Keenan

by Catherine Lievens

  “Just think about it, guys.”

  Wynn nodded and opened his mouth to talk, but Dominic entered the living room in that moment and all eyes went to him, the conversations instantly quieting. Ani was next to him, and when he saw the small group of Nix, he smiled at them.

  “Is everyone ready?” Dominic asked, and yesses came from around the room. “Okay then. I’ll shimmer with Nysys, Nate and Derick. Everyone pair with a Nix.”

  Everyone looked at the small group beside Keenan, and he could see no one would take the first step. He huffed and grabbed Wyn’s hand, pulling him along until they reached Jared. “You two are together.”

  Keenan moved between the Nix and the shifters, pairing Yerad with Sebastian and Oliver, Cerris with Denver and Ward and Noem with Joshua. He knew they would be picking up more shifters in Gillham, but they would have to deal with the pairings. His job was done for now.

  He saw Dominic smile at him and give him a wink before saying, “All right, people. Let’s go.”

  The pairs shimmered away, and Keenan couldn’t help the pang of worry that settled in his heart. He reached for Jamie’s hand and squeezed it. “How do you do it?”

  Jamie shrugged. “It’s not like I have a choice, but the bond helps. I always know what Ward is feeling, and I’d know if he was hurt.”

  Keenan didn’t have that bond with Jonah, though, and he had to do something to take his mind off what his mate was doing. If he didn’t, he would pass the next few hours imagining the worst scenarios his mind could come up with. Jonah hurt, Jonah tortured, shot. He might just go crazy.

  “So, where are you taking me? What club?” They’d decided to go dancing on Friday, even if it was only two days after the raid. Everyone needed a little distraction after one of the raids, and Keenan’s party had been planned for the day after that. It might seem strange for them to go dancing when they could help with the shifters rescued from the lab, but Keenan and his friends couldn’t do much. Besides, all the people they would rescue would be brought over to the hospital Dominic had built or to the safe house if they were fine, so it wasn’t as if they would have them in the mansion like they used to do before.

  “Well, I was thinking Blue Fire. I’ve been there before with Ward, but I know you haven’t.”

  The club was a relatively new one, and Keenan was excited to go there. He had gone clubbing very rarely when he worked as a barman, and he hadn’t really had the time since he had become Dominic’s PA, so it was going be nice. “Perfect. Who’s coming?”

  “You, me, Jayden, although I had to do a lot of convincing there, and Darin. Oh, and Nolan and Casey. They’re going to be our babysitters. I don’t know if Oliver will be there yet, he’s going to tell me tomorrow morning.”

  “Shad?”

  “Nope. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he’s been weird recently. He doesn’t want to talk about it, though.”

  Keenan frowned. He had noticed that the man had withdrawn from their little group and hardly talked to them anymore. He was passing more and more time locked in his room, and Keenan knew he would have to investigate.

  “What about the party here? What did you have in mind?” Talking about it helped taking Keenan’s mind off Jonah, and it was just what he needed.

  * * * *

  This lab was very much like the one Jonah had spent nine months in, except for the kids and the pregnant women. It had been a shock seeing them, and not only for him. It seemed that it was the first time kids had been found in a raid. It made Jonah shudder in disgust and horror.

  How could someone do the experiments that had been done on him on kids that were five and six years old? They’d been huddled in their cages, watching with huge eyes when Jonah and the others neutralized the guards. As much as Jonah had wanted to help them, he knew there were other people to do it. Jared was there with them, and he was the best person to help them right now. Jonah had something else to do.

  He looked over the cages, trying to identify the people in them. Some were in their animal forms, though, making it difficult. There were two wolves, a deer, three foxes and even a moose. Then there were those in human forms, but Jonah couldn’t tell which ones where shifters and which ones were humans. It didn’t matter anyway. They would save them all.

  He walked by the cages, letting the others open them while he went straight to the wolves.

  “Jonah!” Jonah hurried, stopping at the cage right before the one where the lightest colored wolf was, and smiled in relief. Merle was on his feet, his hands clenched around the bars of the cage. “I knew you’d come for us!”

  “Merle! Are you hurt? Where is Simon?”

  Merle’s eyes told Jonah exactly how worried he was. He pointed to the wolf in the cage next to him. It had a light brown fur, and the most amazing pale green eyes. He recognized Simon right away. “He’s been in his wolf form for weeks, and he won’t shift back. What about Elliott? They took him away and I haven’t seen him since then.”

  Jonah could understand why Simon was doing this. It had been so tempting to do just that for him too, but he had resisted. He was unwilling to let the lab and the company, affect him so much. It would have been easier, because the human feelings were muted while in animal form, and it helped dealing with the horrible things that had been done to them. “We’ll take care of him, don’t worry. I already found Elliott. He’s home.”

  Merle nodded and bit his lower lip in a clear attempt to stop the tears that were gathering in his eyes from falling, and Jonah called for Joshua. The leopard shifter was opening the cages, leaving the ones containing the shifters in animal forms for last. No one knew how they would react once they were freed, and they were cautious.

  Joshua opened Merle’s cage with a pair of shears before moving to another cage. Jonah opened his arms, happy when Merle launched himself into them. He hugged him tightly, caressing Merle’s dark brown hair and murmuring reassuring words to him until someone cleared his throat behind them.

  Jonah turned, Merle still in his arms, to see Kameron standing there. The man was smiling, and Jonah knew he had done the right thing going to the Alpha and asking for his help. He was obviously very happy to see Merle was fine, or at least as fine as he could be considering what he had been through.

  Merle launched himself into Kameron’s arms. “Thank you! I can’t believe you guys went against Alpha Erskine to save us!”

  “Erskine is dead, Merle. I challenged him for the Alpha position, and I won. He won’t hurt you ever again.”

  Merle broke down in tears in Kameron’s’ arms and Jonah walked away, leaving them a bit of time to get it touch. It was important that Merle’s wolf communicate with Kameron, since Kameron was his new Alpha.

  Jonah crouched down next to Simon’s cage and slipped one hand between the bars. “Hey, Simon. How are you doing?”

  The wolf looked at Jonah, and he was pleased to see the human intelligence in those eyes. It meant Simon was still there, lurking under the fur, and that they might be able to bring him back. Jonah hoped so. There was nothing worse than seeing a friend lose himself into his animal form. It happened rarely, but it did happen, and he hoped they would be able to help Simon out of it.

  Jonah wiggled his fingers, smiling when Simon huffed and rose from the corner of the cage. The wolf walked toward him and plopped back down, rubbing his nose against Jonah’s fingers. “That would feel much better if you were in human form, you know?”

  Simon huffed again and rolled his eyes in a very human way before head-butting Jonah’s fingers again, demanding that Jonah cuddle him. Jonah complied, secretly relieved to see that Simon was a lot closer to the surface than he would have thought.

  “Jonah? Denver just told me that he left Andy with a small group of kids that was being held separately. I want you to go there and check on him. In the hallway take left, then right. Denver says he left the door open.” Merle was still in Kameron’s arms, the Alpha tracing soothing circles on his tre
mbling back.

  Jonah nodded and gave one last scratch to Simon’s head before getting up. He stopped by Joshua before exiting the cages’ room. “My friend Simon is in the cage in the corner. He’s the wolf with the pale green eyes. I think you can let him out without problems, but just to be sure take Derick with you. They knew each other before Simon disappeared.” He knew Nate would probably go with them, so he wasn’t worried.

  Jonah heard Kameron’s cellphone ring just as he stepped into the hallway, but he didn’t wait. He quickly walked to the end of the hallway and turned right, stopping when he saw a man running out of an open door.

  Jonah could have caught the running man in his human form, but he recognized him right away, and he wasn’t able to stop his wolf from emerging.

  It was Glass.

  Jonah had seen him twice in the year he had passed in the labs, so he had no problems recognizing him. Glass had offered him a place as one of his bodyguards the first time they’d met, but Jonah had refused and had tried to bite his left hand off. Needless to say, Glass hadn’t been too happy about it and had authorized the scientist to use Jonah for their experiments.

  He had returned months later, and Jonah had had the impression that he visited his labs as often as he could. It was an incredible coincidence that he had been visiting this particular lab just when they had decided to raid it.

  Jonah shook the remains of his clothes off before growling at Glass. The man stopped, knowing it would be useless to try to run away. It would only incite Jonah’s wolf to run after him, and he wouldn’t get out of it unhurt.

  Jonah stalked Glass, keeping his eyes on the man’s face, relishing in the fear and horror he could see there. He snarled, literally pushing Glass against the wall and keeping him there. Jonah knew someone would come soon, and he was going to keep Glass right there until they did.

  Glass tried to move away, but Jonah snarled and showed him his teeth, convincing him that he needed to stay put. He wasn’t sure if the man had recognized him, but it didn’t matter.

  “Jonah. I see you found our fugitive,” Kameron said behind Jonah.

  Jonah barked and shifted, not caring that he was naked. They were shifters after all. “It’s Glass.”

  Jonah saw Glass’ shocked expression when he recognized him, but he didn’t move. There wasn’t much he could do by now. “You mean Rayford Glass? The head of the company?”

  Jonah nodded. “Yeah. I saw him a few times over the year I was in the labs, and he offered me a job the first time.”

  Kameron smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. It was predatory, and it scared even Jonah. “Well, well. Mr. Glass. I see you’ve changed quite a bit from the last picture I saw of you.” Kameron turned to Jonah. “Take him back into the cage room and tell Dominic exactly who he is.”

  Kameron then walked into the room Glass had exited, and Jonah turned to the human, smiling a wicked smile at him. Glass looked nearly bored, but Jonah could see he was just schooling his expression. His hands slightly trembled, betraying his nervousness and the fear Jonah could smell coming from him. “Come on, Glass. The Alpha is waiting for you.”

  * * * *

  Keenan was waiting with the others when the first group shimmered in. When Dominic had planned the mansion’s new wing, he had decided to dedicate an entire room just to shimmer in and out. That way no one needed to be outside when it was raining or snowing. The mates could wait for their other half comfortably as well.

  Keenan’s heart skipped a beat when the air shimmered, but he was disappointed to see that Jonah wasn’t part of the little group that arrived. He wasn’t even sure he would see him today, to be honest. They hadn’t talked about Jonah coming to see Keenan after the raid, and Keenan thought his mate would probably want to be with his friends.

  He couldn’t help but feel a bit resentful, even if he knew he shouldn’t. He actually felt guilty about it. Still, they weren’t mated yet, and Keenan felt that Jonah was giving much more importance to his friends than to him. It was normal with what they had been through both together and on their own, and he shook his head, trying to push those hated feelings away.

  Jonah was doing what he had to do to be able to come back to Keenan and be a good mate. Keenan knew it, and he knew he didn’t have to worry about anything else. He had better things to do, like helping Jared with... the kids?

  “Jared? You found kids?”

  Jared nodded, his face grim as he steered the three boys and the girl toward the couches that were placed against the walls. “They’re fine, as far as I can tell. Dehydrated, underfed, but they should be fine. I’ll still see them tomorrow, just to be sure, and I’ll have to examine them carefully after I go over their files.”

  Another group popped in and Keenan cursed. Joshua was holding his arm close to his body. Keenan hurried toward him. “What happened?”

  “I’m fine, don’t worry. It’s already healing.”

  Keenan stepped to the side to let Adrian get to his mate and walked over the small group of survivors. There was a group of three foxes huddled together in a corner. Their eyes were huge as they took in everything that was happening around them. Five people in human form were there too, and Keenan had to take care of everyone.

  “Jared, is everyone all right, or do you have to take care of them?”

  Jared rubbed his eyes before looking at Keenan, his eyes giving away his exhaustion. It always took a lot of him to take care of the people they saved in the raids, even with the hospital now nearly finished. Of course, it wasn’t a big hospital, just a big clinic really, but it was where they took the people with the worst conditions. “I examined everyone briefly, and apart from some wounds, they should be fine. Can you find rooms for all of them? I’ll visit everyone as soon as I can.”

  This Keenan could do. It would help take his mind off Jonah and the reason why he wasn’t there.

  Keenan didn’t see Ward approach him until his brother-in-law squeezed his arm. Keenan jumped a bit, but he was relieved to see that Ward was fine.

  “Jonah is fine, Keenan. He’s with the pack.”

  Keenan smiled at Ward. The man always seemed to know what he was thinking. “Thank you.”

  Ward frowned a bit, but this wasn’t the time to have a heart-felt discussion about how Keenan was feeling, so he turned away and held his hands out to the kids. “Who wants to eat something before going to bed?”

  With the help of Connie and Marian, two of the pride’s women who took care of the younger kids, he managed to put a small snack together before getting the bed ready. Luckily for him, most of the beds in the pride were king sized, because the kids wanted to stay together. It took a while, but finally they were all clean, fed and asleep.

  Keenan leaned against the door frame and looked at the kids. They couldn’t be more than six years old, maybe less. He couldn’t believe someone could even think of hurting them, but someone had. Keenan had been the one to help them bathe and put on pajamas, and he had seen the wounds. They weren’t as bad as the ones the adults had sustained, but it was still a horrible thing to see.

  “How are they?” Finn asked from behind him.

  Keenan turned to face him and carefully closed the door. “They’re fine, at least physically. They’re scared, though.”

  Finn nodded, clearly worried, but then he looked up at Keenan and smiled. “There’s someone downstairs who wants to see you.”

  Keenan raised a brow. “Who is it?”

  Finn grinned. “Oh, just a certain wolf shifter. He asked me to shimmer back to the pack to pick him up once everything had calmed down.”

  Keenan grinned back before heading for the stairs. “Thanks!”

  “He’s in the living room!” Finn said loud enough for Keenan to hear, and Keenan accelerated, waving at his friend. He couldn’t believe Jonah was there!

  Keenan had to stop himself from running down the stairs, but once he was at the living room door, with Jonah standing in front of hi
m, he couldn’t contain himself anymore. He ran to his mate and jumped into Jonah’s arms.

  Jonah opened them for him, gathering him against his chest as Keenan wound his legs around Jonah’s waist and his arms around his shoulders. Their lips met without Keenan even thinking of it, as if they had a mind of their own, and then nothing existed for Keenan except for him and Jonah.

  Keenan tried to express all the feelings he had for Jonah with his tongue and lips. He couldn’t say it aloud, because he wasn’t even sure what they were exactly, but he did know that he wanted the man, more than he had ever wanted anyone.

  He knew he would eventually fall in love with Jonah if he gave him the opportunity, and he liked that idea. He already knew Jonah was a good man who had put other people’s wellbeing before his own and even before his mate’s. He also knew Jonah wanted him, even if he was just a scrawny twenty-two year old human. He also knew he didn’t want to have to live through another of those raids like he had done today, not knowing if Jonah was fine.

  Keenan ended the kiss, pressing his lips on Jonah’s a few more times before leaning back to look at him. “Claim me.”

  Jonah’s eyes widened in surprise. “I—what?”

  “Claim me. I want you to.” Keenan could see Jonah was hesitating. He didn’t take it personally, though. He knew Jonah had been through hell and that their relationship was very, very new. Just that would have been a good reason for them to slow down. He didn’t want to slow down, though. “I know it’s too soon, and I know we don’t know each other, but I want this.”

  Jonah frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “I know what I’m getting into, don’t worry. I’ve lived around shifters long enough to see what being mates means. I’ve seen people who didn’t know each other mate and be happy. I know you’re a good man, I know I’m the only mate you’ll ever have, and if you want me... ”

  Keenan waited, holding his breath as he watched emotions passing in a quick sequence on Jonah face. First disbelief—then hope. Then there was worry and insecurity before Jonah finally opened his mouth to answer.