Tait stared down at the two dead bikers. One had been stripped of his cut and the tattoo on his back sliced off. The other lay where he’d fallen after taking several gunshots, patch on the back of his vest blood-stained but visible. They’d both been human. He gave Totem a telling look.

Totem’s expression was tight. “As you know, not all of us carry the gene. His father was a Wolf. The—” He paused to spit on the other body. “Hell Dogs aren’t choosy in their recruiting and vicious in their retaliation. They desecrated our brother. We’ll repay the offense.” The chapter’s president barely kept his anger in check.

Not wanting to create friction, Tait wondered how to pose his next question. The biker beat him to it. “Helena is Nightrider territory, but we don’t hold the entire state. We’d heard rumors that the Dogs were infiltrating Butte.”

“You know about Black Root. You think they’re behind this or could it be the usual…maneuvering for territory?”

Totem spat again. “We would defend our territory against any enemy but yes. The national chapter in Kansas City had a big run-in when the Dogs kidnapped two of their mates. We found evidence they were under contract to Black Root.”

“Is that why you called me about this?”

“One of the reasons.” Before Totem could continue, Tait’s phone vibrated in his hip pocket. He held up a finger as he fished it out.

Before even reading the caller ID, a sense of dread washed over him. No. Not dread. Abject fear. Cold sweat gathered in the small of his back. Considering anyone who would be calling him would understand that such communication could result in the failure of his current assignment, something had to be… His hand shook slightly as he answered, “Yeah?”

“I’m so damn sorry, man.” Hank.

“What happened?” He asked, his gut clenching in bowel-watering terror.

“There was an explosion out on the road. Kujo went to check it out.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. I brought Six out to your place. Kujo is using him to try and track her in case she escaped into the woods.” Hank stopped talking. Inhaled deeply. “There’s blood on the porch, Shooter. A lot of it.”

“Fuck!” Tait’s gaze found Totem’s and they both understood. The attack on the Nightriders had been a diversion, a way to get him away from the ranch so they could take Lauren. His mate.

Totem, his sense of self-preservation fully operational, stepped back as Tait’s wolf surged to the surface. “Keep searching and let me know what you find. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Tait shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Find out if the Hell Dogs are involved. If they have her I’ll burn their fucking world down around their ears. If they don’t, I’ll still help you kill them.”

“You’ll have to stand in line, brother. The national chapter is sending some riders. And I’ve heard that there’s another contingent of Wolves coming from West Virginia.”

Tait nodded. “Find out where those fuckers are hiding in Butte.”

“Scorched earth,” Totem promised.

****

Hank jogged up to stand next to Kujo. He shaded his eyes from the bright sunlight flooding the clearing. “No sign of Shooter. I’m pretty sure this is where he said to meet him.”

Kujo shuffled from foot to foot. “There was something here when Six and I arrived. It ran into the woods.”

The other man sounded…off-balance. “Did you follow it?” When he didn’t answer, Hank shifted his gaze to Kujo and Six. Both man and animal stared into the forest, bodies tense.

“Hell no,” Kujo spat. Six’s growl echoed his master’s declaration.

He’d known Kujo for years. The guy was as steady as they came. To see him so spooked troubled Hank. “Tell me what you saw?”

“Wolf.” Again, Six’s rumble mirrored his handler’s. “Damn thing was huge.” Six whined in agreement. “I mean, it was twice the size of any wolf I’ve ever seen in these mountains.” He held his hand just below his hip in measurement. “This tall at the shoulder. We found tracks.” He spread his hand. “This big.”

Hank looked askance. “Are you sure it wasn’t Tait’s monster wolfdog?”

“Chewy? It wasn’t,” Kujo insisted. “Six knows Chewy and this thing made Chewy look like a puppy.”

Men and dog froze as something rustled in the underbrush. When Tait emerged from the tree line a few moments later, the men lowered the weapons they’d unconsciously drawn. Six’s muzzle crinkled in a soundless snarl.

Tait stared at the dog for almost a minute before the animal belly-downed next to Kujo. He hated dominance displays with dogs but they were inevitable when the scent of his wolf permeated his skin. The displays were bad enough with Wolves when the shifters were in their animal form. He’d always had an uneasy truce with Six but that was before Six got a whiff of Tait in wolf form.

“What’s going on, Shooter?” Hank asked.

“The trouble hunting Lauren caught up to us. The SOBs took her.”

Hank swore. “Straight from your place?”

“Yeah.” Tait hung onto his control by his bare teeth. “The blood on the porch belongs to Chewy. He’s gone to ground somewhere to lick his wounds. They were on motorcycles and an ATV. Took Lauren overland. I tracked them to a Forest Service road.” His wolf wanted to rip and tear, wanted their mate back. “The situation I was called out on was a diversion, just like the explosion.”

Kujo hung his head and dug the toe of his boot into the dirt. “I shouldn’t have left her.” The rotten egg stench of guilt mixed with the wet ashes and dead roses of regret as Kujo’s misery wafted from him in waves.

“How can we help?” Hank asked. “You’ve got the entire Brotherhood at your disposal.”

Kujo agreed. “We’ll find them, Shooter.”

“Yeah, we will. And once we do, you can walk away before I kill them.”

Hank’s expression was cold, and his eyes glittered like blue ice crystals. “I gotta better idea. We bury them deep. No questions asked.”

****

Tait studied the compound outside of Butte through high-powered binoculars. “Where are they?”

“Maybe they got lost.” Sean “Boomer” Donaldson hunkered down beside him. “Doesn’t matter. The Nightriders are watching the roads.” He gripped Tait’s shoulder and squeezed. “Relax, Tee. We’ll get her back.”

No one voiced concern about what shape they’d find her in. Tait wouldn’t consider the possibilities. The Nightriders were outlaws but the Hell Dogs and their unholy alliance with Black Root took criminal to whole new level of hell. He’d overheard Easy, one of the Nightriders, talking about the torture his mate had endured at the Hell Dogs’ hands. Boomer squeezed his shoulder, as if knowing where his thoughts had strayed.

Michael Lightfoot, a former SpecOps sniper, adjusted the sights on his rifle. “Breathe, man. If you can’t keep it together, you need to sit this one out.” The sniper continued before Tait could complain. “Been there, done that. Black Root took my mate once too. We all have a grudge to settle with them. You aren’t alone, brother.”

Tait relaxed. “You’re pretty smart for a Cheyenne.”

“You’re not so dumb for a Crow.” They stared at each either, neither cracking a smile but their eyes were alight with humor, breaking the tension and allowing Tait to regain some modicum of control.

Lightfoot gathered his gear and exchanged a silent look with Mac McIntire, former command sergeant major now county sheriff and the most powerful alpha Wolf Tait had ever met. Then he faded into the shadows, headed toward the military crest of the next hill to set up his sniper’s nest in a vantage point where he could see everything. The man was deadly accurate. Mac waited, ready to give the signal to attack once everything was in place. Boomer had already booby-trapped the compound’s outer wall. At the moment, he was happily building bombs to be planted once they hit the enemy. Then there was Nate Connor. The subject of horrific experiments performed at the hands of Black Root scientists, the former Marine had more reason than any of them to go after the bastards who’d kidnapped Lauren.

In addition to the former Army SpecOps members, five out-of-state Nightriders had joined their raiding party. The one called Hardy, short for Hard Ass, had been in the 69th with Mac and his crew, and as Nightrider national vice president, he’d brought members of the motorcycle club as backup. Gravedigger, Easy, and Gunner were enforcers. Death and destruction was second nature to these men. The last man, Smoke, worked with Boomer, having been an EOD specialist with Marine Force Recon. No matter their experience, all would have fit right in with a SpecOps unit. They were scary dudes, and deadly as hell. Every last one of them was a Wolf. Totem and his two lieutenants, Rust and Bingo, rounded out the rescue party. The rest of the Helena Nightriders waited in reserve.

Hank hunkered down beside him and the man’s quiet voice pulled his attention away from the rest of the team. “Shooter?” Hank’s attention was focused on Mac and the rest of his question went unasked. He wanted to know who was in charge and what was the plan. Testosterone fogged the air. Too many alpha males used to leading rather than following.

Tait had instincts and special insight Hank didn’t. He also knew what he had to do to protect the only two men who were human, which was why they’d been purposefully left out of the planning session. “I need you to do something for me, Hank. If Lauren’s in there, you and Kujo will take her and get the hell out of here.”

Hank jerked away and stared at him. Tait had no choice but get them and Lauren as far away as possible. By sunrise, there would be no survivors. He would not pull these two men or any other members of the Brotherhood Protectors into this world. Wolves were still secret. And Wolves were still as much animal as man. When he and the Wolves hit the compound, it would be brutal and final—and not all of them would be in human form. Some would shift to wolf once Hank, Kujo and Six retreated with Lauren. Provided he could get the two humans and the dog to take off.

“You’re one of mine, Shooter. I’m not leaving you behind.” Hank was a team leader down to his damn toenails and it was obvious he didn’t trust these strangers, no matter their pedigree.

“You aren’t leaving me behind, Hank. What you are doing is getting the principal—” and the woman Tait loved beyond all else “—to safety. And you are keeping her that way until I can get back to her.” He rubbed his eyes then refocused his gaze on the man who signed his occasional paycheck. “What if it was Sadie?” He watched Hank pale. “You’d want only the best to get her out and keep her safe while you took care of business, right?”

Hank had no argument for that. He’d been faced with Sadie’s stalker and he’d done what needed to be done to keep the woman he loved safe. He wasn’t happy but as he studied Tait, he realized there was a plan, the other men were a unit, and he and Kujo were the outsiders. It stung a little but operational proficiency was the key to any successful action. For some reason he couldn’t comprehend, the cavalry who’d arrived had developed unit cohesion almost upon first sight. He and Kujo were the reserve team.

Tait clamped his hand on Hank’s shoulder. “Please, Montana.” He used Hank’s nickname in the teams for emphasis. “That woman is…she’s my world. I have to see this operation to the end, but I want her safe. I’m trusting you to keep her that way. Yeah?”

Hank stared into his eyes for several long heartbeats. He finally nodded. “Yeah. I get where you’re coming from. You’re right. If it was Sadie in there…” His voice trailed off as Kujo and Six belly-crawled up beside them.

“The vet says to tell you that Chewy is one tough critter,” Kujo whispered. “He thinks the wolfdog will make a full recovery.”

Part of the tightness in Tait’s chest eased a bit. He’d trailed Chewy to a rockfall and only then realized that the injured dog had been tracking Lauren and finally collapsed from the blood loss and the severity of his wounds. He’d cradled the injured dog and carried him back to his Jeep before rushing him to the emergency vet, knowing he couldn’t find Lauren without more intel. That intel had come in and now they waited and watched on a hill above the Hell Dog compound.

Down below, figures moved through shadows, and every man present went on alert.

Glancing toward Mac, Tait waited until he had the big Wolf’s attention. He nodded, then added, “It’s show time.”

He was ready to end this. Ready to get Lauren back. Ready to tell her the truth and find out if she loved him enough to stay. But first, he had to find her, rescue her, and kill the bastards who took her.

A sub-auditory buzz silenced everyone. Totem thumbed his phone. “Yeah?”

A voice whispered from the speaker. “Target acquired. ETA of ten.”

Mac’s gaze enveloped the team. “You know what to do.” Then he focused on Tait. “We’ll get her back, safe and sound.”

Yeah, they would. And then their enemies would die.