Mac gasped as a shape moved out of the shadows. For a moment, her eyes couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. The tall, broad-shouldered figure she’d expected was instead replaced with a large gray wolf.
Gage.
He’d told her he could turn into a wolf, but she hadn’t expected him to be so…so…huge. Or so beautiful. All Mac could do was stare at him, transfixed by his amazing presence.
“What the hell…?” Hardy muttered.
Gage bared his teeth in a snarl as he charged, moving so fast he was nothing more than a big, gray blur.
Mac barely had time to scream before Gage slammed into her and Hardy. The blow probably would have broken her in half if Gage had actually struck her squarely, but his big front paws skimmed over her right shoulder, hitting the taller Hardy with the force of a moving truck.
Still, the glancing blow sent her flying. She hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from her lungs.
Hardy’s gun went off, but the sound was drowned out by Gage’s snarl. Heart in her throat, Mac rolled onto her hip to see Gage clamp down on Hardy’s arm with his enormous teeth. After a few savage shakes, Hardy cried out in pain and dropped the gun.
Mac lunged for the weapon. She didn’t know if Gage needed her help, but she was determined to give it to him anyway. She scrambled to pick up the gun, cursing as she fumbled to get her hands around the large grip. She turned around just in time to see Gage going for Hardy’s throat.
She quickly looked away. Even after everything that Hardy had done to them, she knew this wasn’t something she wanted to see.
When she looked back a few moments later, Gage was standing over Hardy’s lifeless body. As if sensing her eyes on him, Gage turned his big head toward her. He gazed at her with those mesmerizing gold eyes she’d come to love. They were filled with so many emotions that she almost cried.
He took a slow step toward her, then another and another until he was right in front of her. He seemed even bigger up close. She set the gun on the ground, then went up on her knees so she could look him in the eyes. Then, because she couldn’t help herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his soft, thick fur.
Movement off to the right caught her attention. She lifted her head a little, expecting to see the rest of the Pack, but instead it was Roscoe Patterson. Something glinted in the glow of a distant airfield light—a gun.
And he was aiming it at Gage.
Without thought, Mac grabbed the pistol from the ground, somehow getting both hands around it on the first try, then instinctively aimed it like Gage had taught her. She squeezed the trigger as smoothly as her thundering heart would allow.
The boom from the thing was deafening, but that was nothing compared to the shockwave that reverberated through her. She’d planned to fire a second shot, but found herself sitting on her ass, the gun somewhere on the ground. She threw a quick glance in Patterson’s direction as she frantically searched for the weapon and was stunned to see him lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving, and in the darkness, she could see the big stain slowly spreading across his chest.
Oh, God. She’d killed him. She’d done it to save Gage’s life, and would do it again if she had to, but still…
Gage ran over to check anyway. He sniffed the body once, then loped back over to her. His eyes searched her face, as if asking,Areyouokay?She sank her fingers in the fur around his ears, tugging him closer. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck again and buried her face in his scruff like before.
She might have cried a little then—she was doing a lot of that these days—but she couldn’t be sure. Gage didn’t seem to mind. He simply rubbed his muzzle against her face and let her hold him. God, she could really get used to doing this.
After a while, Mac realized she couldn’t hear gunshots anymore. That must mean it was all over. She prayed the rest of the Pack was okay.
She pulled back to find Gage appraising her with questioning eyes. She smiled at him.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, but he didn’t look convinced. “They didn’t hurt me.”
That seemed to appease him. He nuzzled her neck with his huge snout and chuffed quietly.
“Yes, I love you, too,” she said with a soft laugh.
If someone had told her that one day she’d be carrying on a one-sided conversation with a werewolf, she would have called them crazy. But as she gazed into Gage’s expressive eyes, she decided that maybe the conversation wasn’t one-sided after all.
She ran her hand over his fur. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
He chuffed again in answer, then jerked his head toward the hangar. It took her a moment to realize he wanted her to follow him. When she nodded, he began walking that way. Now that Gage was here, the pain in her knee didn’t seem as bad as before and she fell into step beside him, admiring how graceful he was for a creature so big. It was like walking with a pony.
They hadn’t reached the hangar yet when she heard the sirens approach. Inside the building, Gage stopped beside a pile of something on the floor. It took Mac a second to figure out what she was looking at, then it struck her.
“I never thought about that. You’re naked under all that fur.”
It probably should have been obvious, but she hadn’t actually thought about it until now.
