Page 4 of Wed Or Dead

Chapter Four

She was in a cage.

Kayla’s head hurt, pounded like a freaking bitch, and she was caged.

The cage was the first thing she noticed when she opened her eyes. Rather hard to miss it since the bars were over her head where a ceiling should be.

Holding prison. Yeah, dammit, she knew this place. She’d seen a unit like this plenty of times before. A cage to hold shifters.

I’m not a shifter.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

She was just married to one.

Her head turned slowly to the left as she followed the sound of that deep voice, and that was when she noticed the second big important fact of the moment. She wasn’t alone in that cage. A big, half-naked, pissed Gage was beside her. Jeans hung low on his hips. Just jeans, no other clothing. Not even shoes. And…and he was chained to her.

A silver handcuff circled his right wrist. A chain extended from that cuff—extended about five feet—then ended in the matching silver cuff that locked around her left wrist.

“What the hell?” She jumped off the small bed. More of a cot than anything else. The bars of their cage were silver, she knew that. The better to keep the wolves in place. Because every time they touched silver, they could burn.

She grabbed Gage’s wrist. The skin was an angry red. Blistered.

“Don’t worry,” he told her, with a flash of his crooked half-smile, “you can kiss it later and make it all better.”

She dropped his hand.

He grabbed hers right back as the smile vanished from his face. “I’m killing him.”

The cold knot in her stomach told her exactly who he was taking about. “Don’t.” How had things gotten so screwed to hell and back? “He’s all I have left.”

“Then he shouldn’t have fucking shot you.”

She had nothing to say to that snarl. The chain hung between them. With her free hand, she reached up and rubbed her chest. It hurt, ached, and she knew there’d be one shiner of a bruise on her where she’d taken the tranq.

How could she explain this? Right then, she was more than ready to tear off Jonah’s head, but he really was all that she had left. “He’s had a hard time with wolves.”

“Yeah, cry me a bleeding river.” Gage’s eyes blazed at her. “The dick shot his own sister, so I don’t care what kind of sob story you spin. He’s a dead man.”

She glanced over her shoulder because she didn’t want to look in his eyes anymore. She wasn’t going to let him go after her brother, but she wasn’t about to argue right then, not with cameras on them.

And she was sure they were being watched. Her gaze went to the left. The right. Ah, yes, there. Nestled in the far corner of the room. The slowly rotating camera had to be recording their every move.

Rats in a cage. No, wolves in a cage.

But just why were they still alive? Her, okay, sure, she was human, so they wouldn’t just bury a silver bullet in her heart and dump her body. But Gage? He was at the top of Lyle’s most wanted list.

So why was he caged and not killed?

“Is this the MO?” Gage wanted to know, and he tugged on her wrist to pull her attention back to him. “You catch the wolves, then you lock them up here?”

She licked her lips. “Sometimes.”

“And sometimes you just kill them.”

Her gaze snapped back to his. “The only shifters we hunt are those who’ve been preying on humans. Killing humans. What are we supposed to do? Let human cops go after them?” Her laugh was bitter. She’d learned the brutal truth about the way that worked when she’d been sixteen. “Human cops wouldn’t be able to handle the monsters.” That was why her team was called in.

“But you can,” he said flatly.

“I can.” Whispered. Her team could. Lyle’s group was contracted by Uncle Sam. The government knew all about supernaturals, and they paid a good penny to make sure that the right people—the right hunters—went after their vicious prey.

They weren’t just randomly picking up supernaturals. Not all the supernaturals out there were even dangerous. But some were real-life nightmares that couldn’t be stopped by normal means. Lyle’s team hunted the cases that no one else could manage.

They stopped the killers. Took out the nightmares.

Gage’s brows lifted as he glanced around the cage. “You’re doing a real top job of handling things now.”

“Screw you, wolf.” She spun away. Paced as far as the chain would let her. Kayla was in this whole messed up situation because she’d lusted after the wolf. She should’ve known better. Actually, she had known better.

“I don’t prey on humans,” Gage said, his voice quiet. “I never have.”

Her fingers wrapped around the bars. The cage was built to keep supernaturals in. Would a human be able to find a way out? “Tell that to Slater Hawk.” Hawk’s case had been the one to pull her in on the hunt for Gage Riley. Slater Hawk had been sliced apart and then dumped in the desert.

“Since he’s burning with the devil, I won’t tell Hawk anything.” How could a man’s voice sound so careless when he was talking about death? “But believe me, that torturing SOB got exactly what he deserved.”

Her heart raced faster. This was what she’d suspected. The reason she hadn’t driven her knife into Gage’s chest. “Why? Why’d you kill him?”

“Because he was a twisted bastard who carved up four showgirls in the city. I don’t like it when women get hurt.”

She’d heard about the attacks on those ladies, only Lyle had told her that the wolves had been behind them. And he’d had proof, not just some BS story. She glanced back at Gage. “Why kill a human when your own pack was really slaughtering those women?” Had Hawk just found out the truth? “I saw the pictures,” she told him. The poor women. Brutalized. Tortured. “I know the difference between claw marks and stab wounds.” This wasn’t amateur hour. She knew the difference, far better than most.

She’d carry claw marks on her body until the day she died.

The chain clinked against the floor as Gage moved toward her. “If you cut off a shifter’s hand while he’s in animal form, that limb never shifts back. Certain hunters take shifter body parts like that as trophies.” His hands closed over her shoulders, and he leaned in close to her. “But you knew that, sweetheart.” His breath feathered over her ear. “Didn’t you?”

Her eyes closed. He was too close to her. And she was too weak where he was concerned. “You-you’re saying that Hawk killed a shifter and used?—”

“No.” Snapped out. “I’m saying someone gave Hawk that claw, someone set the pit bull out, and got him to carve up those women so that my pack would look guilty.”

Her eyes opened as she spun to fully face. Dread was a cold knot in her stomach. “Why?”

Metal screeched behind her. She didn’t look back. She knew that sound. The heavy metal entrance door was being shoved across the stone floor, screeching and groaning like an old man in pain.

Gage smiled at her, and the sight was grim. “Ask your boss.”

Slowly, Kayla peered back over her shoulder. Sure enough, her boss, Lyle McKennis, stalked toward them. As usual, he was perfectly styled. His dark hair was slicked back. His suit was wrinkle free. And his handsome face even sported a wide grin.

Her heart beat faster. Whenever Lyle smiled like that, it was a bad sign.

Very, very bad.

The door slammed closed behind him.

Jonah stared down at the computer monitor. On that monitor, he could clearly see that the wolf was touching Kayla again. That jerk was always touching her, and she didn’t seem to mind at all.

What the hell was wrong with her? After all they’d been through together. Why? Why would she side with a beast now?

She had to hate the shifters as much as he did. They were all monsters. They destroyed everyone and everything they touched.

And she’d married one of those freaks?

He’d thought it was just cover. Just her following orders. Until he’d seen the way she touched the guy back at that cabin. When the wolf had fallen, she’d rushed to his side. Her fingers had trembled. There’d been fear in her voice.

Then when she’d looked at Jonah, he’d seen the anger in her eyes. His big sis had been furious at him for taking down her wolf.

“Great job,” one of the other hunters praised as he slapped Jonah on his back. “Another pelt for you.”

Jonah didn’t respond. Did the hunter even realize that Jonah’s sister was in that cage on the screen? Lyle was walking toward her now. The boss had better get her out of there. Sure, Kayla had made the wrong choice, but Jonah wasn’t gonna let her be caged.

I shouldn’t have shot her.

His stomach twisted and bile rose in his throat as he remembered that desperate moment. The others on his team had all been convinced that Kayla had turned traitor. He hadn’t believed it, not until he’d seen the truth with his own eyes.

Bring her in or take her out.

Those had been his orders, and he sure hadn’t planned to let the trigger-happy hunters with him get a shot at her. Max and Bryan tended to shoot first and celebrate immediately. Of course, right then, they weren’t celebrating anything.

They were being stitched back together, courtesy of Kayla’s wolf and his killer claws.

“Sorry about your sister,” the hunter next to him said. Travis. One of the new guys that Lyle had brought in recently. So he did realize that Kayla was the one being held like an animal.

Only she’s not.

“The boss will clear this up,” Jonah said. Lyle had to fix this mess. Kayla was the one thing that mattered to Jonah, and he wouldn’t watch as?—

Lyle wasn’t heading toward the cage. He walked right up to the video camera. Smiled into the lens. Then Jonah heard the boss say, “I got this,” right before the lead hunter reached up and yanked out the video and audio surveillance system.

The screen before Jonah immediately went blank. What the hell? This wasn’t protocol. All interrogations were to be monitored. Those were orders that came straight down from the federal government. All of them had to be recorded.

Jonah spun on his heel, but Travis grabbed him and pulled him back. “Sorry, man,” Travis said, with a shake of his blond head. “But I’ve got orders—and you’re not leaving this room.”

The door opened. Two more hunters entered the surveillance area.

“When family’s involved, hell, it’s just a bitch.” Travis exhaled as he shook his head again. “You just sit tight, and this will all be over soon.”

The hell it would.

“What are you doing, Lyle?” Kayla demanded, grabbing at the bars with white-knuckled fists. “That camera is always supposed to stay on!”

Gage realized that his little hunter sounded furious.

She didn’t realize what was happening.

Gage stood in the middle of the cage— he hated cages— and watched silently as the one she’d called Lyle turned to face them. What the bastard was doing was pretty obvious.

He was making sure he didn’t have an audience for this little party. And Gage knew exactly why.

Laughter pulled from him. Deep. Mocking. Did the hunters even realize what was happening?

Lyle smiled, flashing white and very sharp teeth.

“You know, for a hunter,” Gage kept his voice bland, “you sure as shit smell like a shifter.” Because there was no mistaking that scent. Wild. Woodsy. Animal.

It was a little bonus that Mother Nature had given the supernaturals. They could always recognize their own kind. Demons could always see right through the glamour and find their brethren. Witches could feel the pull of magic exerted by others like them.

As for shifters? One smell was all it took to recognize another animal.

Kayla’s shoulders stiffened. She was still staring at Lyle, but the tension in her body was suddenly screaming.

Only she wasn’t screaming. When she spoke, her words were soft. “You’re wrong. Lyle McKennis is the lead hunter in the area. He can’t be a shifter.”

“Why?” Gage asked as Lyle kept the smile on his face. “Because he’s the big, bad boss who’s sent you out to kill the shifters in this town? Sorry, sweetheart, but our kind has a long and vicious history of turning on each other.”

Only Lyle had gotten smart. The jerk didn’t have a pack of his own, so he’d tricked humans into killing for him.

Shifters truly were very good at lying.

Lyle was almost at the cage now.

“That’s not true,” Kayla retorted and gave a fast, negative shake of her head. “He’s the one who found me and Jonah after—after our parents were killed. He saved us, got us help?—”

Fast as a striking snake, Lyle’s hand shot through the cage bars. His claws were out, and they shoved right against Kayla’s throat. “And I’m the one who’s gonna kill you, too, if you don’t do exactly what I say.”

He was a dead man.

Gage rolled his shoulders. He let his own claws break from his fingertips. “I’m guessing you don’t want to die easily,” he noted in a considering way as he studied the other shifter. “You want me to take my time with things. Strip away your flesh. Make you beg and scream before I give you that fucking sweet release of death.” The guy had to want that or else he wouldn’t be touching Kayla.

Lyle’s green eyes narrowed. He was staring at Kayla, not Gage. And the bastard needed to move those damn claws away from her.

Gage’s nostrils flared. A new scent had hit the air. Blood. Kayla’s blood.

A snarl sprang from his lips, and he leapt those few feet that would take him to the side of the cage. He slashed out with his own claws, and if Lyle had moved even one second slower, he would have cut the bastard’s hand off.

“Don’t fucking touch her. ” Gage’s lethal order was the growl of a beast. His wolf wanted out. Sure, wolves liked the scent of blood just as much as any shifter, but not when that scent belonged to a mate.

And Kayla was most definitely his .

When the blood scent came from a mate, the wolf within just wanted to destroy any threat near her.

Lyle had backed up and made sure to get clear of the cage. His cocky smile was back. “I thought it might be like that. I mean, I knew the truth about her for years. I figured if I just put her in the right wolf ’s path…”

Gage pulled Kayla away from the bars. He looked at her throat and lightly touched the tender skin. Just scratches, but he understood the point Lyle had wanted to make.

I can kill her. You can watch.

Screw that.

This Lyle asshole could watch while Gage cut him open.

“What truth?” Kayla demanded as she batted Gage’s hands away.

It was Lyle’s turn to laugh now. “Why, exactly, do you think your wolf married you? Because he took one look at you and fell in love?” His voice mocked her.

How could they get out of the cage? How could he shut that jerk’s mouth?

Kayla’s breath heaved. “I don’t understand. What is happening?”

“You’re a potential mate for a wolf shifter. Your scent is different, at least it always was to me.” Lyle’s gaze darted to Gage. “And I’m betting it is to him, too. One scent, just one deep breath, and I could tell you were…ripe.”

“Bastard!” Kayla screamed. “I don’t?—”

“Of course, you were only sixteen when we met, so I decided to give you some growing time. I knew you’d be the perfect lure that I needed.” Lyle shrugged. “It’s so hard to find potential mates for wolves these days. So hard, but in that bloodbath, I found you. ”

Gage barely managed to hold his wolf back. The beast was clawing him from the inside. Ripping and tearing with his fury to break loose. “What do you want?” Because the jerk had to want something. Otherwise, Gage wouldn’t have woken in the cage.

He wouldn’t have woken at all.

“I want your pack, and you’re gonna give them to me.”

“Keep wishing, asshole.” He’d never turn on his pack. Pack was sacred. Pack was life.

Lyle’s green eyes narrowed. “This city’s mine now. I’m taking over.”

It would feel so good to smash the prick’s face. He could already imagine the bones crushing beneath his fist. “Is that why you sent that human to carve up the showgirls? Because you were taking over?” And using Hawk to do his dirty work for him.

Some humans didn’t mind getting their hands bloody. Some liked the blood. Some, like Hawk.

Lyle just smiled as his canines lengthened. “I’ve always found humans to be very accommodating.”

“I’m gonna kill you.” The snarled threat wasn’t Gage’s this time—it was Kayla’s. Now she’d broken through her shock and was going right for the rage stage of the game. Good for her.

They’d need her rage.

“Doubtful.” Lyle didn’t look worried at all. The guy just shrugged again and rocked back on his heels. “You’ve always rather lacked what I think of as the killer instinct. Some humans have it.”

Hawk came to mind. That bastard had refused to turn on Lyle all the way to the end. No matter how much pain Gage had given to him. I gave him plenty. Payback for pain he gave those women.

“Some don’t,” Lyle finished. His gaze hardened on Kayla. “But if you don’t do exactly as I say, I promise, I’ll bring your brother to you in pieces.”

Kayla sucked in a sharp breath. Hell. The brother was gonna be a problem for them. Gage hadn’t counted on that attachment when he’d been doing all his grand planning.

Lyle obviously had.

When Lyle’s gaze turned back to him, Gage knew the other shifter had planned for all sorts of fucking situations. “Your pack,” Lyle said, almost snarling. “I know you got them to pull from the city. To hide. That’s not gonna work. They aren’t gonna stay in the shadows and then jump out and try to take me down.”

Actually, they were. That was his plan.

“So you’ll take me to them.” Lyle crossed his arms over his chest, stretching his fancy suit. “And I’ll take them out.”

So there’d be only one top dog in Sin City.

“Not happening.” Gage hadn’t built that pack from the ground up just to watch the wolves get destroyed.

Lyle pointed to Kayla. “Then she’ll be the one in pieces.” He turned away. Strolled toward the door like he didn’t have a care in the world. “You’ve got an hour. So I’d suggest you start rethinking that position of yours.” He reached for the heavy door handle, then glanced back. “Because it’s so hard to find a good mate these days.”

Then he was gone. The metal clang of the shutting door echoed through the room, and Gage swore in disgust and fury.

That sonofabitch wasn’t going to push him into a corner. Lyle wasn’t destroying the pack that Gage had built, and Lyle damn well wasn’t hurting Kayla.

Not while I’m still breathing.

Kayla glanced over at him. For a tough hunter, she sure looked vulnerable. No, broken .

Especially with the faint drops of blood on her neck.

“He was…he was the only person who kept me going after my parents died.” Her voice was softer, huskier, than he’d ever heard before. “Lyle found me, alone in that house with their bodies. I was holding Jonah. Trying to stop the bleeding and save him?—”

Gage didn’t speak when she broke off and inhaled on a deep, shuddering breath. He just waited. She needed to put these pieces together faster. Didn’t she realize yet what had happened? As soon as he’d seen Lyle—as soon as he’d caught the bastard’s scent, Gage had known the truth.

“Lyle said he was a hunter.” Her shoulders hunched even as she wrapped her arms around her stomach, as if she were trying to hug herself. Or to guard herself. “Th-that he’d tracked the wolf shifter. That he was there to help us.”

Only Gage bet that if Kayla hadn’t been so wild with her grief at the time, she would have seen the blood on the man’s fingers. Wild with grief and too young.

You were only sixteen when we met, so I decided to give you some growing up time. The bastard’s words rang through his mind. “You were just a kid. You didn’t realize what he was.”

She hadn't realized that her savior was the monster who’d been at the door. The monster who’d destroyed her life.

Her hands fell to her sides as she lifted her chin. The gesture almost broke his heart. “He…killed them? My parents?” Her fingers rose to rub against her shoulder. He knew a line of scars was beneath her shirt. Right in that exact spot. He’d kissed those scars during that too short night at the hotel. “Lyle was the wolf who tried to kill me?” she asked, but he knew the words weren’t a question, not really.

Kayla had realized the truth. After all Lyle had said, she had to know it now.

Dammit, he hated this. She shouldn’t look broken. Broken wasn’t his Kayla. Strong. Fierce. That was her. Not this lost shell. She looked like she’d just lost everything. She hadn’t. Didn’t she see that?

Gage caught her arms. Pulled her close. “When he cut you, he knew.” Sometimes, wolves could recognize potential mates from a scent, just like the bastard had said. But if blood was involved, oh, yeah, that recognition level amped way the hell up.

Blood always tells.

“Knew what?” A faint line was between her brows. “That I’m some predestined wolf mate? That’s bullshit!”

Now a little spark was coming back. He didn’t want a spark. He wanted a raging inferno. “There’s nothing predestined about it. Certain people are genetic matches for shifters. It’s DNA, not a merging of the souls.” Some human females could carry a hybrid shifter child. Some couldn’t. Science.

But women like her were getting rarer each day. Had that been the reason Lyle first attacked her? Maybe he’d thought her mother was a match, but then he’d found an easier target just waiting there in the house for him.

“He won’t kill you,” Gage said with certainty. His fingers flexed against her skin. Soft. Weak. Human.

“He won’t get the chance,” Kayla fired right back and even though it looked like tears might be glistening in her eyes, her voice cut better than any shifter’s claws. Good. “I’ll take his heart first, then shove it right down that bastard’s throat.”

Ah, my sweet inferno. There was the woman he wanted.

“Only if you beat me to the attack,” Gage told her. She wouldn’t. “Now, sweetheart, it’s time for us to get the hell out of here.” Because while Lyle might not actually carry through on his threat to kill Kayla, the bastard would no doubt get off on hurting her.

Won’t happen.

Or maybe Lyle would just kill her brother.

And she’ll break apart then.

Gage couldn’t let her break.

There were whispers about wolves in the paranormal circles. Of all the supernaturals out there, the wolf shifters were the most unstable. The most given to insanity. Unless they had the security and the strength of a pack, their primal natures could take over with dangerous consequences.

Wolves weren’t meant to be alone.

But Lyle was alone.

And from what Gage had seen, Lyle was most definitely psychotic. The sooner he was dead, the better.

Lyle walked slowly down the hallway. He didn’t glance back at the holding cell. There was no point in looking back.

There never was.

Kayla knew the truth about him now. Good. He was getting rather tired of hiding himself.

A hunter passed and nodded his head toward Lyle. Lyle’s back teeth clenched. They were all getting on his nerves.

Years… years he’d spent playing attack dog for Uncle Sam. Being the federal government’s bitch. At first, he’d hunted alone. So much darkness. So much blood.

“Sir.” Another hunter slid by him. This one even gave him some dumbass salute. A new recruit sent up from some boot camp in the South. Did this look like the fucking military?

Lyle turned a corner and stalked into his office. He slammed the door, and realized his hands were shaking. The wolf inside wanted out. He’d denied the beast for too long. He needed to hunt. To kill. Not to hide in some dank hole in the ground. Not to stand back while the blood flowed.

He liked the blood too much to just stand back. Liked the kills. The screams.

Kayla’s mother had screamed. So sweetly. She’d screamed and begged, and so had Kayla. The beast had loved their cries.

The beast had wanted to rip Kayla open, and he’d slashed with his claws. That night, he’d known only blind rage and bloodlust, until he’d caught the sweet scent in the air. Until the beast had realized that Kayla Kincaid wasn’t just prey. She was something more.

Something far more precious.

The man had pulled back the beast. Stopped the slaughter. Of course, it had been too late by then. Her parents had been dead. Her brother barely breathing. And Kayla—she’d been terrified.

Lyle paced to his desk. Sat down heavily in the chair, then looked down at the claws that had burst from his fingertips.

A slip. He was having more and more of them lately. If he wasn’t careful, the hunters would all learn the truth about him.

He clenched his hands into fists and his claws cut right through his skin.

The beast wanted out.

And the man was just tired of fighting him. Lyle knew he was different. Too savage. Too twisted. He’d always known. But he’d tried to channel that bloodlust. To use it. He’d hunted his own kind. Tracked the deadliest paranormals.

But they weren’t enough.

Sometimes, innocent blood just tasted sweeter.

His teeth were lengthening. His bones starting to pop.

No, no, he couldn’t shift now. He had to hold on just a bit longer. He had a job to do. A pack to destroy.

The wolves in Vegas thought they were so smart. Banding together. Growing stronger. Wolves didn’t face the risk of insanity when they were in a pack.

The pack is strength. A stupid wolf mantra his parents had told him long ago, before they’d been killed by the government. The same government that had taken Lyle in and made him into the monster he was.

The pack is life. Did Gage recite that same bullshit?

Blood smeared on his jeans. He barely felt the pain in his palms. When his claws cut him, he almost liked the flow of blood.

Almost?

If he’d had a pack, maybe things would have been different for him. Maybe he would have controlled his beast.

Maybe not.

But the wolves in Vegas weren’t any more damn special than he was. If he had to face the fury of the beast alone—day in and day out—then they should have to face it, too. They should all know what it was like to feel sanity slipping away, moment by moment, until nothing remained.

Until there was only fury. Instinct. Death.

They should all know.

He’d make sure they knew.

Because he was gonna rip that pack apart, even if he had to sacrifice every single hunter in his compound in order to do the job. After all, what were human lives worth? Humans were weak. Meaningless.

Only the strong survived in this world.

He was the strong. He was the alpha, and he’d prove that truth to everyone.