Page 42 of Wed Or Dead

Was the whole world a shade of gray? Everything had seemed to be in such big, bold colors just days before.

Kayla turned away from Faye. Staring into the she-wolf’s eyes, it was a little too much like…looking in a mirror.

Same rage. Same pain.

“Alpha?” Faye’s hesitant voice. “Shamus…I heard him yelling…is he…?”

“He’s next,” Gage replied, voice flat. “You’re both coming home.”

Home.The word caused an ache to lodge in Kayla’s heart. Did she even have one anymore?

Don’t think about it. Not now.She just needed to do the job. Get them all out of there with minimum bloodshed, yeah, that was priority number one for her. She slipped around the corner, punched in the code for the next holding room, and tried like hell to keep her control in place.

Time to face the big beast. Shamus would hear her coming, no doubt, but it wasn’t him she was worried about. Well, nottooworried. Not with Gage having her back.

We just have to hurry.

Lyle was too confident. He thought the silver was all he needed to contain his captured prey.

Guess you never thought one of your own would turn on you.

Time for Lyle to think again.

“Come near me and I’ll cut you open!” Shamus bellowed and she flinched.Hell, did he have to yell?Did he want to bring all the other guards his way?

Actually, getting cut open by him was pretty likely. So she’d better stay far away from those razor-sharp claws.

“I’m trying to help you,” she muttered as she rounded one more turn and came face-to-face with his cage and him.

Big Red was freaking huge. Had to be at least six-foot-three, maybe six-foot-four. His shoulders were like dang mountains.

“If you so much as scratch her, Shamus, you’ll answer to me,” Gage snarled from directly behind her.Soft moving wolf.

Silence. Shamus’s stare drifted between them. “A hunter?” Disgust dripped from the words.

“I’m the hunter who’s here to save your ass.” She used the key card, and his cell door swung open.

Shamus didn’t move. “Is this a trick?” His claws were up. Before Kayla could answer, he lunged forward—and those claws came right at her neck.

She jumped back, but Gage was already there. He leapt in front of her and locked his hand around Shamus’s thick throat and slammed him back against the silver bars.

Faye cried out as the scent of burning flesh filled the air.

“Iwarnedyou,” Gage growled. Then he yanked Shamus away from the bars and dropped him on the floor. “She’s mine, and youdon’tever go at her with your claws. Got it?”

Shamus lifted his head. “G-got…it, alpha.”

Right. When a lesson was burned into you, it was kinda hard to misunderstand.

Psychotic tendencies.That had been in Shamus’s file. His gaze cut to her. Oh, yes, white-hot fury and?—

“Faye,” Shamus whispered the woman’s name like a prayer. The fury vanished from his eyes and was replaced by a look of longing so intense that Kayla felt damn uncomfortable.

Faye had crept near her. Then the smaller woman paused, and rocked nervously from one foot to the other.

“I caught your scent on the hunter,” Shamus said. He rose to his feet in an instant and didn’t even seem to be aware that his back was still smoking. “I-I thought he’d done something to you, that?—”

“Later.”Gage’s snarl but through Shamus’s words. “We’re getting the hell out of here now.”

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