The idea of letting Selena go ripped a growl from his throat, but when he saw the number of armed men pointing weapons in his direction, he realized his friend was right.
“Stay with Zane,” he told her, yanking his Glock out as he jumped to his feet.
As he ran, Brooks heard Selena snarling, trying to escape Zane’s hold, but his packmate refused to let her go. More importantly, the moment he started moving, the hunters, dressed in the white-and-black uniforms of the catering crew, adjusted their aim to follow him. Zane was right. He was their primary target. The faster he got away from Selena, the safer she’d be.
Popping off shots in the hunters’ direction, Brooks took in the situation as he ran across the tent toward the main entrance, ignoring the sting as several more bullets hit him. The human wedding guests who’d been trapped in the tent when the shooting started were either hugging the floor or trying to hide under the tables, including Lana’s parents. Gage was down on the floor as well, protecting Mac with his body. Curtis was long gone, far enough away that Brooks could no longer pick up an active scent. Trevor, Hale, Carter, and Max were standing guard over Lana, slowly and carefully putting down one target after another with their own backup weapons. All four of his packmates had been hit multiple times, but that didn’t slow them down.
Smaller explosions echoed outside the tent as two more hunters ran in, their rifles held high as they assessed the situation. Brooks didn’t recognize the first guy, but the second one through the door was very familiar—Seth Oliver.
Oliver’s eyes widened when he saw that Brooks and his packmates were alive. The same couldn’t be said of his fellow hunters around the tent. Those men wouldn’t be getting back up again. Brooks didn’t know if Oliver was more surprised that their poison bullets didn’t work this time or that the Pack had been carrying backup weapons during a wedding reception.
The man locked eyes with Brooks for half a second, then he turned and fled. Brooks chased him outside only to slow a bit as he took in the violence going on around the rest of the darkened SWAT compound.
Brooks had never been in the military, but he imagined this was what a war zone looked like. Wedding guests were running all over the place, trying to get out of the compound. There was the flash and pop of automatic weapons fire coming from the direction of the main admin building and growling and shouting from over near the volleyball court. In addition, a bomb had taken out the front side of the armory building, which was currently on fire. The hunters had tried to destroy the armory, probably hoping to keep them from reaching any of their weapons.
Brooks ignored all of that as he caught sight of Oliver running toward a line of SUVs parked outside the front gate of the compound. He threw a quick look at the fighting going on over near the main building, noting that the gunfire had already slowed drastically. The battle there was almost over. He only hoped the Pack was winning it.
He took off after Oliver, refusing to let the asshole get away this time. But as he got closer to the vehicles, Brooks realized Oliver wasn’t the only hunter beating a retreat. There were four other men heading toward the SUVs, the one going for the driver’s side limping badly. Brooks smelled the scent of blood and fear pouring off them, and he changed course slightly, turning aside to go after the four random hunters instead of Oliver. He hated Oliver, but taking down four hunters made more sense from a mathematical point of view.
But then he saw Rachel loping after the four men, a small double-action .380 handgun held low at her side, her eyes glowing vivid green as she tracked after her prey. Baring her fangs, she lifted her weapon and aimed for the injured driver.
Brooks turned his attention to Oliver, running faster as the hunter jumped behind the wheel and gunned the engine to life like his life depended on getting away—which it did. The SUV started to pull forward, but Brooks didn’t care. He was stopping the man, no matter what.
Just as he tucked his shoulder and prepared to ram the SUV off the road, he caught Selena’s scent, quickly followed by Zane’s. He glanced over his shoulder to see Selena coming toward him, her eyes glowing blue. Zane was right behind her, trying to catch up.
A growl to his right caught Brooks’s attention, and he looked over to see Rachel standing near the perimeter fence, her weapon still aimed at the injured hunter. Brooks waited for her to pull the trigger, but she didn’t. Instead, she and the hunter stared at each other, confusion on both of their faces. A split second later, the hunter leaped into the SUV and took off. Brooks didn’t know why, but for whatever reason, Rachel had not taken the shot.
It was too late for Brooks to change course and go after the vehicle with the four hunters now. He was committed to Oliver’s SUV.
Brooks hit the front quarter panel right behind the wheel at full speed. The impact was so violent, he felt multiple bones crack, but he ignored them. The vehicle was big, but he’d hit with a shitload of force, and the nose of the SUV went up and sideways, almost going over as it slid across the narrow street along the front of the compound and into the ditch on the far side.
He punched through the glass of the driver’s window, gripping the frame and ripping the door off, then pulling Oliver out and throwing him to the ground.
“I can tell you stuff about the hunters,” Oliver said urgently, scrambling to his feet and trying to back up even as he attempted to line up a shot at Brooks’s head. “I know who the man in charge is. I know where you can find him.”
Brooks reached out to smack the gun from Oliver’s hand when Selena arrived in the form of a growling blue-eyed blur that slammed into Oliver’s chest so hard, Brooks heard bones crack.
Oliver bounced off the front of the SUV, his weapon coming up again but pointed at Selena this time.
Shit.
Heart pounding, Brooks lunged, grabbing Oliver and snapping his neck before he could pull the trigger. Gage almost certainly would have preferred letting the man live long enough to tell them about the hunters, but that simply hadn’t been an option.
Brooks pulled Selena into his arms, making soft shushing sounds as he attempted to calm her down. She held on to him tightly, her face pressed against his chest.
“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”
He glanced at Zane, who shook his head.
“She wiggled loose,” Zane said. “She’s a lot stronger than a werewolf her size should be, and she was freaked out worrying about you.”
“It’s okay,” Brooks murmured again, using the same calming tones on Zane as he had on Selena. “It’s all going to be okay now. No harm, no foul.”
Zane nodded, even though he still looked embarrassed as hell.
Brooks sighed, listening to Selena’s heartbeat slow to normal as the tension drained from her body. He couldn’t see her eyes, so he wasn’t completely sure, but something told him they were no longer blue. That was good. She’d gotten herself under control quickly.
He looked around, realizing the shooting had stopped. He could make out a few members of the Pack moving about, checking on wedding guests. The hunters had come at them again, with a coordinated, targeted assassination attempt, and Curtis had been a part of it.
