In the Company of Wolves (SWAT, #3)(61)

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.”