Page 3 of Wolf Revealed

Ripping the gun out of the man’s hands, Mike tossed it aside, then shoved him through the nearest window before spinning to deal with the last guy. Despite carrying a rifle similar to the other Hillside Riders, he took one look at Mike and made a beeline for the back of the warehouse.

Mike gave chase, letting loose a growl as his inner wolf reacted to the sight of running prey. From somewhere in the warehouse, he heard Connor, Trey, Hale, and Carter tearing their way through those welded doors they’d mentioned. Screams, thumping heartbeats, and the cloying scent of fear and panic filled the endless maze of rooms. Mike only hoped they could find the hostages in time.

The guy Mike was chasing turned out to be a fast runner. Fear of being arrested probably had something to do with that. Regardless, the man had already put a lot of distance between them and was going for more.

Mike put on more speed, knowing there was absolutely no way any human could outrun a werewolf. Three large rooms later, Mike closed the gap and prepared to leap. But the guy he was chasing must have felt him catching up because he spun and started shooting on full automatic.

Mike ducked under the bullets coming his way, sweeping one arm up to knock the barrel aside so the rounds smacked harmlessly into the ceiling. A moment later, Mike slammed into the guy, taking them both through the wide doorway into a larger room. He was so focused on getting the weapon away from the man that he didn’t realize they’d somehow tripped the industrial metal rolling door between the rooms. He flinched as it came down behind him with a loud thud.

The Rider used the momentary surprise to slip away from Mike, abandoning his assault rifle in a bid to escape. But the guy immediately stumbled backward over something, flailing and tumbling to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

The man jumped to his feet quickly, stepping back awkwardly as he realized the thing he’d stumbled over was a dead body. But before he could say or do anything else, there was a soft pop, and then the guy was tumbling backward again, but this time it was with the red stain of blood spreading rapidly across his chest.

Knowing it hadn’t been one of his pack mates who’d killed the guy, Mike dived to the floor and grabbed the AK-47 the dead Rider had dropped. Then he spun around, snapping the barrel of the weapon up to cover a tall, dark-haired man standing on a catwalk forty feet above the room.

An acrid, chemical odor assaulted Mike’s nose as he looked around for some way to get up there. Unfortunately, there weren’t any steps that he could see. And the metal walkway was well beyond the height he could jump, even with his werewolf abilities.

Mike gave a start as he realized he recognized the man standing at the railing of the walkway above him, even if the a-hole did look younger than he should have. Not that the man’s skin care regimen mattered right now. Not when there was a silenced pistol currently pointed straight at Mike. Even a werewolf would go down if you put a bullet through his heart or his head.

“Cassius Roman,” Mike said slowly. “Never expected to see you again.”

Mike darted a quick look around the room, expecting to see other armed men moving in as he spoke. The Cassius Roman he knew never went anywhere without a retinue of heavily armed bodyguards. But while Mike could definitely hear and smell people moving around other parts of the warehouse, there didn’t seem to be anyone in here with them.

“I have to admit, I never expected to be back,” Roman said casually as he moved toward one side of the walkway, keeping Mike in his sights the entire time, his dark eyes hard. “And I wouldn’t have, if not for the thing you stole from me.”

Mike stood there, completely at a loss for words. A decade ago, Roman had been the target of Mike’s last major undercover operation when he worked in the narcotics division. The one he’d been on before his whole life had fallen apart. Before he’d lost his family, nearly died, and ended up becoming a werewolf. Even with all of that, the one thing he could say for sure was that he’d never stolen anything from anyone. And most definitely not from a scumbag like Roman.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Mike said.

Outside the room, Xander and Carter pounded against the large rolling metal door, wanting to know what the hell was happening and whether Mike was okay.

“Don’t even try it!” Roman snapped, drawing Mike’s attention back to him and the weapon in his hand. “I’m not going to banter with you about this. Give me the flash drive, or I’ll kill your son.”

It was like a switch had been flipped as Mike’s head simply stopped working. On some level, he knew Roman was still shouting at him, and that Xander and Carter were tearing into the metal roll-up door with a vengeance. But he wasn’t paying attention to any of that. Instead, he was consumed with visions of a beautiful woman standing in the window of their home with an adorable baby in her arms...seconds before everything exploded.

He had no idea how long he stood there, but then a sudden movement on the catwalk caught his attention, and he looked up in time to see Roman glaring down at him.

“My flash drive for your son’s life,” Roman sneered.

Something inside Mike snapped at the words. The audacity to even mention a son he’d barely gotten to know before he was taken away—because of Roman—broke Mike, and the assault rifle in his hands was coming up and into position, his right index finger tightening on the trigger before he even realized what he was doing.

But as the weapon went off, Roman moved. Not like he took a step or even dodged. One moment, he was standing there, and the next, he was ten feet further down the catwalk in a blur.

That was when Mike realized the odd chemical scent he’d picked up on earlier was coming from Roman. By then, Xander and Carter had shredded the metal door separating him from them, and they both rushed into the room, their weapons and eyes sweeping the area, looking for whatever he’d been shooting at.

As they swung their weapons in Roman’s direction, the man moved again in another baffling blur. Then, in the blink of an eye, a door slammed open at the far end of the walkway, and Roman was gone.

“What the hell just happened?” Xander asked, his dark eyes tracking from the door swinging closed above them, and then down at the dead men on the floor. “Who was that guy on the walkway? Did he kill these people?”

“And did I hear him say he has your kid?” Carter asked. “I thought you said your fiancée and son had been killed when you were working undercover.”

Mike stared at his friends, not sure what to say.

“That’s what I thought, too,” he finally managed, still trying to come to grips with what Roman’s words implied. “Now, I’m not sure what to think.”

Xander and Carter looked like they had a ton of questions, but at that moment, Trey and Connor hurried into the room, followed by Wayne and his special operations crew, multiple paramedics, and a handful of extremely curious uniformed officers.

Before Mike could say anything, a paramedic ran over to check his injured shoulder. Not wanting the woman to see that the fresh bullet laceration was already sealed up and well on its way to healing, he told her that he was fine and the blood on his uniform was someone else’s. She eyed him doubtfully—along with everyone else—but didn’t push.