Page 81 of Wolf Claimed
Rafe’s hand curved around the back of her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. “That’s a reminder.”
“Of what?”
“Of what you mean to me. Be careful. I don’t know what’s going to happen with our little group, but I won’t lose you.”
Her cheeks heated with his promise. “You won’t lose me. I belong to you as much as I do to Tiernan and Maddox. And you belong to me.”
“Damn right,” he said before shifting and sprinting to catch up to Tiernan.
Alyssa tucked the gun into the back of her jeans as she entered the admin building.
“Arrest her now, Gallagher.” Jason’s voice carried down the hall from the agent’s office.
“Based on what? Graves’s neck was snapped and the knife Lincoln brought me didn’t match Graves’s wounds or have his blood. It only gave me an excuse to interrogate her. If you want me to arrest her, find me some proof she killed Graves.”
“Why are you so convinced she didn’t kill him?”
“Snapping a man’s neck, especially a trained agent and a man of Graves’s size, isn’t easy. I think we’re looking for a man.”
“She’s an agent,” Jason argued. “She’s trained like the rest of us. And she just admitted to a room full of agents that she killed him.”
“She did?” Gallagher sounded surprised.
Fuck. Jason was going to twist her words and dig her a deeper hole than she was already in.
“Nash will back me up on this,” Jason said. He seemed to be taking the lead, talking for both of them, which was odd because Nash was the more outspoken of the two.
The hard steel of a gun muzzle pressed against the back of Alyssa’s head.
“Don’t move. Don’t speak. Don’t even breathe,” Nash said from behind her as he reached down and took the gun from the back of her pants. Gallagher and Jason continued talking on the other side of the door. She had assumed Nash was in there with them, and that error would cost her her life.
Chapter Twenty-One
MADDOX
Living in the Novak pack didn’t give a shifter a lot of freedom. Not in his duties, not in which cabin he lived, not even in being able to leave at will. Choosing a mate had been Maddox’s only freedom, and he’d chosen Isabella because she’d appealed to him with her sweet smile and demure behavior. She’d never challenged him, disobeyed him, or even questioned him. She’d been the perfectly obedient mate, as the females of the pack were trained to be.
Up until the end, the blood-bond had connected them. Now, Maddox’s blood burned for the female who had blood-bonded Tiernan. He felt as if she belonged to him, not Tiernan, at least not fully to Tiernan. Just the thought of anyone other than Tiernan and Rafe touching her made him want to kill. He still didn’t understand why his wolf didn’t feel threatened by Tiernan’s and Rafe’s involvement with Alyssa, but he’d learned a long time ago not to question his wolf in these matters. In some ways, he felt a great shame that he’d never felt such deep passion for Isabella as he did for Alyssa. But his feelings were rather moot right now. They had to be. He had a job to do. Protecting his female.
“You harm her, and nothing will save you from me,” Maddox said to the human holding a gun to Alyssa’s head.
“Maddox,” she said, her voice barely a squeak. The bitter scent of her fear riled his wolf. Bones began moving under his skin as his wolf tried to force a shift. Maddox shoved his wolf down. Drake and his orders be damned, Maddox would not risk her.
“You even touch me and the gun will go off, shifter,” Nash said.
“What the fuck?” Gallagher said as he and Jason entered the hall. “Nash, lower your gun.”
“You’re her next target, Agent Gallagher. I caught her outside your door, preparing to shoot you.”
“I wasn’t going—”
Nash pressed the gun’s nozzle into her temple, warning her to shut up. Maddox didn’t contain the growl. Two guns cocked, both pointed at him.
“Maddox is innocent!” Alyssa said, sounding alarmed. For him. Hearing her panic riled his wolf further. Maddox considered shifting, but that guaranteed several bullets in his head.
“Step back, 86,” Gallagher said. “And don’t even think of shifting. I’ll shoot you the second you do.”
“Kevin and Nash are the killers,” Alyssa said, her voice confident and strong again. The risk she was taking by accusing Nash as he held a gun to her nearly made Maddox lose control of his wolf and shift. Maddox no longer heard the words being shouted back and forth between her and the males as he assessed every possible maneuver. All resulted in Alyssa getting shot.
