Under Sean’s Protection by Lisa Oliver

Chapter Seven

 

Sean could not relax.

He’d let Ranger take his bike back to Kyle’s house. The ride to the mansion house had been tense - each of them angry at the situation, but not wanting to take it out on the other.

“Ranger, I’m sorry for...” Sean had started to say, when he hopped off, but there wasn’t time to finish. Ranger was out of sight before Sean could take a breath, the tiny red taillight getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.

There was nothing else to be done. Sean went into the house. He wasn’t about to risk anything by trying to run back to Kyle’s house on foot. It would take more than an hour, even if he ran full out. He could go in his wolf form, but with the enforcers there, and Ranger… yeah, I’d be had up for inciting an incident before I could shift back.

Sean did think about taking a car – hiding it near Kyle’s house. The enforcers might expect him in wolf form, but… If he went by car then he could… You’d still be scented, you stupid ass… which would just cause more problems.

Pacing his room, Sean felt like a caged lion. All he could think about was his mate’s thin face and how Kyle looked as he’d driven away. Kyle was making the sacrifice and would be feeling the pangs of separation just like he was. Annoyed with himself, Sean peeled his clothes off, for the second time in as many hours, and climbed into a hot shower, careful not to touch any soap.

The steam of the water hitting his body mixed with Kyle’s scent, and Sean stood with his head against the shower stall glass, breathing it all in, reliving every minute of the last couple hours in his mind. Had he gone too fast? Had he been too rough with his virgin mate?

Sean never reviewed himself as a lover before, but then again, he had never had sex with the man fated for him before either. He cursed himself. If only I hadn’t been the gentleman, if I’d have taken Kyle when we both wanted it. If only… Kyle could be with him, in his bed, they would fall asleep together… Sean shook his head and turned off the shower water. As lovely as that vision was, he only had to wait one more day and then every day he’d be waking up with Kyle curled up beside him.

Stepping out of the shower, Sean grabbed a towel, giving his body a cursory rub before heading back into his room. I’ll sleep, he told himself. The time will pass so much faster if I’m asleep. Another thing that assassin training taught him was the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime.

Laying his head on the pillow, he was asleep in seconds, clinging to the memory of Kyle laying naked in his arms, and the sound of Ranger’s voice assuring him that he and Kyle would be back together the very next day.

/~/~/~/~/

The ride was smoother now, Kyle noticed. We must be on a main highway.

“Where are you taking me?” He asked, trying to sound intimidating, but he just didn’t have it in him – only thoughts of Sean and how upset he would be was helping Kyle speak at all.

“I’m mated now,” he said firmly, ignoring the handcuffs and hood over his head. “My mate is not someone you want to piss off. He’s an assassin – he has the tattoo on his face and everything. He’s trained to hunt down people like you and kill them.”

Kyle heard the two men chuckle – the sound coming from the front of the car.

“Yeah, yeah, we know, kid,” one of them said. “We’re counting on it.”

This was not the reaction Kyle was expecting. They wanted me to be mated to Sean? Oh, my gods, is this a trap for him? Kyle was desperate to see where they were going.

“It’s hard to breathe with this thing on,” he said desperately. “Please, you’ve got cuffs on me. At least take the hood off me.”

“Then I suggest you shut the fuck up and enjoy the ride. You can enjoy your breathing later.”

“Breathe later? What does that mean?” His abductors weren’t making any sense.

“It means,” one of them growled, “that you keep quiet and that way your pretty little face won’t get all uglied up.”

Kyle heard the sound of a phone being activated and a number dialed.

“Package has been received and is in transit,” he heard the enforcer say in an official, emotionless voice. “Negative. No issues with the postman. See you at the rendezvous point.”

The postman? Who’s that? Kyle’s thoughts raced. Does he mean my dad? Ranger? Sean?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of music coming through the stereo. It was an old country and western song, one Kyle remembered his parents listening to when he was a kid. Clearly any conversation was over.

Sitting back, Kyle did as he was told, keeping his mouth shut and trying to find a position for his hands that wouldn’t hurt him. They were starting to go numb from the cuffs, and Kyle prayed with all he had that the trip wouldn’t take much longer. Every mile they passed was a mile further away from his mate.

Oh, Sean. At least the men who took him couldn’t see his tears.

/~/~/~/~/

Sean was dreaming of sourdough bread, perfectly toasted, with fresh avocado mashed on the top, snowy peaks of feta cheese, and the best damn espresso he’d ever encountered steaming by his side. There was a woman with him, and she seemed familiar, but in his dream state Sean couldn’t remember who she was. But she topped up his coffee mug and then wrapped her arms around him like a housewife. It felt strange, yet almost like a memory.

He was just about to bite into his dream breakfast when he was jolted awake by a harsh pounding on the bedroom door.

“Sean, open up,” he heard Ranger say. “We got a problem.”

Sean bolted up to a sitting position, his mind still half in his dream so it took half a second to get his bearings. He was in his room, the evening getting darker behind the closed curtains on his window, and his eyes felt like they were being pushed deeper into his skull by some invisible force. Gods, I can’t have slept more than half an hour.

Pulling on a pair of shorts, he was heading for the door, when Ranger opened it, slipping inside the room and closing the door behind him.

“Kyle’s gone,” he hissed.

“What?” Sean thought for a second he was still dreaming. Kyle was back with his dad. Ranger was supposed to be with him.

“I got back to the Hyam house after dropping you here,” Ranger continued, “but there was only George there, crying like a baby.”

Sean’s mind was racing. Where could Kyle have gone? Why didn’t he call? Did he try to and was I so fast asleep that I missed it? He snatched up his phone from the bedside cabinet, but there was nothing showing on the screen.

“My enforcer friend, the one who I arranged your afternoon with Kyle, the bastard double crossed me. I searched around the house, and their car was gone. Footprints to the car belonged to three people. Kyle and the two enforcers. I called Newton, thinking they could’ve gone there, but Newton said the two lawyers and enforcers who were with him had left two hours ago.”

“Then let’s move it,” Sean said. “They can’t have gone far if you only just missed them.”

“And where do you suggest we start looking?” Ranger ran his hand through his hair. “Sean, listen to me. We don’t know where he’s been taken to, or why. We can’t just head out and start hunting – they’re in a car. For all we know, he’s still right here in the Northern Territory.”

“So, what do you suggest, Ranger? We sit around here and wait for the fucking phone to ring?”

“We need to loop Aiden in on this,” Ranger said. “I’m so sorry, my friend. This is all my fault.”

Sean could feel the rage burning inside him, mixed with fear and longing, and it was all too much. He could feel himself starting to shift, and then all hell would break loose.

“Try to calm down,” he heard Ranger say but it sounded like Ranger was speaking under water. “We have to keep our heads.”

“Easy for you to say,” Sean howled, “when your mate is waiting for you in bed two doors down the hall.”

His emotions had to go somewhere. Seconds later, Sean found himself pounding the mattress, tearing through the sheets and pillow top with his sharp clawed hands. There was nothing else. It was either tear the fucking bed to bits where he’d been sleeping while his mate was taken, or punch a fucking hole through the fucking wall. Or through Ranger.

I knew I should have trusted my gut, he thought as feathers and fluff flew up from the covers and pillows. “If anything happens to Kyle…” he started to say, and just as quickly his anger left, and he was choking back tears, fluff and foam covering his claws. “I’ll… I’ll… Fuck, I don’t know…”

“Nothing will happen to him,” a different voice said, causing Sean to look up.

Aiden was standing in the doorway, holding tight to Ranger’s hand.

“It’s not Kyle they want.”

/~/~/~/~/

“Here’s what we know,” Aiden said as he stepped inside Sean and Kyle’s room, quietly closing the door behind him.

“Less than an hour ago, Kyle was escorted out of his home by two of the council’s enforcers. He was not harmed in any way, and we have every reason to believe he’s still unharmed now.”

Sean kept his eyes on the floor, unable to look at anyone else, although he could feel his friends’ eyes on him. His stomach tightened with every word spoken by the pint-sized alpha.

“Five minutes ago, I received a message from the council. They said that Kyle was safely en-route to the capital territory, where he would be held under strict supervision until specific emissaries from here arrived of their own free will.”

Sean looked up now. Emissaries? Messages? What the fuck was with the watered-down language?

“Er… babe,” Ranger said, “aren’t we talking about a kidnapping here? Kyle didn’t leave here of his own accord, so we’re talking about a ransom demand, not a message. Or am I missing something?”

“Unfortunately, for all of us,” Aiden replied, “you are missing one key detail.”

Sean’s ears perked up and he felt the blood rushing through his veins get just a little bit colder.

“It turns out George Hyam willingly signed his son over to the council’s care just before Kyle was removed.”

“What the fuck?” Sean began to breathe heavily, his heart pounding inside his chest.

“We can only guess at his reason for doing so,” Aiden added quietly.

Sean ran through the events of earlier. Did Hyam sign it when he was out of the house with the enforcers? Had this been planned for a while?

“How is that even legal?” Ranger asked.

“Because Kyle was in his father’s care. George Hyam was within his rights to re-assign that care to another party,” Aiden continued, “with or without consent of the legal entity himself.”

Fuck I hate lawyers and their stupid fucking laws! “How the hell can you be re-assigned to someone else against your will? Kyle’s twenty-five years old,” Sean managed to say as he bit back his fury. “He’s an adult, for fuck’s sake, not a pup.”

“I know it,” Aiden responded, “but because he wasn’t mated and living under…”

“He’s mated now,” Sean cried out, as he tapped the scar gleaming on his shoulder. “We joined together a few hours ago and this legal entity you refer to has just been stolen from me. From us. I am not going to stand around with my dick in my hand while everyone else jacks each other off with words and legal bullshit.”

“Sean’s right,” Ranger said. “Kyle’s one of ours and the longer we stand around debating what the law is and isn’t, the more dangerous it becomes for him.”

Sean’s respect for Ranger came back… just a bit.

“What do they want?” Ranger asked Aiden.

“What they’ve always wanted,” the young alpha replied, “all their assassins back, ready for active duty, except you Ranger.”

Sean exchanged looks with Ranger. These were not men you threatened easily. Sean knew it, and he knew the council knew it. They were getting desperate and stole Kyle knowing it would bring at least one of the assassins to their knees.

Me.

But would his partners, his fellow loners, all mated and safe with their mates, risk everything they had for the new kid on the block?

“First things first,” Ranger said, looking directly at Sean. “We need to have a chat with old man Hyam.”

/~/~/~/~/

George Hyam was sitting alone in the house when Ranger and Sean burst through the door. Ranger had warned him repeatedly to keep his shit together, and Sean was prepared to respect Ranger’s wishes right up until he was face-to-face with the man in the chair. One look and Sean’s wolf came forward and Sean strained to hold him back. Sean needed his voice for what he wanted to do but his wolfen half had no problem with him knocking the old man out of his chair and pinning him to the floor.

“What have you done with Kyle?” Sean growled.

“I’m sorry,” George pleaded, throwing up his hands, trying to hold Sean off which would’ve been laughable under any other circumstances. “I shouldn’t have listened to the council. I made a mistake.”

Sean pulled his hand back and was ready to take this bastard’s head off with one fucking swipe, when he felt Ranger’s grip on it.

“Sean! Stand down!” Ranger tugged on his arm.

“Talk to me, old man,” Sean said, uncaring Ranger held his one arm. He had two of them. “Talk fast or your last words are gonna be ‘a mistake’”.

“They said he was going to be raped by a murderer,” George cried, “by a whole gang of assassins. They told me his only hope was to be sent away until the murderers could be dealt with. Then they’d send him back, they promised.”

“This type of murderer?” Sean tapped the tattoo under his eye – the sign that proclaimed to everyone, human or paranormal alike, of his status. “We do the council’s dirty work, and they call us murderers – damn it man, you know the other assassins are mated. How the hell could they rape your son even if they wanted to?”

“I knew it was a mistake the minute I came back in here,” George confessed. “I thought I’d lost my sense of smell; I hadn’t been able to shift in so long. But when I was wheeled back in here, I could smell immediately that you’d been here. With Kyle. And I knew you weren’t a murderer, at least not in terms of who you are to my son.”

“I’m his fated mate,” Sean cried. “His protector! I would never have harmed a hair on his head.”

“I know that now. I fucked up,” George said again. “Please believe me. I wish I could turn back time. Oh Gods, I wish I could do that. My lovely son. My little boy.”

Disgusted with himself, because George was no physical threat to him, Sean climbed off and lifted Hyam back into his chair although he wasn’t gentle about it. “Your attitude is a far cry from the son of a bitch I encountered here a couple days ago,” he said grimly. “You were about to beat Kyle to a pulp and smash his mom around for good measure. What changed all of a sudden?”

“I felt my wolf,” George admitted quietly. “For the first time since the accident, I was wheeled in here and my wolf let me know you’d been here. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be without your animal half for so long?”

Sean couldn’t and he hoped he’d never find out. “Keep talking.”

“All this fuss over my kid,” George said. “Lawyers, council legal beagles, you two. I have fucking assassins in my house. And the alpha himself was here, trying to set things right. It got me thinking that Kyle’s more grown up than I gave him credit for. Then when my wife was taken away…” George hesitated, blinking hard to hold back his tears. “She’s my mate. I finally realized she’d never given up on me and then she was gone, and you know how that feels. It changes a man.”

“Maybe,” Sean conceded.

“I’d been so fucking angry for so fucking long, looking for someone to blame for what happened. But there ain’t nobody to blame. Just shit luck is all. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Former Alpha Chalmers helped your misery along somewhat,” Ranger said quietly, “by not compensating you properly for the loss of your legs. You had shit luck with a little help from assholes in high places, but Aiden is trying to change all that. He arranged back pay for you and a reinstatement of all your benefits you were entitled to having been an ex-enforcer.”

“Yeah,” George replied, “doesn’t matter now. The shitshow we’ve got going on now is my fault, and I’m more than happy to do my bit to make it right.”

He looked at Sean.

“As I was saying,” George continued, “when I came back in here and saw the bite mark on Kyle’s neck – he tried to hide it, but I could tell - I knew the two of you had claimed each other. I was sitting there, you know, waiting for the anger, so sure I was going to be pissed something fierce, but instead all I felt was… “

“What?” Sean demanded.

“Love.”

Sean and Ranger exchanged looks.

“You love my son,” George insisted. “You might not have said the words yet, but I know that. I can feel it. I’m not so far gone that I can’t pick up on someone’s mood or intention. And to see how happy Kyle was, even when he tried to hide it… it all came back to me. Who I am. Who my kid is. And what really matters.”

“That’s all very enlightening,” Sean said as he turned away, “the problem is, it’s too little too late.”

“I hope not,” George said quietly. “Fuck, I hope not.”