Page 16 of Wed Or Dead

“Yes,” he told her clearly, “I do.” That was the benefit of being alpha.

“No matter who you hurt.”

Ah, now she was getting personal. “I’ve never physically hurt you.” Wouldn’t. He protected those who fell under his charge, and he’dneverattacked an innocent. No matter what the supernatural rumor mill might say.

But other wolf shifters weren’t like him. There were some psychotic bastards running around loose in the world. He knewit, and the scars on Kayla’s body said she knew it, too. Of all the shifters, the wolves were the ones who danced the closest to the edge of insanity. Their beasts were just too strong to always be controlled by the men and women who carried them.

Wolf shifters needed a pack to hold them in check. To provide them with security.Thatwas why he’d started the Vegas pack. Someone strong had needed to come in and take over, and the wolves—hell, yes, they’d needed to band together. No one wanted to start a bloodbath. No one wanted to turn feral.

But sometimes, no matter what you wanted, the beast could still take over. He thought of Kayla’s scars again. The lightly raised marks on the curve of her hip and on her shoulder. The narrow lines that slid down beside her spine. Someone had hurt her badly. From the looks of those scars, the wounds had occurred long ago.

When she’d just been a kid.

“In the dark, all monsters aren’t the same,” he said and tried to keep his voice emotionless. A hard task, when so many emotions wanted to break free. But Kayla should know this truth already. Good and evil didn’t really exist. The lines were too blurred for that vague distinction in the paranormal world.

Her lashes lowered to shield her gaze. “I know. That’s why you don’t have a silver knife in your heart.”

Bloodthirsty little vixen. He’d known she’d make the perfect alpha female. You had to be willing to fight to the end in order to be an alpha.

Kayla was a fighter.

“You were the wrong bait,” he said simply. The words were the truth. “Your bastard of a boss should have been brave enough to come after me himself.” Instead of hiding in the shadows and slowly picking off the paranormals who crossed his path.

Instead of taking my wolves.Two wolves gone. He had better get them back.

Now that he had Kayla with him, it was gonna be his turn to use her as bait. He sighed, and with a genuine trace of regret, told her, “I’m sorry.”

Her lashes lifted, and she frowned at him. “For what? Kidnapping me? Bringing me to this rundown shack?”

Hardly. Those were just the start of his sins. Gage waved them away with a negligent flick of his fingers. “For what’s coming.” Then he took her chin in his hand but kept his touch featherlight. He could already hear the approach of vehicles outside. The others had come much faster than he’d anticipated.

Gage had thought that he’d have at least another hour. But, no, the guests had arrived too soon.

They shouldn’t have gotten to the scene so quickly, not unless—dammit.

His hands swept down Kayla’s body.Idiot.He should have realized the truth sooner. She’d come far too willingly. He’d thought she was just changing her mind about him. That she wanted to escape with him.

But she’d still been setting him up.

His hand slid under her shirt.

She slapped at him. “Nowisn’t the time for this!”

“You’ve got a tracker on you.” Shit. Shit,shit.And all those scars that pissed him off—one of them could easily have been left on her body when a tracking device was implanted. Hunters often used those devices, he knew that. But he’d been thinking with his dick, not his head.Should have checked her.He should have sliced beneath her skin and checked like he would have with any other hunter.

Only she wasn’t any other hunter. She was…Kayla.Mine.

As he patted her down, her eyes widened, then she gave a slow, negative shake of her head. “Stop the frisking routine, okay? I don’t have a tracker.” Her words rushed out quickly.

But would she even know if she’d been tagged? Or would her boss want to keep secret watch on her and all his other hunters? “You chose the wrong side for this fight.”

She swallowed. Her lips trembled a bit but she said, “I chose the only side I could.”

Those approaching cars were getting closer. He could hear the crunch of gravel beneath the tires. Either she was tagged for tracking or the dark suspicion that he’d had for weeks was true.

If Kayla didn’t have a tracker on her, then he could have a traitor in the pack. Because he hadnotbeen followed from Vegas. He’d made sure of that fact.

“When your team comes, what will you do?” His claws were pushing through his fingertips. “Go running back to them?”

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