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The gunshots sounded again, making Santee fear for Beckett’s and Cormac’s and everyone else’s safety. He wasn’t going to stay hidden in a room while his mate was gunned down.
“Get into the closet.”
Orion nodded, but when he swung the door open, he frowned. “I’m skinny, but not that skinny.”
Santee looked and saw the closet was only about twenty inches deep. Deep enough to hold Orion’s bag of clothes, but nothing else. “Okay, then hide in the bathroom.”
“What’re you going to do?” Orion asked.
“Go back out there and see what’s going on.” Not that Santee wanted to face a gunman, but he couldn’t leave Beckett, or even Cormac, out there on their own.
Santee and Orion screamed when the cop at the door went down. In that brief moment, Santee looked past the window in the door to see everyone scrambling.
What he didn’t see was Beckett or Cormac.
Santee raced toward the door and flung it open. To his horror, the cop was bleeding from his chest and Cormac was on the floor, unmoving. Then he saw his mate wrestling with a stranger who had a shotgun in his grips.
A stranger. Not Marvell. Who in the hell was that guy, and why was he shooting up the hospital? Every instinct had told Santee that it was Marvell, but it wasn’t.
As Beckett fought, Santee tried his hardest to pull the deputy into the room, but he couldn’t because the guy was too freaking huge. Instead of continuing to struggle, Santee hurried over to Cormac but still didn’t have any luck.
What did the guys eat, bricks? Santee couldn’t pull either man in, so he moved a large cart to block them from being shot again. And Cormac had been shot. His arm, near the shoulder, was bleeding, as was his leg.
To be honest, Santee was shocked neither man had shifted to heal. Their animals must have known it wasn’t safe for them to shift. That was the only explanation Santee would come up with.
“Let me help,” Orion said, his gown separating when he bent at the waist to grab one of the cop’s arms. Santee didn’t say anything about his friend’s exposed ass.
Santee grabbed the deputy’s other arm, and miraculously, they were able to pull him into the room, though he slid most of the way. Then they dropped his arms and went for Cormac.
As soon as both men were in the room, they shifted.
“What the fuck!” Orion jumped back, his eyes so wide they should have fallen out of his head. On the floor lay a lion and a cheetah. The lion was so massive that even Santee took a step back.
“What’s going on, Santee?” Orion asked, his gaze never leaving the animals.
The door to the room slowly opened, revealing Marvell. He walked in like he didn’t have a care in the world. He looked at Santee. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.” Then he turned to Orion. “You weren’t supposed to survive your attack, you meddling nuisance.”
Santee backed up, shoving Orion behind him. “I take it that’s your hunting buddy out there.”
Marvell smirked. “You would be correct. It’s hilarious how little provocation it took for him to agree to come in here, guns blazing. Humans are highly motivated by greed. All I had to do was promise them a boatload of money, which I don’t intend to pay them.”
If the humans were paying Marvell for shifters, why would they care about Marvell’s offer? Unless it meant getting some of their money back that they’d given his brother. Did Santee really care at the moment?
Santee didn’t bother looking around. He knew there was no way out of the room except through Marvell, and he didn’t want to leave the cop and Cormac in here with the twisted psycho.
“I told Mom what you were doing.” Santee was grasping at straws, unsure what else to say.
“Let me guess.” Marvell tapped his chin. “She didn’t believe you. Of course she believed you,” he said. “She just fears me. I hope you didn’t think our parents would rush back here to deal with me.” He laughed. “Wrong. They left to get away from me.”
Though his smile disappeared on the last part.
“They never understood me, Santee. Just like you never did.”
“What’s there to understand?” Santee asked, keeping his hands behind him as if that would stop his brother from getting to Orion. “You’re insane.”
“I’m not crazy!” Marvell snarled. “People just don’t see the world the way I do.”
“Because it’s normal to sell out your own kind for a profit?” Santee shot back.
