Flynn, Joyee - A Zane Po' Boy [The O'Hagan Way 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (3 page)

“I’m doing it now, aren’t I?” he replied gently as he ran his fingers through my hair. “We were friends long before we ever had sex, Zane. I’d be here for you just as you would for me.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe that.” And I was because I should have. Darcy was a great guy, always understanding, and the one person most warriors could go talk to. He never judged or talked shit behind anyone’s back. He was easy to be around, a great listener, and truly a nice person.

Why couldn’t fate have given me him as a mate? Things would have been so much simpler then.

“They didn’t want me,” I whispered, my body starting to shake with silent sobs.

“They’re here now though. Maybe they realized they missed the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said gently. I shook my head, not willing to jump back in the snake pit and see if they bit me again. I just couldn’t handle that. I knew I wouldn’t survive it.

* * * *

Banning

“Fuck this,” I growled after a few minutes of us all standing in shock and stormed after me mate. “There’s no way I be standing by while he fucks another man.” I was tired and irritated. We had been traveling for a long time and now we were in this huge warrior compound that was totally foreign to me.

When we had driven up to it, both Brian and I had been amazed by the enormity of the building. It was made entirely out of stone, and as soon as we had entered, we were faced with a labyrinth of hallways and doors to choose from. I was glad Isaac was with us. Otherwise it was a sure thing we would have gotten lost.

“You lost the right to get upset about it when you left,” Rory pointed out. He was right, and that just made me want to throttle him even more.

“Banning, ya going to make it worse,” Brian pleaded as he ran after me. I shook my head, not thinking there was any way
to
make this worse. He grabbed me hand seconds before I could knock on the door where our mate’s scent ended. “Listen.”

“They didn’t want me,” Zane said so quietly that even with our advanced hearing we could barely hear him through the door.

“They not be having sex,” I whispered, feeling even more like an ass that we were all listening on what was obviously a private moment.

“Oh thank god,” Isaac sighed as he wiped his hands over his face in relief. “Then some part of Zane is still in there. He might have lashed out and wanted to make you hurt as much as he was hurting. But he couldn’t be that big of an asshole and actually go through with it.”

“What do we do now?” Brian asked, his eyes so full of sadness that I pulled me twin into a hug.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. We’d decided to come so quickly that it wasn’t like we had time to formulate a plan or anything.

“I think we’re going to have to go to the desperate-measures plan, Isaac,” Rory said with an exhausted sigh. “I can’t think of any other way to get through to him. Can you?”

“No, but he may never forgive me.” Rory rubbed his hands over Isaac’s chest in a comforting gesture. “But I’d rather him hate me and live a real life than be the shell of a man he’s been.”

“I know, my love. Once he sees reason, he won’t stay mad at you.”

“What ya both be talking about?” I asked, all for some type of plan.

“Let’s get out of here before we get busted. We’ve got a lot to do if we’re going to make this work.” Isaac glanced around, and sure enough, there were several warriors in the halls casting glances our way.

None of us said a word as we headed to the front hall where we’d come in. Isaac stopped by an office and left a letter on a desk. Now me curiosity was eating me alive. We rushed out to his car, all climbing in quickly.

“We built a cell in the basement,” Isaac said once we were driving again. “Zane could get out of a normal room simply by breaking down the door or punching through the drywall. But I had a solid steel room built that he can’t get out of, especially in his weakened state.”

“Ya want to kidnap our mate and lock him up?” Brian asked, his eyes going wide with shock.

“I’m up for other suggestions,” Isaac growled. “He’s slowly dying, and after this last mission, now people know something’s up and he will become even more reckless. If we can’t get through to him in his grief and anger, then I’m going to lock his ass up and force him to eat and get the blood he needs until he sees reason. I’m not going to chain him to the wall or anything. We would even give him a bathroom.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I agreed, given how badly our mate looked. Gone was the blond Adonis I remembered. Zane looked like a human cancer patient that was riddled with the disease. His skin had almost sickly gray tones and was practically hanging off his bones. His shiny hair was dull, his dark green eyes sunken in his head, having also lost their sparkle and vitality. He did look like he was knocking at death’s door, begging to be let inside.

It scared me enough to agree to any crazy plan that had half a chance of working.

“He might hate us, too,” Brian replied, nibbling on his lower lip.

“Aye, but he’ll be alive. Even if he never forgives us, I can’t live with the idea we destroyed him,” I whispered, me eyes burning in grief. “I’d rather set him right and send him on his way to that Darcy man just so he leads a happy life. If he can’t forgive us, then we have to let him go, but we can’t just leave him be as he is.”

“I told you anyone related to Shane and Sean had to have good hearts,” Rory said with a smile as he turned to look back at us from the front seat. “You’re still assholes for walking away like that and not coming right back. We shouldn’t have had to come to you out of desperation eight months later.”

“Aye, ya be right, cat,” Brian agreed with a nod, shooting me a nasty glance.

“Don’t ya dare be blaming me. I didn’t tie ya down in Ireland. Ya wanted us to go, and I said no, I wasn’t going. Ya still could have come on ya own.” I was tired of taking the blame for that one.

“Aye, ya right,” he sighed as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck in agitation. Then he glanced back at Rory. “In our defense, we thought he not want us. If we had even the slightest idea that Zane be suffering, we would have dropped everything and come back.”

“Which is the only reason I let you on my plane,” Isaac said, glancing at us in the rearview mirror. “If you had been dicks in Ireland, we would have told you where to shove it. But it only took us two minutes to get you to come with us. All’s not forgiven, but that said something for your character.”

“Fair enough,” Brian replied as he glanced out the window. “So where we be going? We need help kidnapping Zane, right? And what was that letter?”

“We’re going to the Marius compound to get a few of those knockout darts Riley has,” Isaac explained as we sped along. I had a feeling he was breaking every American law on how fast the cars could go. “The letter is from Desmond. I begged him to write orders that Zane was going to Greece to help Caleb with something. Hopefully that way no one will know he’s missing and his standing as a warrior won’t ever be questioned.”

“Why would that be a concern?” Brian asked, shooting me a confused look.

“You’ve seen him, Brian,” Isaac answered gently. “He’s not fit to go out on missions, but we’re so short on warriors nowadays that they can’t be too picky. But the other warriors have started refusing to go out on missions with him, stating that he’s a wild card and takes dangerous risks. Much more of that and they would have benched him, maybe permanently.”

“Being a warrior means that much to him?” I didn’t think any job was that important, but Isaac was making it seem as if Zane would die inside if he got fired.

“First thing you have to know about being mated to a warrior is that it’s not just a job, but who they are. It’s a calling,” Rory explained.

“But Dillon gave it up so easily?” Brian was as confused as I was. I didn’t get it either.

“Mostly because he was worried that our father would kill your brothers if he came back. He didn’t fully give it up, but their safety was more important to him.” That part we knew, but Dillon never made it seem like a big deal. Maybe it was different for everyone? “Plus, Dillon had put in his time. He spent centuries being a warrior. Zane is still pretty young. He’s not even a hundred. So he still has, or had, I guess, that drive to save the world.”

“Okay, we can handle him being a warrior if he’s not reckless,” I said quickly. At this point, we didn’t have a leg to stand on to demand anything. “So part of this plan consists of saving his ass with the warriors as well.”

“Exactly,” Isaac replied as he pulled up to huge iron gates. He pushed a button on the call box and identified himself and who he had in the car. There was a beeping noise and the gates started to part. We drove up to the main house, parking in front before climbing out and heading to the main doors.

“I’m surprised the Mariuses were on board with this plan,” I said quietly. “It seems that it would go against their morals.”

“Please, they’re even more nuts than any of us most times,” Rory replied with a snicker.

We were let inside and shown to what the butler called the sitting room. I would never get used to these huge mansions. This one room was bigger than several of our bedrooms back home combined.

The walls were painted a deep red that went well with the leather chairs and couch. There was also a huge fireplace in front of the seating area. Logs were crackling pleasantly in the fireplace that was surrounded by a mantel made from some type of dark wood. Possibly cherry. Above this impressive mantel I noticed several massive paintings of mountain scenery.

They must have each been about four feet tall. I found myself getting lost in the intricacy of the detail of the water, the sky, the trees. Eventually I turned me head and saw a bar on the other side of the room. The same cherrywood had been used, and the top was comprised of this beautiful black stone, which I assumed was granite. Several partially empty bottles and four crystal glasses decorated a corner of the bar’s surface.

A drink definitely sounded good right about now.

“So we’re putting the last-resort plan into effect?” Desmond Marius asked as he walked into the room with his wife, Elena, his son, Micah, and Micah’s mate, Dr. Riley. All of their faces wore expressions of concern.

“I can’t think of any other way to save him,” Isaac answered with apparent weariness.

“We can’t either, Isaac. You’re doing all you can to help Zane. Don’t beat yourself up,” Elena said gently, giving Isaac a hug. “Good to see you, too, Rory.” Then she turned to us. “And I had a long talk with your mother. She was very clear that if you screwed up in any way or moved a toe out of line, I was to tan your hides and send you right home for her to beat.”

“Aye, that sounds like our ma,” I admitted, wincing. Upon Desmond’s insistence, we all moved to take our various seats on the couch and chairs. Once we were settled, Elena spoke again.

“You both look very different,” she gasped, eyeing us over intently with her kelly-green eyes. “I remember you being much smaller.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and adjusted the folds of her silver dress a bit before resting her hands in her lap and returning her gaze back to us.

“Everyone handles grief and rejection differently,” Brian mumbled with a shrug. “Zane might have stopped eating and drinking blood, losing all that weight. We went the other way, working out like crazy to try and distract us from the pain.”

It was true. We both put on at least thirty pounds of muscle. We were about five ten and had gone from slim one seventy to more meaty and toned two hundred pounds.

“You really never got what he was trying to say,” she said in a softer, more understanding tone.

“We thought he just wanted us for sex and we not be good enough to keep,” I whispered, rubbing me eyes roughly when they started to burn. I would
not
break down right now when me mate was suffering. “We might have flown off the handle, but not all this can be deemed as our fault.”