Under Sean’s Protection by Lisa Oliver

Chapter Sixteen

“Keep everything contained there until the good doctor arrives,” Janelle instructed the enforcers. Kyle hated seeing her ugly face on the wall. “I need Sean awake in order to proceed.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Kyle squeaked in his most pathetic voice.

“Well, ideally, I’d fuck his brains out,” she laughed, “but that’s not likely to happen, so I’ll have to find another way to turn him into a vegetable. I’m sure it will involve a drill, a very sharp saw, and some other simple, household tools. But he must be aware of what’s happening to him, just as I was when he stole my life away from me.”

Kyle looked over to Sean to see if he was reacting to this. Of course not. He was as still and quiet as a corpse.

The sound of a phone ringing on the TV took Kyle’s attention back up to Janelle.

“Right on time,” she said. Kyle saw her touch the screen of her phone and hold it up to her face. “You’re on speaker.”

“Three of the assassins were spotted in the Capitol,” a voice said.

“You’re sure?”

“All three fit the description, and our surveillance team verified the tattooed stars under their left eyes. Unmistakable mark, that.”

“Which was the point, I guess,” Janelle said.

“Each assassin has been apprehended without incident and is being brought to council chambers as we speak.”

“Excellent,” Janelle said. “I was not looking forward to feeding this kid’s junk to my beloved pets. Such a teeny appetizer would have only served to drive them mad. Now they’ll have a proper feast instead.”

She looked into the camera as if directly at Kyle and said, “Sorry, dear, we both know it’s not a teeny weeny at all,” and laughed with derision. Kyle heard her snort.

“What was that?” the voice said.

“Nothing. Talking to someone else. So, we’re done, then?”

“We’re done.”

“Wonderful. Wire my payment immediately so I can get the fuck out of here for good. Pleasure doing business with you,” Janelle added, then clicked off the call.

Kyle looked again to Sean. He could swear he saw a twitch on his mate’s cheek, right where his mark as a hired killer was permanently inked.

“Ah, there he is,” Janelle’s voice pulled Kyle’s focus back to the door, as he watched a man in a white lab coat - the same one who stitched Kyle’s neck up - enter the room and approach Sean.

The doctor looked at Kyle with a pained expression.

It was quick, and with his back to the screen, Kyle knew Janelle couldn’t see the doctor’s face.

The pained expression, Kyle could have sworn, had “I’m sorry” written all over it.

/~/~/~/~/

Fuck!

Sean wasn’t happy to hear that his three friends were now in the council’s custody. He knew that Ranger, Levi, and Marcus could all take care of themselves and then some, but the memory of Tron’s voice was quickly smothering Sean’s optimism.

“All they have to do is get you back into custody” Tron had said. And now, it sounds like that had happened.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

Sean had to work to keep his breathing controlled and his pulse low, so he shoved the shitty news onto the back burner.

Once we’re out of here and that bitch is dealt with, I’ll work something out. One thing at a time. But fuck me, there’s always something.

He had been listening to Kyle’s voice and tears. Sean knew Kyle was ‘performing’, but damnit it took everything he had in him to not jump up, claws bared, so he could protect his mate. His wolf had no idea of subterfuge – their animal halves didn’t play games or play pretend. Breathe in, breathe out. It will be all right.

And there was a bigger problem Sean shouldn’t ignore although he had no choice. Because maybe Kyle’s emotive outbursts weren’t pretend. Kyle had been through a fuck of a lot, shit that no one should ever have to deal with. Sean knew, because he’d been through it himself.

But he didn’t have a plan-B if Kyle couldn’t shift. This could turn out to be a big fucking mess. Why do parents think it’s ok to fuck up their kids’ futures like that?

“Ah, there he is!”

Sean picked up the scent of the so-called doctor before Janelle announced him. Some humans are so fucking behind the ball.

The doctor was a shifter himself, that much was clear. Sean also sensed that he was not coming into the room of his own free will. He doesn’t want to do what he’s being asked to do. In a fucked up situation, Sean took that as good news because if Kyle didn’t shift, they’d both need all the help they could get.

When the doctor knelt down on Sean’s right, he provided a convenient mask to the TV camera. When he leaned into Sean’s face to listen for breathing, Sean whispered as silently as he could, “Move and you’re dead.”

He opened one eye just enough to see the Doctor pull his head back and nod in terrified agreement. Good, Sean thought. He won’t be a problem.

Sean confirmed the scent of two human enforcers. The one who jabbed him in the woods was just to Sean’s left. The other was at the door. Sean assumed they each had guns.

Taking a deep breath, Sean filled his lungs with air and swung his legs to the left with sudden, ferocious power as he let fly a piercing, blood chilling howl.

“Ooooooowwwww!”

He cried out as a wounded animal, knowing that it would help awaken Kyle’s wolf. Sean hoped to the almighty Gods that his fated mate’s wolf would hear the call.

/~/~/~/~/

The sound of Sean’s howl filled not only the room but every vast and empty space that sat dormant inside Kyle.

That’s the signal!

The sight of Sean howling in pain and kicking the feet out from under the enforcer by his side filled Kyle with an energy he didn’t know existed. He felt his heartbeat racing, his blood surge, and an incredible heat rising in his chest.

The feeling was familiar but from so long ago, he had forgotten how delicious it was. His hearing, already exceptional, went off the charts. He could smell odors and ghosts of odors that he hadn’t registered before, and there was a spring in his hind legs that made him ready to pounce.

All this happened in a split second, and Kyle felt as though he was separate from himself as he watched a wolf leap across the room and tear the throat out of the enforcer by the door before he even knew what was coming.

But he wasn’t watching it. The wolf was him.

Holy fuck! I did it!

Ever alert, the wolf glanced around and saw the other enforcer climbing to his feet, reaching for the gun that had fallen out of his hands when Sean sideswiped him.

Without even thinking, Kyle sprang forward and suddenly tasted the enforcer’s gun arm in his jaws. He bit down and yanked, watching as the enforcer was thrown to the floor by the bed with the gun disappearing under it.

There’s one more. A quick scan of the room revealed the final member of the team cowering in a corner. Kyle felt the memory of the doctor’s handiwork on his neck and was about to pounce a third time when the voice of his mate stopped him cold.

“No,” he heard Sean say.

Kyle’s wolf looked to his beloved. His heart leapt to see the look of pride in Sean’s eyes, and it made him feel invincible.

“You’re unbelievably beautiful,” Sean said.

“Yes,” a voice sounded as though it was coming from every corner of the room, “man’s best friend, they say, or doesn’t that apply to wolves?”

Kyle’s wolf suddenly turned to the big screen on the wall. It was her. He curled his lip back and growled.

“Such gorgeous white fur,” said the woman on the screen. “Do I detect a tinge of silver along the edge? That would make the a to-die-for stole. Maybe I won’t let you go after all…”

Kyle’s wolf leapt for the screen, fangs bared, not quite clear on why he could see and hear but not smell the face that spoke, but he did his best to rip her heart out. The tinkle of glass let him know it wasn’t a person, especially after he got a nasty bump on his nose for his trouble. At least she was gone, he thought as he swaggered around the room. Gone, all gone.

“Kyle,” he heard his mate’s voice. “Come back. Come back to me, my baby. You did good. Really good. I’m so proud of you. Now come back. Come back.”

Shades of his father’s condemnation of his shifted form had Kyle’s tail go down between his back legs, and he found himself lowering his belly to the floor.

By the time he had crawled towards his fated mate, he had shifted back to his human form.