Hungry Like the Wolf by Paige Tyler Read Free Book Online Page A

men were fighting. Two of them—Senior Corporals Jayden Brooks and Carter Nelson—were doing their best to keep the other cops from grabbing anything they could use as weapons while at the same time working just as hard to keep them from destroying the workout equipment.
    They were only marginally successful at both tasks.
    Gage ducked to avoid a forty-five-pound weight someone threw across the room. It smashed against the wall of mirrors on the far side of the room, completely shattering the floor-to-ceiling piece of glass. Shit, he’d paid for those out of his own pocket.
    A low rumble erupted from his lips. This was the reason alpha wolves rarely ever got together in a group—it was damn near impossible to keep them from fighting. But when he’d taken over the SWAT unit eight years ago, he’d made the decision to seek out the best cops in the country and get them on his team. If that meant bringing in other werewolves, that was what he did.
    But days like today made him wonder if it was worth it.
    Martinez and Delaney had squared off against Connor Malone and the newest member of the team, Max Lowry. Their claws were out, their canines were extended, and their eyes gleamed gold. All they’d done so far was slash each other up, but their faces and jaws were changing shape even now, which meant bites would be coming next, and they were much tougher to recover from. Worse, Malone’s back was already starting to bunch up in that way it did before a full shift. And if Malone shifted into his two-hundred-and-forty-pound wolf form, someone was probably going to get killed.
    Gage let out a deep growl and waded into the midst of the brawl, letting his fangs slide out in a partial shift as he started laying backhanded swings that sent people flying. The moment he had them separated, he grabbed Malone by the shoulders and yanked him off his feet, then slammed him against the remaining mirror hard enough to shatter it like the others. Then he bared his teeth and let loose a snarl loud enough to be heard well outside the compound. He didn’t care who heard—he wanted their full attention and he wanted it now.
    Malone immediately relaxed in his grip while Martinez, Delaney, and Lowry took a few steps back.
    Gage held on to his lead sniper until the man had completely shed any vestige of his wolf form. By the time he turned to look at the other three, they had shifted back, too. There was no evidence of the werewolves they’d been—except for the bloody claw marks covering their bodies and shredding their uniforms. Gage didn’t shift back. He wanted them to get a good look at his yellow-gold eyes and gleaming fangs.
    “What the hell is wrong with the four of you?” he demanded. “I walk in here expecting to find a team of professional cops, and instead I find you acting like a bunch of freaking out-of-control Chihuahuas.” He pointedly looked around the room at the broken mirrors, crushed weight benches, and torn mats. “We paid to renovate this weight room out of our own pockets and you’ve wrecked it with your bullshit. Somebody here better start talking fast or I’m going to give in to my first instinct and have you all transferred to bicycle patrol handing out parking tickets downtown.”
    “They started it, Sarg.” To his credit, Delaney actually looked a little chagrinned at all the damage they’d done. “Martinez and I were talking about him getting shot in the arm, and Lowry said it happened because we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.”
    Gage stared menacingly at Delaney. “The four of you tore up pack property because the new guy was trying to get under your skin?”
    “That’s not the way it went down, Sarg,” Lowry protested.
    “No?” Gage hoped like hell this new pup wasn’t about to say something that was going to get him buried. “So, how did it go down? Please tell me.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, Gage saw Brooks and Nelson exchange a worried look. Like they thought he might