Zane stopped Angelo, one of the wolf enforcers. He was dragging a tied up guy toward the door, but he answered when Zane asked, “Do you know where Kameron and Malik are?”
“Outside. The last I saw them they were following Tom.”
Zane and Iggy looked at each other and started running. Zane took his phone out as they went, dialing Malik’s number with some difficulties. Malik answered, sounding like he was running. “Where are you?” Zane yelled.
“Tom’s headed toward town.”
“Shit.”
Zane went faster, but a Nix shimmered right in his path. He almost bowled the woman down, but she reached for him and Iggy, and the next thing Zane knew, he could see Malik running ahead of him.
He didn’t stop to question what had happened and put his phone away, already running after Malik. He could see Kameron running ahead of them, and an eagle screeched from somewhere above them.
He had no idea where they were, except that they were in a field. He could see a big building ahead of them, and it was obvious Tom was gunning for it. “What is that?” he yelled.
“Store!” Malik yelled back.
Zane wondered what the fuck Tom was doing. Maybe he hoped to lose himself in the crowd. There were a lot of cars parked in the store’s parking lot, and that would make their jobs a lot harder. How could they explain what they were doing to a bunch of humans? They probably ought to let Tom go, but Zane knew Kameron wanted the man in a cell and unable to hurt anyone.
They hit the parking lot seconds after Tom, but they were still too far away to stop him. He ran into the store, and they all ran after him, ignoring the stares they were getting. This was going to become a cluster fuck, Zane was sure of it.
They slowed down once in the store, and Zane realized Tom was standing there, next to the check out, looking at them. Kameron held his hands up and said something Zane didn’t hear. People were staring at them and whispering, and Zane noticed a woman who was pointing her phone at them, a man who clearly worked there talking on his. This was bad, and it was going to get worse.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Tom snarled. He looked around, and Zane realized he was about to do something stupid seconds before he actually did.
Zane held his breath as Tom grinned and started to shift.
Chapter Six
Iggy felt frozen in place. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, what was happening, and apparently he wasn’t the only one. Zane was by his side, just as still.
Tom’s clothes exploded around him and some of the humans in the store yelled. The screams became higher and louder once they realized what was happening. Tom as a wolf was impressive. He was bigger than a normal wolf would be, and Iggy had no doubt most of the people in the store had never seen a wolf this close to begin with. The fact that the wolf clearly had been a man only seconds earlier had to scare them to death.
“What the fuck is he thinking?” Zane swore, and Iggy agreed.
He didn’t even want to start thinking about the amount of problems they’d have now. Some of the humans had their phones out and pointed toward Tom. They weren’t running away, and Iggy wondered how stupid they were, but movement in Tom’s direction drew his attention.
Tom was done shifting and he was snarling at Kameron, who looked cool as a cucumber. He didn’t look like he was about to shift, but Quinn, who was standing by him completely naked, looked like he might tear Tom’s head off and play soccer with it.
A flash of what a video of this would look like in humans’ eyes passed through Iggy’s mind, and he pressed his lips together to avoid laughing. He couldn’t afford it, not now, but there was something funny about thinking that a video of Quinn naked was probably being uploaded on the internet right now.
Tom moved, and Iggy mirrored him without thinking about it. He threw himself forward, ignoring the yells coming from behind him, and put himself between Tom and Kameron. He couldn’t shift. His pallid bat wouldn’t stand a chance against a wolf. He wasn’t sure his human form would, but he was going to try anyway.
He didn’t get far. Someone pushed him to the side and a flurry of fur passed inches from his nose. He swore and tried to push ahead, but arms slid around his chest and held him in place.
“Don’t intervene,” Zane said.
“I’m his bodyguard!” Iggy protested. He couldn’t look away from Kameron. He was still in his human form, and Tom was standing on his hind legs, trying to take a bite out of his neck.
Kameron was holding Tom still, his hands sunk in fur, one under Tom’s jaw, the other one on the back of his head, gripping hard. Tom was drooling and snapping his teeth, and people were still screaming around them.
“Zane is right,” Malik said without looking away from the fight. “They need to do this. Kameron does.”
Iggy understood it, but he didn’t like it. He nodded, and Zane let go. “Since you won’t let me do my job, I’ll find something else to do.”
Malik finally looked at him. “Good idea.”
Iggy took his phone out and dialed Mihaja’s number. The man answered after only a few rings, and Iggy could hear the surprise in his voice. “Iggy?”
They weren’t exactly friends, and Iggy didn’t think he’d ever called Mihaja. “Tom shifted in a store and people are filming it,” he blurted out.
Mihaja was silent for a few seconds, then Iggy heard the sound of his fingers flying on his keyboard. “What’s happening?” Mihaja asked.
“Tom ran from his headquarters. We don’t know why he decided to run to this store, but it’s obvious he wanted to shift in front of humans.”
“Shit. Yeah, there’re at least three videos and one live streaming already on the web. Why isn’t anyone helping Kameron?”
“They won’t let me. Something about Kameron having to deal with it himself, probably because of his history with Tom. Can you do something about the videos?”
“I can try, but even if I manage to somehow make them disappear, I’m not sure it’ll help much. Hundreds of people have already watched them.”
Iggy looked at Kameron and Tom. Kameron had managed to pin Tom to the floor, but Tom was trying to wrestle him off. At least Zane and the others were pushing the humans out and grabbing cell phones, but Mihaja knew more about this than Iggy. If he said it’d be impossible to hide completely what had happened, then he was right.
“How many of those videos show Tom shifting?” he asked.
“One. The others are all videos of Kameron fighting a wolf and they last only a few seconds. The live streaming is gone.”
“Yeah, Zane and the others are making the rounds.”
“I’m hanging up. I need to focus on this. Be safe.”
Iggy didn’t have the time to answer that Mihaja was already gone. He put his phone back into his pocket and looked at the fight in front of him. He hated that he couldn’t do anything, but he knew someone would stop him if he tried. Quinn caught his eye and scowled at him, and while it would have been scarier if he hadn’t looked like a muscled naked twink, the last thing Iggy wanted was to be stopped by a naked Quinn.
A loud whine made Iggy look at Kameron again, just in time to see Kameron slam Tom to the ground. He had a hand wrapped around Tom’s throat and his eyes were determined, even though he was steadily losing blood from a cut on his cheek and his shirt was ripped to pieces.
Iggy had had enough. Kameron was obviously winning, so a little help wouldn’t hurt him. The fact that he needed to do it on his own was crap, and Iggy would tell anyone who asked.
He moved ahead, avoiding Malik’s hand when it shot toward him. He was already taking out a pair of the plastic restraints all the enforcers had. They could be used both on a human and on most shifters, and Kameron didn’t blink when Iggy knelt beside Tom and quickly tied his paws together.
Tom snapped at him, drool flying over Iggy’s face, and Iggy grimaced, but he didn’t stop doing what he was doing. Once he was sure Tom wasn’t goi
ng anywhere, he stood up and nodded at Kameron.
He’d almost expected Kameron to be angry, but he just nodded at him and stepped away. He looked around, and Iggy rolled his eyes when no one reacted. Kameron was the alpha, yes, but it didn’t mean no one could help him. Tom hadn’t been challenging him for his alpha position, after all.
Iggy turned around, pointing at a Nix hovering close, then at Tom, hoping what he wanted was clear. Someone screamed and Iggy briefly wondered what the fuck was happening, but before he could do as much as ask, a searing pain shot from his ankle. The horrible sound of bone breaking made him realize what was happening even before he looked down.
Someone—Quinn—was already dragging Tom away and beating him up, and Iggy crumbled down. His ankle was broken. Blood was pouring out of it and Iggy was pretty sure he could see the white of bones poking from the wound. He also thought the red and pink thing on the floor next to him was a piece of his skin, but he didn’t wonder for long, because the floor was coming toward him.
Hands grabbed him under his armpits and tried to keep him upright. He could feel panic and fear coursing through the bond he shared with Zane, and he didn’t know if they were his own or Zane’s. Not that it made a difference, of course.
Whoever had caught him gently lowered him to the floor, and Zane was there, kneeling next to his head, pulling it up so Iggy could rest it on his knees rather than on the linoleum.
“He’s losing a lot of blood!” someone yelled. There was movement near Iggy’s feet, and he couldn’t help but look down.
He shouldn’t have, because the sight of what was now his ankle turned his stomach.
“Look at me, love,” Zane said, framing Iggy’s face with his hands and stroking his skin. “Two Nix are working on your ankle, so relax and look at me, okay? You’ll be fine. You’ll see, you’ll be fine.”
* * * *
Zane knew he was repeating himself, but it didn’t matter. “You’ll be fine,” he said again, but he wasn’t sure Iggy heard him. He was awake, but he was deadly pale and his eyes were unfocused.
Zane looked down the length of Iggy’s body and cringed. There was a lot of blood, and the two Nix working on Iggy’s ankle had problems seeing anything. One of them shrugged and held out his hands over the wound, hissing something to the other one when she tried to stop him.
The Nix’s hands glowed and Zane held his breath. Iggy wouldn’t die of an ankle wound, especially not with Nix healing him, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t have problems. The bone had clearly been broken, and Zane wasn’t sure how much the Nix could do. The break wasn’t a clean one since Zane had seen bone poking from the wound, and while the Nix were good at what they did, they had limits.
Zane continued stroking Iggy’s face and prayed his mate would be fine. He could feel Iggy was in pain, and confused, and he wished he could do something more than just sit there.
“Shimmer him to the hospital,” someone said from above Zane.
He looked up, relieved to see Kameron was fine, and only then realized he hadn’t given Tom a second glance. The wolf was nowhere to be seen, and when Kameron realized who Zane was looking for, he said, “He’s already in the council jail. You take care of your mate. We have everything under control.”
“The videos.”
Kameron grimaced. “We’re doing what we can about them, but you shouldn’t worry right now. Take care of Iggy.”
The male Nix held his hand out to Zane in a clear demand. Zane hesitated, because that hand was dirty with blood, with his mate’s blood. He took a deep breath and pressed the tip of his fingers on the palm of the Nix’s hand.
The store disappeared, and an emergency room appeared instead. There was noise, voices, and chaos, and someone was already by Iggy’s side, checking on him.
“What happened?” someone asked.
Zane looked at the man and thought he looked familiar. He was tall and thin almost to the point of too thin. His hair was a light brown streaked with black and his eyes were a surprising amber color. He was already working on Iggy, but he briefly looked at Zane when he realized Zane was staring.
“I spent some time with the pack,” he said, looking at Iggy’s ankle again.
“Oh?”
“I was one of the shifters Craig rescued. Maned wolf. Name’s Dallas.”
“I probably saw you around pack territory.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
Dallas obviously already knew, but Zane nodded anyway. “Wolf shifter. Iggy managed to tie the guy up, but he got to Iggy.”
“I see that.”
“Are you... will you be able to do something? Is he going to be fine?”
Zane didn’t like the expression on Dallas’ face when he looked up again. “We’ll do everything we can. He’s not in a life or death situation, but I’m not sure we can save his foot, not yet.”
Zane swallowed. He didn’t know how Iggy would react if he lost a foot. His job as a bodyguard had been so important for him.
It had taken Dallas and the two Nix several hours to heal Iggy, and they still hadn’t told Zane about it. He paced the hallway, looking at the door of the private room Iggy was now in. Dallas had sent him to get something to eat, but Zane hadn’t. He’d left the room, but he’d never gone beyond the hallway. He couldn’t.
The door opened, and Zane jumped. Dallas rolled his eyes when he saw him, but he looked pale and tired. He rubbed his face with his palm and gestured at the chairs in the hallway. “Let’s sit down.”
It was probably bad if he wanted Zane to sit down, and Zane almost freaked out. He could feel that Iggy was asleep, and he didn’t want to wake him up, so he sat and took as many deep breaths as he needed to calm down.
Once he was sure he was calm—or at least calmer than he’d been—he nodded to himself and looked at Dallas. “How is he?”
Dallas sighed. “He lost a lot of blood, but we gave him some, so that’s not a problem.”
Zane swallowed. “What’s the problem then?”
“The ankle.”
“Is his foot...”
“Still attached, yes. He won’t lose it, and he’ll be able to walk, but he’ll probably always have a limp.”
That was better than what Zane had expected. “How badly?”
“We don’t know. I’ll make sure he has regular healing sessions with a Nix, so it’ll get better, but we can’t know how much better until we work on it. The bone was a mess, and we had to knit it back together. We did our best, but I think he’ll always feel some weakness on that foot.”
“Do you think he’ll be able to still do his job?”
Dallas tapped a finger on his thigh. “Well, it depends. If Kameron intends to get into a fight again, then it would probably be a good idea for Iggy to stay back. If we’re talking about normal day to day protection, especially in pack territory, it should be fine. But really, we’ll know more as the time passes. He won’t be going back to work for at least a month or two anyway.”
“Does he have to stay here?” Iggy would want to see his family after what had happened earlier.
“You can take him home as soon as he wakes up.”
“What about the healing sessions?”
“I’ll come by in a few days to check on him, then we’ll decide. I’m moving back to Gillham anyway, so it won’t be a problem.”
“You are?”
“Kameron asked me to be in charge of the new pack’s infirmary.”
“That’ll be good.”
Dallas got up and patted Zane’s shoulder. “Your mate will be fine. Take him home, let him rest, and I’ll see you in a few days.”
Zane waited until he was gone to take his phone out. He called Clea, because they were kind of family now, and the Nix answered almost right away.
“The fuck, man? Iggy’s family has been frantic. Kameron and Malik are back but you never got here.”
Zane closed his eyes and leaned the back of
his head against the wall. “Sorry. Iggy was hurt, and I didn’t think about calling.”
“I can see that. How is he?”
“Fine. Can you come and get us? We’re at the council hospital.”
There was the sound of someone talking on Clea’s side of the phone, but Zane ignored it.
“Yeah, I’m coming. Will I shimmer you back at Kameron’s house or at home?”
Zane looked at the door of the room Iggy was in. “At home.”
“Give me a few minutes.”
They hung up and Zane went to see Iggy. He was still sleeping, and Zane sat next to him, taking his hand and looking at his foot. It was poking out of the sheets, and it was heavily wrapped in bandages. There was no blood, which was a relief. Zane tried to keep Dallas’ words in mind and to convince himself Iggy really was fine, but it was hard when Iggy was still in his hospital bed, asleep and pale.
There was a knock on the door and it opened. Clea’s head appeared in the opening, but he was pushed aside by Christian, who barreled in as if he owned the place.
“What happened to him?” he demanded.
“Tom bit his ankle.”
Christian’s gaze flickered to Iggy’s foot. “He’ll be fine?”
“Yeah. Might have a limp, but the doctors aren’t sure. He needs time.”
“I’m taking him home.”
Zane blinked. “You’re taking him where?”
Christian’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m taking him home. When we got to Gillham someone assigned us rooms. He can stay with me.”
Zane got up and pulled Iggy’s sheet up just to give himself something to do before he punched Christian. “You’re right, he’s going home, but not with you. I’m his mate, and we share a room in a house with other people. That’s where he’s going to go. That’s his home. You can come visit tomorrow when he wakes up, and only if he actually wants to see you.”
Iggy [Gillham Pack: 15] Page 10
