17. Killian
17
Killian
Melvin Rehabilitation was a tall, imposing building at the edge of town. I felt my heart pound in my chest as I walked up to the front of it, my motorcycle parked in one of the empty employee spots.
Let them try to tow me. I almost wanted them to. I was itching for a fight—more of one than I was going to get from the stupid fucking administration when I finally made my way inside.
It had taken nearly a week before I could meet with the Melvin admissions staff. I’d raged about it, but every time I’d called to try and move the meeting up, I’d been told—by someone who sounded far too snotty for their own good—that the schedule at Melvin was firm. If I wanted to speak to their Director about one of the patients, I would have to wait for the first available appointment.
Katrina had been understandably upset about the delay when I told her about it, and there weren’t even any comforting words I could offer her to make her feel better about the situation. Her health was withering more and more by the day, and every day Lilah stayed behind the walls of Melvin was another day that she wouldn’t get to spend with her mother before she succumbed to her illness.
All of this had put me in a pissy-ass mood, and Oliver and Emmett had both gone out of their way to avoid me in the days since I’d returned to the packhouse.
The first day, Oliver had sought me out, but I had refused to acknowledge him. It didn’t matter what he had to say; the way he’d treated Lilah was absolutely inexcusable, especially when he had done so without talking to the rest of us first. Now that I knew Katrina’s history with Hunter, Oliver’s decision was even more reprehensible, and it only took a few tries of trying to get me to speak to him—and being firmly rebuffed—before Oliver finally gave up and slunk away.
A torn part of me felt bad for ignoring my packmate. We had been best friends for so many years and had chosen to form this pack together because we couldn’t imagine anything coming between the four of us. Then Jack had been murdered, and the grief had bound the rest of us together even more tightly, making us impenetrable to anything from the outside.
None of us had anticipated such a shakeup in our internal dynamic, though. I could tell that Oliver felt a little out of sorts, trying to figure out what he could do to help me feel better about the situation.
But there was nothing he could do. The only thing that would make me feel better was having Lilah back under our roof, in my arms, where I could make sure that she was okay, twenty-four hours a day.
I had the feeling she would need constant support from the moment I got her out.
I blew out a breath and shoved my hands into the pockets of my slacks as I finally walked up to the front door of the building and let myself in.
The building was quiet inside, eerily so, and the receptionist looked up at me with a creepy, uncanny valley-type smile. “Can I help you with something?” she asked, her voice painfully pleasant.
I fought back the urge to growl before I offered her a small, shallow smile of my own. “I’m here to meet with Director Marcus,” I said, shoving my hands deeper into the pockets of my pants. I curled my hands into fists out of sight and ignored the way that my claws pricked at my palms as I fought my partial shift.
Lilah was here. I could feel her presence vibrating through my bones, begging me to look for her. My wolf howled, lashing at the mental restraints I had placed on myself on the drive over, and I took a slow, shaky breath as the receptionist looked at her computer and clicked a few times, seeming to take her sweet-ass time.
”Oh yes,” she finally said after an agonizing wait, looking back up at me with that same unsettling smile. “He’s waiting for you. If you’ll follow me.”
She stood up and walked over to the door to the side of her desk. A low buzz sounded as she opened it up to let me in. The hallway beyond was long and starkly white, and I saw a few doctors bustling around as the receptionist led me down and then to the right. I glanced over my shoulder and saw more doctors and what looked like a few patients shuffling around in the hallway that extended the other way, and my wolf growled again, desperate to go hunting for our mate.
The receptionist knocked smartly on the door at the end of the hallway she led me to, and a moment later, she smiled at me and opened the door. “Go on,” she said placidly, gesturing me in.
I hadn’t heard anyone tell us to come in from the other side of the door, and for a moment, I hesitated. Then, I gritted my teeth and brushed past her, letting myself into the office and ignoring the sense of trepidation that filled me as the door closed smartly behind me.
I didn’t care what I had to do. If I wasn’t walking out of here with Lilah today, I was damn well going to get a date and time when I could come and retrieve her. Otherwise, I was going to break my pact of silence with Oliver, and we’d raise hell together.
A tall, middle-aged man was sitting behind the desk in the middle of the room, typing leisurely on the computer in front of him. His graying hair was brushed back neatly, and his suit was pressed and tailored. He gestured at the chair in front of his desk without looking at me, clearly commanding me to sit, and I obeyed the silent order after a moment, my hackles raising as I folded my arms over my chest.
It took another few moments before he finished whatever he was typing and turned his attention to me. The full weight of his gaze settled on me, and I could see the glint of mild surprise in his eyes, melting into an impressed look as he cocked his head to the side.
Taylor Marcus—the Director of Melvin Rehabilitation, and a member of one of the wealthiest families in the country. The building had been purchased by his family some ten years back as they made their way through various industries, gobbling up power. Since they took over, the stories that came out of the facility had become even more horrifying and diabolical than they had been before.
Testing on shifters—all different kinds of tests, trying to figure out what made the magic of our shift work and how to stop it, the formation and breaking of bonds, and the science of scent-matches.
It was all fascinating stuff, but the methods used here were horrifying. Drugging shifters and testing them while they were unable to defend themselves was unethical at the best of times, but when it came to people who had been admitted for help, voluntarily or not, it jumped to the next level of pure evil.
“Killian,” he greeted me. He turned to face me fully, linking his hands together on top of the solid oak surface of his desk, and his eyes flicked down my body, evaluating me with a glint before they returned to my face. “It’s very nice to speak to you face to face.”
I growled. “I could have given you the pleasure of my company much sooner if you’d agreed to meet when I first asked,” I snapped.
I knew that it probably wasn’t smart to antagonize this man—he was the one who held Lilah’s freedom in his greedy, horrible palms—but I couldn’t help myself. I’d been desperate to get behind the walls of this building for days to search for my mate, and it was starting to affect me physically.
I could feel sweat beading along my hairline and anxiety humming under my skin, and it was harder to hold back my shift than it had been in a very long time. I was jittery and desperate to get these stupid pleasantries out of the way so he could lead me to Lilah.
Director Marcus seemed to sense my unease, but it didn’t seem to push him to move any faster. He cocked his head to the side as he looked at me, and in the back of my mind, I wondered how many shifters the man had interacted with if he was this at ease around a mildly unstable alpha. I was sure he knew I could tear him apart at a moment’s notice if I lost control for even a second, but he didn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest.
“Yes, well,” he finally mused, looking down and flipping open the manila folder on his desk. “I’m sure you understand that I’m very busy, and can’t simply drop everything for a meeting when one is demanded...no matter how insistently.”
My jaw dropped at the dismissive way he referred to my efforts, but I bit back another growl before it could escape. Coming off as aggressive wasn’t going to do me any favors here, and the more he thought he was helping me, the more likely it was that this would move quickly.
So I sat silently as he perused the paperwork in his folder. In the back of my mind, a tiny part of me wished that I had brought Oliver to this meeting; he was much better at speaking diplomatically than I was.
But I was still pissed with him, and even if I wasn’t, I had the feeling that Lilah wouldn’t react well to seeing him—especially if the little information that I had about her current state was true.
Finally, after what felt like forever but was, in reality, only about two minutes, Marcus looked up at me with an evaluating expression. “So you’re here about Lilah Jackson,” he said evenly.
I nodded, endeavoring to match his even tone. “Yes. I’m one of her alphas.”
He cocked his head to the side. “She’s not listed as a member of any registered pack. Her courting information hadn’t been updated in the state database, either, so you couldn’t have known her terribly long before she came to stay with us, even if what you’re implying is true.”
I gritted my teeth, biting back a growl. Yes, our relationship with Lilah had progressed quickly, but I wasn’t going to explain to a human what it was like for a wolf to encounter their scent-match.
“Sometimes, when it’s right, you just know,” I finally answered, managing by some miracle to keep my voice steady.
He continued to look at me with an evaluating glint in his eyes, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest. “If it was so right, can you explain why my patient came to my facility suffering from Bond Rejection Syndrome? As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s a fairly serious condition.”
Ice flooded my veins, and for a moment, I couldn’t speak. Bond Rejection Syndrome was a horrific condition that only affected the most broken of omegas when an alpha rejected them. Most omegas didn’t form close enough attachments to potential packs to be affected by it, to my understanding—not before they mated, anyway.
The fact that Lilah had felt close enough to us to be so shattered by Oliver’s rejection, even before she was a formal member of the pack, made renewed fury at my Prime Alpha flood my veins.
This was his fucking fault. I was going to kick his ass so hard the moment that I had Lilah safe in my arms again.
“There was a misunderstanding between Lilah and my Prime Alpha,” I finally answered, my voice slightly more tense than it had been before. “I was the one working through all the details of Lilah’s integration into the pack, and I wasn’t there to make sure that everyone was communicating effectively. Lilah’s condition is a result of my oversight, which is why I’m here today—to rectify it, and to bring Lilah home.”
Marcus looked at me, arching an eyebrow at me. “As noble as that sounds, I’m sure you can understand why I can’t just release her into your custody. She still hasn’t even shifted back into her human form, and the data we’re collecting from her shows she’s still incredibly distressed, even after all this time.”
Two things made me stiffen. First, Lilah hadn’t shifted back to human form. Even if she had been lost to her feral state, the way he implied, there was no reason she shouldn’t have been able to shift back unless they were making sure she was never conscious long enough to do so.
Second, the way that he said “data”, as if Lilah—the woman that had occupied every thought I’d had for weeks now—was only valuable for the information she provided. She was everything to me, and they were treating her like a product.
I straightened my shoulders with resolve and glared at Marcus. “Well, I’m sure you’re aware that even without a formal bond, my role as one of her courting alphas means I have more authority regarding her health treatment than you do,” I said firmly. “I want you to take me to her. I need to see her to ensure you’re not mistreating her the way I know you mistreat so many of your patients.”
His eyes barely twitched, but I could see his mind processing the fact that I knew the things that went on behind the walls of this building. I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me, and as the two of us sat there, glaring at each other, I saw him as slowly accepting that, bit by bit.
“Very well,” he finally conceded. “You are well within your rights to request a visit, and perhaps you can guide us to the best way to get her to shift back to human form so that I can release her into your custody.”
I knew that I wasn’t imagining the bitter undertone of his voice as he stood up and conceded to me, and I felt a flare of triumph as I nodded and rose to stand as well.
“Take me to her,” I ordered.
He pressed his lips tightly together, real anger flickering in his eyes for a moment, but then he walked around his desk and passed me, opening the door and taking off down the hallway.
I followed him closely, hurrying to make sure I didn’t lose sight of him. We passed other patients in the hallway, and I was disgusted by the complete lack of regard he offered to the other people who worked and lived in this facility. He actually shouldered past an attendant holding a clipboard outside a closed door, and the attendant stumbled before returning to his observation task.
We walked down the winding hallways for a long time—so long that I wondered if he was pulling my chain. I was ready to speak and make sure he was taking me to Lilah, but then we turned another corner, and my nostrils flared.
I could smell her. It was the first time her scent had touched my nose, even faintly, in more than a week, and it eased some of the tension I’d been carrying.
Marcus glanced over his shoulder at me, interest flickering in his eyes, but then he pressed his lips together in a tight line and turned his head to continue walking.
The proof that Lilah was nearby, that he was actually taking me to her, was all I needed to continue following with more energy and vigor. I practically had a bounce in my step as he finally drew to a door at the end of the hallway, closed and bolted, and lifted the card from his pocket to scan on the reader.
“She’s in here.” He didn’t offer me anything more before he pushed open the door and stepped back so I could walk through.
I held my breath as I walked into the small room behind the steel door, and the sight of Lilah curled up in wolf form in the middle of a bare and empty room broke my heart. Her scent permeated every surface, warm and familiar. It made my cock swell and my heart rate slow, and I dropped my knees in front of her, no longer giving a shit about the curious eyes observing me.
“Lilah, baby,” I whispered, slowly crawling over to her. I didn’t care that the knees of my slacks were probably getting dirty; all I cared about was getting closer to Lilah.
It was the first time I’d properly seen her in her wolf form, and she was stunning. Her fur, even slightly matted and mussed, was long and silky, begging for me to reach out and touch her. Her fur was a gray so light that it was practically silver, and I could already imagine how it would glow under the moonlight if she ever offered me the privilege of seeing her shift with her consent.
She was smaller than my wolf, given her omega status, but she was lean, and I could tell she would be quick if we went out running. And god, I wanted to. I wanted to take her out of this place, wrap her in a blanket, and keep her in my room where I could nurse her back to health. This was no place for her. I couldn’t stand the thought of my omega, my scent-match , being stuck here, alone and afraid.
It took a moment for me to draw close enough to touch her. I made soft sounds at the back of my throat as I approached her, not wanting to frighten her. There was something off about the way that she was lying down, her entire body slack and practically unmoving against the ground. Her chest barely moved with each breath, and her eyes were half-lidded as she stared in front of her, unseeing.
“What’s wrong with her?” I finally asked, my voice barely louder than a whisper.
Marcus made a soft scoffing sound behind me. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with her,” he said, his voice implying that he thought that I was being obtuse. “She’s simply sedated because she’s been attacking my staff. We can’t have a feral shifter attacking humans or beta wolves; surely you know that.”
The growl that ripped from my chest was out before I could control it, and I glared over my shoulder at Marcus before I moved a little closer to Lilah, carefully reaching out and stroking my fingertips over her fur.
“Baby girl?” I asked quietly. I scooted even closer, ignoring the man standing behind me in favor of my omega in front of me. Of all the ways I’d thought I would find her, seeing her like this...
It broke something inside of me. I needed to get her out. It didn’t matter if she didn’t recognize me right now. I couldn’t stand the thought of her staying a single day longer.
She shifted a little, pulling my thoughts out of my head, and I looked down as one of her paws twitched. The source of her stillness, other than the sedation, immediately became clear. All four of her legs were clasped with leather cuffs that were bolted to the floor, buckled so tightly around her that her fur puffed out around them. She let out a low growl when one of my fingers brushed up against the cuff, and when I looked closer, another involuntary growl escaped me.
The skin under her fur was irritated from how tightly the cuffs were clasped around her, and for a moment, I saw fucking red.
“Who the hell put these cuffs on her?” I snapped, not looking away. I eased a fingertip under the leather of one cuff—or tried to. It was buckled too tightly for me to get my finger between her skin and the leather, which meant that it was too fucking tight. The skin underneath was uncomfortably cool to the touch, and when my nostrils flared, and I sniffed beyond the calming scent of my mate, I could smell the beginnings of necrosis.
“Um.” For the first time, Marcus sounded a little uncomfortable, and I growled loudly again before he stammered, “I’m not sure. I’d have to check. But, Killian, you understand that I can’t release her into your custody until she shifts back into human form so that she can rationally sign the paperwork that will allow us to let her out...”
He continued to drone on, and I tuned him out as I turned my attention back to Lilah. Her eyes were open a little wider now, and they flicked over to me for the first time since I’d walked in. Just for a second, a moment of recognition that made hope flare inside of me, despite how ill-advised I knew that it was.
Her nostrils flared, and she let out a low whine as she scented me. The bond in my chest—the fragile one that seemed to have been fracturing more and more by the day—throbbed and reached out for its partner, the one in the sweet omega wolf lying in front of me.
“I’m going to get you out of here, baby girl,” I whispered, speaking so low that Marcus would have no chance of hearing me. “I’m going to get you out of here. God help me, the minute they release you, I will find every single employee who hurt you, and I will burn them to the fucking ground. Do you understand me?”
I could hear how unhinged I sounded, but I didn’t care. Not when Lilah’s eyes widened a little further, flaring with real recognition for the first time I walked in, and she huffed out a breath to acknowledge what I’d said.
I nodded, gently stroking one of her paws one more time before I shoved myself up to stand. I turned and faced Marcus, whose pointless diatribe died away as I faced him with the full extent of my alpha fury.
“I’m going to be back in three days,” I said, my voice low, furious, and intense. “I’m going to help her shift back to normal, and you will have everything ready to release her into my care. If you don’t, you won’t know another day of peace until you finally decide that living is just a little too difficult, and you choose to remove your cowardly fucking self from existence. Do you fucking understand me?”
His throat bobbed with a swallow, and slowly, he nodded his head. With a vicious bite of satisfaction, I noticed one of his hands trembling, and I brushed past him without another word.
It was time for Oliver and I to have a fucking conversation.