Hungry Like the Wolf (23 page)

“It’s not that complicated. Just open your mouth and say, I’m sorry.” His mouth edged up. “It’s pretty easy after that.”

She turned off her camera and shoved it in her pocket, then got to her feet and gave Zak a hug. “Thank you.”

He grinned. “For what? You already knew what you were going to do.”

She laughed. “Maybe, but I just needed my big brother to tell me I was doing the right thing.”

He opened the door for her. “Tell Gage I said hey.”

“I will.”

On the way to her car, she pulled out her phone and called Gage, but it went to voice mail. Damn it.

Gage lived across town, so Mac had almost half an hour to rehearse what she was going to say to him. If he even let her in. She’d bang on his door until he opened it if she had to. And when he did, she’d tell him she didn’t care that he was a werewolf. Then she’d make him see what he meant to her.

But when she got to his place and knocked on the door, there wasn’t any answer. His car wasn’t in its parking space, either. She took out her cell and called him again. Again, it went to voice mail. Maybe he was asleep. Though she didn’t know how he could sleep after what happened tonight. He probably knew it was her and was pretending he wasn’t home.

At the risk of looking like a complete stalker, Mac climbed behind the hedges to peek through the window. The living room was empty. So was the kitchen. She cupped her hands against the glass and leaned closer. Then she frowned. In the light coming from the kitchen she saw that the framed photos were no longer on the wall above the bookcase. That was odd.

She shifted to see better into the kitchen. But all she saw was a neat pile of stuff on the counter. She couldn’t make out everything from this distance, but she recognized Gage’s cell phone sitting on top. Okay, that was even weirder.

Oh, crap
. What if he’d asked her to wait twenty-four hours so he and the rest of the team—his pack—could leave town?

She suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Gage had left, and she was never going to get the chance to tell him she’d made a mistake. Or tell him that she loved him.

Tears blurring her vision, Mac stumbled out from behind the hedges and ran to her car. Gage wouldn’t leave without making sure his pack was safe first. Hopefully, they’d still be at the compound planning or coordinating, or whatever it was werewolves did before they went on the run.

She didn’t take her foot off the gas the entire way there. It was only by some miracle she didn’t get pulled over.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she stopped outside the gate and saw that the parking area was full of vehicles. Gage’s Charger wasn’t there, but again, that didn’t mean anything.

Please
let
him
still
be
here.

Mac hurried over to ring the bell, only to jerk to a halt when she heard a low, menacing growl. Yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness. She cringed when she saw it was Xander. Why couldn’t Gage have been the one prowling around out here? Or Becker. Hell, anyone but Xander. The senior corporal had never been warm to her, but after the explosion at the meth lab, she thought maybe he’d thawed a little. He probably hated her more now. One more thing she’d damaged.

Eyes narrowing, he scanned the darkness behind her before giving her a look that could have melted paint off a car.

“I knew Gage was stupid to believe you’d actually give us time to get out of here.” He snarled, showing her a pair of wickedly sharp canine teeth. “What, did you decide you need some more footage before you wrote your story? Maybe get some pictures of the freaks running for their lives?”

Her face flamed. “It’s not like that.”

“Really? Then how is it?”

Xander’s eyes flashed and she had to force herself not to take a step back at the anger rolling off him.

She moved closer to the gate and looked him straight in his yellow eyes. “I’m here to apologize to Gage. And to tell him that I won’t be telling anyone about your…pack.”

Xander couldn’t completely hide the surprise that came over his face, but he sure as hell tried. “And you expect me to believe that?”

She swallowed hard. “I know you don’t have any reason to trust me or believe anything I say, but I’m hoping you’ll at least give me a chance to talk to Gage.”

He snorted. “Trust me, Gage isn’t interested in seeing you right now. He’s a little busy trying to get us all out of the country before the mob of angry villagers shows up with their torches and pitchforks.”

She hooked her fingers in the chain link. “I don’t blame him for not wanting to see me. I said some really stupid things tonight. I only want to make it right.”

Mac thought she saw doubt creep across Xander’s face, but it disappeared too quickly to be sure. “You don’t get it, do you?” he asked harshly. “You didn’t just hurt him. You definitely messed him up good, that’s for damn sure. But more than that, you threatened the safety of his pack. That’s not something you can fix by batting your eyelashes at him and saying you’re sorry.”

His
pack
. When Gage had used the word before, she hadn’t truly realized what it meant. The SWAT officers weren’t merely a team—they were a family. She’d not only ripped out Gage’s heart, she’d threatened his family. Why the hell would he listen to a word she had to say?

Tears flooded her eyes and she blinked them back. She had to talk to him. If for no other reason than to let him know that she’d never tell a soul about his pack. Even if she couldn’t get him to listen to anything else, she wanted him to know he wouldn’t need to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. After all the damage she’d inflicted, that was all she could hope for. It would have to be enough.

She gave Xander a beseeching look, not caring that her eyes were wet with tears. “I don’t know if I can fix this either, but I have to try. Five minutes, that’s all I’m asking for. If Gage wants me to leave after he hears what I have to say, I’ll go. I promise.”

Xander was silent for so long she was afraid he’d turn around and walk away. But instead he unlocked the gate and jerked it open.

“You’ve got five minutes,” he told her. “You’d better make them count.”

Mac had to practically run to keep up with Xander as he led the way to the training building. When they got there, he yanked open the door and waited for her to go ahead of him. She took a deep breath and walked in…and immediately felt like she’d stepped off a bus at the wrong stop.

Fourteen pairs of yellow eyes turned her way. There was shock in some of them, disbelief in others, and outright hatred in the rest.

Gage wasn’t with them.

The place looked as if it’d been ransacked. Maps covered one whole table. Passports and cell phones were scattered across another. And in the center of the room there was a pile of black duffel bags. They were getting ready to leave, and they were traveling light.

Where would a pack of werewolves go to disappear? And would Gage split them up or try to keep them together?

It didn’t matter. If she didn’t convince them to stay, she’d never know.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Cooper demanded.

Mac flinched. “I have to talk to Gage.”

Her words were met with deep-throated growls that made her shiver. If she wasn’t so in love with Gage, she probably would have turned and fled. Not that she would have gotten very far with Xander behind her, breathing down her neck.

“You should leave now, Mac,” Cooper said. “Before this gets ugly.”

She swallowed hard. “I can’t leave. Not until I talk to Gage.”

Trevino advanced on her, teeth bared, claws extended. Brooks, Martinez, and Nelson joined him, their golden eyes on fire.

Mac was thinking she might have to run for the door after all when Xander stepped in front of her, putting himself between her and the men. She barely had time to recover from her shock before Becker and Lowry moved to stand beside Xander, appointing themselves her protectors.

The growls around the room got louder.

Crap
.

Mac wanted to think they wouldn’t fight each other, but she realized she didn’t know a damn thing about how werewolves behaved. Maybe they fought each other all the time.

“That’s enough.”

Gage’s deep voice cut through the snarls and the growling immediately stopped.

Mac stepped out from behind the solid wall of muscle in front of her to see Gage standing in the doorway of his office. She started to hurry over to him, but he froze her with a glare.

“What do you want, Mackenzie?” he demanded. “You agreed to give us twenty-four hours before you told anyone. It’s barely been five.”

Had it really? It felt like it had been a lifetime to her. She glanced at the other men, then looked at him. “Can I talk to you alone?”

“I don’t have time for this, Mackenzie. We’re leaving in ten minutes. Anything you came to say to me can be said in front of my pack. So, just say it and get out.”

The anger in his voice was almost more than she could bear. Tears clogged her throat and she couldn’t find her voice. But she had to say something, and fast. Gage looked as if he was ready to walk back in his office and close the door.

She took a deep breath and let it out halfway—just like Gage had taught during their shooting lesson. “I’m sorry.”

Gage shrugged. “No need to apologize. You’re just doing your job, right?”

“No! Well…yes, but…” Mac shook her head. This wasn’t coming out the way she’d rehearsed it. “You were right when you said it wasn’t my secret to tell.”

Gage’s brows drew together. “What are you saying, Mackenzie?”

“I’m saying that I’m never going to tell anyone about what you are.” She looked at the other men. “Any of you.”

Becker cocked a brow. “And we’re supposed to just take your word on that?”

She reached in her back pocket and pulled out her camera, holding it out to him. “Take it. I have no story without it. No one would believe me.”

Becker took the camera. “How do we know you didn’t already download it?”

They weren’t going to make this easy on her, were they? “Would I be here now if I did?”

“Maybe you’re trying to keep us in town long enough for your story to hit the street,” Gage said softly.

She turned to see him standing a few feet away. It broke her heart to see the distrust in his eyes. “I wouldn’t do that.”

He snorted. “Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe. A few hours ago you had absolutely no problem telling the whole world about us, regardless of what it cost.”

Mac blinked back tears. Xander had been right—she couldn’t fix this. She’d burned every bridge behind her and there was no going back. Why hadn’t she thought before she’d opened her big mouth back at the barn?

“I know it’s no excuse, but I’ve spent my whole life chasing one big story after the next. When I realized what I stumbled onto, the journalist in me took over.” She moved to close the last little distance between them and looked up forlornly into his beautiful eyes. “But when I stopped to think for just a few minutes, my head had a chance to catch up and I knew I’d done something really stupid. I’d thrown away the chance to be with someone special. Someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

Gage didn’t say anything. He just stared at her like he didn’t know what the hell she was babbling about.

A tear trickled down her cheek and she wiped it away with a hand that shook. “When we were back at your apartment, I said you could tell me anything. When you decided to trust me with your biggest secret, I betrayed that trust. And for that I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know. I know that I have no right to ask you to trust me now, but I’m begging you to believe me when I say I won’t tell anyone about you or your pack.”

Another tear found its way down her face, and then another. This time she didn’t wipe them away. There was nothing left to say. Either Gage would believe her and stay, or he wouldn’t, and she’d never see him again.

Golden eyes held her captive. “What made you change your mind?” Gage asked.

Mac thought it would have been obvious why she was standing here in front of him pouring out her heart. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Gage assumed it was because she had a guilty conscience.

She looked around the room. The other men were regarding her just as intently as before. Only now, the open hostility that had been on their faces had been replaced with curiosity.

Could she tell Gage what was in her heart in front of them? But if she didn’t, nothing she already said would mean anything.

Mac wiped away the tears on her face. Then she took a deep breath, lifted her chin, and told him the truth.

“I love you.”

She held her breath, waiting for him to say something. And waited…and waited…and waited.

But Gage just stood there still as a statue, his face unreadable.

“Um, Sarg. I’m not real familiar with this part, but I think you’re supposed to say something,” Cooper said softly.

Gage still didn’t say anything. Instead, he took her hand and led her across the room toward his office. Before she had time to think, they were in his office and he’d closed the door behind them. He was standing so close to her that it was almost hard to breathe.

“Just like that?” he asked hoarsely. “You’re going to just spring that on me in front of everyone?”

Was he angry? Her stomach lurched at the thought. But she’d said it, and there was no taking it back. “I wanted to talk to you privately, but you wanted to talk right there in front of your pack, so I said it in front of them.”

He slipped a finger under her chin and tilted her head up. “And were you telling the truth?”

Mac pulled away from his finger. He might be the injured party in this whole thing, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurting, too. And right now, his attitude was annoying. “Of course I was, but I doubt you’d believe me no matter what I said.”

He slipped his finger under her chin and very gently lifted her face up again. “Try me. Say it again—just to me.”

His eyes were glowing that deep gold-yellow they’d been back at the barn. It was hard to look into those eyes and not be drawn in. She licked her lips. It had almost been easier to say those words with a crowd around her. But it was impossible to be this close to him and not say what she felt.