Then he opened his mouth and roared the order, “Kill!”

The wolves had already shifted. They were ready. Eager for the fight to come.

The foolish hunters . . . they wouldn’t have a chance.

“No!” Kayla cried out, but it was too late. He’d given the order.

Streaks of black, gray, and white burst from the darkness and lunged for the hunters. The humans were trying to fire, but they couldn’t aim well at their targets. Not in the dark. Not with so many wolves rushing around them and moving so quickly.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Kayla whispered, then she shoved away from Gage. “It won’t be like this.”

She ran right into the battle.

Dammit, no.

His claws burst out of his fingers as he took off after her. Lyle had raced to a nearby SUV. Big surprise, he was trying to jump inside and make a run for it. Coward to the core.

“Going someplace?” Kayla demanded, then she grabbed a gun right out of the hand of a nearby hunter. She slugged the guy, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

Nice punch. That right hook was really killer.

Kayla aimed the gun at Lyle. “Get away from the vehicle. Get your ass out here right now, shifter!”

Two hunters jumped in front of Gage. He could have just slit their throats with one long swipe of his claws.

He knocked them out instead. Just slammed their heads together and stepped over them when they fell.

Another hunter was rushing up behind Kayla. Why were they all in their damn ski masks? Why—

Too close.

Gage leapt to take out the man sneaking up to attack Kayla but a gun blasted and, in the next breath, a bullet slammed into Gage’s upper back.

Son of a bitch.

The bullet went through right under his shoulder, and blasted out the front of his body. Snarling at the pain, Gage whirled around. Saw the hunter just steps away. The guy giving off the heavy scent of fear and sweat. The guy with the shaking hands. And the gun that was about to fire again.

“Bad mistake,” Gage told him. Then he attacked. His claws cut deep into the fool’s wrist. The gun clattered to the ground—and the hunter fell, too, crying and begging for mercy.

Mercy? What the fuck did he look like?

Kayla screamed.

Gage whirled back around. A hunter had her in his arms. Held tight against his chest. The masked man had a gun.

No. Not her. “Kayla!” His roar thundered across the gunshots and the howls of the beasts around him.

“Shoot her!” Lyle screamed. He was hanging with his body half-in, half-out of the SUV. Lyle’s hand was rising. He’d gone into that SUV to get something . . .

A weapon?

Kayla slammed her head into the hunter’s ski mask-covered face. Then she jabbed her elbow into his side and kicked down hard on his foot.

The guy’s hold eased on her. She moved, spinning around, and knocked the gun from his grip even as she put that hunter down on his ass.

Gage had never seen a better alpha female. Never.

He ran toward her, grabbed her, and pulled her close. “I fucking love you.”

Her gasp filled his ears.

Then, because Gage knew what was coming and he didn’t have time to do anything but protect the woman he loved, Gage twisted his body to shield her.

And when the bullet hit him—the bullet that had been fired from the gun clutched in Lyle’s white-knuckled fist, Gage felt the burn of the silver in every inch of his body.

“Gage!” Kayla’s scream. Her hands were on him, nails digging into his chest.

He tried to fight through the burning agony. Kayla wasn’t safe. Lyle would shoot at her again. The bastard had to be stopped.

The beast was coming out.

Gage lifted his hand and saw that the shift had already started. He hadn’t even felt the break and snap of his bones, but his hand—not the hand of a man.

Kayla lifted up her gun and fired at Lyle. Again and again. “Shift,” she whispered to Gage. “Shift!”

The hunter she’d pounded was trying to lift himself off the ground.

And the shift was too damn slow. Kayla was battling Lyle on her own, and Gage tried to force his body to transform faster. But the silver was in his blood and every breath hurt.

Her bullets slammed into Lyle, but they weren’t silver. She’d grabbed a hunter’s weapon, but the idiot hadn’t packed silver. Why? Lyle’s order? Had he wanted the humans to die?

When her bullets hit Lyle, the bastard just laughed as his blood flowed. And he took aim at Kayla again.

“No!” Not Gage’s scream, because he couldn’t scream right then. He could roar and howl, but speech was lost to him.

The desperate cry came from the hunter that Kayla had attacked and knocked down. He was lunging for her now, but Lyle had already fired his weapon.

Kayla leapt to the side. The bullet tore across her hip and the scent of her blood broke Gage and his wolf.

The shift finished in a white-hot burst of agony. The pain didn’t matter. Kayla did. Gage leapt up and charged at Lyle. Lyle took aim on him then. Lyle’s finger tightened around the trigger. His total focus was on Gage.

You want me, asshole?

Gage snarled.

Lyle just kept smiling. Completely out of the SUV now, the sick freak stalked forward. Smiling, watching Gage, and aiming his gun.

The fool never saw the wolf closing in behind him. The wolf with a coat tinted red. The wolf who would want his own justice.

Shamus leapt at Lyle before he could fire again. His claws dug into Lyle’s back as the red wolf took him down.