“How do I know you’re not one of those?”
Jordan didn’t want to lie to Bailey. He knew his mate was talking about shifters. “You don’t.”
“He was—” Bailey moved from around the doorframe, the gun aimed high. “I don’t know.”
“Scary?” Jordan lifted his hands so Bailey could see them. “Downright frightening?”
Bailey quickly nodded, his hands gripping the gun tighter. Jordan could see a sheen of sweat on his mate’s face. Bailey was so high strung right now that one false move and Jordan was going to be shot. “Lower the gun, Bailey.”
Bailey’s sage-green eyes were wildly looking around. “What if that thing comes back?”
“He’s not coming back.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I watched him leave.” Jordan shouldn’t have said that. He should have known better. But it was too late to take back his words. The gunshot echoed through the room as Jordan slammed into the wall.
Chapter Three
Bailey dropped the gun and then covered his mouth with his hand as stark terror gripped him like a tight fist. He was shaking so badly that he felt like he was going to be sick. What the hell had he done? Please don’t let me have killed him. Moving quickly toward Jordan, Bailey dropped to his knees.
“You fucking shot me,” Jordan groaned.
“I thought you were one of them,” Bailey said as his hand hovered close to Jordan’s shoulder where the blood was spanning out.
“Goddamn it, Bailey. I told you I was unarmed,” Jordan said angrily.
“We need to get you to a hospital.” When Bailey stood, Jordan grabbed him and pulled him back down to the floor. He couldn’t understand why Jordan was preventing him from calling an ambulance. The blood continued to spread across the guy’s shoulder and Bailey feared he would bleed out before help arrived.
“No need.”
“But you’re shot!”
Jordan grunted as he tried to sit up. Bailey reached out and carefully helped the guy. Too much was happening in one night. He wasn’t even sure why he was so concerned with Jordan’s injuries. Hadn’t he watched the man kill someone in his backyard not even an hour ago?
Things were just too bizarre around here tonight. Still, Bailey couldn’t let the guy bleed to death. “I need to call an ambulance.”
“I’ll heal.”
He paused. Realization dawned on him and Bailey fell over himself trying to scoot away. “You’re one of them!”
“Calm down, Bailey.” Jordan hissed as he tried to push to his feet. His right arm was dangling at his side, the shirt growing more and more crimson in color by the minute. “I would never hurt you…even if you just shot me.”
Bailey didn’t know what to believe. He had seen—no, he either had to be stressed out and imagining things or he had hit his head and was imagining things. Either way, he knew for damn sure that he did not see a man change into a wolf.
It wasn’t physically possible. Oh god, he was going to pass out. He was hyperventilating as he moved as far away as he could from Jordan. The teeth. The fur. The claws. Bailey swallowed at the memory, a metallic taste forming in his mouth. As badly as he wanted to believe that he had hallucinated everything, Bailey knew he hadn’t.
He damn near crawled up the wall when Jordan slumped over and then…and then…he changed into a black panther. Oh fuck!
This is not happening.
This is not happening.
He pulled his legs up to his chest, waiting for the large cat to wake up and attack, but it just lay there, breathing heavily. Bailey wasn’t sure if he should call the cops or animal control. He’d never dealt with anything like this before. There sure as hell wasn’t a support group in existence that would be able to help him out.
Bailey wanted to call Travis, but he wasn’t sure if that would make the situation any worse than it already was. He knew he couldn’t just sit here. He had shot a man…who turned into a cat.
Resting his head in his hands, Bailey tried his best to control his breathing. God, why couldn’t he stop shaking? Maybe because Jordan is lying there in the form of a panther.
Okay, he needed to pull himself together. There had to be a rational explanation for all of this. Taylor Tate would probably have Bailey locked up if he told the counselor he saw a man change into a wolf and another into a cat.
Loony bin here I come.
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Bailey knew he should call the cops. It was the right thing to do. So why was he just sitting here staring at Jordan? No, he had to get this taken care of. Bailey was not insane.
Finding the backbone to push to his feet, Bailey crept along the wall until he was in his kitchen. He quickly grabbed his phone and dialed.
“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”
Bailey opened his mouth and then closed it. What was he going to say? He couldn’t very well tell anyone that a black panther was passed out on his living room floor. He sure as hell wasn’t telling anyone he shot a man who changed into an animal.
“Please state your emergency.”
“I’m sorry, I thought someone was breaking in but my cat just came into the house. I’m sorry to bother you.” Bailey hung up. He hugged the phone close, wondering what he was going to do.
Bailey damn near jumped out of his skin when a loud knock sounded on the back door. Who in the hell would be coming by this late at night? Had someone heard the gunshot? Was it the cops?
Setting the phone on the table, Bailey hurried toward the back door. If it was the cops, he needed to get rid of them. There was no way he was going to become a media
