“You should leave now, Mac,” Cooper said. “Before this gets ugly.”
She swallowed hard. “I can’t leave. Not until I talk to Gage.”
Trevino advanced on her, teeth bared, claws extended. Brooks, Martinez, and Nelson joined him, their golden eyes on fire.
Mac was thinking she might have to run for the door after all when Xander stepped in front of her, putting himself between her and the men. She barely had time to recover from her shock before Becker and Lowry moved to stand beside Xander, appointing themselves her protectors.
The growls around the room got louder.
Crap.
Mac wanted to think they wouldn’t fight each other, but she realized she didn’t know a damn thing about how werewolves behaved. Maybe they fought each other all the time.
“That’s enough.”
Gage’s deep voice cut through the snarls and the growling immediately stopped.
Mac stepped out from behind the solid wall of muscle in front of her to see Gage standing in the doorway of his office. She started to hurry over to him, but he froze her with a glare.
“What do you want, Mackenzie?” he demanded. “You agreed to give us twenty-four hours before you told anyone. It’s barely been five.”
Had it really? It felt like it had been a lifetime to her. She glanced at the other men, then looked at him. “Can I talk to you alone?”
“I don’t have time for this, Mackenzie. We’re leaving in ten minutes. Anything you came to say to me can be said in front of my pack. So, just say it and get out.”
The anger in his voice was almost more than she could bear. Tears clogged her throat and she couldn’t find her voice. But she had to say something, and fast. Gage looked as if he was ready to walk back in his office and close the door.
She took a deep breath and let it out halfway—just like Gage had taught during their shooting lesson. “I’m sorry.”
Gage shrugged. “No need to apologize. You’re just doing your job, right?”
“No! Well…yes, but…” Mac shook her head. This wasn’t coming out the way she’d rehearsed it. “You were right when you said it wasn’t my secret to tell.”
Gage’s brows drew together. “What are you saying, Mackenzie?”
“I’m saying that I’m never going to tell anyone about what you are.” She looked at the other men. “Any of you.”
Becker cocked a brow. “And we’re supposed to just take your word on that?”
She reached in her back pocket and pulled out her camera, holding it out to him. “Take it. I have no story without it. No one would believe me.”
Becker took the camera. “How do we know you didn’t already download it?”
They weren’t going to make this easy on her, were they? “Would I be here now if I did?”
“Maybe you’re trying to keep us in town long enough for your story to hit the street,” Gage said softly.
She turned to see him standing a few feet away. It broke her heart to see the distrust in his eyes. “I wouldn’t do that.”
He snorted. “Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe. A few hours ago you had absolutely no problem telling the whole world about us, regardless of what it cost.”
Mac blinked back tears. Xander had been right—she couldn’t fix this. She’d burned every bridge behind her and there was no going back. Why hadn’t she thought before she’d opened her big mouth back at the barn?
“I know it’s no excuse, but I’ve spent my whole life chasing one big story after the next. When I realized what I stumbled onto, the journalist in me took over.” She moved to close the last little distance between them and looked up forlornly into his beautiful eyes. “But when I stopped to think for just a few minutes, my head had a chance to catch up and I knew I’d done something really stupid. I’d thrown away the chance to be with someone special. Someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
Gage didn’t say anything. He just stared at her like he didn’t know what the hell she was babbling about.
A tear trickled down her cheek and she wiped it away with a hand that shook. “When we were back at your apartment, I said you could tell me anything. When you decided to trust me with your biggest secret, I betrayed that trust. And for that I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know. I know that I have no right to ask you to trust me now, but I’m begging you to believe me when I say I won’t tell anyone about you or your pack.”
Another tear found its way down her face, and then another. This time she didn’t wipe them away. There was nothing left to say. Either Gage would believe her and stay, or he wouldn’t, and she’d never see him again.
Golden eyes held her captive. “What made you change your mind?” Gage asked.
Mac thought it would have been obvious why she was standing here in front of him pouring out her heart. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Gage assumed it was because she had a guilty conscience.
She looked around the room. The other men were regarding her just as intently as before. Only now, the open hostility that had been on their faces had been replaced with curiosity.
Could she tell Gage what was in her heart in front of them? But if she didn’t, nothing she already said would mean anything.
Mac wiped away the tears on her face. Then she took a deep breath, lifted her chin, and told him the truth.
“I love you.”
She held her breath, waiting for him to say something. And waited…and waited…and waited.
But Gage just stood there still as a statue, his face unreadable.
“Um, Sarg. I’m not real familiar with this part, but I think you’re supposed to say something,” Cooper said softly.
Gage still didn’t say anything. Instead, he took her hand and led
