep an eye on Zak, Xander,” she said softly. “I don’t want him wearing himself out.”
Even though the grill was at least a hundred feet away, Xander gave her a nod. There was something to be said for extra-sensitive hearing. Becker, Cooper, and the two team medics—Trevino and Duncan—moved over to join them. Without a word, Cooper plunked down a folding chair, which Zak sank down into without complaint.
Gage climbed up behind her and pulled her back against his chest. “What are you smiling at?”
Mac pulled his arms around her middle and snuggled closer to all that muscle. He was covered in sand, but she didn’t care. “I was just thinking how nice it is being part of the Pack. I hope they don’t get tired of me hanging around all the time.”
“Not going to happen,” he assured her. “Like I told you, you’re one of the Pack now. You’re also a beautiful reminder that
The
One
isn’t just an urban legend. There’s a reason for all the guys to believe they might find the woman who was meant for them—like I did.”
She tipped back her head and kissed him, only to pull away as a thought came to her.
“What is it?” Gage asked.
“I was just wondering if there might be a way for me to help each of the guys find their
One
.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it works that way. They just have to keep looking until they stumble across the right woman. Besides, I don’t think my team would appreciate you getting involved in their love lives.”
Mac sighed. He was probably right. Then again, maybe not. She smiled up at Gage. “You sure about that?”
He looked across the yard to survey his pack, who’d all stopped what they were doing to give her their full attention. One by one, each werewolf grinned.
“For some reason, I don’t think your pack agrees,” she said.
Gage groaned. “Why do I think this has the potential to get really messy?”
Mac only laughed and kissed him again.
Order Paige Tyler's next book
in the X-Ops series
Her Wild Hero
On sale May 2015