by Lynn Hagen
The remainder of the ride was quiet. Bailey kept his head turned, staring out the window as Jordan drove. He knew he couldn’t be his usual quiet self if he was going to win Bailey over. The man was held up inside of himself, perfectly content in keeping the world at bay—or at least other men.
“Do you like breakfast?”
Bailey glanced at him, his brows pulled down. “Yeah,” he answered cautiously.
“I was going to head to the diner in the morning. Want to join me?”
Bailey’s sage-green eyes roamed over Jordan’s face for a long second. “That probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Jordan was clueless on how to get his mate to spend just a small amount of time with him. It was like trying to pull teeth from a lion with a toothpick. “You don’t believe in making new friends?”
“Are we friends, Jordan?”
“I would like to think so.”
“Even after I acted like an ass last night?”
At least the guy admitted he had acted pissy. “Water under the bridge.” Jordan could feel the tension coming from his mate. Bailey was afraid to open up. “We can try again.”
His mate didn’t say anything as Jordan finally pulled into Bailey’s driveway. The human opened the door and Jordan thought the guy was going to shoot him down again. But before he closed the door, Bailey turned toward him. “Thanks for the ride,” he hesitated. “Breakfast would be nice.”
Jordan inwardly breathed out a sigh of relief. It was just breakfast, but he at least had his foot in the door now. “Pick you up at seven?”
Bailey nodded before closing the door and heading toward his house. Jordan watched his mate’s ass as Bailey climbed the steps. And what a nice ass it was. Jordan smiled to himself as he thought about having Bailey naked, writhing beneath him as he fucked the man until Bailey was shouting his name.
He pulled from the driveway before Bailey caught him ogling his backside. Just as he pulled onto the road, Jordan spotted something moving in his mate’s backyard. It could have been Bailey, but Jordan didn’t think—his stomach dropped when he saw the glow of red.
Vampire!
Jordan shoved the truck into park and jumped out, racing toward the creature. What in the hell was a vampire doing in Bailey’s backyard? He knew rogues wandered these parts. Running across an occasion rogue wasn’t a surprise. Jordan was just frustrated that the damn thing was wandering around Bailey’s backyard.
He came up short when he rounded the house, his eyes scanning the darkened area. Now that he was closer, Jordan could scent the vampire. He just didn’t know where the thing had gone.
Moving closer to the back door, Jordan kept his senses wide open. His panther yowled softly, menacingly at the thought of Bailey being in any sort of danger. Jordan slowly turned his head, his eyes taking in every aspect of his mate’s backyard.
A twig snapped behind him. Jordan spun around just as the vampire attacked. He was knocked onto his back, but Jordan used the momentum, kicking the vampire clear of him. Rolling to his feet, Jordan slammed his body into the vampire’s, narrowly avoiding his sharp fangs as the creature tried to take a bite out of him.
He cursed when his foot got caught in a divot of grass, sending him onto his ass. Jordan threw his arms up, staving off the vampire as he kicked out. They rolled, Jordan landing on top. He going to teach the creature about wandering around these parts so close to Bailey’s home.
His claws elongated and Jordan dug them into the vampire’s throat, ripping blood and tissue from bone. The creature gurgled and then fell silent. Jordan pushed to his feet, exhausted. The vampire hadn’t gone down easy.
His head snapped around when he heard a quick inhale of breath. Bailey was standing in the doorway, his face ashen. When Jordan locked eyes with him, Bailey slammed the door shut. He had seen the horror and panic in his mate’s sage-green eyes.
Shit. Bailey was probably in there right now calling the cops. Jordan needed to get a hold of the alpha before this got out of control. He wiped the blood from his hand onto his jeans before grabbing his cell phone.
He knew he had just fucked himself as far as Bailey was concerned. His job of getting close to the guy had just gotten that much harder.
“Maverick.”
“This is Jordan Sommers, Mark’s new mechanic. I just killed a vampire in my mate’s backyard. I think he’s inside calling the cops right now.” He quickly gave the alpha Bailey’s address.
“Rogue?”
Jordan wiped the back of his hand across his forehead as he gazed down at the dead vampire. “I’m pretty sure. I dropped Bailey off and was getting ready to leave when I saw the vampire in the backyard. He attacked me from behind.”
“I’ll intercept the phone call to the cops. One of my sentries will be there shortly to get rid of the body.” Maverick cleared his throat. “There’s nothing I can do about what Bailey saw. You’ll have to work that out with your mate.”
Jordan had heard how hyperaware the alpha was when it came to his town and what happened in it. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Maverick knew about him and Bailey. “Easier said than done.”
“Always is,” Maverick said before he hung up.
Taking a seat on the back step, Jordan wondered how he was going to explain this to Bailey. His mate had just seen Jordan kill a man, unaware that it was a vampire. Talk about having his work cut out for him.
Jordan stilled when he felt something hard pressed into the back of his head. “Don’t move. I already called the cops and they should be here any moment.”
This was not happening. Did his mate really have a gun at Jordan’s head? He didn’t know Bailey well enough to know if the man would pull the trigger or not. Jordan had been in some truly messed up situations in his life, but this had to be the worst, hands down.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Jordan said. “You have no idea what is going on here.”
“I have eyes,” Bailey answered. “It doesn’t take a genius to see what you did.”
“He was in your backyard, ready to kill you if I hadn’t interfered.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Bailey said. “Even if he was here to break into my house, you could have just called the cops instead of killing the man.” Bailey swallowed audibly. “What kind of monster rips someone’s throat out?”
Jordan moved at lightning speed, disarming Bailey. His mate’s eyes grew wide as Jordan grabbed Bailey by his shirt front. “The kind I just killed. If I hadn’t stopped him, you would be dead right now.”
Jordan smelled timber wolf before the shifter appeared from the side of the house. They gave each other a subtle nod. The shifter grabbed the vampire from the ground, tossed the dead creature over his shoulder, and walked away without saying a word.
Bailey pushed at Jordan, the palms of his hands slamming into Jordan’s chest. “Who the hell are you?”
Jordan’s upper lip curled. “Just your friendly neighborhood mechanic.” He shouldn’t be pissed that Bailey was terrified of him. His mate was human and from his reaction, knew nothing about the paranormal world. It was a typical reaction, but Jordan did not appreciate being viewed as a monster.
“What are you, some sort of mob or biker member?”
Jordan wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of his mate’s question. “I told you already. I’m just a mechanic.”
“Get away from me,” Bailey said as he began to back away. “I don’t know what you are into, but leave me out of it.”
Jordan knew that there was nothing he could say to convince his mate otherwise. He could tell him the truth, but Bailey was already fracturing. Jordan didn’t want his mate to have a complete meltdown.
He would give the human time to absorb what he had seen before Jordan approached him with the truth. He just hoped like hell that Bailey didn’t run from him. Jordan was not giving up his mate.
Against his better judgment, Jordan handed the gun back to Bailey. “I’ll see you around, Bailey.” He walk
ed down the two steps and headed toward the side of the house.
“Don’t come near me again,” Bailey called out loudly as Jordan walked to his truck. He briefly closed his eyes, those words searing his heart. It was going to take a miracle to fix this. Bailey already had a steel wall erected around him. Killing a vampire in front of his mate was only going to make Bailey build that wall even higher.
Jordan drove home, showered, and then sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. He had moved to Brac Village to start over, never suspecting that he would find his mate. How much more complicated could his complicated life get?
He could almost breathe in Bailey’s pain whenever he was near the man. It infuriated him because Jordan knew he could give the human so much better. From the moment he had laid eyes on Bailey, he’d known there was going to be struggling ahead. Bailey had that pained look that all men carried when their hearts had been ripped out.
Jordan just wished that Bailey would give him half a chance. But hell, after tonight, he was pretty damn sure that Bailey was going to run from him every time he saw Jordan.
Letting out a disgusted sigh, Jordan set his cup in the sink, ready to go to bed when his phone rang. He wasn’t sure who would be calling him this late. Maybe it was the alpha wanting some more details.
Scooping his phone off the table, Jordan checked the caller ID but didn’t recognize the number. He had gotten a new phone number since coming to this town so it wasn’t anybody from his past.
He pressed the phone to his ear after the fifth ring. “Hello?”
“You need to get over to your mate’s house,” Maverick said. “It seems that rogue wasn’t alone. I instructed Ludo to stick around after he picked the first body up. A precautionary measure. Bailey saw Ludo shift when he attacked the second vampire.”
Jordan was heading out of the door before Maverick finished talking. Why hadn’t he stuck around? It was foolish of him to leave, even though Bailey was shouting at him to go. It was a stupid mistake that almost cost his mate’s life.
Now Jordan had to go over there and not only try to calm Bailey down, but explain to him about the paranormal world. This was not how he wanted to handle things.
He drove quickly over to Bailey’s house, parking in the driveway. He didn’t bother to knock on the front door because Jordan had a feeling Bailey wouldn’t answer. The guy was probably freaking out right now.
Opening the door cautiously—because Jordan knew that Bailey owned a gun—he glanced inside. Jordan quickly moved back outside, pressing his back into the house when a bullet came too damn close to his head.
“It’s Jordan.” He waited, but Bailey didn’t reply. Jordan’s eyes flickered over to the side of the house and saw a wolf padding away. Ludo must’ve stuck around until Jordan arrived. Even in wolf form, Jordan could see the sympathetic look in Ludo’s eyes.
“I’m coming in, Bailey. Don’t shoot me.” Jordan sent up a prayer before easing around the doorframe. His eyes scanned the living room but he didn’t see Bailey anywhere. “I’m unarmed,” he said into the empty room. He kept his hands at his sides so his mate could see that he was indeed weaponless.
“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 m
outh 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 focal point because he had a guy who could shift into an animal in his house. He peeked out of the curtain and wasn’t sure if he was relieved when he saw Travis standing on the back steps.
“Open up, Bailey. I see you peeking out.”
He quickly unbolted the door and yanked Travis inside, slamming the door closed and locking it.
“Glad to see you, too.” Travis eyed him strangely. “Are you feeling all right?”
Bailey was sweating, shaking, and felt a little green around the gills. He wasn’t even sure where to begin. Instead of trying to explain things to Travis, he lifted a trembling hand and pointed toward the living room.
Travis stared at him questioningly before turning and heading into the other room. Bailey grabbed the back of the kitchen chair, taking in deep breaths.
“Dude, why do you have a panther sleeping on your floor?” Travis called out. The guy didn’t sound freaked. His tone was light, inquisitive, as if he’d seen things like this all the time. Bailey’s legs were wobbly as he walked into the living room. Travis was squatting right next to the cat, his head cocked to the side.
“I shot him,” Bailey confessed, feeling relieved that he finally told someone.