Free Hungry Like the Wolf by Paige Tyler Page B

him.
    He dragged himself away from the picture of female perfection on the other side of the fence, and turned to look at Xander. “How’d it go with IA?”
    He might have been occupied with Mackenzie all day, but that didn’t mean he’d forgotten his senior squad leader was downtown getting grilled, or that Xander hadn’t come back until thirty minutes ago. While Gage was worried about a reporter like Mackenzie Stone finding out the entire SWAT team was made up of werewolves, IA was the bigger threat. They had details on every arrest the team had made and raid they’d done. If anyone was going to connect the dots, it’d be Internal Affairs.
    “It went fine,” Xander said. “They just asked me to go over my story again and again. Usually that’d mean they were looking to catch me in a lie, but they didn’t act as if I did anything wrong or say anything to make me think they were suspicious about something.”
    “Tell him about the lawyer,” Mike said.
    Gage frowned. “They had a lawyer there?”
    “Yeah. That was definitely weird,” Xander said. “They had a city lawyer there listening to everything I said. He even asked for clarification a few times. IA didn’t say I could go until he gave the okay.”
    Gage didn’t like the sound of that. “IA didn’t say why he was there?”
    Xander shook his head. “Not a thing. But since they didn’t say anything to make me think I’m in trouble, I’m not going to worry about it. I am damn worried about that reporter, though.”
    “I know she was lying. But I expected that.” It didn’t mean Gage liked it, though. “Whether she lied or not doesn’t change anything. I’ll keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t discover anything that can cause a problem.”
    Mike’s face looked skeptical. “You think you can honestly keep her snooping under control? She seems like a handful, if you ask me.”
    Understatement there. “I think so.”
    “You think so?” Xander repeated. “Not exactly the confident answer I was looking for.”
    “Confidence can be a bad thing when you’re dealing with a woman like Mackenzie Stone,” Gage said. “She’s not only smart, she’s persistent. And she has better instincts than any person I’ve met. She might not have a clue we’re werewolves, but she knows there’s something going on.”
    Mike frowned. “What makes you say that?”
    “Because her heart sped up like crazy when she was looking at the night vision goggles in the armory.”
    “The NVGs?” Mike looked as confused as Gage felt. “Why would she care about those?”
    Gage shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s part of the reason I asked her out to dinner. I have to figure out what she knows—or thinks she knows. And to do that, I need to get her somewhere she’ll relax and lower her guard. I have to get the upper hand in this situation, and fast.”
    “Uh-huh.” That knowing grin from earlier was back on Mike’s face. “And what’s the other part?”
    “Other part?”
    “Yeah. You said finding out what she knows was only part of the reason you asked her out to dinner. Any chance the other part might have something to do with how hard you were staring at Ms. Stone’s very fine ass?”
    Gage opened his mouth to deny it, but it’d be useless. Werewolves knew when one of their own found a woman attractive. They could sense it like they sensed everything else. Mike had picked up on it the moment he’d seen Gage and Mackenzie together.
    “Okay, I admit Mackenzie is attractive. And that might have something to do with asking her out to dinner,” he added when Mike lifted a brow. “What? You don’t think I can have a good time with her and still take care of the Pack?”
    “We’d like to think you can, but we’d have to be blind not to see the effect she has on you,” Xander said.
    Gage clenched his jaw. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
    Xander looked to Mike for help, but he just shrugged. “I mean that it seems like she