Chapter Six
Oliver jolted awake at the sound of the knock on the door of his suite. Looking at the clock on his nightstand, he saw it wasn’t late yet, barely midnight. He and Sebastian had gone to bed early because tomorrow they had to reach a herd of elk that lived near Sheridan, a little more than four hours away from Whitedell, and it would be a long day. All the days seemed long lately, though, but Oliver couldn’t complain. Everyone was working hard to make every shifter safe from the Glass Research Company. From Sheridan they were going to visit several other groups of shifters before returning home in time for Denver’s and Jeremy’s wedding and for Oliver’s monthly injection.
The knock came again and Sebastian stirred next to Oliver, so he hurried to the door, hoping his lover wouldn’t wake up. Grabbing his sleeping pants from the floor, he pulled them on and opened the door. “This better be an emergency,” he growled at the intruder, once again amazed that he managed to do those noises without sounding fake.
He regretted his tone right away as he took in the sight in front of him. Keenan was standing there, his face pale and his eyes huge, the signs of spent tears streaking his cheeks. He was hugging a pillow and was slightly trembling. “Keenan? What’s wrong?” All kinds of scenarios passed through his mind, but he knew it couldn’t be an attack or anything like that.
“Can I—can I come in?” he hiccupped, and Oliver opened the door wider, urging his friend inside. “I’m sorry, I wo-would have gone to Jamie, b-but he knows he’s my brother and he would have f-found me.”
Oliver had no idea what Keenan was talking about, but he could see new tears gleaming in his eyes, and he didn’t know what to do. He had never seen his friend so distraught and fragile, not even when he’d had to break up with Bryce. “Don’t worry, Kee. You’ll always be welcome here.”
When it seemed like Keenan couldn’t decide what to do on his own, Oliver gently pushed him to the couch and hurried to the small kitchen area. It wasn’t much, just a small fridge and a microwave, but it would be enough to make Keenan a hot cup of tea. That was what Oliver’s mother always did when he was hurt or sad, and it made him feel guilty for not having called her since he had been liberated. His parents probably thought he was dead by now, but he hadn’t wanted to call while he was sick. What good would it have been to give them hope only to die a few months later? Now he was fine, though, and he would do it, just not right now.
Pushing all thoughts of his mother away, Oliver concentrated on Keenan. The man was huddled on one side of the couch, his pillow wrapped tight between his legs and his arms, his knees drawn up as he hugged them. He was staring blankly ahead, and it scared the shit out of Oliver. What the hell had happened?
He placed the mug on the coffee table and sat next to Keenan, sliding his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “Keenan? What happened?”
Keenan turned to look at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to wake you up, but I couldn’t go back to my room.”
“Hey, it’s okay. You can sleep here if you want.” The small smile that appeared on Keenan’s mouth was a welcomed sight.
“We fought.”
“You and Jonah?”
“Yeah. I think he’s my mate, but I’m not a shifter, so I can’t know for sure, you know? I...I thought I would finally be able to be happy, just like you and Sebastian, and Jamie with Ward, but he’s leaving.”
Oliver had actually suspected something like that would happen, and he had prayed the wolf wouldn’t be Keenan’s mate, even if he had seen the signs. The man was broken, and Oliver wasn’t sure he would ever get better, even if he hoped so for his friend.
“I tried to talk to him, but he said he had decided. I got angry and I yelled, he yelled back and...his bag was already near the door, so he tried to grab it and leave. I grabbed his arm and he pushed me back. He didn’t hurt me,” Keenan quickly said when Oliver growled. “He didn’t hurt me, but I...first Bryce, then Jonah...I’m not good for anyone, am I?”
“Oh, Keenan, no. You’re sweet, caring and funny and a whole lot of other adjectives, and I’m sure Jonah would want to be with you if he wasn’t so damaged. He has been through hell and back, Keenan. You have to give him time to heal.”
“I want to, but he’s leaving! He won’t even give us a chance!”
Oliver didn’t know what to say. He understood Keenan’s point of view, but he also knew what Jonah had been through, or at least he had an idea of it. A knock on the door saved him from having to say anything.
“It’s probably him,” Keenan said.
“Do you want me to send him away?”
Keenan shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Oliver got up and opened the door—it was Jonah.” Hey.”
“Uh, hi, is Keenan here?” The wolf was big, but the expression on his face made him look defenseless. He looked lost, as if he didn’t know what to do, and it made Oliver want to hug him and reassure him, but he didn’t want his mate to smell another shifter on him at this time of the night, so he just nodded and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. “Yeah, he’s here.”
He could see the relieved expression on the big wolf’s face, and he understood that Jonah cared for Keenan. “I...we fought. I’m sorry, I don’t want to leave, but I have to.”
“I understand,” Oliver said, nodding. “I’ve been where you are, and I know you need time. Keenan just wants to help you, and after what happened with Bryce he feels like he’s not good enough.” Oliver wasn’t sure Jonah knew what had happened to him or with Bryce, but he hoped that this one time the pride’s gossipers had done their job right.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry he feels like this, and I tried to tell him, but I can’t be a mate if I don’t heal first, and to do that I need some time to myself and away from shifters.”
The door opened behind Oliver and he saw Keenan walking out. He smiled at Jonah. “I’ll let the two of you talk. Keenan, you can sleep on the couch if you want.” He hesitated. “I hope you’ll come back.”
“I will.”
Oliver left then two men outside his suite and slid back into bed with Sebastian. His mate immediately wound himself around Oliver and asked, “How did it go?”
“You heard everything?”
“Yeah, except what happened between you and Jonah.”
“Nothing, really. He told me why he needs to leave, and I left the two of them to talk.”
“You think he’ll come back?”
“Yeah, I think he will. I saw that he already cares for Keenan, he just needs time to learn how to deal with what happened to him.” Oliver didn’t know exactly what they had done to Jonah in that lab, and he didn’t really want to know. He already had enough nightmares to last him for a lifetime, but he knew that even with what they had done to his DNA, he had come out of it in a relatively good shape. He had seen things in there...yeah, he was one of the lucky ones.
Sebastian seemed to understand where his thoughts were going because he hugged him tighter and placed a kiss on the top of his head. “You’re safe, babe. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Try to sleep, okay?”
Oliver snuggled deeper into Sebastian’s chest and sighed. Yeah, he felt safe right where he was.
* * * *
“You think they’re going to let us in?”
Oliver shrugged. “We won’t know if we don’t try, will we?”
They were near Sheridan, parked not far from the small gathering of houses Sebastian had learned was where the herd of elk lived. Some of the elk shifters had already noticed them but they hadn’t come closer, but Sebastian was sure something was about to happen. The Alpha wouldn’t let them stay there for much longer without checking on them.
Oliver opened the door on his side of the car and slid down. “Oliver! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Sebastian hurried to get to him. “You should have waited!”
“Babe, I’m fine. The shifters are still far away, and if I have to I can shift and squash them all.”
Sebastian sho
ok his head. “Oh yeah? And since when are you an expert on shifting?” Oliver had managed to shift another few times since that first memorable time on their bed, but still, it didn’t mean he could do it any time he wanted yet, especially if he was under attack.
Oliver’s eyes narrowed and his lips thinned, and Sebastian knew he was in trouble. “So you think I’m not able to shift, huh?”
“That’s not what I said, babe. I’m just worried for you, okay? You’re new at this, and we don’t know if the shifters here are going to be friendly. I just don’t want you to be hurt. I mean, elks are big and they have huge alters—it would be easy for you or even me to get hurt.” Sebastian tried his best please-forgive-me smile, hoping it would keep him out of the doghouse tonight.
“Oh, he’s good! What are you going to do? Forgive him?” a voice asked from behind Sebastian, and he wanted to kick his own ass.
How could he not have heard that someone was approaching? He turned to face the woman, but before he could say anything a man running toward them bellowed, “Jana! What the fuck are you doing?”
The woman, Jana, smirked at the running man before turning back to Sebastian and Oliver. She raised her hand and shook Oliver’s. “Hi, I’m Jana, the Alpha mate.”
Sebastian watched as the man shifted into a huge elk with imposing halters. He practically never stopped running to them, and Sebastian eyed him warily. He really didn’t want to have to fight the elk. He might be a lion, but those antlers could do a hell lot of damage, especially if the elk was the herd’s Alpha as he suspected.
The bull got to them just after Sebastian released Jana’s hand, and she laid it on her pregnant stomach. He stopped between them, protecting his mate as he bugled a warning to them.
“We mean no harm, please.”
The elk shifted back to his human form and grabbed Jana, pulling her behind him while he snarled at Sebastian and Oliver.
Sebastian raised his hands in surrender. “We don’t mean ill to you or to your herd. We’re just here to talk and propose something, if you want to hear us.” He bowed his head to the Alpha and waited to see how the man reacted. He kept an eye on the couple and had to bite back a laugh at Jana’s reaction when the Alpha turned to his mate and whispered to her in an angry tone, “Jana, seriously, you could have been killed! Do you really want our son to die?”
Jana’s eyes narrowed much like Oliver’s had done not too long before. “Are you saying that I would put my unborn son in danger on purpose?”
“Well, uh, not willingly, but you know by now that not everyone is human, baby. We don’t know what these guys want or even what they are.” He eyed Sebastian as he said that. The man had no idea that Oliver was a lot bigger than Sebastian in animal form, but he had assessed them correctly. Sebastian had had some training, so he knew what he was doing when it came down to a fight.
Jana huffed and smiled at a shaking Oliver. Sebastian’s mate was having a hard time to keep in his laugher. “Fine, I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you to do your Alpha thing, but those guys are not here to hurt us.”
The Alpha finally looked at them. “I’m Alpha Neil Andrews.”
Sebastian bowed his head again. “I’m Sebastian Symonds and this is my mate, Oliver Foreman. We’re from the Whitedell pride, and our Alpha is Dominic Nash.”
Jana patted her mate’s arm just like Sebastian would do with a dog. “See? They wouldn’t introduce themselves if they wanted to hurt us. Come on, let’s go inside.”
Sebastian wasn’t sure if Jana was really as reckless as she seemed or if she really could feel that they wouldn’t hurt her. He had seen crazier things, so it wouldn’t surprise him, even if he could smell that she was human.
The Alpha and his mate guided them to their home and soon they each had a glass full of water in front of them.
“Whitedell pride, huh? I’ve heard of you,” the Alpha said, his eyes never leaving Sebastian. He hoped these people weren’t like most of the shifters, bigoted and narrow-minded. It was a good sign that they hadn’t reacted when Sebastian had presented Oliver as his mate.
“Our Alpha is trying to build a network to help communication between shifter’s groups. We’ve been having problems with human scientists for the past year or so, and we feel it’s important to be able to help each other and warn if something goes wrong.”
“What do you mean, human scientists?” Jana asked, and Oliver explained to her what had been done to him and Jamie and the others. Sebastian could see the growing horror both in the eyes of the Alpha and those of his mate. Jana’s arms were tight around her belly and her mate’s was wound around her shoulder as if he was protecting her from Oliver’s words.
“Did some of your members disappear in the last few years? Maybe some of them moved away and you’ve never heard from them again?”
They had noticed that a lot of the labs were located in Wyoming and the nearby states, even if they didn’t know why, so it was a guess as good as any to think that the herd had lost members.
“Erica. She disappeared about six months ago,” Jana said, and Oliver took out the list. It took him only a few minutes to find Erica’s name on it.
“She’s in Idaho.”
“We’ll go get her,” Neil said, and Sebastian really didn’t want to stop him but he had to.
“I’m sure you’ll talk to my Alpha about this, but we’re trying to organize an attack on the company’s headquarters, and we have to refrain from raiding any more labs before that, or at the very least we have to organize ourselves so that we know who is going where. That way we can give you help if you need it.”
“That’s what the network is for?” Jana asked.
“Yes. For now it’s only phone conversations, but someone in the pride is working on a website that would be hidden from humans and that would allow shifters to connect. We just have to convince others to join, and it’s not easy.”
“Well, I think it’s a very good idea, so when it’s ready just send me the password or whatever is needed to access it. I’m sure Neil can convince some of our friends in other herds to join, too.”
It didn’t take long to give Jana and Neil Dominic’s phone number and email address, and soon Sebastian and Oliver were driving toward a small fox skulk about twenty minutes from the herd. Sebastian could only hope it would go as well as it had gone with the elks.
* * * *
They had been at it for days, and Oliver wasn’t actually sure they were making progress. Sure, they had convinced the Alpha of the elk’s herd, but that was about it. The rest of the shifter groups they’d contacted had reactions that had been, well, interesting, to say the least.
Oliver would never have said that shifters could be so bigoted and narrow-minded. They were part of a minority too, so he would have thought that except for a small part of the shifter population, they would have been accepting. Instead it was the exact opposite. From what Oliver had seen, their pride was one of the few to be open-minded. The others...their reactions ranged from disgusted to I’ll-shoot-you-if-you-don’t-leave-right-now.
Some of the Alphas had accepted talking with Oliver and Sebastian but had kicked them out when they had found out where they lived and in which pride. It seemed that the pride was well known in the state for accepting gays and human-shifter matings, and in truth, Oliver didn’t understand which one of those two situations everyone seemed to dislike the most.
In one case the reaction of the old Alpha over the idea that Oliver and Sebastian were mated had been so funny Oliver just had to underline the fact that he had once been a human. He had thought the man’s eyes were going to pop out they were so wide, and the open-mouthed astonished Alpha had spluttered and stuttered, making him chuckle. Obviously the man had kicked them out without even hearing what they had to say, but he would have done that anyway even if Oliver hadn’t revealed his ex-human status. At least that one had been relatively harmless.
The Alpha of a sleuth of bears had shot at them when they stopped the car near his hous
e. At least they hadn’t even stepped out of the car yet, but he had managed to break one of the front lights, and Dominic had been pissed at the attack. There wasn’t much he could do, though, and since the news of their visits had spread, it was happening more and more often.
Luckily, at least some of the Alphas had listened to them, and even those who didn’t approve of gays and whatnot had to agree that it was more than time to organize the shifter groups, especially with the lab problem looming over them all. Some of the groups had had encounters with the scientists and the guards, and they had even raided a lab to liberate one of their members that had been kidnapped, but most didn’t even believe them when Oliver and Sebastian explained the situation. Still, they were having some results, and Oliver finally felt as if he was doing something useful for the pride. Their job was making a difference, even if slowly.
“Who’s next?”
Oliver looked at the list in his hand and sighed. God, he couldn’t wait to go home. They had been gone for nearly two weeks, moving from town to town and even out of the state, and he’d had enough of motels and fast food. They had to go home soon anyway since he needed his injection, and Denver and Jeremy were getting married the next day. “A lion pride near Billings.” He saw Sebastian stiffen and wondered if it was only because he was a lion or if there was something more. “Love?”
“It wouldn’t be the Laurel pride, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Why?”
Sebastian slammed his hands on the steering wheel. “Damn it! I thought Dominic had made sure I wouldn’t get them!” Oliver waited. As curious as he was to know, he knew his mate would tell him when he was ready. “It’s my birth pride.”
Okay, but what did it mean for them? They had never talked about their past—they hadn’t had the opportunity, first with his illness, then the raid and Sebastian’s wound...
“Let’s just say I didn’t leave in happy circumstances. My parents wanted me to mate the Alpha’s daughter. They never accepted that I was gay, but they thought they could change me, or at least that they could make me do what they wanted. When I refused the mating, the Alpha saw it like a lack of respect and tried to have me killed. I managed to win the fight against his Beta and he had to let me go.”
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