Chapter 193

[ 788 words ]

Liam

“Don’t rearrange the order,” Oliver warns.

I grab a stack of old…papers? Book? Scrolls?

I don’t know what you would classify these written documents as, but he had a lot. The yellowing pages were curling at the ends and frayed. Taking a peek at the contents, I frown at the unidentifiable scrawl of curves, dots, loops, and slashes.

“What language is this written in?”

Oliver looks up from the books he’s packing away. “Lyconic. It’s the language of the first shifters.”

“Isn’t that considered a dead language?” Felix asks, securing one of the filled bins.

“It is,” Oliver says, offering no further explanation.

He’s been quiet since he healed. Acquiescent. Docile.

It’s unnerving.

Felix looks over at me, raising his eyebrows at the robotic tone.

He and I accompanied Oliver to his old pack to clear out his research from his work office and relocate it to a temporary space we have in the enforcer building.

It wasn’t a surprise when Oliver’s Alpha didn’t put up a fight with Ronan to keep him, especially after Rick gave his seal of approval for the change.

His sister already came over to find out what was going on, giving us hard, protective stares when she learned there was nothing she could do about it.

Footsteps sound down the hall.

“Someone’s coming,” I say steadily.

“Probably one of my co-workers. It’s rare for anyone else to come here,” Oliver informs me, not pausing in his work.

As if on cue, a submissive female pokes her head in and gives me and Felix a weary glance. The brunette then dismisses us.

My beast snorts, amused rather than offended by the female.

“So it’s not just a rumor then,” she asks Oliver.

“I’m afraid not.” His voice is bland.

“This is bullshit. How can they just come and take you? What about the scrolls?” she complains.

“We’ll have to put a pin in it for now,” he sighs with all the emotion of an exhausted school teacher.

She looked at him like she just said he wanted to decapitate her grandmother and play soccer with her head.

“Absolutely not. We never had something this big before!” She sounds more outraged than he does.

I can almost imagine her stomping her foot.

He gives her a rueful smile. “I can ask my new Alpha for permission to communicate, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”

“Fucking idiots. All of them. As if you would ever send people to shoot someone.” This time she does look in my direction with a pissed-off stare. Then she takes a breath. “I’m going to help you pack.”

The corner of his mouth lifts. “How benevolent.”

“I do tend to lean towards a good deed now and then,” she sniffs.

He looks at her as if he doesn’t believe her but doesn’t protest her helping.

“You bet your paws off on those,” she says to me.

I hold my hands up, amused. “If you want to take over the world, I won’t object. But let me warn you that I won’t be moving from this spot. Everything comes with us.”

There is a moment when her pupils dilate, the submissive on her recognizing the threat.

“I’m just here to make sure you don’t damage priceless artifacts,” she replies with a lift of her chin

I open my arms wide. “Be my guest.”

They work in silence for a few minutes. The female’s posture is tense, stiff, like she is holding in what she wants to say.

“We should give them a chance to speak,” Felix says from beside me. “They won’t say what they have to with us here.”

“Alright,” I agree.

Giving them supposed privacy will work to our advantage.

Whatever she wants to tell Oliver, she believes it’s important.

“We’ll be right outside,” I announce.

Felix and I step outside the room. I know he is going to say something before he says it.

“Did you get a chance to look at some of the documents Oliver has?”

“I don’t read Lyconic, so no.”

He slaps my chest. “Asshole. Well, I got to look at some standard written text. Nothing in depth but the bits and pieces I picked up…they were texts about old shifter houses.”

“Anything incriminating?”

“Not exactly. But he was researching one of the families I found connected to a few of the victims.”

“Do you think that’s why they want him? Because he knows too much?”

“Possibly. All I know is we need whatever information he’s looking into because it has to do with everything that’s happening.”

The link, my beast says.

“You think it’s the connecting piece.”

He runs his tongue across his teeth. “At the very least, I think it will help us find it.”

“Then we have to convince him to trust us,” I say, knowing full well how shitty it makes me.

But that’s the thing about me.

When it comes to my family, I’ll do whatever I have to make sure they are safe.

Even if that means playing bad cop to Oliver.

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