Also by Paige Tyler
X-Ops
Her Perfect Mate
Her Lone Wolf
Her Secret Agent (novella)
Her Wild Hero
Her Fierce Warrior
Her Rogue Alpha
Her True Match
Her Dark Half
X-Ops Exposed
SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team
Hungry Like the Wolf
Wolf Trouble
In the Company of Wolves
To Love a Wolf
Wolf Unleashed
Wolf Hunt
Wolf Hunger
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Copyright © 2018 by Paige Tyler
Cover and internal design © 2018 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Cover by Craig White
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
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Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Hungry Like the Wolf
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
About the Author
Back Cover
With special thanks to my extremely patient and understanding husband. Without your help and support, I couldn’t have pursued my dream job of becoming a writer. You’re my sounding board, my idea man, my critique partner, and the absolute best research assistant any girl could ask for.
Love you!
Prologue
Kunduz Province, Northern Afghanistan, June 2013
Sergeant Tanner Howland quickly ducked behind the mud-brick wall along with the other members of his rifle squad as a barrage of automatic weapon fire slammed into the other side, showering him and everyone else with shards of stone and dirt. The Taliban fighters had set up a strong defensive position inside the walls of the sprawling school compound, that was for sure. Tanner and his fellow Army Rangers had been trying to get close enough to take out the truck-mounted machine guns located on either side of the compound’s main entrance for the past fifteen minutes, but so far, it wasn’t working. The bad guys had dug in like ticks and were shooting the shit out of Tanner’s platoon.
He looked around, making sure all his troops—including the Afghanis fighting with them—were okay. Everyone was alive, but just barely. Every one of them was wounded, but Corporal Chad Hunter, the light machine gun operator, was dealing with the worst injury by far. He was visibly limping from a serious shrapnel wound across his right thigh, but even though it had to hurt like a son of a bitch, the man wasn’t complaining. He refused to fall back and get help from the medics in the rear, either.
“You holding up okay, Chad?” Tanner asked, throwing him a quick look as more rounds smacked against the backside of the wall.
“I’m good, Sarge.” Chad checked the extra belts of ammo for the M249 machine gun he’d slung over across his shoulder earlier. “Vas and Danny already patched me up.”
Tanner glanced down at the well-placed field dressing wrapped tightly around the wound on the blond man’s leg. Privates Marcos Vasquez and Danny Copeland, the other two members of Tanner’s fire team, had gotten to Chad within seconds of him getting hit. By sealing the wound with a liquid bandage, they’d probably saved his life. Rangers did whatever it took to get their buddies home.
Despite the bandage, Tanner would have preferred Chad fall back to the medics, but they needed the firepower too badly. Along with Vas and Danny, Tanner had five Afghanis assigned to his fire team, but none of them were as good with the automatic weapon as the corporal. He hated doing it, but he needed the man too much to let him go yet.
Tanner cursed as a hand grenade exploded nearby. “I thought we weren’t supposed to be involved in direct combat operations on this deployment.”
On the other side of him, his best friend and fellow fire team leader, Sergeant Ryan Westbrook, popped up and fired a few rounds from his M4 carbine in the general direction of the incoming gunfire.
“We’re not engaged in direct combat.” Ryan smirked. “We’re over here to advise and assist the Afghan National Security Forces as they finish mopping up the last few dredges of the struggling, demoralized, and discouraged Taliban forces.”
Tanner chuckled. There weren’t many people who could laugh at a time like this, but after so many years of getting shot at, not to mention witnessing friends and enemies dying, the insanity going on around him now seemed like background noise. But as funny as Ryan could be sometimes, in this case, he wasn’t making crap up to get a laugh out of Tanner. His friend had merely been repeating the speech their commander had given them right before the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment had boarded their planes for the start of a seven-month deployment to Northern Afghanistan.
“Maybe someone should give the lieutenant colonel a dictionary, because I don’t think this particular group of Taliban is struggling too much,” Tanner said drily. “And we’re sure as hell doing a lot more than advising and assisting.”
Ryan probably would have said something sarcastic in return, but just then, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded against the wall several yards away, tearing open a hole large enough to ride a bicycle through and lighting up the night as bright as day. If that RPG had impacted only a few feet closer, it would
