Liam looked shocked for a moment, but he quickly recovered. “There aren’t. I told you, Brandon made a mistake. Those SWAT cops might have been werewolves, but they sure as hell weren’t alphas.”
Kos didn’t answer for a long time, and the silence started to become uncomfortable. Finally, he turned and speared Jayna with a look. “You just said they were alphas. Were you mistaken?”
Liam grumbled something under his breath she couldn’t make out. But what was she supposed to do, lie and say that the werewolves who’d taken out the pack omegas had just been big boned?
She lifted her chin. “They were alphas.”
Liam opened his mouth to say something, but Kostandin cut him off. “How many alphas?”
Jayna didn’t answer right away. She had no idea how many werewolves they’d faced. She tried to remember how many different scents she’d smelled. She’d picked up at least five of them, including the woman. Not that she was even considering saying anything about her. If Liam had a cow about there being other alphas in Dallas, he’d lose his mind if she told him there was a female alpha too.
She opened her mouth to tell Kostandin how many alphas she’d seen when a sudden unexplainable impulse to drop the number by one hit her. Was she actually feeling protective about the SWAT guy who’d saved her life? Did she really think she’d be helping him if the Albanian thought there were less of them than there really were?
That was stupid. If the Albanians thought they were facing an overwhelming number of these SWAT werewolves, maybe they’d say the hell with Dallas, and she and the rest of the pack could be done with them.
“Well?” Kos prompted.
“Seven at least,” she said. “Maybe eight.”
Her answer earned a gasp from Liam and the rest of her pack. She couldn’t blame them. She was having a hard time imagining that many alphas all living together, much less functioning as a team.
Kos frowned. “All alphas? You’re sure of that?”
“Yes.” She jerked her head in Brandon’s direction. “As I’m sure he told you, they were all big, fast, and strong. I got away, but it was more luck than anything.”
She was hoping that last little part might convince Kos this was a no-win situation, but he merely nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Liam.
“Start figuring out exactly what we’re up against,” he ordered. “Find out if there are more alphas than Jayna saw, where they live, and when they’re most vulnerable.”
Liam’s eyes sharpened. “We’re going after them?”
Kostandin didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. All it took was one glimpse of the sick gleam in the Albanian’s eyes to know that he intended to kill every member of the other werewolf pack in the most vicious way possible.
Kos walked away with Liam and Brandon following closely behind. As they were leaving the lobby, she heard Brandon asking when they would strike and Kostandin saying something about patience. She could have kept eavesdropping on the conversation and probably heard the rest of their plan, but she resisted. The way her stomach was twisting in knots, she decided she didn’t want to know what they were planning to do.
Megan and the guys looked at Jayna as if they expected her to come up with a way out of this for all of them. They’d agreed to this job because of Liam, but none of them had signed up for killing anybody—not cops and especially not other werewolves. But the way this was shaping up, they might not have a choice. Kostandin and his Albanians wouldn’t think twice about going after those SWAT werewolves, and Liam seemed to be willing to go along with anything Kos suggested. Even Brandon and his omegas would be happy to help.
Trying to stand against both the Albanians and the omegas? That was a fight their small pack couldn’t win. All they could do was go along and hope a chance to get out of this situation presented itself.
Could she really just sit back and let Kostandin and the others go after those SWAT werewolves—especially the one who had saved her life—without doing anything? She didn’t want to, but it wasn’t like she could warn them. She’d never caught her savior’s name, and she sure as hell couldn’t call in an anonymous tip to the hunky werewolf with the amazing blue eyes.
What the hell was she going to do?
Chapter 3
“So what the hell are you going to do?” Cooper asked Becker the moment they were inside the armory’s security cage.
Tuffie, the team’s unofficial mascot, had followed them into the building, figuring something must be up if the two of them were slipping off to the most private place on the SWAT compound right in the midst of all the insanity going on. The pit bull mix took up a position by the door like she was standing guard. Becker shook his head. Maybe that was exactly what she was doing. Sometimes Becker thought that dog understood more than anyone gave her credit for.