Oliver Read online

  Oliver couldn’t help but laugh. He had enough of the pity and the tiptoeing around the issue, and Keenan’s approach was a breath of fresh air. “Well, thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll stick with my IV. I wouldn’t want you to end up hungry because I ate all the chips.”

  They watched the first part of the movie in partial silence, interrupted only by Keenan criticizing the arguable choices of the main actors.

  “So, are you and Sebastian mated?”

  “No.”

  Keenan stayed silent for a while before huffing. “Are you going to elaborate on that, or do you want me to beg? Because I will, you know. Or maybe I’ll start right away with the torture.”

  “You’re such a gossiper. Even being bedridden, I know all the latest gossip of who slept with who and who doesn’t talk to who. Not even my grandmother was as big a gossip queen as you are.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m nosy and curious, and you can ask me for details when I find my mate, but right now you’re the one who has to answer the questions, so spill it.”

  “You think you have a mate?” Oliver was kind of curious about that. He knew as well as everyone else what had happened between Keenan, Bryce and Finn, and he did want Keenan to find a mate. The man was too good not to have someone perfect for him somewhere out there.

  Keenan sighed. “Well, I surely hope so. I’m the only unmated human around here, and I don’t want to start looking older than my older brother.” He winked. “Besides, all the shifters I’ve met are just plain hot, who wouldn’t want one of his own?”

  “Then there’s the little detail that you could live as long as your brother.”

  “Yeah, there’s that too. But, you know, Jamie is an adult. He’d be fine even without me. He has Ward, and a ton of friends. He’s not alone anymore. It’s just...sometimes I feel like I don’t belong here.”

  Oliver would have never guessed the man felt like that. He just looked so at ease around the house and with the shifters. “Hey, what would I do if you weren’t here? Who would kick my ass when I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning?” Not that Oliver actually got out of bed for much more than going to the bathroom, but he was glad Keenan was there to push him to do more. Some days the only thing he wanted was to bury himself back into the covers and forget about the rest of the world, his sickness and shifters in general, but his friend wouldn’t let him, and it was a good thing.

  “Yeah, yeah. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do, buddy.”

  Oliver made his most innocent face, batting his lashes at his friend and sliding his lower lip out in a pout. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m an innocent little boy!”

  Keenan snorted. “Innocent my ass! You’re trying to make me forget about my question, but you are going to answer it, you know?”

  Oliver sighed. He knew his friend was stubborn as hell when he wanted something, and he wasn’t going to let this go until he had an answer. “How can I let Sebastian mate with me when I’m not even sure I’ll be breathing tomorrow? It’s going to be hard enough as it is for him if we’re not mated. I can’t do that to him.”

  Keenan raised a hand to stop Oliver. “One, you’re not going to die, not on my watch and not ever. If you even think about it, I’ll come and get you, then I’ll kick your ass and bring you back. Two, I think Sebastian is trying to do anything he can for you, and maybe he’s right. Maybe you two being bonded would help you. I don’t think it would make that big a difference, because, come on, he’s your mate. He’s already hurting like hell because of your situation, and I think he also feels a bit helpless.”

  “I don’t know, Keenan...can I say that I’ll think about it? We’ll see how things go with the guy they’re bringing home, then I’ll decide, okay?”

  Keenan looked at him as if he was reading Oliver and knew very well that Oliver was only trying to make him let it go. Oliver had absolutely no intentions of mating with Sebastian until and unless he was sure he was going to make it, even if it seemed it was going to require a miracle. Hell, he was starting to feel like moving in here with Sebastian or even talking to him had been a bad idea. He couldn’t stand the thought of the lion hurting if something were to happen to him.

  “Fine,” Keenan finally said with a huff. “I’ll just pretend that I believe you and continue to nag you about this.” He turned back to the TV as he continued to mumble under his breath, but Oliver could hear exactly what he was saying. “Who does he think he’s fooling?”

  Oliver chuckled and watched as the hero from the movie beheaded the zombie who was trying to eat him, making him shiver. God, Oliver didn’t know much about the paranormal world, but he sure hoped zombies didn’t exist! “Hey, do you know if zombies really exist? I mean, we have shifters, so what else is around?” He knew Keenan was the best person to ask. Curious as he was, he surely knew the answer.

  “I don’t know about zombies, but I’ve asked around and I found out that there’s more than just shifters.”

  Oliver gestured at his friend to continue and Keenan held up his hand, one finger for each species. “So, we have shifters, and Nix, obviously. Then I heard about Krsniks, which are a mix between vampires and shifters, and I know about werewolves, too.”

  “Wait, what’s the difference between a wolf shifter and a werewolf?”

  “Their animal form. Shifters have a full animal form while werewolves have a humanoid wolf one.”

  “Okay. Weird.”

  “Yup. I don’t know about zombies, but I’m sure there are plenty of other things out there, anyway. I just hope I’ll see a lot of them.”

  Maybe Keenan wasn’t all there, because Oliver sure hoped he would never, ever find himself in front of a zombie.

  * * * *

  Sebastian took the picture Denver handed him. “This is Adrian Landreth, twenty-nine years old, geneticist for the Glass Research Company. From what I gathered he’s a bit of a genius. I guess that’s why the company hired him a year and a half ago. He lives in New York, but he travels quite a lot, probably to the other labs the company has around the country. He never goes alone, though, so our best bet is to get him here in New York.”

  Sebastian looked at the picture in his hand. It was obvious someone had taken it on the sly. The man was looking straight in front of him as he walked down a busy street, dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a white shirt. He had a shoulder bag slung on his side and the sun reflected on the glasses perched on his nose. Sebastian supposed the man was cute in that geek, lanky kind of way. His blond hair was longish and held on the side of his head by two simple hairpins so it didn’t fall in his grey eyes, and even in the middle of the street he seemed concentrated on something else, probably his research. His eyes were unfocused, and Sebastian wondered how he could avoid stumbling or hitting something if he didn’t even see the city around him.

  “He has a brother, Gabriel Landreth, twenty-six years old. The man is an artist, a photographer. He was never reported missing, but no one has heard from him in about...” Denver looked down at the page in his hand. “In about a year and a half, maybe a little longer.”

  “You think it’s a coincidence?”

  “Yeah, I noticed that too. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, not after finding out that the Glass Research Company had tried to hire Adrian two times before, and he had always refused. Then his brother disappears and he accepts the job.”

  “You think he’s doing this research because he has to?”

  “My guess would be that, but we can’t be sure unless we find something more about his brother, and it changes nothing for Oliver.”

  Sebastian didn’t like this. If the man’s brother was being held hostage, it meant Adrian wasn’t doing this for profit, but to save his brother’s life. He didn’t like having to kidnap the man, maybe having his brother killed, even if he would still do it if it was to save Oliver. He had no right to decide whose life was more important, but he wasn’t going to let his mate die, period.

  “How do
we do this?”

  “Well, Adrian has a daily routine he strictly follows. Comes out of his house at seven in the morning and walks to his office, stopping at the coffee shop before entering, always between seven thirty and seven forty. He comes out for his lunch hour and usually sits in the park for a half hour before going back to work, and he goes back home late, between nine and ten PM. I think the best moment would be in the evening. We know almost exactly at what time he comes home, so we’re just going to wait for him there. We’ll knock him out and bring him to the plane in a van and we’ll be back in no time.”

  “I thought we would have been gone for a few days.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I told Jeremy, but I’m hoping we can get back during the night. I just didn’t want to keep his hopes up if something happens. If everything goes as it should, though, we should be home at about...three or four AM, Whitedell time.” That was good. Sebastian could be there when Oliver woke up the next morning. Damn, it was nice being able to use the private plane of one of Dominic’s friends!

  The flight was longish but uneventful. Denver went over his plan for the kidnapping, and Sebastian couldn’t help but feel like the bad guy in this situation. He would have felt this way even if Adrian Landreth had been the bad guy, but knowing that he was probably doing everything he could to save his brother and that they might endanger his life made everything even worse. He just hoped that he could put the whole thing behind him once Oliver was better, but he somehow doubted it. It wasn’t who he was, and he knew Oliver wouldn’t be okay with it either.

  When they landed it was dark outside, and they had only a few hours to get to Adrian’s apartment. Luckily Denver had called ahead and the van they had requested was already there, waiting for them in the hangar.

  Soon after that they were parking the van behind Adrian’s apartment building. It was one of those old apartments in which the rent wasn’t too high, and it made Sebastian wonder if the company even paid him in the first place. They didn’t have to if they had his brother, but then how did the man live?

  They took the time to check if there was any type of security or surveillance, but they didn’t find any. “Don’t you think that’s weird?”

  Denver was frowning, probably thinking the same thing. “It definitely is, but I just don’t know what to do about this. The place was checked by some friends from a nearby pride in the past few days, and they didn’t find anything either. They were the ones who followed Adrian, and they didn’t notice anyone following him. In any case, we’ll get out from the back. It shouldn’t be a problem, even with Adrian.”

  Sebastian nodded. There wasn’t much more they could do, and he trusted Denver. The man was ex-military, even if Sebastian didn’t know exactly what the man had been doing there, but he did know that Denver knew what he was doing, while he had no experience aside from patrolling the pride’s property.

  They didn’t have any problems entering the man’s home. It was sparsely furnished and a little bit messy, and the dishes in the kitchen sink made Sebastian want to wash them. He wasn’t a neat freak by any means, but there were some things he just couldn’t stand, and one of them was dirty dishes in the sink. That was why often some pride members, mainly Keenan, conveniently disappeared when it was their turn to clean the kitchen after a meal. He just waited for Sebastian to enter the kitchen and then remembered that he had something urgent to do.

  The noise of a key siding into the lock wrenched him away from any thoughts that weren’t here and now. Denver signed him to be ready as they waited next to the bedroom’s door for Adrian to enter and lock the door back up. Sebastian heard him move around the house for a bit before he finally headed for the bedroom. He tensed, ready for the fight, but the man surprised him. As he entered the bedroom, Denver slid behind him and locked his arm around Adrian’s neck, ready to make him loose consciousness if he needed to, but the man barely reacted.

  Adrian stayed still in Denver’s arm as he asked, “Who are you?”

  Sebastian could smell only a hint of fear in the man’s scent.

  “Make this easy and come with us without fussing. It’ll avoid you being knocked out.”

  “I can’t follow you. I need to stay here.”

  “We’re not exactly giving you a choice,” Denver said with a growl. Okay, even Sebastian found Denver scary right now, and he knew the guy quite well.

  “Please, I...I can’t disappear.”

  Sebastian decided to help the poor guy. “Look, we don’t want to hurt you, but we need your help. Months ago you spliced my mate’s DNA with a bear’s, and now he’s dying. Just help him get well, and we’ll let you go.” Hell, he would have promised the moon to the guy if he could save Oliver.

  Adrian’s face showed all the horror he was feeling. “I’m sorry, I’m...I didn’t want to do it, but they have my brother. I can’t disappear suddenly—they’ll kill him!”

  Sebastian shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I need your help. Oliver needs your help. He is slowly fading, and I can’t let him die. Are you ready to have him on your conscience?”

  The man seemed to think about it for a while, then his attitude changed completely. Instead of the frightened man they had seen before, in front of Sebastian stood a determined, nearly cold man. “Fine, I’ll come with you, but I want to bargain. I’ll help you if you help me.”

  Denver grunted and let Adrian go. “What do you want?”

  “Help me save my brother, and I’ll help Oliver.”

  Sebastian exchanged a glance with Denver, and the tiger nodded. They didn’t have to make the bargain. They could just knock Adrian out and take him away. However, Sebastian’s conscience pushed him to accept. He couldn’t leave a man in the company’s clutches, and he would probably have helped even if Adrian hadn’t asked him to.

  “Deal. Now, let’s go.”

  Chapter Two

  Oliver might have never felt so tired in his life, but he also was a very, very light sleeper. He just couldn’t seem to find a comfy position, and since he had a hard time breathing easily, it made everything even more complicated.

  Anyway, thanks to his light sleep, Oliver immediately woke up when he felt someone sliding next to him in bed in the middle of the night. He yelped and tried to get up, but his legs just couldn’t seem to be strong enough to support his way, and he saw the floor coming right at him until a hard arm grabbed him around the waist and hauled him back up.

  “Hey, hey, babe, it’s me.”

  Oliver recognized the voice, but it only raised more questions. Had he somehow missed three days of his life? Had he, like, fainted or been in a coma? “What are you doing here?”

  He couldn’t see Sebastian in the dark, but his smile was obvious in his voice. “We managed to come back right away. I didn’t want to leave you alone more than necessary.”

  “Is the...is he here? In the mansion?” Oliver had conflicting feelings about this whole kidnapping thing, but he knew he needed the man.

  Sebastian gently moved and laid Oliver back down between the sheets, tucking him in like a child. Oliver would never admit it, but he actually liked being taken care of, just not as much as had been necessary in the last weeks. He refused to think about it—much—but he knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be unable even to go to the bathroom on his own, and wasn’t that a nice way to try and seduce your mate? Yeah, he knew Sebastian wouldn’t care, but still, he didn’t like being so frail and helpless in front of him. How could the man respect him after all of this?

  “Yeah, he’s here. Everything went fine and you’ll see him tomorrow, but for now you need to sleep.”

  Oliver let Sebastian move him around until the big man was spooning him, making him feel safe and hot. He was always cold these days, and Sebastian seemed to be the only thing able to keep him at a decent temperature. Oliver snuggled in and the next thing he knew, bright sunlight was illuminating the room and he could see the tiny particles of dust dancing in it in front of him.

  For a mom
ent, he was nearly able to convince himself that he was fine, that his life was perfect, that he was waking up next to his mate and that soon they were going to go downstairs for breakfast, maybe after a bout of sweaty, hot, good morning sex. Then he tried to move, and his IV pulled at his arm, pulling a hiss from him. He hated the damn thing, but Jared by now refused to take it out, and Oliver was glad the man had insisted so much. He might not have been there anymore if the doctor hadn’t been such a pushy man.

  Sebastian immediately jerked awake, his eyes looking wildly around in search of whatever had hurt Oliver, and Oliver couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped him at the sight of the bleary-eyed lion ready to take on the world for him. “I’m fine, big guy. I just pulled on my IV.” Damn, his voice was hoarse this morning, and he wasn’t sure he actually had the strength to get up to go to the bathroom, but there was no way he was going to admit that to Sebastian. “Why don’t you go downstairs and have breakfast?”

  Sebastian looked at him, his eyes piercing as he seemingly read through Oliver, just as if he could see everything Oliver wasn’t telling him. It made Oliver shiver and wish that he could be up for something more than cuddling under the covers. Thinking about it, it had to be a whole year and a half since Oliver had last had sex, and that was just sad.

  “I’ll go. I don’t know when I’ll be back exactly, I have to go talk to Dominic and Jared before letting Adrian see you. Is that okay?”

  “Sure. Send Keenan here if you see him.” He knew the human was supposed to be sleeping on their couch, but maybe he’d left when Sebastian had come back. Keenan wasn’t used to getting up this early in the morning—hell, he wasn’t used to getting up in the morning period, since he worked as a bartender. They had talked until late the night before, so maybe he was still sleeping, but Oliver hoped his friend could be there when the geneticist came to examine him. Not that he wanted his friend to see him half-naked, but he wanted to know what Keenan thought of the man. He was usually very good at assessing people.