Reconciliation by Lisa Oliver
Chapter Six
Stunned. Overwhelmed. Hornier than a teenager with his first porn magazine. Luka fetched a bottle of whisky a patient had given him back at Christmas, and a couple of glasses, his mind still swimming with everything he’d just heard.
My mate is an ancient god.
He smells fucking incredible.
Goons are after me.
My mate doesn’t like wolf shifters.
Where the hell is Cloverleah and why would I go there?
Seth had settled himself on Luka’s only armchair when he went back into the living room. Taking the hint, Luka settled himself back on his couch, sweeping off a few stray white hairs. As he poured the drinks, Luka tried to decide what to ask about first. Handing Seth his glass, making sure their skin didn’t touch, he forced himself to sit back on the couch and asked quietly, “Why did you come here?”
“If I hadn’t come, either Wes and his demon, or Marlo and his brother would’ve found you.”
“Fair enough. But why does that bother you? Marlo and Bronco couldn’t force me to tell them where you are, because up until you knocked on my door, I didn’t know. And I’ve never met Wes and Cas before. I’ve got no reason to go to this Cloverleah place just because they tell me to. I’m capable of making my own decisions. So why did you feel the need to come?”
“I’m not sure.” Seth’s voice was deep and quiet. He was sat hunched over, his elbows resting on his thick thighs, cradling the glass in his hand. “I haven’t had anything to do with wolf shifters for more years than you could count. But when I spoke to Cas and Wes, realized you were their next project… I had to come.”
“Project?” Luka wrinkled his nose.
“Yes, remember I told you about them getting jobs from Zeus and Hades. The first job they ever did was saving Zeus’s mate, Paulie, who’s a tiger shifter. He was homeless.”
“Are Zeus and Paulie together now?”
Seth nodded. “They have a kid together.” He sighed.
There were still too many holes in Seth’s story to make sense. “You said Ra, who I assume is your boss, father, or whatever you call him, he has mortal mates too. Did Wes and Cas save them as well? Is that what’s bothering you – that this wolf and demon will come along and you’ll find yourself mated to someone you can’t stand? Do demons have that sort of power?”
Seth’s sigh was heavier this time. “There’s something you don’t know about ancient gods,” he said. “They get very bored very easily. That’s what happens when you’re not worshipped anymore, and you aren’t allowed to interfere in mortal life. They interfere in each other’s lives instead, meddling gossips. If they find out about you and me…”
“I’m not going to tell them,” Luka broke in quickly. He had his pride.
“They probably already know!” Seth got up and Luka couldn’t help noticing he was very graceful for someone so big. “Apparently, Paulie has this thing that allows him to see connections. If Zeus has seen you, which he must have done otherwise Wes and Cas wouldn’t be involved, then Paulie already knows. And they’re not going to leave the situation alone. Did you forget the bit about you being an extremely rare wolf?”
He sounded almost angry, but Luka had years of dealing with disgruntled and upset people in the ER room. “My wolf has white fur. Big deal. It happens in nature sometimes – it’s just a fluke. Believe me there’s nothing special about me.”
“You’re an omega wolf,” Seth insisted. “I can’t believe you don’t know what that means.”
Luka frowned. “Omega wolf shifters died out over a hundred years ago. I remember learning about them from a book in my dad’s library. It was said the Fates were so disappointed in how alpha shifters treated the little guys, because they were tiny as wolves and gay, they stopped allowing them to be born. I can’t be an omega.”
“Try telling Wes and Cas that.” Seth spun around, his aura full of agitation. “They were talking about you like they’d found a holy grail. They’ve already contacted the alpha of the Cloverleah pack to see if he’ll give you a home…”
“I have a home,” Luka kept his voice calm although he was anything but. “My father’s last words to me when I left his home was not to trust any alpha as I’m apparently susceptible to alpha power. I haven’t been near a pack since and I’m not about to start now.”
“Don’t you get it, there are only two of you in the whole of the America’s.” Seth flung out one arm, the other hand still gripping his glass tight enough his knuckles were white. “The other one lives at Cloverleah – he found a mate there…”
“Well, I’m not likely to find a mate there, even if I went. My mate is standing in front of me rambling about all sorts of things I don’t understand.” Putting his glass down, Luka stood, moving slowly towards his mate. “Look, I understand you don’t want a mate. Well, I don’t understand why, but clearly you have prejudices.”
“I have reasons for the way I feel.” Seth curled his upper lip. “And I don’t believe in fated mates – they’re a con that gods happen to find trendy at the moment. You watch – all of them – Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Thor, Odin, Artemas, Baby, Lasse and Nereus – shit, even Ra – they’ll all learn they’ve been conned by some trick of the light. Investing in the first person who shows them any interest simply because they’re lonely. It’s a ruse, can’t you see? A fucking ruse.”
“That’s a lot of major beings who’ve been taken in by other people. Did you find out why it’s happening?”
“No, I didn’t.” Seth stormed closer, his eyes flashing. “But I’ll tell you one thing that tells me this whole situation stinks. Every one of those gods mentioned with the exception of Artemas, son of Poseidon, was claimed by a shifter. Nereus has two of them, both wolves. Someone is making a mockery of us, don’t you see? For fuck’s sake, Hades is mated to a chipmunk shifter, can you imagine that? How would that even work?”
Great, now my mate is a conspiracy theorist. “I imagine Hades is very happy with his shifter. Someone with that amount of power would surely just vanquish someone who paid him unwanted attention. And you didn’t mention the vampire Ra’s mated to. How does he fit into your theory?”
“I don’t know,” Seth grumbled as he moved away, but not before Luka got a whiff of his arousal. It was dark and spicy like the man himself. “I didn’t give a shit about what Zeus or the others were doing, but Ra… he marked them, and he allowed both of those pathetic mortals to mark him in return. He’s ruled our pantheon since time began.”
Luka closed his eyes for a moment and scraped his teeth across his bottom lip. Opening his eyes again, he said quietly, “You’re clearly very angry about the whole idea of mates, and I can’t imagine what that must be like. I’ve waited my whole adult life to find mine and I trust my wolf when he tells me it’s you. The thing is you feel it too, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
“You don’t know what I feel.”
“Actually, I can sense a lot of your emotions just by virtue of being a shifter. And you can’t deny that you heard I was in danger, and here you are. You thought that wolf and demon were going to spirit me away somewhere and you wanted to stop them – so you got here first. You don’t want me, you don’t believe in mates, and yet you’re standing in my living room. Why would any ancient god with power beyond imagination hang around with a lowly wolf shifter when he doesn’t even like them, if there wasn’t some connection between them.”
“Didn’t you hear me, you’re not a lowly shifter. You’re an extremely rare one.”
Interesting that’s the part he listened to, Luka thought. “I’ve been around a long time, not as long as you obviously, but long enough to know that as a wolf, I don’t inspire anything in any of my kind except disgust for being gay. Is that why you’re here? Because someone told you I was rare, so suddenly I was worth having?”
“I don’t believe in mates. I won’t claim you.”
Ouch. Luka rubbed his chest before he knew what he was doing. But then something else attracted his wolf’s attention and all thoughts of mating fled from his brain. “How did you get here?” he asked quickly. “Can you zap, translocate or whatever it is gods do?”
“No, that’s not one of the powers I was left with. I have a motorbike. It’s parked just down the street.”
“You bought a motorcycle?” Luka strained his ears. Shit.
“Not exactly. I had no way of getting back to town after the fight you escaped from. I took the biggest bike there.”
“You stole a bike?”
“I took a bike that wasn’t being used, so I could get back to town.”
“Shit. GPS, you idiot.” Running over to Seth, Luka started pushing on his chest, but the mountain of a man didn’t move. “You have to go…”
“We’ve still got a lot to talk about.”
“You have to go now!” Grabbing Seth’s arm, he tried dragging the man towards the back door. “The bike you stole must have had a tracking device on it. They know where you are and they’re about to burst through my front door in about two minutes flat. They have guns. I can smell the gunpowder. Get going – run out the back door, you can climb the fences easily enough between yards to get back to the bike, or whatever. I’ll hold them off.”
“You’re staying?” Seth turned the tables, grabbing Luka’s arm instead. “You could get shot; you’re mortal. They could kill you with those guns.”
“Well, it doesn’t fucking matter does it?” Luka managed to get his arm free. “I’ve seen you. I’ve scented you. My wolf knows who you are as our mate. And at the risk of seeming overdramatic, I’m fairly sure from the way my wolf reacted to the news, now you’ve rejected me as a mate, I’ll probably die anyway. I’d far rather take my chances with a bullet than do a slow pine to death. Now, fucking move. I’ll keep them busy for as long as I can.”
“You would save me from mortals?”
“Mating might not mean much to you, big guy, but it means the whole world to me, which means you mean the world to me. I swear, on the spirit of my wolf, I’ll protect you until my dying breath. Now go.” Taking one last look at his shocked mate, Luka sprinted up the stairs to his spare room. He didn’t believe in guns, but the gun culture was alive and well in Montana, and while he didn’t have a rifle, he did have a powerful handgun. Maybe I can pick them off from the roof. Luka was determined to try.
