Wolf Rising (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #8) Page 32

  They rolled back and forth in the broken glass, cutting the shit out of themselves, punching and shoving. Brooks could have finished this quickly if he’d wanted to, but he was still trying to take Ernesto down alive. For Selena’s sake.

  He just about had the man pinned until Selena landed on top of them, growling, clawing, and biting like the out-of-control omega she was.

  Brooks was trying to shove Selena aside without hurting her when Ernesto’s hand came up in a blur. That’s all he saw before a long shard of glass slammed into his throat and snapped off. The pain was intense, and blood went everywhere. But the worst part was that Selena completely lost her mind after that. She let out a snarl, not caring that Ernesto had another piece of glass in his hands and was aiming for her neck this time.

  Brooks forgot the pain and the blood pouring down his windpipe, which was choking the hell out of him, as he threw himself forward to protect Selena, lashing out with his claws and ripping out Ernesto’s throat.

  Brooks turned and looked at Selena to see her growling and snarling as she stared down in blue-eyed rage at the man dying on the floor. Then a movement caught his eye, and Brooks glanced over to see a stunned and silent Ruben standing in the doorway, staring at a scene he couldn’t understand.

  It didn’t help when Brooks stood up, a glass shard in his neck and bleeding like a stuck pig as he moved over to Selena to pull her into his arms and calm her down all over again. She continued to stare at Ernesto’s body but didn’t resist the comfort Brooks gave her while she sobbed like crazy.

  Brooks looked past her to Ruben, who still stood there gawking like this was the most extreme thing he’d ever seen in his life, which it probably was. Damn, this was going to be difficult to explain.

  Zane walked up behind Ruben a few seconds later. He looked like he’d been in a pretty good fight. He was holding his injured arm stiffly, like it was hurting him, but he had a satisfied look on his face that Brooks hadn’t seen in a long time. Maybe that fight with the two gangbangers had finally proved something to him.

  His friend took one look at the scene and winced, then put a hand on Ruben’s shoulder.

  “Come on, kid,” he said. “Let’s go talk about this.”

  Brooks thanked him with a nod, then went back to comforting his mate. He tried to make the same shushing sounds as before, but his throat wouldn’t work. He pulled back a little from Selena, hoping she wouldn’t notice, and tried to get a grip on the piece of glass still sticking out of his throat.

  He couldn’t do it without being able to see what he was doing. He tensed, knowing the wound would heal while the glass was still in there. He wondered if he needed to go get Zane when Selena realized what was going on. Reaching up, she gently tugged the shard out.

  Brooks sighed in relief the moment it was out, wrapping his arm around her and urging her into the hallway where he hugged her to his chest again and let his body have time to heal itself.

  After a moment, Selena pulled back to look up at him, her brown eyes filled with concern. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded, because it was all he could do at the moment, asking her the same question with his eyes.

  She glanced back at her classroom, then nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. But I’m not sure if I’m processing everything that happened. I just found out my brother didn’t die because he was in a gang. He died because he was trying to protect me from someone he thought wasn’t good enough for me. I also found out my best friend, the man I spent years leaning on, was the person who killed him. And now that Ernesto is dead, I don’t feel anything but relief.”

  Brooks tried to say something, but the words still wouldn’t come out. Dammit. So instead, he hugged her again, trying to say everything he felt with nothing more than his touch.

  “I love you,” she said against his chest. “I’ve known for a while but couldn’t seem to find the time to tell you. It’s probably not the best time to say it now, but you came and saved my life…again. The least I can do is muster the courage to tell you how I feel.”

  Brooks swallowed experimentally, relieved it didn’t feel nearly as painful now. “I’ll always be there to save you,” he whispered in a rough voice. “I love you, too.”

  Selena leaned against him, squeezing him tightly. “I know, and it feels really good.”

  They stood there like that until Brooks heard the sounds of approaching sirens. No doubt Selena heard them, too.

  “We need to figure out what we’re going to tell them,” he whispered. “But once this is over and we’re home, I’m going to tell you about the werewolf legend of The One . Okay?”

  She smiled up at him. “You get me home before midnight, and you can tell me any legend you want.”

  Chapter 21

  “You sure you don’t need some help with the cooking?” Jayden asked, even though Selena knew it was a waste of time. She’d only known Zane for about two weeks, but she’d already picked up on the fact that he was one stubborn Brit.

  “No, I don’t need help,” Zane growled, managing the thirty or so burgers on the grill with only his right arm, the other still a little sore from the fight he’d gotten in last Sunday. “The food is almost ready, so go play volleyball with the others. Or go pet Tuffie and Kat if you want. Just go away and stop distracting me.”

  Jayden looked like he was about to insist, so Selena hooked her arm in his and dragged him away from the line of grills and tables groaning under the weight of all the food that had already been set out and closer to the volleyball courts and the people playing and laughing over there. Jayden had said it himself the other day. Zane was doing a lot better now. His arm still wasn’t working, but he’d had some kind of epiphany during the fight at the high school. It was like he’d concluded that his injury wasn’t going to define him. It was one of the reasons he’d volunteered to cook today.

  They stopped by the sand-filled volleyball pit, watching the combination of kids, teens, and adults run around trying to smash a poor little ball that had never done a thing to them. Ruben and Marguerite were out there giggling their heads off with a bunch of younger kids as the adult members of the Pack let them play the game any way they wanted, even if that meant kicking the ball, which Selena was pretty sure wasn’t in the formal rule book.

  Scott, Becca, and Marguerite’s parents were chatting with a small pack of beta werewolves on the sideline of the game. Becca had spent a good portion of the day looking around curiously, no doubt trying to figure out which people were werewolves and which ones weren’t. Every once in a while, her friend would subtly point in someone’s direction, silently lifting an eyebrow. Selena would only laugh and refuse to indicate one way or the other.

  While the weather was chilly today, the SWAT compound was packed with people having an incredibly good time, even though it wasn’t hard at all to find signs of the recent battle there. New bricks had been laid along the front of the armory, and nearly all the various bullet holes in the admin building had been patched. But there were still a lot of scorch marks all over the place, because it was apparently too cold right now to paint. Nobody seemed to care about any of that, though. If she had to guess, she’d say it was because the damage was a reminder to everyone that they’d won. It hadn’t been a pretty win, with everything tied up in a nice pretty bow, but everyone was safe and unharmed. They’d confirmed the wolfsbane vaccination worked, there were a lot less hunters in the world than there had been before, and while no one had found Curtis yet, they would soon. His face was plastered over every news outlet and social media platform in the world.

  Even Jayden’s friend, Ray, was doing fantastic. He’d wanted to come to the cookout, but his doctor shut that idea down. Now that Deputy Chief Mason was acting chief of police, Ray wouldn’t be retiring anytime soon, something that pleased Jayden immensely.

  “Food’s ready, people!” Zane called out.

  The game ceased immediately, and everyone ran for the tables to grab something to eat. Plates piled high, they disappeared
inside the training building where tables and chairs had been set up. Selena waved and hugged people as they passed, still working hard to learn everyone’s name. She and Jayden ended up at a table with Gage, Mac, Zane, and some of the other Pack werewolves.

  “Is everything getting back to normal in your classroom?” Mac asked as she loaded her fork with barbecue chicken.

  “Pretty much.” Selena had been planning to go with a single cheeseburger, but when she’d seen the fish and chips—Zane’s specialty—she couldn’t help grabbing those, too. Her appetite was crazy since she’d become a werewolf. “Some of the kids are still having a hard time walking into a classroom where there’s been a shooting, but the counselors are helping with that.”

  She didn’t mention the part about how some things were much easier now than they’d been before. Gang activity was at an all-time low at the school, now that so many gangbangers were dead or in prison. Then there was the matter of her reputation. After word had gotten out about her beating up those gangbangers at that party and how she’d faced down Ernesto, classroom management wasn’t an issue for her anymore. Nobody wanted to get on her bad side.

  “How about with you?” Gage’s dark-haired wife prompted gently. “You doing okay walking into that room?”

  A big, strong arm slipped around her, and she looked over at Jayden to see him regarding her warmly. They’d had this same talk earlier in the week when she’d stayed over at his place, which she did every night now. He’d been worried about how she was handling Ernesto’s death.

  “That’s a work in progress, too, but it’s going well,” she admitted. “Cooper introduced me to a friend of his—Dr. Delacroix—and I’ve been talking it over with her. I guess I had a lot of anger issues tied up along with my brother’s death. Finding out how he died and that the person responsible for it is dead, too, seems to have helped me. As hard as that is to understand.”

  Mac shook her head. “It’s not that hard to understand at all.”

  In a way, letting go of all that anger was helping her control the omega wolf, too. Her eyes had even glowed green for the first time last night when she and Jayden had made love.

  “Did anyone have a problem with the story you gave about how Ernesto died?” Diego asked from the end of the table, his voice soft so no one around them would hear. Well, no one who wasn’t a werewolf at least.

  “I said his throat got slashed with some broken glass during the fight,” Jayden said. “I’m not sure the ME bought it, but no one tried to second-guess us.”

  As they ate, the conversation centered around more family-friendly topics, like how well Tuffie and Kat were getting along these days, or how cool it had been for the Ritz to offer Lana and Max a free suite there this weekend since their previous plans had been ruined by the hunters. The newlyweds were headed there right after the cookout.

  “Still no word on where the hell Curtis disappeared to?” Jayden asked. “It’s hard to believe no one has seen him yet. The guy isn’t that good at blending into a crowd. I thought they’d catch him by now.”

  “Funny you should mention that,” Gage said, grabbing a handful of fries from his plate. “I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to get any hopes up, but in addition to cloning the SIM card on Curtis’s cell, Becker also installed a parental snooping app. We hadn’t gotten anything out of it since Curtis disappeared, but it popped up this morning long enough for our former chief to send and receive a text message. The phone disappeared again immediately after that, but Becker was able to grab the phone’s location and the two texts. Curtis was arranging a meeting location.”

  Everyone around the table sat there in stunned silence.

  “Where is it?” Rachel asked urgently, a forkful of potato salad halfway to her mouth. “Please tell me that he’s here in Dallas?”

  Gage shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. He’s in LA. He requested a pickup from someone. Whoever it was told him to go to the Griffith Observatory.”

  More silence reigned.

  “What are we going to do?” Jayden asked. “Turn the info over to the marshals or the FBI?”

  “I was thinking we’d send some people out there to look around and see what they can find,” Gage said softly. “If he went to the effort of going all the way to California, it’s probably because that’s where the other hunters are.”

  “I’ll go,” Zane offered. “I’ve done undercover work before, and I know a few people out there who owe me some favors.”

  Selena barely knew Gage but could immediately see he wasn’t thrilled at the idea. But before the Pack leader could say anything, Jayden interrupted.

  “Plus, Zane could pretend to be a tourist or something,” he said. “He already has the accent.”

  Gage glowered at Jayden, and Selena held her breath, wondering if a growl was on the way. But after a moment of locking eyes with her mate, the SWAT commander finally looked at Zane.

  “Okay,” he said. “But there’s no way in hell you or anyone else is going without backup.”

  “I’ll go,” Rachel said. “I’ve never been, but I’ve always wanted to see LA.”

  “Count me in,” Diego murmured. “I got family in LA, and I know a lot of cops there.”

  Gage considered that, then nodded. “Okay, that’s the plan then. Zane, you take lead. Rachel and Diego, you go in as a couple. Observe and act as his communications link to us unless he needs backup. I’d like to send Becker out there with you, but he needs his computer to be useful. Besides, he’d end up taking Jayna, which means her whole beta pack would want to go, too. That would be a catastrophe. So, any hacking you need, you’re going to have to work with him long distance.”

  Zane exchanged looks with Jayden, giving him a small nod. Jayden nodded back.

  The party didn’t wind down until hours later, after more food, a few games of volleyball, and some seriously delicious desserts. Selena even brought several trays of brownies, much to Cooper’s delight.

  “You about ready to get out of here?” Jayden asked after Becca and Scott took off.

  Selena nodded. “Yeah. Is it okay if I crash at your place again tonight?”

  He chuckled. “Of course, it’s okay. I don’t know why you don’t just move in and save rent money.”

  She smiled. “Is that your really romantic way of asking me to cohabitate with you?”

  “That depends on your answer.” Jayden flashed her a grin. “If your answer is yes, then it’s definitely my attempt at romance. If the answer is no, then just consider it a clumsy attempt at humor.”

  Selena kissed him long and slow, then grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the exit, keenly aware of all their packmates watching them. “The answer is most definitely yes.”

  Acknowledgments

  I hope you had as much fun reading Brooks and Selena’s story as I had writing it! I knew Selena was going to be a werewolf when I first came up with the story. What I didn’t know was that she was going to be an omega. But up until now, I hadn’t explored what it’s really like to be an omega werewolf, and I realized Selena would be the perfect character to do that with. It gave me a chance to show an omega in a completely different light.

  This whole series wouldn’t be possible without some very incredible people. In addition to another big thank-you to my hubby for all his help with the action scenes, military, and tactical jargon; my editor and go-to-person at Sourcebooks, Cat Clyne (who loves this series as much as I do and is always a phone call, text, or email away whenever I need something); and all the other amazing people at Sourcebooks, including my fantastic publicist and their crazy-talented art department. The covers they make for me are seriously droolworthy!

  Because I could never leave out my readers, a huge thank-you to everyone who has read my books and Snoopy Danced right along with me with every new release. That includes the fantastic people on my amazing Street Team, as well my assistant, Janet. You rock!

  I also want to give a big thank-you to the men, women, and work
ing dogs who protect and serve in police departments everywhere, as well as their families.

  And a very special shout-out to our favorite restaurant, P.F. Chang’s, where hubby and I bat storylines back and forth and come up with all of our best ideas, as well as a thank-you to our fantastic waiter, Andrew, who takes our order to the kitchen the moment we walk in the door!

  Hope you enjoy the next book in the SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team Series coming soon from Sourcebooks, and look forward to reading the rest of the series as much as I look forward to sharing it with you.

  If you love a man in uniform as much as I do, make sure you check out X-OPS, my other action-packed paranormal/romantic-suspense series from Sourcebooks.

  Happy Reading!

  About the Author

  Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy, romantic suspense and paranormal romance. She and her very own military hero (also known as her husband) live on the beautiful Florida coast with their adorable fur baby (also known as their dog). Paige graduated with a degree in education but decided to pursue her passion and write books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines who fall in love with them.

  Visit Paige at her website at paigetylertheauthor.com .

  She’s also on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, tsu, Wattpad, Google+, and Pinterest.

  Also By Paige Tyler

  SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team

  Hungry Like the Wolf

  Wolf Trouble

  In The Company of Wolves

  To Love a Wolf

  Wolf Unleashed

  Wolf Hunt

  Wolf Hunger

  Wolf Rising

  X-Ops

  Her Perfect Mate