Page 65 of Wed Or Dead

You’re dying.A promise was a promise.

“Thisishow it ends,” Kayla said as she backed up, pulling her brother with her. “So have fun in hell, asshole.”

Lyle was shifting. Fighting. Clawing. “Your father—you know he begged to live!”

Kayla flinched.

“Begged!” Lyle spat. His face was elongating, his eyes burning bright. “So did your bitch of a mother?—”

Gage slashed his throat.

The bastard stopped screaming.

You won’t hurt her anymore.

The other wolves closed in.

And Lyle didn’t scream again.

“Come back with me,”Jonah said. The other hunters were long gone—headed back to base or to who the hell knew where.

Maybe some of them would just keep driving. Keep running.

Kayla didn’t blame them. Everything they knew had all just changed. They had to figure out what they were going to do. Who they were going to become.

Lyle was dead. The wolves were shifting back to their human forms. Turning to their alpha for guidance.

“You don’t belong with them,” Jonah told her. Her brother was standing strong and steady beside her. His hand rested on her shoulder. “Come back with me. We can go forward.”

“Forward to what?” she asked. When you were lost, how the hell did you know which direction to take?

His hand tightened on her. “Not everything was a lie. Lyle was working for the government. He was a contractor, yes, but he was being sent out after real killers. Those cases were real.”

“Not all of them.” And that knowledge would keep tearing her apart. “Some of those people that we captured were innocents, Jonah. Supernaturals that Lyle just framed because he wanted them under his control.” Or because he’d just wanted to take them out.

“Then we free them,” he vowed simply. With such determination. When had her kid brother grown up on her? “We find the containment areas that are housing them, and we make sure that they get their freedom.”

She nodded. Yes, yes, that was what they had to do. No matter what it took, she had to give the ones she’d taken justice.

“We can do it,” Jonah said, voice rough, eyes deep, “together.”

Her gaze slipped away and found Gage. Surrounded by his wolves. Standing tall. Powerful. “He told me that you were…missing. That you’d disappeared from the compound.”

Silence.

She didn’t need Jonah to confirm the lie. She’d already figured it out on her own.

“He didn’t want me to go back for you.” Her shoulders sagged a bit. It had been one hell of a day. Week—year.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jonah returned without hesitation. “I was coming foryou. I saw Lyle burn in that holding cell. I knew the truth, and I was coming to make sure you were safe.”

No wonder he’d been stationed so close to Lyle.

“I figured it was my turn to stand guard,” her brother told her softly.

She glanced back at him. Found his gaze on hers. He looked so worried.

“I’m sorry.” His voice held a ragged edge. “Oh, damn, Kay, I’m so sorry for everything that happened. Ishotyou.”