You’re dying. A promise was a promise.

“This is how it ends,” Kayla said as she backed up, pulling her brother with her. “So have fun in hell, asshole.”

Lyle was shifting. Fighting. Clawing. “Your father—you know he begged to live!”

Kayla flinched.

“Begged!” Lyle spat. His face was elongating, his eyes burning bright. “So did your bitch of a—”

Gage slashed his throat.

The bastard stopped screaming.

You won’t hurt her anymore.

The other wolves closed in.

And Lyle didn’t scream again.

“Come back with me,” Jonah said. The other hunters were long gone—headed back to base or to who the hell knew where.

Maybe some of them would just keep driving. Keep running.

Kayla didn’t blame them. Everything they knew had all just changed. They had to figure out what they were going to do . . . who they were going to become.

Lyle was dead. The wolves were shifting back to their human forms. Turning to their alpha for guidance.

“You don’t belong with them,” Jonah told her. Her brother was standing strong and steady beside her. His hand rested on her shoulder. “Come back with me. We can go forward.”

“Forward to what?” she whispered. When you were lost, how the hell did you know which direction to take?

His hand tightened on her. “Not everything was a lie. Lyle was working for the government. He was a contractor, yeah, but he was being sent out after real killers. Those cases were real.”

“Not all of them.” And that knowledge would keep tearing her apart. “Some of those people that we captured, they were innocents, Jonah. Supernaturals that Lyle just framed because he wanted them under his control.” Or because he’d just wanted to take them out.

“Then we free them,” he said simply. With such determination. When had her kid brother grown up on her? “We find the containment areas that are housing them, and we make sure that they get their freedom.”

She nodded. Yes, yes, that was what they had to do. No matter what it took, she had to give the ones she’d taken justice.

“We can do it,” Jonah said, voice rough, eyes deep, “together.”

Her gaze slipped away and found Gage. Surrounded by his wolves. Standing tall. Powerful. “He told me that you were . . . missing. That you’d disappeared from the compound.”

Silence.

She didn’t need Jonah to confirm the lie. She’d already figured it out on her own.

“He didn’t want me to go back for you.” Her shoulders sagged a bit. It had been one hell of a day. Week—year.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jonah said instantly. “I was coming for you. I saw Lyle burn in that holding cell,I knew the truth, and I was coming to make sure you were safe.”

No wonder he’d been stationed so close to Lyle.

“I figured it was my turn to stand guard,” her brother told her softly.

She glanced back at him. Found his gaze on hers. He looked so worried. So . . .

“I’m sorry.” His voice held a ragged edge. “Oh, damn, Kay, I’m so sorry for everything that happened. I shot you.”

“With a tranq.”

He looked away. “You’re the only thing I care about in this world. The only thing that kept me in this world, when I was sure ready to leave it.”

She’d known that. She’d seen his eyes. All those long days in the hospital. All the surgeries. All the pain.

It was her turn to reach out to him. “You’ll make it up to me.”

“Following orders . . .” He muttered and shook his head. “I’m not a damn robot, and it was you. I should have trusted you. Not listened to the lies about you falling for a wolf.”

Gage’s head snapped their way.

Ah . . . shifter hearing. His eyes narrowed on Jonah. Yep, that was a flash of fury in his gaze.

I fucking love you. His words whispered through her mind again.

So it hadn’t been a candlelit confession. No roses and fancy dinner and sweet words.

It had just been—Gage. Heat of the moment. In the middle of the fight. Rough. Hard.

Her wolf.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jonah told her. “The wolves—they should just be left alone.”

Her eyes were on Gage. “I don’t want to leave them alone.”

Jonah stiffened. “Uh, what?”

Gage stalked toward her. He was wearing jeans now. Someone in the pack had brought backup clothing for everyone.

Prepared pack.

“I’m not going back,” Kayla said. She’d always feared a wolf ’s claws. Hated the power of the beast.

But Gage was different. His beast made her feel safe.

He made her feel loved.

“Kayla, it was just a job!” Jonah sounded more than a little desperate. “Just a mission gone bad!”

“No.” Gage was almost on them. Her words weren’t really for Jonah anymore. They were for Gage. It was time for him to understand. “It wasn’t just a mission for me.”

“Aw, hell. ” Jonah stepped back in surprise. “You did fall for the wolf.”

Gage’s gaze swept over Jonah. “You’re . . . healing.”

“Yes, well, a slash to the arm can take some—”

“You’re lucky I didn’t kill you.” Gage flashed his fangs. “You ever shoot at her again and I’ll—”