Page 28 of Wolf Revealed

Mike stepped out of the SUV and walked toward the front door along with Xander and Carter. Solid wood with thick frosted etched glass, he lifted his hand to knock on it, only to freeze when he picked up a familiar, sharp, chemical odor. Along with another scent he knew all too well.

“Blood,” he murmured, reaching for the SIG holstered on his hip.

Mike put his free hand on the door and shoved, snapping off the deadbolt and the latch. The scent of blood grew stronger as he stepped into the marble-lined entryway. It was coming from upstairs.

“Clear the first floor,” he whispered to Xander and Carter as he headed for the stairs, holding his handgun out in front of him, his finger on the side of the trigger guard. While there were several slightly muted scents that suggested there’d been a few people in the house recently, none of them were strong enough to make him think they were still here.

Halfway up the sweeping staircase, Mike picked up the ragged thud of a heartbeat in distress. “Call for an ambulance!” he shouted over his shoulder. “We have someone still alive up here.”

He took the last few steps at a run, then sprinted down the hall toward the room where the heartbeat was coming from. He took in the chaos as he quickly moved through the bedroom, following the scent of blood to the en-suite bathroom. Drawers from the nightstands and dresser were scattered everywhere, picture frames had been ripped off the wall, and the mattress was sliced open with the fluff sticking out.

An older man who must be Sharp lay on the marble floor of the bathroom, looking exactly the same as Roman’s other victims. Except this time, the bruised and bloodied man was still alive—barely. Given the amount of damage, Mike wasn’t sure how he’d survived the beating and could only assume he’d been left to die.

Mike holstered his weapon and rushed to the man’s side. “Mr. Sharp, I’m with the Dallas Police Department. Help is on the way. Just hold on.”

The man groaned, and Mike instinctively reached down to gently take his hand, wanting the guy to know someone was with him.

“My name is Mike Taylor. Try to squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

When he didn’t answer, Mike thought the guy had fallen unconscious. Then he felt the man squeeze his hand slightly and groan again.

“An ambulance is on the way,” Xander said, sticking his head in the bathroom door. “But with traffic and the long route through the subdivision, it could take them a while to get here.”

Mike turned back to reassure Sharp that he was going to make it to see the man open his eyes. Sharp blinked them a few times before focusing on him. “Did you say, Mike Taylor?”

“Yes, I’m Mike Taylor.”

“That psychopath, Roman, kept asking about you,” Sharp mumbled slowly, still gazing up at Mike like he was having a hard time focusing. “He wanted to know if I’d ever seen you and Roy together. Roman is looking for something. I don’t know what it is, but he thinks you and Roy are working together to keep it from him. Or using it together. I don’t really know.”

Sharp tried to talk more after that, but his words quickly became incoherent. The only thing Mike could make out for sure was that Roman had beaten Sharp and that Roy had gone into hiding, but no one knew where.

Mike was about to check to see if Xander had an ETA on the paramedics, but before he could, a thud came from the first floor. For a second, he thought one of his pack mates had tripped and fallen, but that didn’t make sense. Werewolves didn’t trip and fall.

He hated leaving Sharp, but he couldn’t ignore his gut. Cursing, he strode out of the bedroom and down the hall, glancing over the railing to the first floor as he went. In the entryway, Carter was on his hands and knees, trying to get to his feet.

Sure that Carter had been shot, even if he couldn’t smell any werewolf blood, Mike hurried down the steps. Halfway to the bottom, he caught a glimpse of the tranquilizer dart in Carter’s shoulder.

What the hell?

Mike got the answer to that as three men in dark tactical gear rushed in the front door and over to Carter, two rifles and one dart gun pointed at him. Mike’s first thought was that it was Roman or some of his supernatural goons, but they didn’t have that weird chemical odor. These guys smelled human.

“Don’t move!” Mike shouted as he pulled his weapon.

One of the men spun around and opened fire in Mike’s direction on full automatic. Bullets shattered the marble steps and balustrades all around him, forcing him to duck. Then he was up and leaping over the rail.

By the time he landed, two of the men were dragging a struggling Carter between them out the door as the third guy provided cover. While a werewolf could take a lot of damage, they weren’t immortal, and Mike had no choice but to dive to the side and roll across the room to avoid the hail of bullets coming his way.

“Xander! Need some backup here!” Mike shouted as he slammed into an antique sideboard topped with vases and glass sculptures. Wood, ceramic, and glass went flying everywhere.

Mike expected Xander to immediately come running. But instead, all he heard was the chatter of automatic weapon fire and the crash of breaking glass coming from the back of the house. Clearly, Xander had problems of his own to deal with at the moment.

Cursing again, Mike got his feet under him and then charged through the front door. Another hail of gunfire came his way, and he lunged to the side. Then he was rolling and bringing his handgun up to pop off round after round at the third goon, who was still hanging back to give the other two time to drag Carter toward the black conversion van parked in the driveway. He knew for a fact he hit the guy, but the damn vest kept him from going down.

Carter was still fighting off whatever the hell was in that tranquilizer dart, his claws and fangs coming out as he struggled, shoving at the two men holding him. One of them stepped back and aimed the dart gun at Carter again.

Mike couldn’t let that happen. One dart had damn near knocked Carter unconscious. Another might actually kill him.

Diving, Mike rolled across the concrete driveway, coming up to fire two rounds at the head of the goon with the dart gun. The man immediately went down, but Mike had no time to relax, as both of his buddies turned their full attention on him.