Gray (The Boundarylands #10) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,43

from the door told another story. The deeper imprints, the stride length, the increased carelessness indicated that they'd been running in several directions...as if they'd been interrupted unexpectedly and didn't have the discipline or training to react properly.

Maybe by a truck coming up the drive. A truck that usually didn't arrive home until much later after a night at the bar.

Which suggested that not only were the betas still on his land—they were close.

Compared with alphas, betas were terrible runners. The fastest among them had trouble covering a mile in five minutes, even on flat ground. With rough terrain, elevation changes, and obstacles, they couldn't have made it half that far.

There was also the matter of their clumsiness. A fleeing beta made more noise than any woodland creature, even a startled grizzly. If the bastards were still running, Gray would've heard them.

So where the hell were they?

Close. Close and watching.

Gray might not be able to detect their scent, but he sensed a strained energy in the air. This knowledge didn't come from any one of his senses, but from the combination of all of them, combined with his instincts.

A silent buzz. A barely detectable vibration. The hairs along his arm standing on end.

"I know you're there," he bellowed into the dark woods.

There was no answer, no rustle of leaves or footfalls on the forest floor.

In time, they'd make a mistake. Betas always did. But Gray didn't feel like waiting.

"Lay down your weapons and show yourself now, and I'll let you walk out of here."

It was a generous offer, and the betas would be fools not to take him up on it. They didn't have to worry that he was bluffing, as everyone—even these idiots—knew that alphas didn't lie.

"You have ten seconds," Gray called out calmly. "After that, the deal is off."

In good faith, Gray kept count in his mind, even though he was almost certain the hidden, armed men weren't likely to surrender. It had to take a special kind of soldier to be chosen for duty deep in the Boundarylands—the kind who was ready to die before revealing his superiors' secrets.

Gray counted all the way to eight before he was proven right.

He heard leather move against metal to his left—a gloved finger on a trigger. Gray was flat on the forest floor before the bullet whizzed overhead where his chest had been.

The bullet evoked no emotion other than satisfaction. This was the mistake Gray had been hoping to provoke. In taking the shot, the soldier had revealed his location.

The other betas followed suit, firing off shots that missed Gray but revealed exactly where they were hiding.

When he judged the first round to be over, he exploded up from the ground, instantly bringing more shots. Gray could hear Olivia shrieking in the truck behind him, then scrambling to take cover on the floor of the cab. Gray changed course and ran into the open, drawing the gunmen's fire away from the vehicle.

Bullets came ever closer to striking him as he sprinted in a wild zigzag pattern toward the source. He could hear them thunking into tree trunks and splintering branches. One even grazed his arm, causing Gray to curse in irritation as he slid the last few feet into the first gunman's hiding spot.

"You should have taken the deal," he growled, tearing the scoped rifle from the man's hands. With one hard yank, Gray twisted the barrel, rendering the weapon useless. The soldier was reaching for another weapon when Gray grabbed his neck and gave it the same twist.

The body fell limp and lifeless at the base of the tree he'd been hiding behind.

The three other soldiers were just as easy to find…and just as easy to end.

Gray was barely out of breath as he dropped the last dead body, but he was plenty annoyed. He'd been planning to spend the night making love to Olivia and forever sealing his claim on her by reciprocating her bite, but now he'd have to spend the next few hours digging graves instead.

At least this round was over. That strange energy, the unsettling sense of being watched, was gone.

Static crackled from the dead soldier's belt. "Murphy, do you copy? We're no longer receiving your transmission. Report."

Gray bent down to rip the radio off the belt and depressed the button. "Talk all you want, but Murphy can't hear you anymore," he growled.

"Who is this?" the voice asked after a shocked second. "Identify yourself."

"Who the fuck do you think it is? Put on the agent