But sometimes, no matter what you wanted, the beast could still take over. He thought of Kayla’s scars again. The lightly raised flesh on the curve of her hip and on her shoulder. The narrow lines that slid down beside her spine. Someone had hurt her badly. From the looks of those scars, the wounds had occurred long ago.

When she’d just been a kid.

“In the dark . . .” he said, and tried to keep his voice emotionless. A hard task, when so many emotions wanted to break free. “All monsters aren’t the same.” She should know that. Good and evil didn’t really exist. The lines were too blurred for that vague distinction in the paranormal world.

Her lashes lowered to shield her gaze. “I know. That’s why you don’t have a silver knife in your heart.”

Bloodthirsty little vixen. He’d known she’d make the perfect alpha female. You had to be willing to fight to the end in order to be an alpha.

Kayla was a fighter.

“You were the wrong bait,” he said simply. The words were the truth. “Your bastard of a boss should have been brave enough to come after me himself.” Instead of hiding in the shadows and slowly picking off the paranormals who crossed his path.

Instead of taking my wolves. Two wolves gone. He’d better get them back.

Now that he had Kayla with him . . . it was gonna be his turn to use her as bait. He sighed, and with a genuine trace of regret, told her, “I’m sorry.”

Her lashes lifted and she frowned at him. “For what? Kidnapping me? Bringing me to this rundown shack?”

Hardly. Those were just the start of his sins. Gage waved them away with a negligent flick of his fingers. “For what’s coming.” Then he took her chin in his hand, and kept his touch featherlight. He could already hear the approach of vehicles outside. The others had come much faster than he’d anticipated.

Gage had thought that he’d have at least another hour. But, no, the guests had arrived too soon.

They shouldn’t have gotten to the scene so quickly, not unless . . .

His hands swept down Kayla’s body. Idiot. He should have realized the truth sooner. She’d come far too willingly. He’d thought she was just changing her mind about him. That she wanted to escape with him.

But she’d still been setting him up.

His hand slid under her shirt.

She slapped at him. “Now isn’t the time to—”

“You’ve got a tracker on you.” Shit. Shit, shit. And all those scars that pissed him off—one of them could easily have been left on her flesh when a tracking device was implanted. Hunters often used those devices, he knew that. But he’d been thinking with his dick, not his head. Should have checked her. He should have sliced beneath her skin and checked like he would have with any otherhunter.

Only she wasn’t any other hunter. She was . . . Kayla. Mine.

As he patted her down, her eyes widened, then she gave a slow, negative shake of her head. “Stop the frisking routine, okay? I don’t have a tracker.” Her words rushed out quickly.

But would she even know if she’d been tagged? Or would her boss want to keep his secret watch on her and all his other hunters? “You chose the wrong side for this fight.”

She swallowed. Her lips trembled a bit but she said, “I chose the only side I could.”

Those cars were coming closer. He could hear the crunch of gravel beneath the tires. Either she was tagged for tracking. . . or the dark suspicion that he’d had for weeks was true.

If Kayla didn’t have a tracker on her, then he could have a traitor in the pack. Because he had not been followed from Vegas. He’d made sure of that fact.

“When your team comes, what will you do?” His claws were pushing through his fingertips. “Go running back to them?”

Her gaze stayed locked on his. “I’m not going back.”

Well, well . . . Exactly what he wanted to hear, but Gage didn’t let his expression alter. “Good.” Then, since she deserved to know, he added, “Because I wasn’t giving you up.” Just so they were clear.

Her lips parted in surprise.

Time was running out. Those vehicles would be braking any minute. Before the hunters came storming in, he wanted his taste to be on her, wanted her taste on his lips. So Gage stepped forward and pulled her close. His head dipped toward her, and he kissed her with the wild need that pounded through him.

What they had, it wasn’t about hunter and prey. It was man and woman. Lust. Need. A desire that couldn’t be satisfied, not with just one night.

Maybe not even with a thousand nights.

“We’re just getting started,” he promised against her lips. His. His wife, his for-fucking-ever.

Just let the hunters try to take her. He was more than ready to rip them apart.

And they were coming. So big. So tough. So stupidly sure of themselves.

Pity. This time, he’d used the bait—and they were the ones running into a trap.

Another kiss. Another slow lick of his lips over hers. Then Gage pushed her back. Away from the cabin’s door and windows. “Scream for me,” he said.

She didn’t speak.

She liked to make things hard. That was his Kayla.

“Scream,” he said again and lifted his claws. He had to transform before the hunters entered the cabin. During those few moments that it took to shift, he was vulnerable. Open for their attack. He wouldn’t be vulnerable before them.

But once he was in his full wolf form . . .