In the Company of Wolves (SWAT, #3)(11)
Kos frowned. “All alphas? You’re sure of that?”
“Yes.” She jerked her head in Brandon’s direction. “As I’m sure he told you, they were all big, fast, and strong. I got away, but it was more luck than anything.”
She was hoping that last little part might convince Kos this was a no-win situation, but he merely nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Liam.
“Start figuring out exactly what we’re up against,” he ordered. “Find out if there are more alphas than Jayna saw, where they live, and when they’re most vulnerable.”
Liam’s eyes sharpened. “We’re going after them?”
Kostandin didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. All it took was one glimpse of the sick gleam in the Albanian’s eyes to know that he intended to kill every member of the other werewolf pack in the most vicious way possible.
Kos walked away with Liam and Brandon following closely behind. As they were leaving the lobby, she heard Brandon asking when they would strike and Kostandin saying something about patience. She could have kept eavesdropping on the conversation and probably heard the rest of their plan, but she resisted. The way her stomach was twisting in knots, she decided she didn’t want to know what they were planning to do.
Megan and the guys looked at Jayna as if they expected her to come up with a way out of this for all of them. They’d agreed to this job because of Liam, but none of them had signed up for killing anybody—not cops and especially not other werewolves. But the way this was shaping up, they might not have a choice. Kostandin and his Albanians wouldn’t think twice about going after those SWAT werewolves, and Liam seemed to be willing to go along with anything Kos suggested. Even Brandon and his omegas would be happy to help.
Trying to stand against both the Albanians and the omegas? That was a fight their small pack couldn’t win. All they could do was go along and hope a chance to get out of this situation presented itself.
Could she really just sit back and let Kostandin and the others go after those SWAT werewolves—especially the one who had saved her life—without doing anything? She didn’t want to, but it wasn’t like she could warn them. She’d never caught her savior’s name, and she sure as hell couldn’t call in an anonymous tip to the hunky werewolf with the amazing blue eyes.
What the hell was she going to do?
Chapter 3
“So what the hell are you going to do?” Cooper asked Becker the moment they were inside the armory’s security cage.
Tuffie, the team’s unofficial mascot, had followed them into the building, figuring something must be up if the two of them were slipping off to the most private place on the SWAT compound right in the midst of all the insanity going on. The pit bull mix took up a position by the door like she was standing guard. Becker shook his head. Maybe that was exactly what she was doing. Sometimes Becker thought that dog understood more than anyone gave her credit for.
Cooper had been trying to talk to him privately ever since they’d gotten back to the compound this morning, but they hadn’t had a chance to slip away until a few minutes ago. When you worked with fifteen other werewolves, all of whom had incredibly good hearing, finding a little privacy could be tough.
Becker wasn’t surprised that everyone was losing their minds. It wasn’t every day they got into a gun battle with another pack of werewolves. And while Xander’s squad had technically won—taking down five of the nearly psychotic werewolves from the mob pack—nobody was in the mood to cheer. Their success had come at a cost. Hale Delaney, along with Max and Alex, had been hit with multiple rounds from the other pack’s submachine guns. If they hadn’t been werewolves, they’d all be dead. As if that weren’t bad enough? Khaki had been bitten. Seriously…bitten. She’d shot one of the enemy werewolves eight times, and the guy had still been able to get his fangs latched on to her shoulder. Khaki would be fine, but Xander was still so pissed that no one could even look at him without earning a snarl.
Becker leaned back against the counter separating the weapons and ammo area from the front of the building. “Do about what?”
Cooper looked at him like he was insane. Even Tuffie’s jaw dropped. Hell, maybe he was a little nuts. After nearly half a day to think about it, he still had no idea why he’d behaved the way he had around that female werewolf. Not only had he not arrested her, but he had hidden her in a box so no one else could either. That wasn’t exactly normal.
“You’re joking, right?” Cooper said. “You know you have to tell Gage and Xander about that female werewolf. You got a good look at her face. If we can ID her, she could lead us to the rest of her pack.”
Becker’s gut clenched. Some part of him knew it was the right thing to do. Shit, her pack had nearly beaten those poor security guards to death. On top of that, there were at least six other werewolves out there besides her, all probably just as insane and out of control as the ones they’d killed at the warehouse. But he couldn’t betray her. He didn’t understand why, but he couldn’t.
“I can’t do that,” he said.
“Why the hell not?” Cooper demanded. “She’s a criminal. Shit, Becker, she pointed her automatic weapon at you.”
“But she didn’t pull the trigger,” he argued. “She could have, but she didn’t. She’s not like the others. She’s not a criminal.”