It took less time that he would have thought before Oliver heard people entering the suite, talking at a low tone. The first ones to enter the room were Sebastian and Keenan. Sebastian sat on the bed next to Oliver while Keenan sat near Oliver’s feet and crossed his arms on his chest, his expression hard, clearly saying that if the man who entered with Dominic and Jared only tried to hurt Oliver, he would have to face Keenan, and it wouldn’t be pretty. It made Oliver want to laugh, because Keenan was anything but a fighter, but he was fierce and ready to do just about anything to defend a friend.
Oliver looked at the unknown man in front of him. He could see him look back as they both assessed each other, and he was surprised at the man’s aspect. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it was not the seemingly sweet and all geeky guy who was standing there. He didn’t look as if he could hurt a fly, much less do something like what was done to Oliver.
After everyone settled around the room, Dominic started talking. “All right, Mr. Landreth. This is your patient.”
“Adrian, please.” Adrian turned to face Oliver. “I’m really sorry about what happened to you—what I did to you. I’m...I’m not in this willingly. They have my brother, and they will hurt him if I don’t do what they want.”
Oh god. Oliver wanted to be angry at the man, to hate him, but how could he after finding this out? “Look, I just want to get better. I’m sure you already talked to Jared, so you know exactly what’s happening with me, and I hope you can fix it, because I don’t think I can go on like this for long,” he said, indicating his failing body.
“I want to examine you, but I think I know what the problem is, and if it is what I think it is, I can fix it without problems.”
Oliver’s felt his heart thud hard in his chest at the prospect of being sane again. He couldn’t even imagine how his life was going to change if he got well. Maybe he would be able to find a job again. He’d had about enough of staying in bed, enough for a lifetime, even the very long one shifters had.
Sebastian growled a bit when Adrian asked everyone to get out and wait in the living room, but Oliver shushed him. “Let the man do his job. We both know that if you stay here, you’ll either growl at him all the time or downright hurt him because he’s touching me.”
Sebastian reluctantly nodded and left after giving Oliver a last kiss on the lips, making certain Adrian saw how possessive and claiming it was. Oliver found it funny. Sebastian was the only one who could find him attractive in his present state, really. It was the pull between mates that made it so.
Adrian started taking things out of the bag he had come with, putting everything on the bed next to Oliver. Oliver took a deep breath as they faced each other. “Come on, doc. Do your worst.”
* * * *
“What do you think they’re doing? Maybe Jared should have stayed in the room, just in case.” Yeah, Sebastian knew he was whining, but he couldn’t help it. His mate was alone in his room with the enemy.
Dominic chuckled. “Relax, Seb. I talked with the man most of the night and I really don’t think he would hurt Oliver. He just wants to help, and he feels guilty about what he’s done.”
Sebastian straightened in the armchair.
“Okay, so let’s talk about Adrian’s brother and the labs. I promised him we would get his brother out of wherever he’s being held, but we have to find him first. I finally heard from Kameron, the Alpha of the Gillham pack. We’re going to raid the lab in Fort Collins.”
Sebastian tried to concentrate on what his Alpha was saying. “Do we know what we expect to find there?”
“I’ll have Isaiah check again before we go, but from what Craig said there are at least six shifters there and maybe a few humans, although I’m not sure on that. There should be ten guards around the clock and I know five scientists work there full-time and several others move around the country, but if we go at night we can avoid those.”
Once he had heard the most important details, Sebastian zoned out. He tried to listen in to what was going on in the bedroom, but he couldn’t actually make out what Oliver and Adrian were saying. Since Oliver knew Sebastian could hear him, he must be keeping his voice low on purpose. Luckily for Sebastian and his lion, who had been pacing in the back of his head and whining to go to their mate, it didn’t take long for the door to open and Adrian to come out.
Sebastian wanted to hear what the man had to say, but he had more important things to do, like running to his mate’s side and checking him from head to toe to see if he’d been hurt. As he neared the bed, Sebastian smelled Oliver’s blood on the air and he growled. He would have gone after Adrian, but Oliver knew him too well by now.
“Don’t be so growly, and come here. He didn’t hurt me, he just took some blood. I’m fine.” Oliver’s voice was low, and Sebastian realized he hadn’t been trying to keep it low on purpose as he had thought before. From Oliver’s perspective, he could tell it took him too much energy to talk by now, which meant they were running out of time.
He settled next to Oliver and looped his arm around his mate’s shoulders, pulling him against his chest. He knew Oliver was always cold, and he wanted him to be comfortable, at least when he was home. Sebastian had taken a leave from his job as a landscape architect and gardener for his friend Ward, so he was at home nearly all the time, since Dominic had also got him off of patrolling duty. He practically left their rooms only when he was on some house duty, like cooking, and when there was something special to do, like go to New York or raid the labs.
Everyone trickled back into the bedroom and Keenan settled on the other side of Oliver, earning himself a growl from Sebastian. “Hush, kitty cat. You know I’m not planning to steal away your mate, so be a good kitty and stay down.”
Sebastian should have been angry at how Keenan treated him, but the guy treated everyone the same way. He wasn’t scared one bit of what they could do to him, and he was honest about what he thought. He was a breath of fresh air in the mansion.
“I started working on introducing animal DNA into human DNA a few years ago, but this,” Adrian said indicating Oliver, “is not what I wanted. I thought that giving our soldiers some of the animals enhanced senses would give them another weapon against the enemy, like nocturnal vision. The Glass Research Company approached me two times. However, I always declined their offers. I don’t like the frame of mind of the company, and I was right. The third time they asked me to work for them, they told me they had my brother, and that he would be safe as long as I worked for them. They introduced me to shifters and they told me that they wanted to create them in their labs rather than try to hire born ones.”
Adrian was looking at his hands, and Sebastian could feel the shame and worry coming from him. It was obvious the man hadn’t wanted to do what he was told. “They told me I would work on volunteers, but I still refused. I wasn’t even sure I could enhance already existing senses, and I didn’t want to put those people lives in danger. The next day they showed me a video in which they were torturing my brother. I accepted.”
Keenan soft voice broke the silence. “We’ll find your brother, you know.”
Adrian sighed. “I know you’re willing to try, and that’s already more than I thought possible after what I did, but I’ve been looking for Gabriel for nearly two years now, and I haven’t found him.” He raked his hand in his hair and one of the hairpins popped free and fell on the floor, but Adrian didn’t even notice. “I started experimenting and splicing DNA, and the company provided the volunteers. I know now that they weren’t, at least most of them. I visited a lot of labs, but most of the volunteers...they didn’t make it. I wanted to stop, but every time I tried, they hurt my brother.”
The man’s eyes were haunted, and Sebastian knew he was going to regret what he’d done for the rest of his life. He wasn’t sure he could blame him, though. He would have probably done the same thing for any of the men who were in the room right now.
“Some of the people I experimented on did li
ve, however, but all of them had a big problem. The human body isn’t made to shift or even to only contain the animal part of a shifter, and their bodies started shutting down, leading to their deaths. I knew I had to work on that, but in the meantime, I worked on a cocktail of substances the hybrids had to consume once a month to keep the correct balance between the two entities. That’s why Oliver is sick. He has been out of the lab for six months, which means he didn’t have that injection, so his body is failing.”
“You mean the only thing he needs is an injection, and he will be fine?” Sebastian nearly couldn’t believe it.
“Yes. I’ll work with your doctor to show him how to produce it, so that Oliver will always have it. Once he takes it, he should go back to normal without problems.
“Will I...will I be able to shift?”
Adrian smiled. “With the injection they gave you in the lab, you wouldn’t have been able to. It’s missing a crucial component that would allow your human body to shift into an animal. However, I perfected it, but I didn’t tell the company. I don’t think it’s wise to give them the possibility to create shifters, even if...even if it costs my brother his life.”
“So after you give me that thing, I’ll be able to shift into a bear? Yogi will be free?”
Everyone looked at Oliver in surprise and amusement. Not even Sebastian knew he had given a pet name to his bear, and it was kind of funny, like if Sebastian had called his lion Simba or something.
“Yes, I think you’ll be able to shift. I haven’t tried the new version of the serum, but I know it will help. The shift might not be as easy or quick as if you were a born shifter, but...Yogi will be able to come out and play.”
Oliver looked around, the smile on his face blinding. “Okay, so when are you going to give it to me?”
* * * *
Oliver winced when the needle penetrated his flesh. He should have been used to it by now, with the amount of needles he’d had inserted into his body in the last year and a half, but he still didn’t like them. He really was feeling like a porcupine.
“Done.” Adrian cleaned the drop of blood seeping from Oliver’s flesh and took care in throwing everything away. Oliver waited, concentrating to see if he felt different, but of course he couldn’t feel any differences.
“How long is it going to take to work?”
“Right away. I think you might be able to eat something light without throwing it up by the end of the day. It should take you less time to recover than if you were still human, but it will still take a while for you to go back to your old self, I’d say a few months.”
Adrian had just started Oliver’s daily routine, taking his vitals and checking him, when his cellphone started to ring. When the man saw the number, he paled, and Oliver knew it wasn’t anything good. It could only be the company.
“Yes?”
Oliver’s hearing had improved after Adrian had spliced his DNA, so he could hear the other part of the conversation.
“Where are you, doctor Landreth?”
“I, umm, I’m sorry, but a friend had an emergency and I had to get to him. I left a message at the laboratory to tell my colleagues what had happened.”
“I don’t care what’s going on. You left your work, and if you want to see your brother again, you better be in the lab first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Y-yes. I’ll be there, sir.”
The man hung up, but Oliver could see that the little he’d said had been enough to spook Adrian. He’d been in the mansion for only a few days, but he’d passed a lot of time with Oliver, and he liked him. Oliver just wasn’t able to blame Adrian for what he had done to him and to other humans, not after finding out why he had done it. Besides, he had become used to the fact that he was now a shifter, and he didn’t mind. It was actually cool to be able to shift, and there were the other perks of being a shifter like the accelerated healing and the other stuff. Thinking about it, Oliver was actually kind of thankful. He might have suffered a lot in the past year and a half, but he had met his mate and a lot of friends, and once he was better he would be able to shift and to run in the woods with Sebastian. He couldn’t wait.
“I, uh, I have to go back to New York. I showed Jared how to make the serum, so you won’t have problems taking it next month and the following ones.” Adrian stood up and quickly exited Oliver’s room. Oliver wanted to stop him, but he couldn’t even move from his bed, damn it!
“Hey, everything okay? How did it go?” Sebastian asked from the door.
“Seb! Hurry, take me in your arms and go after Adrian!”
Sebastian’s expression hardened right away. “Why? Did he do something? Did he hurt you?”
“No! Please, can we go?”
Sebastian didn’t ask any more questions, he just carefully scooped up Oliver and jogged out of their suite. Luckily for him, Adrian had unhooked him from his IV and the artificial feeding. It wasn’t hard to find him. He was walking along the downstairs hallway, looking lost.
“Adrian, Dominic’s office is that door over there,” Oliver said, pointing at the mentioned door. He knew Adrian would have to use the private plane to get back to New York in time, and as much as he didn’t want the guy to go back there, they still didn’t have a clue where his brother was, so if he stayed, Gabriel was as good as dead.
Sebastian knocked on the door and entered the office, gesturing at Adrian to follow him. The Alpha’s office was full of men, and it would have been intimidating if Oliver hadn’t known each and every one of them. They were all big and muscled, except for Casey, who was a little bit smaller and leaner. Oliver saw Soren, Denver, Casey, Joshua, Derick, Ward and Bryce, plus a number of other members of the pride. He knew they all took turns patrolling the woods around the mansion, and he was glad Sebastian had been given some time off to take care of him.
“Oliver!”
“Hey buddy, how are you feeling?”
The questions came from all around Oliver, and it nearly made him cry. Those guys barely knew him, since he’d pretty much been a hermit for months, but they still cared about what happened to him. They had adopted him in their family without questions. “I’m fine, guys. Thank you.” Oliver waved at the two women sitting on one of the couches, Erin and Amanda. He wouldn’t have wanted them to feel let out, and he cared about them just as much. Sebastian sat down on the other couch, keeping Oliver in his lap, while Adrian just stood there, clearly unsure if he would be accepted.
“Did you get your injection?” Dominic asked.
“Yeah. It’s going to take a while, but I’ll be fine, but that’s not why I’m here. Adrian got a phone call. They’re threatening to kill his brother if he’s not back to work tomorrow morning.”
In the eyes of the men—and women—in the room Oliver could see sympathy, curiosity and pity, but it was the ones in which he saw wariness and hate that he worried about. Not everyone was as forgiving as he was, even if he had been the one to get hurt by what Adrian had done.
“We still haven’t found your brother, I’m afraid, but we’re working on it,” Dominic said with a sigh. “I don’t like sending you back, but I don’t think you have alternatives. We’ll keep looking for Gabriel, and if we find him we’ll liberate him and come for you.”
Adrian nodded. “Thank you.”
“Dominic, why are you helping him after what he did? Look at Oliver! He can’t even stand up on his own!” Joshua asked. Oliver winced at the reminder. He knew Joshua pretty well, and he was surprised at the vehemence in his voice. The man looked hard, but he was actually nice and attentive, and he had become a friend.
“Are you doubting my decisions as the Alpha of this pride, Josh?” Dominic’s eyes were cold and his expression hard as stone, and Oliver saw the way Joshua paled. He clearly knew he had said too much.
“No, I’m sorry.”
“You’ll go to New York with Adrian and make sure he gets safely back home. Soren, you’ll go with him and make sure he’s nice to Adrian. You have my authorization
to smack him on the head if he doesn’t.” The way Dominic was now smiling softened his words, and Oliver let out a relieved sigh. Nothing bad had happened to any of his friends.
Joshua didn’t look overly happy about the task he’d been given, but Soren was more enthusiastic as they both got up and neared Adrian. The white tiger slapped his shoulder. “Hey, doc, ready to go?”
Oliver wasn’t sure what happened after that, because the office suddenly became chaos. He heard a loud roar as Joshua literally launched himself at Soren, yelling something that sounded suspiciously like mine. The white tiger barely had the time to shove Adrian out of the way before Joshua landed on him and they started tumbling on the floor as Joshua tried to knock Soren out.
Ward and Bryce were trying to break the fight up as Dominic and Denver just looked at them, and Oliver could swear the lion was laughing at the situation. Everyone else was yelling at Joshua to stop.
Oliver could see that Soren wasn’t fighting back. He was just deflecting the blows that were coming his way as he yelled, “I didn’t know, asshole! Let me go! I don’t want him!”
Adrian had scrambled into a corner and looked terrified as he watched the two men go at it. Oliver waved at Dominic, and once he had the lion’s attention he indicated the poor human. Dominic nodded at him and Oliver felt Sebastian’s hot hands covering his ears. He raised his own to cover them and was about to ask him what he was doing when a loud roar filled the room, making everyone instantly freeze. Oliver couldn’t imagine how loud it had been, for him to hear it so well even through two sets of hands.
“Enough! Joshua, Soren didn’t know Adrian is your mate, so let him be. He doesn’t want to steal him from you.”
Oliver Page 3
