Chapter 10

Gage couldn’t help returning Mackenzie’s smile as he held open the door to the restaurant. “After you.”

He would have been quite happy hanging around her apartment again tonight, watching TV, talking, and making love like a couple of minks, which was what they’d been doing for the past two days, but she’d wanted to go out to dinner. And whatever Mackenzie wanted, Gage was ready to give her. She’d picked this place way out toward Bonham. He’d never heard of it, but she promised him it’d be worth the hour-plus drive to get out here. He didn’t care where she wanted to eat. As long as it was with him, he was game.

Across from him, Mackenzie scrunched up her nose as she studied the menu. He smiled. She looked so cute when she did that. He still couldn’t believe how well things had worked out. Last night—sometime between dinner at her place and making love on the couch in the living room—Mackenzie had told him she was dropping the whole SWAT-team-on-PEDs story. They both knew there’d never been a PED story, but that had been her way of saying she was done snooping around. His pack was safe.

But while he’d started out hoping to keep a nosy journalist from finding out his pack’s secret, somehow, he’d wound up falling for Mackenzie and finding the one woman in this crazy world he clicked with. It was way too soon to say he was in love, but he was more serious about her than he’d ever been about any woman. And he liked to think she felt the same way about him.

“So, what do you feel like eating?” Mackenzie asked, still studying the menu.

When he didn’t answer, she gave him a quizzical look. She must have read his mind because she grinned. “On the menu, Gage. On the menu.”

He chuckled. “I’m feeling like a big cheeseburger with a huge pile of fries.”

“Sounds good to me. Make it two.” Mackenzie closed her menu and placed it on the table. “So, what were you asking me as we pulled in the parking lot?”

She was looking at him expectantly, her blue eyes dancing. Apparently, this was a test, and if he didn’t remember what they’d been talking about, she was going to seriously start thinking he was some kind of deviant who constantly thought about sex when he looked at her. Which was actually true, but he forced his mind back to their previous conversation. They’d been talking about his work schedule, then her schedule, then what she’d be working on next week. Yeah, that was it.

“I asked you what story you were going to work on next. Since the SWAT piece didn’t pan out.”

That sounded so smooth he almost patted himself on the back, but then he noticed she was grinning at him like she knew exactly how hard it’d been for him to remember. She didn’t call him on it, though.

“I wouldn’t say it was a complete waste of time.” She gave him a sultry look that made him wish they’d stayed at her place. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to work on. I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”

Gage let the waiter set down their drinks and take their order before asking her something he’d wondered about more than once.

“How do you decide what story to go after? I know you mentioned your boss gives you a lot of leeway, but how do you even start? I mean, do you look at the news and wait until something grabs your attention?”

She stirred artificial sweetener into her iced tea. “Most of the time, yeah. I see something that’s just wrong—a person getting away with something everyone knows they did, someone lying about something important with a perfectly straight face, a group of bad people using the system to get away with hurting people over and over. I see things like that and I just have to do something about it.”

“You want to right wrongs then.”

She sipped her drink. “Unfortunately, I rarely get to right the things that are wrong. The most I can usually do is make sure the truth comes out.”

In his experience, truth could be one hell of a four-letter word. It was frequently held up as this amazing tonic that cured all ills, but it didn’t always work out that way.

The funny thing was, he’d been wondering all weekend—in between romps in the bedroom and intimate conversations on the sofa—if he should tell her that he was a werewolf. Not right away, but soon. There was just something about her that made him want to be completely, one hundred percent honest with her.

But this wasn’t just his secret, and that was what held him back every time he thought about opening his mouth.

“What about those situations where the truth coming out will only lead to more problems?” he asked.

She regarded him thoughtfully, as if she was wondering if he was just making conversation or whether this was one of those other secrets he had.

“It might cause some pain and suffering at first, but I tend to believe the world is a better place when all the secrets are out in the open,” she said.

Damn, sometimes it was hard not looking at her and assuming she could see right through him. But with that question, he’d just exposed the biggest difference between them. She’d seen the real world, but she was still an idealist. She lived in a place where honesty and truth always led to the best outcome. He’d seen the same real world, but lived in a place where lies and cover-ups kept people safe.

“What about secrets the world isn’t ready to handle yet?” he asked.

“Give the world more credit than that. People can handle more than you think.” She gave him a pointed look. “Besides, no one has the right to decide what secrets another person can and can’t handle.”

Yeah, Mackenzie had definitely figured out this wasn’t a theoretical discussion. Not surprising. She was a journalist after all.

But when the burgers showed up, she changed the subject and started talking about the last time she had a burger this big and how much she loved them.

Great. Now Gage felt like shit. She probably thought he was trying to work the courage up to tell her about something else that had happened when he was in the Army, and that he’d tell her when he was ready. She’d freak if he told her his biggest secret—that he hadn’t gotten out of the Army because he couldn’t deal with the death of his friends, but because he couldn’t deal with becoming a werewolf. No matter how well Mackenzie thought she could handle things, she wasn’t ready for that kind of secret. He wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for that.

He shoved those thoughts aside and focused on his burger. At least that wouldn’t make him feel depressed.

He’d just drowned his fries in ketchup and taken the first bite of his burger when his phone rang.

Mackenzie looked at him, a French fry poised halfway to her mouth. “Guess you have to answer that, don’t you?”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his damn phone. One weekend, that was all he’d been looking for. “Yeah, they wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important.”

Of course, it might not be work… Gage glanced at the call display. It was Mike’s cell, not the main line at the compound. He thumbed the accept button.

“Yeah, Mike, what’s up?”

“Damn, I’m glad you picked up. I was worried you’d let it go to voice mail.”

The tone in Mike’s voice immediately made his inner werewolf go on alert, and all kinds of bad shit start running through his head. “What’s wrong?”

“I just got a call from a guy I know over in Customs and Border Protection at Dallas/Fort Worth International,” Mike said. “We’ve got trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Red flags have been coming in on nearly every flight inbound from Mexico and South America since 0900 this morning. We’re talking more than a dozen guys. All cartel connected and all well-known killers.”

That sinking feeling in his stomach just got worse. “Why are we only hearing about it now?”

“Federal district attorneys have a couple major drug cases going on right now and thought the guys were in town for a hit on one of their witnesses,” Mike said. “My guy called me from the freaking bathroom because he knew they weren’t coming in for any witness. Not when they figured out who brought these guys in.”

Gage swore. “Hardy.”

“Yeah, and he’s not even trying to cover his tracks. The son of a bitch had limos waiting for every one of these guys. According to cops and informants I know back from my days undercover, the word on the street is that these guys are here to take you and your girlfriend out. Soon.”

“Shit.”

On the other side of the table, Mackenzie had put down her burger and was looking at him with concern.

“Gage, the deputy chief is going to want to put the two of you in protective custody, you know that, right?” Mike asked.

“That sure as hell isn’t going to happen,” Gage growled.

“No shit,” Mike agreed. “Hardy has men on the inside. He’d know where you were going before you got there. What do you want to do?”

Gage hesitated. His first instinct was to protect Mackenzie. His second was to protect his pack. But the Pack could take care of themselves—and Mackenzie—if they were warned. And if they were together.

“Call everyone in and get loaded up and ready. Mackenzie and I will be there within the hour. We’ll go from there.”

Mike didn’t argue. He didn’t comment about the fact that Gage’s visit to Hardy’s residence hadn’t had the desired effect, either. Damn it, he should have killed Hardy when he had the chance, badge be damned.

“What’s wrong?” Mackenzie asked when Gage hung up.

Gage didn’t have a clue what dinner cost, but he pulled fifty dollars out of his wallet and tossed it on the table. Then he stood and held out his hand to Mackenzie. “I’ll tell you on the way to the compound.”

Mackenzie didn’t demand answers, but just took his hand and let him lead her out of the restaurant. Even though she was the poster girl for calm, he could hear her heart pounding.

“Gage, you’re scaring me,” she said when he made her wait while he scanned the parking lot. “What’s going on?”

He hurried her across the lot, his nose taking in a hundred different scents, his eyes shifting just enough to sharpen his night vision without giving off that telltale glow. The sun was just going down, so it wasn’t completely dark out, but he still focused as he peered into the deepening shadows.

The parking lot was clear and he hustled Mackenzie in the car before he’d even thought about how to answer her question.

He seriously considered making something up. But he wouldn’t make her any safer by lying to her. In fact, he’d probably do the opposite. If she didn’t know the danger she was in, she might take a careless risk without even realizing it. So, as he spun out of the parking lot, he told her the truth.

“Hardy’s brought in a bunch of heavy cartel muscle from outside the country. They started arriving earlier today. And everyone who knows anyone has it on good authority that they’re here to kill me.” He slanted her a glance. “And my girlfriend.”

He sped down the road, checking every mirror in quick rotation as he waited for her to say something.

“Girlfriend, huh?”

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Mackenzie had always struck him as a pretty cool character, but of all the things he’d expected her to say, that wasn’t one of them. “That’s the word on the street, according to Mike.”

“I wonder how Hardy found out about us so quickly.”

Gage shook his head. “You did hear the part about them planning to kill us, right?”

“Yeah, but I could have told you that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I did,” she said. “He must have had someone watching you for the past few days and they saw us together. I wonder why he’s making such an aggressive move now, though. I thought someone like Hardy would have taken a more calculated approach.”

Gage took the opportunity to check his mirrors again. He knew exactly why Hardy had hired those hit men—because Gage had miscalculated and poked the man with a stick.

“I know there was a bomb in that meth lab the other day.” When Gage did a double take at that, she added, “I overheard Cooper tell Mike at the hospital.”

He swore under his breath.

“Hardy was behind it, wasn’t he?”

Gage nodded, his gaze going to the mirrors.

Mackenzie looked over her shoulder, out the back window. “You think those hit men are going to come at us while we’re driving, don’t you?”

He forced himself to stop looking in the mirror every five seconds. “Not really. I doubt anyone could have followed us all the way out here along these back roads without me noticing them. And no one could have guessed this is where we’d go. I don’t think many people in Dallas even know that place is out here.”

She sat back in the seat, looking surprisingly relaxed. Well, as relaxed as a person could look knowing that a rich, powerful man wanted you dead.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked. “Are they going to put us in protective custody?”

Gage couldn’t believe how well she was taking this. Most women—hell most people—would have been freaking out by now.

“I’m sure Mason is talking to the chief of police right now about putting together a protective detail, but I trust my own people a whole lot more,” Gage told her. “We’re heading straight to the compound.”

“Okay. But then what?”

Gage was trying to figure out how to answer that question when the glare of headlights reflecting sharply off the rearview mirror caught his attention. He had just enough time to punch the accelerator to the floor and tighten his grip on the wheel when the car coming up behind them smashed into his bumper.

If the Charger had been any lighter—or if he hadn’t lucked out and seen the asshole coming—the collision would have knocked his car completely out of control. As it was, he and Mackenzie nearly slid sideways into a ditch. Tires squealed as the sports car threatened to roll on him. He fought for control of the wheel as he tried to figure out where the psycho behind them had gone.

“Watch out!” Mackenzie screamed.

Gage snapped his head around just in time to see two cars pull across the road in a classic roadblock position. There was no way he could bull his way through, and he sure as hell didn’t want to stop. He slammed on the brake, trying to steer toward the side of the road. He had to get around them.

His werewolf reflexes were good enough to pull it off, but whoever was in the cars blocking the road started peppering the Charger with rounds from what sounded like an automatic weapon. Bullets smashed into the front of the car and Mackenzie screamed as the windshield shattered. Gage threw as much of his body in front of hers as he could, considering he was wearing his seat belt and needed to keep one hand on the wheel.

He was still moving fast when he clipped the rear of one of the blocking cars, smashing it to pieces and sending him and Mackenzie hurtling off the road and into the ditch. He gripped the wheel tightly as they bottomed out in the ravine, then bounced up the far side. Mackenzie screamed again as they ran into a line of small trees at the top of the embankment.

There were so many bullets hitting the car that Gage couldn’t believe neither of them had been hit yet. That wouldn’t last long.

He needed to get them out of here, and fast. With all the trees, he had no choice but to put the Charger into a sideways slide and bring the car to a halt the hard way—by smashing it broadside into a thick hardwood.

He grabbed Mackenzie and tried to protect her from the impact as best he could, but she still slammed against the inside of the door pretty hard. He reached over to unbuckle her seat belt. They had to get out of the car now.

He dragged her off her seat and across the center console, slipping one hand down to his ankle holster to pull out his gun. Mackenzie was so woozy she could barely stand on her own, and he held on to her with one hand while he scanned the area. He could hear the sound of feet pounding on the dirt, could smell the sweat coming off the men as they ran.

Gage put a bullet through the head of the first man to crest the embankment, sending him tumbling backward. That would sure as hell slow them down some. Nobody was going to feel like poking their head up for a few seconds at least.

Not waiting to see if he was right, he turned and scooped Mackenzie off her feet, then ran into the forest as fast as he could—and he could run pretty damn fast.

They’d gotten maybe two hundred feet into the woods before bullets started tearing up the sparse forest around them. Apparently the bad guys hadn’t waited as long as he’d hoped.

Shit.

There were at least six of them crashing through the woods after him, spread out in a ragged line in an effort to make sure he didn’t slip past them in the gathering dark. If he’d been by himself, he would have shifted into his half-werewolf form so he could go on the offensive. The assholes would have never even seen him coming.

But he had Mackenzie to worry about. There was no way to keep her safe and go after the men at the same time.

So he kept running. Bullets buzzed past them like angry bees, and Gage was forced to zig and zag erratically. That only allowed the men behind them to gain on them.

“They’re catching up,” Mackenzie said.

Gage glanced down at her. “You okay?”

He ran faster. He needed a better plan. He wasn’t going to be able to stay ahead of these guys forever while carrying Mackenzie. All it would take was one lucky shot.

“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 around 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.”

“You don’t get to decide that,” he growled.

“People like me have a right to know that people like you exist.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” he demanded. “You were terrified of me, and we’ve spent the past two days in bed together. How do you think the rest of the world is going to react? The ones who don’t want to hunt us down and kill us outright will want to capture us and cut us up for research.”

“That’s not true.” Mac shook her head. She refused to believe they lived in a world where people would allow something like that to happen. “This isn’t the Dark Ages. People don’t go around in mobs carrying torches and pitchforks anymore. Not everyone is as bad as you seem to think.”

He snorted. “You’re right. Sometimes they’re worse. Walter Hardy comes to mind. Or have you forgotten he just sent men to kill us?”

“No, I haven’t forgotten,” she said. “All the more reason to let him and people like him know what you are. What the whole SWAT team is. He’d be terrified to go after you.”

The lights from the police cars flashed against the trees, getting closer. Gage muttered something under his breath. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of writing this story, am I?”

Mac didn’t answer. It was her job to keep people informed. Why couldn’t he understand that? More importantly, why couldn’t he trust her to handle this in the best possible way?

The same look of sadness was back in his eyes, this time mixed with hurt. “At least give me twenty-four hours before you run it. I think you owe me that much, don’t you?”

If it were anyone else, she never would have agreed, but he was right—after what they’d shared, she owed him that much. In truth, she owed him a hell of a lot more. But she wouldn’t be doing her job as a journalist if she didn’t write this story. And maybe after it ran, he’d see that she was right and they could get back to that place they’d been before Hardy’s hired guns had tried to kill them.

Realizing she hadn’t answered his question, she nodded.

Half a dozen police cars came into view, their lights bouncing off the farmer’s field as they navigated the uneven terrain.

“I can’t protect you and my pack at the same time, Mackenzie,” Gage said. “You’re still a target. Be careful.”

Gage didn’t wait for a reply, but turned and strode across the clearing toward the police cars. Mac had been a target before and she’d always taken care of herself just fine, but for some stupid reason, knowing he put his pack ahead of her hurt. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing.