Reconciliation by Lisa Oliver
Chapter Three
It took Luka hours to get back to his small house, and when he finally turned into his street, there was a patrol car parked outside his house. Fortunately, Luka saw it before his wolf form was spotted, although shifting and stumbling naked down the road wasn’t how he’d planned to end his night. As soon as he’d hit the town limits, he’d been sticking to the shadows, hoping if anyone saw him, they’d just think he was a big dog. But, apparently, someone at the hospital reported his car being abandoned at the edge of the parking lot. Because the keys had been left in it, and the engine still running, foul play was immediately suspected, and the police had been called.
The police had thought to secure his keys, which was brilliant as Luka didn’t relish having to break into his own house. He huddled under the blanket offered him, curled up on his couch while a second officer made coffee. He refused medical attention, telling the concerned officers that doctors made the worst patients, and that he was relatively fine considering what he’d been through. Luka was also as vague as he could be about his twenty-four-hour ordeal.
“The van was a dirty white,” he explained slowly as though still in pain, even though his run while in wolf form had healed most of his injuries. “There were two men with guns…” He described them briefly, focusing on the generic clothes and being vague about the features and made a point of telling the officers he’d been held in an old barn-like structure southwest of the town, rather than southeast.
“You’ll have to forgive me,” he said, making sure to look contrite. “I’m usually a lot more detail orientated than this. It was just… I was so scared, and I… I’ve never… they were fighting and drinking and yelling and carrying on. They’d taken my clothes and my phone and dumped me in a corner naked. I was terrified about what they might do to me. All I could think of was getting away. Even then I was so sure they were going to shoot me if they caught me again. I don’t know what they wanted. I must’ve walked for miles… I wish I could be more helpful.”
“You’ve done very well, sir.” The officers looked at each other and then like it was a prearranged signal, they both stood. “I would suggest you take some time off work,” the taller of the two officers said. “It’s common for victims to repress details when they’ve been through a traumatic event and you said yourself you were hit over the head. You’ll probably remember more in a few days, and you can give us a call then. In the meantime, we’ll arrange for your car to be released to you when you’re ready to pick it up.”
“Can we call anyone to come and be with you? Someone from work perhaps, or a family member?” The other officer asked. “It’s perfectly natural for you to feel that you don’t want to be alone right now.”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to eat and sleep for a week.” Luka managed a small smile, as he got up, and wrapped the blanket more firmly around him. “Oh, this is your blanket. Did you want to wait a minute while I…”
“It’s fine, Dr. Sterling,” the taller officer said quickly. “You hang onto it, and you can drop it off when you pick up your car.”
“I will and thank you.” Luka was sincere this time. He was glad they were going. He hated lying to two decent people who were simply doing their job. “It was such a relief to know you were called when you were. I honestly thought no one would be looking for me.”
“We’ll contact the hospital and let them know you’re safe,” the smaller officer said. “And our cards are on the coffee table if you can think of anything else you need to tell us.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.” Luka kept saying it until he’d closed the front door behind them and locked it firmly. He waited, listening until he heard their car drive away before he let his shoulders slump, dropping the blanket on the floor.
“Okay, enough of the victim act, I need to think about all this logically. Are those thugs likely to come after me again?” Luka plodded up the stairs to his bedroom. “My wallet was in the car when I got taken, so those assholes don’t know who I am. They might ask around at the hospital, but no one there knows where I live and the HR office won’t let those details out, unless that person was police.”
Not for the first time, Luka was glad he maintained a friendly but not too-friendly stance with the people he worked with. He’d learned early on after he left his home pack, that it was too hard on his heart to have to keep leaving aging people he was close to when he didn’t look any older. It’d been drummed into his head since he was a child that he couldn’t share his secret with anyone apart from a non-shifter mate if he found one, and Luka hadn’t wanted to bond with anyone, preferring to wait for the one the Fates chose for him. It was a lonely life at times, but Luka had gotten used to keeping himself busy.
And there’s no way those goons who took me have friends in the police force – they looked like the type to actively avoid law enforcement, so Luka knew he didn’t have to worry on that score either. Grabbing a pair of sweatpants from his drawer, he pulled them on, and went back downstairs to the kitchen. Luka had never been a fan of eating when in his wolf form, so the rabbits on his trip home had been safe. But between the shifting, working a twelve-hour shift, and the walk home, he was ravenous. Four decent sized bacon sandwiches would take care of that.
It wasn’t until he crawled into bed that Luka allowed his brain to dwell on the tall man with powers who had jumped in to help him at the last minute. The being who made his heart race, and his cock jump to attention despite the situation he’d been in. “He might’ve smelled amazing and had a body I want to lick all over, but the bastard was with them. Of course, my mate would turn out to be a lowlife criminal asshole with powers. Why should anything in my life be fucking easy. It’s just as well I’m used to being alone.” Sleep was calling him and when it came, it hit him hard, and for Luka that had been the kindest hit of the day.
/~/~/~/~/
Having changed his clothes and magicked up a small overnight bag, Seth had no problem getting into the Marigold Hotel. The remains of a steak meal were still sitting on its tray on the small dining room table, and Seth was stretched out naked, head resting on the edge of a deep bath filled with hot and lightly scented water. To treat himself further, Seth was sipping a tall glass of whiskey, his mind skimming over the details of a long and surprising day.
It was not like he wanted to dwell on anything specific… like a certain wolf for example. No, Seth was wondering what happened to Marlo and Bronco – and who named a set of dickweed brothers with rhyming names? The thought of either idiot, or their friends, chasing him down for the money they thought they deserved didn’t bother him. Seth was a transient on earth, just passing through, and it’s not as though anyone had even asked him his name. Marlo had billed him as the “Whirling Devil” when he was fighting.
Hmm, they might look for a while, but they’ll soon give up, although Seth was a bit disappointed things panned out the way they did. He quite enjoyed beating on morons who didn’t have two working brain cells to rub together – especially ones who thought they could beat him.
Seth yawned and took another sip of his whiskey, holding the glass in both hands as his mind kept skipping back to the wolf-shifting doctor, despite his efforts not to let that happen. The little shit was designed with Seth in mind, that much was obvious. Long black hair, tanned skin and a face just rugged enough to take the edge off pretty. Solid jaw, full lips… Seth sighed as his body heated. He’s a wolf! As if Seth needed reminding. It would be some time before he forgot the doc’s naked form, or his shifted one. The way that wolf jumped over the fence… His gorgeous fur color… Those penetrating eyes that seemed to see his soul…
Matings are not real! Seth raised his glass to the invisible Fates. “You’re not catching me out, ladies,” he muttered to the tiles that lined the bathroom wall. “If you’d wanted me to believe in mates, you should’ve picked anything or anyone else except a wolf for me. I am not as easily swayed as my father.”
Thinking of Ra had Seth reaching for his phone. As he checked the app and saw his father was still in Montana, Seth realized that in all the time he’d been dealing with the wolf known as Luka, he hadn’t once thought about his father or his banishment. Yet another reason to forgo a mating, Seth decided. I am Ra’s protector and when he’s shaken free from that clinging wolf of his and the snotty vampire, he’ll remember who I am to him, and I can reclaim my space by his side.
But the memory of Luka, standing proudly, his chin raised in anger, his cock hardening under the glare of the fight lights followed Seth to his bedroom and into his dreams. And those dreams were pretty powerful stuff as Seth found when he woke with his abs and sheets covered in his release.
