He looked at me like the whole fucking pack used to look at me. Like, Give me an order, Nick. And he said, “Okay,
then where should I take you?”
I was having a hard enough time staying conscious, let alone talking. Let alone figuring out where the fuck I could go that knew about shifters, was safe, and would be willing to help a fucking gangster wolf.
My wolf said, Protection, Inc.
I thought he was out of his fucking mind. Those were the guys who’d been busting their asses trying to run me out of town.
But then I remembered my first meeting with Hal, when he’d thought he could make a deal with me. He’d made his offer, then said, “Shifters’ honor.”
Shifters never reveal other shifters. Ever. Even fucking Price wouldn’t do that. So if I showed up on Hal’s doorstep, he wouldn’t dump me at an ER.
When my father went to Price for help, Dad had said, “Shifters’ honor,” too. Price refused him. So shifters’ honor didn’t mean you had to help another shifter. But it meant that if you were an honorable type of person, you should.
My wolf said, Hal Brennan is honorable.
I’d fucking had it with him and his team. But I was running out of time. And Manuel was still staring at me with those pleading pup eyes, like, Please make this right, Nick. Please don’t leave me with your blood on my hands.
I said, “Protection, Inc.”
Lucky for me, Hal was burning the midnight oil, because I sure didn’t know where he lived. But we all knew where his office was. We’d graffitied the front, dumped rotting garbage on the doorstep to gross out his clients, and tried our best to break in. We’d never managed it and their windows were high up and unbreakable, but I did once use a window-washer’s rig to spray-paint on them. I’m sure you can guess what sort of things I wrote.
Manuel pulled up at Protection, Inc., lifted me over his shoulder, and started ringing the bell and banging on the door. I could still see a little bit of graffiti they’d missed when they’d last painted it over.
Hal opened the door with a gun in his hand. We’d broken his closed circuit cameras the night before, so he wasn’t sure if it was an ambush or someone who needed protection right then. He was surprised as hell to see us.
Manuel said, “Don’t shoot! Nick’s hurt really bad, he needs help —”
Hal interrupted him. “Why isn’t his pack helping him?”
“He stepped down as alpha and ran the gauntlet.” Manuel sounded like he was trying not to cry. “To save me.”
Hal asked, “Which of you decided to come here?”
I said, “Me.”
I’m sure Hal could see I really was hurt, but he must have wondered if it was a set-up by someone else. He was still holding a gun on us when he asked his last question. “What do you want me to do with the kid, Nick?”
“Protect him,” I said. Then I started coughing, and I couldn’t get enough breath to talk. But there was something else I had to say, so I forced it out. “Shifters’ honor.”
Hal’s a big guy, but he moves fast. Makes decisions fast, too. Next thing I knew, he was carrying me upstairs himself, with Manuel trailing behind him. He laid me down on the sofa in the lobby. My jacket and shirt were in tatters. Hal ripped them both all the way off.
You’ll probably never hear Hal curse, but he does if something really gets to him. He sure did when he saw what Price had done to me. Then he grabbed a pillow, put it over my chest, and told Manuel to hold it in place. I can’t even imagine how much that would have hurt if he’d done it right after Price bit me, but by then I was in shock and didn’t feel anything but pressure. The only reason I was still conscious was my wolf howling at me to stay awake.
Hal made a bunch of phone calls that I didn’t really follow. While he was talking on the phone, he was moving fast to try to save me. He propped me up with some more pillows so I could breathe easier, got a first aid kit and switched out the other pillow for bandages, and put a bunch of blankets over me. Then he cranked up the heat. I didn’t know anything about first aid then and I was really out of it, so I spent most of that time trying to figure out how he’d known I was cold when I hadn’t told him.
Then his team started showing up, one by one. Fiona was first. I was starting to drift off, so I didn’t see her come in. I just heard this hoity-toity voice saying, “My sofa!”
That woke me up a bit. I opened my eyes, and there was that blonde woman who could turn into a snow leopard, glaring daggers at me and the white sofa that I’d bled all over.
Hal said, “We’ll get a new one. Just help me save his life, all right?”
Fiona stalked up to me, just like her leopard on the hunt. Halfway there, she said, “My carpet!”
I’d bled all over that, too. I found out later that she’d been in charge of decorating the new office.
Hal snapped his fingers. “Fiona. Get to it!”