Chapter 13

Becker’s heart beat a million times a minute as he and Cooper slowly rappelled down the exterior of the loft and moved into position on either side of the big row of windows that stretched almost all the way across Frasheri’s office. The glass was double paned, making it hard to hear exactly what Jayna was saying inside. But he didn’t care. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.

He lifted the slack portion of the descent rope and brought it up to wrap around the snap link on his harness, locking himself in place, then checked the tie-off point twice before glancing at Cooper to make sure his friend was doing the same. The last thing he wanted was to be so worried about saving Jayna that he screwed up a basic rappelling maneuver and ended up sliding down the rope in an uncontrolled fall at the wrong time.

He edged a little closer to the window, staying out of sight of whoever was inside but near enough that he could pick up Jayna’s words. She was saying something about him digging a bullet out of Chris. It was obvious she was stalling for time. Pride surged up inside him.

That’s right, babe, keep them talking just a little longer. Give us time to get everyone in place.

It had taken him and the rest of the SWAT team barely ten minutes to get to the loft on Canton Street. He’d been tense as hell the whole way. Every time he thought about Jayna, he had a horrible vision of her lying there hurt—or worse. He kept telling himself she was fine, that he’d know if something had happened to her, that he’d feel it in his soul. But that hadn’t stopped him from looking at his watch every two seconds and growling at Alex to drive faster.

As soon as they’d pinpointed Jayna’s location on the second floor, Gage had sent him and Cooper up to the roof. Now, they were just waiting for Gage and the rest of the team to get into place to take down the other Albanians and omegas scattered throughout the building.

There was only one problem—no one else on the team knew what Jayna’s pack mates looked like. If one of them aimed a weapon at anyone in the SWAT pack, they were going to get shot. It was up to Becker to get Joseph, Moe, and Chris out of there. And save Jayna.

Becker shifted a little, so he could see where Jayna’s pack mates were or if they were even in the room at all, when he caught sight of Kostandin barging into the room.

Shit.

Becker immediately pulled back, worried the Albanian would see him. But the brief glimpse he’d gotten of the inside of that room had scared the shit out of him. There were at least nine bad guys in there, and every one of them had a weapon pointed at someone.

“Gage, we have a situation,” he whispered into his mic. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we have a Mexican standoff up here. There are weapons pointing everywhere. Cooper and I might need to go in early.”

“Roger that,” Gage said. “I need another minute to get the last of the team into place, so hold if you can, but go if you have to. We’ll improvise from there.”

Becker was about to confirm receipt of the instructions, but the sound of gunfire stopped him.

“We’re going in!” he shouted at the same time he kicked away from the wall and swung toward the window. A movement to his right told him that Cooper was doing the exact same thing.

When he reached the apex of his swing, he lifted his M4 and put a three-round burst through the window. Pieces of shattered glass were still falling as he and Cooper swung into the room. Becker yanked the quick release on his rappelling harness and dropped to the floor. There was a light thud beside him as Cooper did the same. The second their feet touched down, they both tossed stun grenades, immediately followed by smoke grenades. Becker ducked, covering his eyes from the brilliant flash; then he was up and wading into the smoke-filled room, searching for Jayna and her pack, slugging whoever got in his way.

His nose led him to an overturned chair in front of Frasheri’s desk, then across the room to the flipped over couch. Behind it, he found Chris flat on his back and in pain, with Moe and Joseph kneeling over him holding pistols and shooting anyone who tried to get near them. Relief crossed their faces when they saw Becker.

“Where’s Jayna?” he shouted.

Panic flashed in Moe’s eyes as he frantically looked around. “She was here just a second ago.”

Shit.

“Cooper,” he said into his mic. “I’m going to find Jayna. Her pack is over by the couch near the wall. Three males—one African American, two white, one injured.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when he heard Jayna shouting his name. Becker ordered Moe, Joseph, and Chris to stay put, then raced for the door, slowing only long enough to rip the MP5 away from the Albanian blocking his way and smacking the man aside with it. He charged down the hallway in the direction he’d heard Jayna’s voice.

Becker growled as he caught sight of Brandon dragging Jayna into a room at the far end of the hall. He’d never felt the urge to just plain tear someone apart before, but seeing the omega manhandling Jayna made him want to do that and more. He should have killed Brandon that first day he’d shown up here.

Becker ran through the doorway, skidding to a halt to avoid falling through the huge opening where the floor should have been. Thanks to the construction crew, sections of the floor and walls were gone, revealing rebar, plumbing pipes, electrical conduits, and AC vents. That should have made disappearing difficult, but parts of the floor were piled high with junk, toolboxes, and other construction materials, all of which provided excellent places to hide.

Becker was so focused on tracking them by scent, he didn’t see Brandon appear from behind a tool chest with Jayna in front of him as a shield until the omega began shooting at him.

Getting shot didn’t bother Becker, but the sight of Brandon’s claws wrapped around Jayna’s throat so tightly that blood ran down his fingers sent him into a rage like he’d never felt before. He dropped his M4, letting it hang by its strap across his chest, and rushed the omega with a snarl that shook the dust off the walls as he leaped from rebar to rebar. He felt one round, then another smack into his tactical vest. He ignored them, just like he ignored the one that drilled straight through his unprotected right shoulder. The pain didn’t even register. It only pissed him off more.

Becker hadn’t been a werewolf very long, but unlike some of the guys on the team, he’d never really had a problem with controlling his anger or the random shifting that came with it. But at that moment, he gave in to the instinct to let go and become the animal inside. He’d always been fast, but as his body twisted and rippled into a form that was nearly as much wolf as man, he was practically flying across the floor.

Brandon’s eyes flared and he issued a growl of his own as he tossed Jayna aside like a rag doll. Becker’s heart tore apart as the woman he loved bounced off a steel support column to land in a crumpled heap. He wanted to race to her side, but that would have left him open to even more bullets. One fatal shot and there’d be nothing to stop Brandon from shooting Jayna too.

Brandon raised his weapon for a head shot as Becker hurtled a tool bin and slammed into the omega like a two-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound truck. Bone crunched—both his and Brandon’s—as his momentum drove the omega backward through the air and into the concrete wall. But as violent as the impact had been, Brandon shook it off and came at Becker, eyes like that of a berserker and fangs ready to rip and tear anything they could.

Becker bared his teeth with a deep, menacing growl, more than ready to fight.

* * *

Jayna wanted nothing more than to lie there on the floor and hide in the comforting darkness enveloping her, offering a respite from the pain emanating from every part of her body. But the growls and snarls somewhere on the edge of her consciousness wouldn’t let her drift off. Eric was fighting Brandon to protect her, and it sounded like he was fighting for his life. She wouldn’t let him do that alone.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she rolled over and pushed to her knees, fighting the darkness threatening to pull her down again. But even when her vision cleared, it was hard to understand what she was seeing because Eric and Brandon were little more than blurs of ripping claws and flashing fangs.

She flinched and looked away as Brandon shredded Eric’s tactical vest with his vicious claws, drawing more blood. That was when she saw the handgun on a section of the floor that was still intact. She lunged for it, but Brandon must have seen the move because he gave Eric a shove and headed her way with a snarl.

She rolled onto her hip, ready to defend herself when Eric slammed into Brandon and sent him flying. The omega’s claws missed her throat by inches.

Jayna whirled around, expecting them to hit the ground rolling and keep right on fighting, but they both just lay there. Her heart thudded so loudly it echoed in her ears. Why weren’t they moving?

After what seemed like forever, Eric finally rolled away from Brandon, onto his back. Jayna cringed at the rusted piece of rebar poking out of Brandon’s chest. It must have been sticking up from the floor and impaled the omega.

Eric pressed a hand to his ragged tactical vest, his fangs and claws retracting. Blood seeped between his fingers, running down his hand.

Oh God. The rebar that had pierced Brandon’s heart had stabbed Eric too.

Jayna didn’t remember moving, but the next thing she knew, she was kneeling by Eric’s side, gently pulling his hand away to see how bad the wound was. She ignored the bloody slashes that crisscrossed his face and arms, barely even looking at the bullet wound in his shoulder, more concerned about the ragged laceration caused by the rebar.

Her hands shook so badly, she could barely see what she was doing, and she couldn’t understand why. She’d seen him injured before, when she’d dug a bullet out of his chest. But right now, her heart was pounding like nothing she’d ever experienced. She was on the edge of losing it.

She was still trying to control her trembling hands when Eric gently took both of them in his much larger, calloused ones.

“I’m okay, Jayna. It will heal.” He released one hand to tenderly run his fingers over her neck. “That bastard scratched you.”

The careful way he touched her neck, his fingers tracing Brandon’s claw marks as he said the words, it was like they pained him more than the wound in his chest. She was going to cry—she knew it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time to stop this,” he said brokenly.

While his voice was just as soft, there was fire in his eyes, and she pressed a shaking finger to his lips. The thought that he blamed himself for the minor scratches on her neck was ridiculous and precious at the same time. No one outside her pack had ever cared about her until now. But his concern for her went beyond that of a pack mate. As her heartbeat slowly began to return to normal now that his arms were around her, Jayna admitted that maybe her feelings for him went further than she’d thought.

Eric started to say something else, but she shushed him. “I got scratched, that’s all. And like you said, it will heal. You got here in time. That’s all that matters.”

Leaning forward, she kissed him on the mouth. Eric cupped her face, kissing her back. She gasped a little, startled by how fast the fire kindled in her body at the touch of his lips. There was no way in hell she should have been thinking those thoughts at a time like this, not when Eric had just been shot and stabbed. And definitely not when she should be worrying about her pack mates.

Oh God. She hadn’t even thought to ask about Megan. Was she okay? Had she been arrested?

Jayna pulled back so suddenly Eric almost fell over. His eyes flew open in surprise, revealing beautiful gold irises. She pushed that distracting observation aside and focused on her first priority—her pack.

“Where’s Megan? Is she all right?”

Eric blinked, obviously caught off guard by the question. But then he grinned. “She’s okay. She’s waiting for you downstairs in our operations vehicle.”

Jayna opened her mouth to ask if Megan was in trouble with the law—if all of them were—but then a cough from the doorway interrupted her. She looked over to see Cooper standing there with that same lopsided grin he’d had on his face at Eric’s apartment. She smiled back, happy that she’d been right about Eric not killing his best friend. She’d never doubted it for a second—okay, maybe for a second.

“Speaking of the operations van, maybe it’s time we get you two down there,” Cooper said as he walked over to them. “This place will be crawling with uniformed officers and crime scene techs before long.” He looked down at Brandon and grimaced, then turned back to Eric. “What, you couldn’t just shoot him?”

Eric stood up and did that manly handshake thing that involved grabbing the other guy’s shoulder and squeezing the hell out of it while trying to crush the hand you were shaking at the same time. Eric didn’t even complain when Cooper put pressure on the shoulder that had the bullet hole through it. Jayna thought the men in her pack were strange—the ones in Eric’s pack were even more bizarre.

Eric shrugged as he reached down and gently helped Jayna to her feet. She couldn’t help but wince as she straightened up. Crap, she must have really done some damage bouncing off that column. Eric immediately had an arm around her waist, that concerned look on his face again—the one that made her heart beat funny.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, giving him a small smile. “Just a little sore.”

Eric frowned but didn’t press. He glanced at Cooper. “How’d it go down there?”

“Most of the omegas didn’t go down easy—the animals lost their frigging minds. But a good portion of the Albanians and even some of the more rational omegas gave themselves up once they realized they were outgunned.” Cooper pointed at the radio earpiece hanging in tatters against Becker’s tactical vest. “You would have already known that if you’d left your earpiece in.”

Eric ignored the comment, turning back to her. “You want me to carry you down the stairs?”

Jayna was touched. While the idea of her big, alpha werewolf carrying her out of there held a certain romantic appeal, how would it look for him to carry her when he was bleeding all over the place and all she had were some bumps and bruises?

“I’m okay. I’ll just walk slowly.” She smiled at him. “But thanks.”

He nodded, keeping his arm around her as he guided her toward the door. In the distance, Jayna could hear what sounded like hundreds of sirens approaching the loft. “Eric told me that Megan’s okay, but what about Moe, Chris, and Joseph? They haven’t been arrested or…”

She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

“They’re all fine,” Cooper said. “They’re down in the operations vehicle with Megan. One of our medics is looking at Chris.”

The huge weight on her chest lifted and she could finally breathe again. She didn’t know what the future held for her or her pack, but at least they were out from under the Albanians and safe for now.

“What about Liam, our pack alpha?” she asked when they reached the top of the steps. “Is he…?”

“It got a little crazy in that office, especially when everyone started bolting for the exits,” Cooper said. “I don’t know who was killed, who was arrested, and who escaped.”

Eric frowned. “Some of them got away?”

Cooper nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know who though. I was a little busy at the time.”

Jayna got a sinking feeling in her stomach, her instincts telling her that Liam had been one of the people who’d gotten away. A small part of her was glad. He’d been important to her at one point in her life. But she also remembered how angry Liam had been when he’d realized he was no longer pack alpha and that Eric had taken over. Liam had looked like he was ready to kill. If he was still out there, she hoped he’d leave Dallas and get as far away as he could. She just wasn’t sure he would.

* * *

It took all the restraint Becker possessed to keep from scooping up Jayna in his arms and carrying her down the stairs. She was moving so gingerly that it hurt to watch her try to get down to the first floor.

He and Cooper took their time leading Jayna through the building and out to the operations vehicle in the parking lot behind the loft. Becker was just thinking he might have to pick her up to get her into the renovated RV, but the moment he opened the door, all her aches and pains disappeared. She must have picked up the scent of her pack mates because she practically leaped through the door.

He climbed in just in time to see Jayna pulling Megan into her arms, hugging the smaller werewolf to her as she moved over to join Moe and Joseph by Chris’s side. The beta was stretched out on his back on the floor near the bank of TVs there. Alex and the team’s other medic, Trey Duncan, were leaning over the injured werewolf with forceps, bloody hands, and a frigging needle and thread.

“Oh God, Chris. What happened?” Jayna asked as she knelt down beside the werewolf.

Chris gritted his teeth as Trey slid the needle through the ab muscles on either side of the ragged laceration the bullet had made in his stomach the previous night. It was bleeding heavily and didn’t look nearly as healed as it should have.

“He tore open the half-healed wound in his stomach fighting those damn Albanians,” Joseph said. “The stupid idiot wouldn’t stay still no matter how many times we told him to.”

Becker knelt down beside Jayna, taking hold of her hand and giving it a squeeze. “Is he going to be okay?” he asked Trey.

“He should have healed already,” Trey muttered distractedly as he looped a knot in the thread, then pulled the edges of the wound closed. “He said this happened over twenty-four hours ago, so I don’t understand why the wound hasn’t closed already. The internal injuries are doing fine, but this muscle tissue should have knitted closed sometime last night. I don’t know why it hasn’t.”

Tears filled Jayna’s eyes, but before Becker could say anything to reassure her, Gage spoke.

“He’s a beta. That’s why the wound hasn’t healed. Betas can’t handle the amount of damage alphas can, so it takes longer for them to heal. He’ll recover much faster now that Trey and Alex have closed up those torn muscles, provided he stays off his feet for a while.”

Jayna looked over her shoulder at Gage, as if trying to figure out how much she wanted to trust his words. Apparently, whatever she saw on his face must have satisfied her because she visibly relaxed as she turned back to rest a hand on Chris’s forehead.

“He’ll stay off his feet,” she said firmly. “I can promise you that.”

When Alex and Trey were done, they moved away from Chris and out the door, letting Jayna and her pack have unfettered access to their friend. As one, they leaned in to wrap him in their arms. The image was pretty damn moving, even for a werewolf used to living in a pack. If Becker hadn’t been sure before, he was now: betas simply possessed a stronger and more dependent bond than the one that existed in his SWAT pack. His pack was tight, but hers was tighter.

Part of him worried what that meant for his relationship with their new leader—and he had no doubt that Jayna was their pack leader now. That fact had become more and more obvious over the past few days, but it was official now. Her pack had chosen her over Liam.

He got to his feet and walked over to where Gage was standing by the open door. He knew the morning’s events had been traumatic for all of them, and he got the feeling that being together as a pack was what they needed.

Gage was watching the other pack intently. “So, that’s her, huh? The reason you did all of this?”

Becker glanced at Jayna. She was hugging both Moe and Joseph at the same time while Megan kneeled beside them with a big smile on her face. The whole attitude of her pack had changed now that Liam was gone. Whereas everyone had been tense and scared before, now, with Jayna, they were all smiles and laughter. Becker could certainly understand why—Jayna made him feel like that every time he was with her too.

“Yeah, that’s her,” he said.

“Guess I can understand why you went to such extreme lengths to be with her then,” Gage said. “She seems pretty special.”

Gage didn’t know the half of it. “She is.” He turned to his boss. “Cooper said some of the werewolves and Albanians got away. I need to figure out who.”

His alpha nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll look after them until you get back.”

The loft had turned into a complete zoo in the few minutes he’d been inside the operations vehicle. There were at least twenty patrol cars parked in the lot and along the street, all with their blue lights flashing. Throw in the various ambulances with their red lights and the unmarked cars with flashing headlights and dashboard lights, and the place was lit up like a freaking circus. The sidewalks on the far side of the street from the loft were already filling up with reporters and news vans. Oh yeah, it was turning into a madhouse.

Becker immediately headed up to the second floor, making his way around uniformed cops dragging the Albanians away in cuffs and paramedics pushing the injured and dead away on gurneys. He checked a few body bags as he went, but none of them held Liam or Kostandin. Unfortunately, when he picked up their scents, he realized they’d both slipped out of the loft—together. Worse, they had at least a half-dozen Albanians with them, maybe more. He followed the scent trail out of the building and down the block, where they disappeared. Obviously, they’d gotten into a vehicle and were long gone.

When Becker got back to the operations vehicle, Jayna was talking to Gage, the anxiety back on her beautiful face. Her pack was still gathered in the rear of the RV, but they looked just as concerned as she did. Becker walked over to stand beside her.

“Frasheri isn’t getting out of prison for a long time, I can promise you that,” Gage said.

“That doesn’t mean anything if we’re in there with him,” Jayna said. “You still haven’t said if you’re going to arrest us or not.”

Becker held his breath. He found Jayna’s hand, interlocking his fingers with hers. It was his way of letting her know he was on her side—and her pack’s.

Gage’s mouth curved slightly. “If I were going to arrest you and your pack, you wouldn’t be in the back of my operations vehicle. You’d already be in jail.”

Some of the tension left Jayna’s shoulders, but the rest of her pack didn’t seem as convinced.

“Why are you letting us go?” Moe asked.

“Because Becker said that none of you actually ever committed any serious crimes. That’s good enough for me,” Gage said.

“What if Frasheri tells the DA about us, hoping to make a deal?” Megan asked. “Or Caleb?”

“The DA is interested in putting away mob bosses like Frasheri, not people who worked for him,” Becker said. “Frasheri is probably scared shitless of you testifying against him.”

“And as for Caleb, ratting you out wouldn’t be in his best interest,” Gage added. “All he has to do is say he was the muscle Frasheri brought in to follow orders. I doubt there’ll be any way to pin him to any specific crime. He keeps his head down, he’ll be out of prison in less than two years.” He glanced at Becker. “Did you come up with anything out there?”

“It looks like Liam and Kostandin got away, along with a few of the Albanians,” Becker said. “I tracked their scent for a block before it disappeared.”

Gage swore. Becker silently did the same. He didn’t like the idea of Jayna’s former alpha being anywhere but in prison. She and her pack looked just as alarmed.

Chris pushed himself up on an elbow. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead from the effort and he bit back a grimace. “Liam’s going to come for us. We’ve got to get out of Dallas before he does.”

Megan and Joseph both put a hand on Chris’s shoulder, gently pushing him back down.

“Hey, that medic guy said you’re supposed to take it easy, not get on the first bus out of here,” Joseph said. “That means none of us are leaving either. At least not until you’ve healed up.”

“Joseph’s right,” Megan said. “Besides, just because Liam got away, that doesn’t mean he’s going to come after us.” She looked at Jayna. “Right?”

Becker could practically see Jayna’s shoulders bow under the sudden weight of so much responsibility. He knew without having to ask where her mind was headed. She was wondering if she should take her pack and get as far away from Dallas, Frasheri, Liam, and Kostandin as they could.

“Megan’s right, Jayna,” Becker said. “Liam and Kos are no doubt long gone from here.”

If Liam did come after Jayna and her pack though, going on the run was more dangerous than staying in Dallas, where he and the rest of his SWAT team could protect them. But if they were hell-bent on leaving, he’d go with them.

“Jayna?” Moe prompted when she didn’t answer.

She looked back and forth from her pack to Becker, anguish clear in her eyes. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her that he’d make everything better, but she had a pack that depended on her. They needed her to figure out what to do, not him.

“I don’t know if Liam will come after us or not, but Chris is in no shape to go anywhere right now,” she finally said. “We should have enough money between us to lie low at a motel for a few days until we figure something out.”

“Or you could stay with me,” Becker suggested.

It wasn’t a question, but it wasn’t a command either. Jayna might be new to this alpha thing, but he wasn’t going to impose his will on her, ever. That didn’t mean he couldn’t still be persuasive as hell. Right now, all he was trying to do was show her that she and her pack didn’t have to go it alone. She had him now, and his pack would help hers.

Jayna gave him a skeptical look. “All five of us? I don’t think we’d fit.”

He shrugged. “We can make it work.”

“I’m not sure about that, Becker. I’ve seen how small your apartment is,” Gage said. “But I think I might know a place where Jayna and her pack can stay without falling over each other every time they turn around.” He looked at Jayna. “If you’re okay with that?”

She exchanged looks with her pack mates, then gave Gage a nod.

Relief coursed through Becker’s body. Jayna and her pack would be hanging around Dallas long enough for him to convince them to stay permanently.