Page 62 of Wed Or Dead

Another hunter was rushing up behind Kayla. Why were they all in their damn ski masks? Why?—

Too close.

Gage leapt to take out the man sneaking up to attack Kayla but a gun blasted and, in the next breath, a bullet slammed into Gage’s upper back.

Sonofabitch.

The bullet went through right under his shoulder and tore out the front of his body. Snarling at the pain, Gage whirled around. He saw the hunter just steps away. The prick giving off the heavy scent of fear and sweat. The bastard with the shaking hands. And the gun that was about to fire again.

“Bad mistake,” Gage told him. Then he attacked. His claws cut deep into the fool’s wrist. The gun clattered to the ground—and the hunter fell, too, crying and begging for mercy.

Mercy? What the fuck did he look like?

Kayla screamed.

Gage whirled back around. A hunter had her in his arms. Held tight against his chest. The masked man had a gun.

No.Not her.“Kayla!”Gage’s roar thundered over the gunshots and the howls of the beasts around him.

“Shoot her!” Lyle screamed. He was hanging with his body half-in, half-out of the SUV. Lyle’s hand was rising. He’d gone into that SUV to get something.

A weapon?

Kayla slammed her head into the hunter’s face, driving against the ski mask that covered his features. Then she jabbed her elbow into his side and kicked down hard on his foot.

The hunter’s hold eased on her. She moved, spinning around, and knocked the gun from his grip even as she put that hunter down on his ass.

Gage had never seen a better alpha female.Never.

He ran toward her, grabbed her, and pulled her close. “I fucking love you.”

Her gasp filled his ears.

Then, because Gage knew what was coming and he didn’t have time to do anything but protect the woman he loved, Gage twisted his body to shield her.

And when the bullet hit him—the bullet that had been fired from the gun clutched in Lyle’s white-knuckled fist—Gage felt the burn of the silver in every inch of his body.

“Gage!” Kayla’s scream. Her hands were on him, nails digging into his chest.

He tried to fight through the burning agony. Kayla wasn’t safe. Lyle would shoot at her again. The bastard had to be stopped.

The beast was coming out.

Gage lifted his hand and saw that the shift had already started. He hadn’t even felt the break and snap of his bones, but his hand—not the hand of a man.

Kayla lifted up her gun and fired at Lyle. Again and again. “Shift,” she commanded Gage.“Shift!”

The hunter she’d pounded was trying to lift himself off the ground.

And the shift was too damn slow. Kayla was battling Lyle on her own, and Gage tried to force his body to transform faster. But the silver was in his blood and every breath hurt.

Her bullets slammed into Lyle, but they weren’t silver. She’d grabbed a hunter’s weapon, but the idiot hadn’t packed silver. Why? Lyle’s order? Had hewantedthe humans to die?

When her bullets hit Lyle, the bastard just laughed as his blood flowed. And he took aim at Kayla again.

“No!”Not Gage’s scream, because he couldn’t scream in that moment. He could roar and howl, but speech was lost to him.

The desperate cry came from the hunter that Kayla had attacked and knocked down. He was lunging for her now, but Lyle had already fired his weapon.

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