took or what favors he had to call in.
Solomon disappeared into a portal after giving Logan a stern glare.
Jamal leaned against the wall and let out a breath. “Holy shit.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, what? The alpha of the damned hellhounds is on your speed dial. You summoned him and he showed up.”
Logan frowned. “Summoned? No. Asked him to come, yes.”
“Same fucking difference. Do you know what he could do to us? Holy shit.”
Logan had forgotten how terrifying the hellhounds were to everyone else. He’d felt the same way when he’d first met them, but it had been a little while. Sure, they were scary and could kick his ass from here to hell and back without breaking a sweat, but they were also the heroes of their realm, the ones who kept the peace. And once Callie and Vice had started training with them, the terror eased a bit.
“Huh.”
Dasan grabbed Jamal by the shoulder and gave him a little shake. It seemed to snap him out of the hellhound-induced stupor he’d entered.
“Let’s go,” Logan said. “We’re not going to find anything else here.”
Dasan led Logan down the sidewalk to the spot where they’d lost the scent of the incubus. At least Scout had tracked it for a short distance this time. It gave them more than they’d had before.
“It had a car here,” Logan said. “So we weren’t wrong in thinking it came to the cabaret.”
“There was a definite police presence, though,” Dasan added, “which would have put a damper on its plans. The parking lot was full of cops, and none of the students were walking alone. Security patrolled the lot with a bunch of the frat brothers. They’d only stopped twenty minutes or so before Bailey’s attack, once the audience members had left.”
“So it waited.”
Dasan nodded. “But was it targeting Bailey, or was it targeting anyone from the event to prove a point?”
Logan growled. “Either way, we need to figure out a way to hunt it down. This can’t happen again.”
After another quick update with Jamal, Logan headed back to the hospital. They planned on releasing Bailey in another couple of hours, and Logan wanted to be there when they did. In fact, he didn’t plan on letting Bailey out of his sight for a while.
He thought about Solomon’s assumptions—Bailey wasn’t his mate. Wasn’t even part of his pack, really. He didn’t have a pack.
Except—
Logan stuck his head firmly back in the sand and ignored what both he and his wolf had managed to do. He itched to run, to abandon what he’d unintentionally built and would no doubt destroy.
But he couldn’t.
23
Bailey
Bailey winced as he went down the stairs from Logan’s apartment. Even after ten days out of the hospital, his ribs still hurt if he stepped the wrong way. Everyone was in the conference room working, though, and Bailey was over this whole “resting” thing they all insisted he needed to do.
And sure, maybe he wasn’t sleeping all that well, what with the bruised face to match his bruised ribs. And maybe he still had little moments of panic every time he heard a noise, especially if it came from behind him or sounded like the metal of the dumpster lid closing. But that didn’t mean he was an invalid.
The therapist he’d been seeing assured him his reactions were normal. He was in a state of hyperawareness, and probably would be for a little while until he felt safe again. Although, funnily enough, he didn’t seem worried about that at all when he was at the warehouse with Logan and his team.
They hadn’t left him alone since he’d gotten out of the hospital. Logan had even managed to convince Bailey’s mother it was best for him to come to Logan’s house instead of spending his recovery at his parents’. If Logan and the team were out on one of their mysterious jobs, Bailey’s friends came to hang out with him.
He made it into the main area before a door opened upstairs. Logan came out and leaned on the railing with a smile. “You’re up.”
“Yeah. Can’t seem to settle. I thought I’d make a snack.”
“A snack?” Aleron appeared behind Logan with a smile. “I could go for a snack.”
Logan growled at him. “You could literally leave the premises and go for a snack.”
“I mean, I could…”
“I’ll see what we have,” Bailey offered. “I want something to keep me busy, anyway.”
He made his way over to the other set of stairs, but then he heard a sound behind him