Page 6 of Wed Or Dead

Chapter Six

The shift hit Gage instantly. A wild burst of fiery pain ignited within him as the wolf inside erupted in fury. He fell to the ground, landing on all fours, and his hands began to twist into claws. The man couldn’t control the beast this time.

Gun. Kayla. Shot.

There was too much fury. Too much pain and rage.

Lyle’s laughter echoed in his ears. “Don’t worry, the first chamber was empty.”

Gage managed to lift his head. The man he’d been was slipping away. Too much hate burned inside of him.

Lyle could have killed her.

“The second one, though, it’s not empty,” Lyle promised. “So stay in the cage, wolf, or you really will watch me blow her brains out.”

The silver chain burned against his flesh. Burned even hotter now that the wolf was coming out, but the shift was exactly what he needed to lose the cuff that circled his wrist. Because he didn’t have a human wrist anymore. The bones snapped. Elongated. Became narrow enough to slide from that silver cuff, and, sure enough, the cuff fell from his paw a few seconds later. The lock on Kayla’s cuffs clicked open. She caught the chain, not letting it fall to the stone floor.

Lyle looked back at him. “I knew the beast wanted her.”

More than he wanted breath.

“So I figured I’d see just how much control the man had over— Ah!” Lyle’s words ended in a scream. Kayla had jerked the chain back toward her. Since it wasn’t anchored to Gage anymore, it flew easily into her grip. Then she slammed that silver right at Lyle. Right into the bastard’s face. The gun fell from Lyle’s hands. A bullet fired out and slammed into the side of the cage’s bars.

The scent of smoking flesh filled Gage’s nostrils.

And since the cage door was conveniently open, the wolf just leapt right out of the prison.

Kayla kicked out with her foot and sent Lyle stumbling to the floor. Then she jumped on top of him and wrapped the silver chain around his neck. Once. Twice. “You’re gonna play Russian roulette with me?” Kayla snarled. “I don’t think so, you bastard!”

Lyle tossed her away. She flew back, and her body crashed into the side of the cage.

Lyle grabbed at the chain, and the silver burned his fingers. Your turn to enjoy the pain, asshole. Before the guy could get free, Gage was on him. His claws dug into Lyle’s chest as he penned the bastard to the floor.

Then Gage lowered his head for the kill.

Lyle started laughing again. “D-do it,” he dared, and Lyle’s face was showing the pressure of his own impending shift. The guy’s wolf wanted out. It was there to see, in the bright eyes, the hollowed cheeks, and the lengthening canines. “Do it and her—her brother’s dead.”

Like a human was really supposed to matter to him. A human who’d shot Kayla.

Gage’s teeth sank into Lyle’s throat.

And Kayla’s hands closed around the back of Gage’s head. She yanked on him, trying to pull him up. What? Was the woman crazy? You didn’t grab a wolf by the head. She jumped back when he came up snarling.

Then she grabbed him by the tail.

The fuck, no.

“Please,” she begged him, voice strained and desperate. “Let’s just make sure my brother’s safe first, then we can kill him, okay?”

No, that was not okay. He wanted Lyle dead right then and there.

Kayla hurriedly backed away. He’d expected her to keep fighting.

Blood dripped down Lyle’s face. “Y-you’re so…fucked!”

Said the man who was about to lose his throat.

“I’m…already in…your pack.”

Right, Gage knew that shit. Betrayal was a bitter, burning pill to swallow. But he’d suspected the truth. A wolf, one of his own, had sold him and the pack out to the hunters.

To this wolf in a damn hunter’s guise.

Who is it? The demand of the man inside the beast. Only the beast couldn’t speak. He had to shift back in order to manage that. But...

But he heard the sound of racing footsteps just outside the door. The holding room might not have audio surveillance, but the hunters patrolling the area hadn’t missed the sound of a gunshot. They weren’t that clueless.

And speaking of that gun…

Kayla was back at his side. Now her retreat made sense. She’d gone for the weapon. Kayla aimed the gun at Lyle’s head. Payback. She was a sexy bitch.

“Where’s my brother?” Kayla demanded.

Gage kept Lyle penned. Kept that bastard bleeding as he let his claws sink even deeper into his flesh.

Lyle spat blood. “Getting…sliced open!”

She fired the gun. The bullet sank into Lyle’s right shoulder. The shifter howled in pain and rage.

“My bad,” Kayla murmured. “I thought that chamber would be empty.”

Before Lyle could do more than growl in pain, the door of the holding room flew open.

Gage glanced up. Huh. Guess we found her brother.

Because Gage was staring straight into eyes the same golden shade as Kayla’s. The man’s hair was curly and dark, just like hers, but his face was harder. All lines and stark angles.

The guy was wearing black, shoulder to damn toe, and he was armed.

More men rushed in after Jonah. All wearing black like it was some sort of hunter uniform, probably because it was. All of them were holding weapons. Weapons they aimed at him and Kayla.

“Shoot them!” Lyle screamed as he bucked beneath Gage’s hold. “The bitch is…helping him! They’re trying to escape!”

And that was why Kayla should have let him kill the prick when he’d had the chance. Now at least six weapons were pointed at him and Kayla. Not the best odds. But he’d had worse.

“Don’t anyone fucking fire at Kayla!” That was her brother roaring that order. Would the others actually listen? Right then, they all looked confused. A little scared, too. Maybe they hadn’t faced off against too many shifted wolves before.

Sometimes, the hunting was easier to do from a distance. When you got up close and personal with a wolf, fear could slip past any man’s guard.

“Jonah!” Kayla cried out her brother’s name and tried to rush toward the hunter.

Gage leapt forward and put his body between her and the armed men. Had the woman missed the guns? He opened up his mouth and snarled a warning at her—and them. Stay the hell back.

“Shoot the bastard!” Lyle yelled. It sounded like the prick was getting stronger. Shifters always healed fast.

“My pleasure,” Jonah said with a slow, mean grin.

“No! Dammit, don’t !” Kayla was screaming now. Her voice shook with fury as she threatened, “If you shoot Gage, I’ll put a bullet in Lyle’s head!” Then she scrambled back. Scrambled back—and pressed the gun barrel to Lyle’s head. If the hunters had just arrived five minutes sooner, they would have seen their boss toying with her. Getting off on her fear.

But now, they just saw Kayla. Threatening to kill the man they all probably idolized. Dumbasses.

“Kayla.” Sorrow whispered through her name as Jonah spoke. “You can’t do this.” The faint lines around his eyes deepened. “You can’t!”

“He’s a shifter!” Kayla snapped back at him. “Lyle’s a wolf! He’s been lying to us all for years! Haven’t you ever wondered why he didn’t go into any of the interrogations with the other shifters? It’s because they would have known what he was! They would have?—”

“She’s crazy,” Lyle tossed right back as spittle flew from his mouth. “She’s screwing that shifter, and she’s lying to-to try and save…his ass! They broke…out of the cage and tried to…kill me!”

Who were the hunters going to believe? Their boss? Or the woman who’d just shot Lyle? Gage didn’t wait for their reaction. He attacked.

The first swipe of his claws went toward her brother. Shouldn’t have shot her. He sliced deep into the guy’s arm, and Jonah stumbled back.

Kayla’s scream grated in his ears. He hated the sound of her pain. But he couldn’t stop, not now.

A bullet sank into his side. Asshole hunters. He clawed the nearest one. Slammed his head into the legs of another. Used his teeth to take down a third.

“Told you!” Lyle shouted. The guy’s voice was definitely stronger now. “I told you he was a killer! Twisted, sick son of a bitch. Take him out!”

A gun blast destroyed the last of his words.

Gage whirled around. He saw Lyle groaning. Grabbing his leg.

This time, Kayla had shot Lyle in the upper thigh.

“That’ll slow you down,” she snapped. Then she looked up at Gage. Her gaze burned with fury. So much rage.

Directed at me. So he’d made her brother bleed. The dick had deserved it.

An alarm sounded somewhere down the hall. No doubt, more hunters would be there soon in response to that shrill cry. Over-eager men and women who couldn’t wait to pump his body full of silver.

They had to get out of there before the backup arrived.

Kayla hurried to her brother’s side while Lyle continued to scream.

“Jonah?”

Her brother’s head had slammed into the stone wall, courtesy of Gage. He vaguely remembered shoving Jonah back after he’d clawed into him. Jonah’s right hand bled. The muscles near his wrist had been slashed deep.

Jonah was trying to stop the blood flow, but his shirt was already stained red. “Why?” Jonah rasped. “Why…for him?”

She put her hands over his wound. “It’s going to be all right. I promise, everything will?—”

“It will never be okay, sis… never. ”

Gage rushed toward her. They had to leave, now. Still in wolf form, his head pushed against her shoulder.

She shoved him back. “Get out of here, Gage.”

That screeching alarm hurt his ears. And it must have messed up his hearing because there was no way she’d just said?—

She yanked at her shirt, ripping the material, and wrapped it around her brother’s wrist. “He’s going to bleed out if I can’t get this stopped!”

Were those tears in her eyes? The wound wasn’t that bad. She just needed to take a breath and see that. If he’d wanted, he could have made the dumbass lose his whole arm.

I just gave him something to remember me by.

He closed his teeth around her wrist. Pulled lightly.

She shook her head. “ Go! I’m not leaving. I can’t leave him.”

But he was supposed to just turn tail and leave his mate behind?

“Stop them!” Lyle was shouting again. Hell. Could this shit get any more screwed?

“Go,” she told Gage again, and dammit, those were tears. He hated the sight of them.

More hunters were coming. Gage could smell their sweat. Excitement and fear. They’d come in, and he’d attack.

They’d shoot.

Who would survive?

Get to the pack. There was a traitor in their midst. As alpha, it was his job to keep them safe.

Even if it meant leaving his mate behind?

Kayla’s gaze held his.

No more time.

The wolf turned away from her and leapt through the doorway. He raced down the hallway, using his enhanced senses to guide him. Fresh air and freedom to the left. More containment rooms and prisoners to the right. Guards coming in fast.

He dodged, leapt—and flew straight through the window. Glass rained around him and when he landed outside on the dank earth, Gage didn’t look back.

Even though he knew the hunters were giving chase.

Fools. Didn’t they know that in this hunt, they’d be the prey?

No one listened to her. She tried to tell Jonah the truth about Lyle. She tried to tell the other hunters.

They’d ignored her.

Cuffed her.

Tossed her into another cell.

Dammit.

Jonah had been taken away. Rushed to the med unit. He’d be okay. He’d be okay. They’d stop the bleeding and her brother would survive. There just wasn’t an alternative for him—or her.

Gage had attacked Jonah. She should have expected that move. You weren’t supposed to trust wolves. Everyone knew they had a tendency to bite the hand that fed them.

Like he’d nearly bitten off her brother’s hand.

A guard came inside the holding area. Curtis Latham. She knew him. Curtis was new but she’d worked with him in the field once. Saved his ass that day, too. The man had better remember that. Kayla ran toward the cell door. “I’m telling the truth!” Telling it to anyone who’d listen, only no one would believe her. “Go check Lyle’s wounds. He’s burned because I used silver on him.”

Curtis narrowed his gaze on her. “You shot him. Twice.”

True. Was she supposed to be sorry for that? “He put his gun to my head and pulled the trigger. He’s a sick SOB that needs to be put down.”

Curtis glanced away. “He’s the reason I’m still alive.”

Yes, well, she’d thought the same thing, not too long ago. Then she’d learned the terrible truth. “He’s lying to you. To us all! Please, Curtis, just go and check his wounds.” Before Lyle healed himself.

Curtis glanced back at her. His eyes were confused. Angry. “He said for me to guard you.”

She grabbed the bars and jerked on them. “Where am I supposed to go? I’m in a cell!” Kayla all but screamed at him. “Just go look at Lyle. His neck and his hands. The silver burned him. He’s a wolf, I swear!”

A muscle jerked along Curtis’s jaw. Then he slowly shook his head. “Lyle’s the one who gave the order—he wants you to stay alive. If he’d really tried to kill you, then why would he do that?”

So that he could use her later. But that wasn’t going to happen. Her time being bait was over. Didn’t Lyle get that? Gage was gone. He knew the full deal about her—about all the hunters. He’d escaped the grounds, and he wasn’t coming back. Not for her.

Not for anything.

“I’ve fought with you,” she told Curtis and knew that desperation threaded through her words. “Stood by your side. Covered your back. And I’ve never lied to you.” She just had to make him listen. “Please, check his wounds. All you have to do is look at his hands and neck!”

The holding room door opened. Lyle walked in, limping heavily Her gaze immediately went to his neck and— healed. No burns.

Bastard. Damn quick-healing wolf.

Lyle smiled at her, then winced, lifting his hand to his shoulder. She could see the bandages clearly. What a load of bull. If his burns had healed, then that bullet wound had healed, too. He was just playing a game in front of Curtis and the other hunters.

“Boss, you okay?” Curtis asked at once.

Kayla rolled her eyes. “Of course, he is. The guy’s a wolf, he can heal from almost anything.”

“Is she still screaming that story about me being an animal?” Lyle’s steps were slow, as if he were hurt. He kept dragging his “injured” leg. Now that she knew the truth about him, Lyle’s acting skills were pretty impressive. He’d sure fooled her for years.

Why can’t anyone see through the lies? Why couldn’t I?

Maybe people just saw what they wanted to see. No, what they needed to see?

And what had she needed to see? A hero. A man who’d saved her from the wolves. A friend who wanted to protect her and make her stronger.

Not a lying killer who’d just wanted to use her.

“Someone had to see your wounds,” she told him. “Not just the bullet wounds—the burn wounds from the silver.” There’d been too many other hunters in that holding room. Someone would have noticed his burns. “All your lies are about to come out.”

Curtis glanced nervously between them. “Boss…I, uh, I thought I saw some blisters on you earlier.”

“She’d been punching me. My skin was red from her attack.” Lyle gave a little shrug with his “uninjured” shoulder. “I’ll probably bruise later.”

“Bullshit,” Kayla called.

Curtis shifted from one foot to the other. “I-I know the difference between blisters and punch marks.” He peered at Lyle’s neck again. Yes. He was getting suspicious.

“Pull back his bandage!” Kayla urged. This would do it. “Check out the bullet wound at his shoulder, because I bet it’s already healed, too.” Curtis was starting to believe her. This would work. She’d get out of there and together, she and Curtis could take Lyle down.

“You’re so desperate,” Lyle said, sighing, as a frown pulled down his mouth. “When did you become like this? Did Gage make you this way?”

If Lyle had been just a few feet closer to the cell, she would have attacked. But he wasn’t heading toward her. Instead, Lyle was closing the distance between him and Curtis.

“I don’t want you to doubt me,” Lyle told the hunter. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Just a heavy white bandage around his shoulder. A loose pair of sweat pants. “If this is what it takes to prove the truth to you, then so be it.” His hands rose to the bandage.

Curtis nodded. He leaned forward. “I just need to know—Kayla’s always been so?—”

Lyle grabbed him by the head.

Kayla screamed.

And Lyle broke Curtis’s neck with one powerful twist of his hand. The hunter never even had a chance to cry out.

Lyle let Curtis’s body drop to the floor. Curtis hit with a thud. Shaking his head, Lyle stared down at the hunter’s twisted body. “You shouldn’t have doubted me, kid.”

Ice filled Kayla’s veins. Horror and nausea spun in her gut, and she could taste bile rising in her throat. Dead. “You bastard— why ?”

He looked up at her. Frowned. “It’s your fault that he’s dead. You should have just kept your damn mouth shut, and he’d still be breathing.”

Only Curtis wasn’t breathing. He was dead. And how many more would fall before Lyle was done?

How many had he killed over the years? When she’d thought that the hunters had been protecting humans, fighting the monsters…

Oh, God, we were the monsters.

Lyle grabbed the body and dragged Curtis’s limp form over to the cell. Lyle dropped him near the bars. “There. When the body’s discovered, everyone will just think you killed him. Curtis got too close, and you attacked him. We all know how lethal you can be.”

Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t stop shaking. Tears burned her eyes.

“He got too close, trusted the wrong person, and you snapped his neck.” Lyle snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”

Her knees wanted to give way. She stood only because of her desperate grip on the bars. “What do you want from me?” Curtis. Dead.

“I want your wolf.”

She shook her head. “He’s gone. Gage isn’t coming back.”

Lyle smiled. “We’ll see about that.” Then he turned away and headed back toward the holding room door. Was that psycho actually whistling as he walked away and left her with a dead body?

“Gage chose his pack!” Kayla cried after him. “Not me. That’s why he left! He went to keep them safe.” Gage wasn’t coming back.

Lyle glanced over his shoulder. “Then I guess you’ll be the next one to die.”

When he left, the metal clang of the door seemed to echo through the whole room. Through her. She looked over at Curtis. So still. His eyes were closed, his head turned toward her.

He’d been a good man. He hadn’t deserved this end.

She let go of the bars, and her knees buckled. She slipped to the floor and her fingers, still stained with her brother’s blood, rose to cover her eyes.

We’re the monsters.

Why hadn’t she seen the truth sooner?

Gage tracked silently through the compound. He knew where Kayla was, of course. Her scent was one he’d never forget. So he eased through the hallways, slipped around the corners, and tracked back to her as quickly as he could.

Outside of her new holding room, he paused. Inhaled. Kayla wasn’t alone in there. But the one with her…

Shit.

Gage used the key card he’d “borrowed” from the guard station and swiped it across the electronic lock. The lights flashed green, and he shoved open the heavy, metal door.

Kayla was in the cell, on the floor. Her hair fell in a curtain around her. A hunter was slumped close to her. His neck was twisted, and his hands were stretched out on either side of his body.

“I didn’t do it,” she said, without looking up. “I swear, I didn’t kill Curtis.”

“Sweetheart, you don’t have to tell me that.”

Her head whipped up. Her eyes widened. “You—you shouldn’t be here!”

He glanced back down at the unmoving body. “There’s something you should realize, though.” He made sure the door was shut behind him. “Curtis isn’t dead.”