In the Company of Wolves(70)

The huge weight on her chest lifted and she could finally breathe again. She didn’t know what the future held for her or her pack, but at least they were out from under the Albanians and safe for now.

“What about Liam, our pack alpha?” she asked when they reached the top of the steps. “Is he…?”

“It got a little crazy in that office, especially when everyone started bolting for the exits,” Cooper said. “I don’t know who was killed, who was arrested, and who escaped.”

Eric frowned. “Some of them got away?”

Cooper nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know who though. I was a little busy at the time.”

Jayna got a sinking feeling in her stomach, her instincts telling her that Liam had been one of the people who’d gotten away. A small part of her was glad. He’d been important to her at one point in her life. But she also remembered how angry Liam had been when he’d realized he was no longer pack alpha and that Eric had taken over. Liam had looked like he was ready to kill. If he was still out there, she hoped he’d leave Dallas and get as far away as he could. She just wasn’t sure he would.

* * *

It took all the restraint Becker possessed to keep from scooping up Jayna in his arms and carrying her down the stairs. She was moving so gingerly that it hurt to watch her try to get down to the first floor.

He and Cooper took their time leading Jayna through the building and out to the operations vehicle in the parking lot behind the loft. Becker was just thinking he might have to pick her up to get her into the renovated RV, but the moment he opened the door, all her aches and pains disappeared. She must have picked up the scent of her pack mates because she practically leaped through the door.

He climbed in just in time to see Jayna pulling Megan into her arms, hugging the smaller werewolf to her as she moved over to join Moe and Joseph by Chris’s side. The beta was stretched out on his back on the floor near the bank of TVs there. Alex and the team’s other medic, Trey Duncan, were leaning over the injured werewolf with forceps, bloody hands, and a frigging needle and thread.

“Oh God, Chris. What happened?” Jayna asked as she knelt down beside the werewolf.

Chris gritted his teeth as Trey slid the needle through the ab muscles on either side of the ragged laceration the bullet had made in his stomach the previous night. It was bleeding heavily and didn’t look nearly as healed as it should have.

“He tore open the half-healed wound in his stomach fighting those damn Albanians,” Joseph said. “The stupid idiot wouldn’t stay still no matter how many times we told him to.”

Becker knelt down beside Jayna, taking hold of her hand and giving it a squeeze. “Is he going to be okay?” he asked Trey.

“He should have healed already,” Trey muttered distractedly as he looped a knot in the thread, then pulled the edges of the wound closed. “He said this happened over twenty-four hours ago, so I don’t understand why the wound hasn’t closed already. The internal injuries are doing fine, but this muscle tissue should have knitted closed sometime last night. I don’t know why it hasn’t.”

Tears filled Jayna’s eyes, but before Becker could say anything to reassure her, Gage spoke.

“He’s a beta. That’s why the wound hasn’t healed. Betas can’t handle the amount of damage alphas can, so it takes longer for them to heal. He’ll recover much faster now that Trey and Alex have closed up those torn muscles, provided he stays off his feet for a while.”

Jayna looked over her shoulder at Gage, as if trying to figure out how much she wanted to trust his words. Apparently, whatever she saw on his face must have satisfied her because she visibly relaxed as she turned back to rest a hand on Chris’s forehead.

“He’ll stay off his feet,” she said firmly. “I can promise you that.”

When Alex and Trey were done, they moved away from Chris and out the door, letting Jayna and her pack have unfettered access to their friend. As one, they leaned in to wrap him in their arms. The image was pretty damn moving, even for a werewolf used to living in a pack. If Becker hadn’t been sure before, he was now: betas simply possessed a stronger and more dependent bond than the one that existed in his SWAT pack. His pack was tight, but hers was tighter.

Part of him worried what that meant for his relationship with their new leader—and he had no doubt that Jayna was their pack leader now. That fact had become more and more obvious over the past few days, but it was official now. Her pack had chosen her over Liam.

He got to his feet and walked over to where Gage was standing by the open door. He knew the morning’s events had been traumatic for all of them, and he got the feeling that being together as a pack was what they needed.