Olive. The Trilogy.

Chapter 5

“I think I can get passed the guards...” Olive spoke through the earpiece that she shared with Anthony, Martha and Elijah. There was a thick, black metal door off to the left that was being guarded by two guards, decked out in military gear; ballistic vests, a nine-millimeter and a Gluck ‘19 sitting proudly on either side of their waists. It was the only door other than the exit in the big high ceiling ballroom of Killington Mansion that was being manned.

Lycans were extraordinary creatures. They’re entire pack shared a mental link, one that only allowed their wolf side to talk to each other without actually talking. It was stronger than telepathy; it was a network of thoughts, motivations and feelings. One that helped aid their species’ survival. If a Lycan was in danger and was in close proximity to the pack territory then any Lycan in that specific pack would sync in with that endangered Lycan and either call for help or help themselves. This closed circuit network was only available to members of the pack. So in laments terms two different packs had two different networks and if a member of the pack was exiled then their tie to the network was severed.

This covert way of communicating was unfortunately not accessible to their human side, which was why Olive and company had to speak through undetectable coms.

“I’m not sure Olive, we’re supposed to be here for some light recon” Martha mumbled, hiding the fact that she was talking, by bringing a glass of champagne to her lips “I think it’s best we keep a low profile and-“ before getting the rest of her sentence out, Martha was cut off.

“Okay, I get that.” Olive responded forcefully, maintaining her view of the two guards and the door they were protecting “but we don’t know when or if we’ll get an opportunity like this again.” Pushing off from a table her and Elijah had been sitting at; she averted her eyes from the aforementioned guards and scanned the crowd looking for Lyle. Finally locking in on his location, Olive couldn’t help catch him in a heated conversation with his husband, James and his brother Philip. “Guys…” Olive whispered into the earpiece, nodding her head towards the three men across the room.

Knowing exactly what Olive was hinting at, Martha, Anthony and Elijah all focused their attention to the men and used their heightened hearing to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Nobody suspects a thing Philip, you’re being way too paranoid.” Lyle spoke through clenched teeth, a mask of a smile prominently on his face.

“You’d be an i***t not to be paranoid!” Philip barked back, not bothering with the pretenses.

“You’re both making a scene” James chimed in, a bright smile blindingly covering his features.

“Shut up!” the two brothers responded in unison.

“Wow, what a way to speak to your husband.” James muttered under his breath.

“You do realize twelve of my men are dead because of this fool’s errand you are on! How do I explain to my superiors that one of our best field teams all died because you sent them to capture a thousand year old vampire?” By the terrified look on Philip’s face, you could tell that he was way in over his head.

“Just stick to the cover story and let me handle the rest.” Lyle spoke calmly “besides, you have to break a couple of eggs in order to make an omelet right?”

“Lyle, they found two of my men with their hearts punched right out of their chests. How in the world do you expect to capture on of these creatures let alone one that’s lived a thousand years?”

“An unfortunate accident.” There was a hint of annoyance in Lyle’s tone.

Philip sighed heavily in response, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder “look brother, I promised you I’d protect you no matter what but can’t you just forget about the vampires and use the species you already have? I mean, isn’t the serum already done?”

“You’re men served their country. They died heroes, but this is my life’s work Phil, I will not half ass it,” he mumbled rubbing the stress lines from his forehead. “And we both know that the serum only lasts five days before killing the hosts, Wyatt needs better results than that.”

“And you know what he’ll do if he doesn’t get his results” James added as and after thought, shuddering. “I don’t want to end up in that place again.”

“You won’t.” Lyle spoke quickly; pulling his husband by the arm so that they were both face to face “I won’t let that happen to you again…to us.”

James nodded and leaned his face closer to Lyle so that their foreheads touched, his erratic heart calming staggeringly. The intimate moment was too much for Olive to watch so she turned her gaze away from the embracing pair and looked at her red tainted nails.

It had become an unsettling question to Olive how two people who undoubtedly committed numerous acts of evil could find the purest of love, in each other, when all she had was Elijah. What had she done to deserve a mate like him? Whose puppy did she drown in a past life, to be stuck with a man who she loved beyond words but couldn’t allow herself to have?

The thoughts alone brought a wave of tears to the brim of her eyes, clouding her vision. One blink, and those tears would race down her face like rapids down a river but she couldn’t allow such a weakness to be exposed. As subtle as she could, Olive turned her face from Elijah’s view and wiped the tears before fixing a hard look on her face.

Although Elijah wouldn’t admit it, he hadn’t been watching the three men talk. His eyes were trained on Olive. Her demeanor, the way her eyes narrowed slightly in fifteen-second intervals when she focused on something for long periods of time. Or how she bit on her bottom lip and gripped the table to stop herself from confronting Lyle. He had heard – with his ears – the conversation but his eyes were listening to Olive. The only time he broke his gaze was when her intense stare broke away from the three men. Looking up at them, he noticed the intimate embrace, Lyle and James were sharing and how it seemed to affect his mate. He knew that these were the consequences of his actions manifested and it broke what little pieces he had left of his heart.

“I hope you’re right Lyle.” Philip doused the intimate moment with some reality “because, Wyatt will be the least of our worries if the vampire gets us first.” And with that said, Philip left the couple and spoke to a man in a black military uniform.

“That was more information that I thought we’d get tonight.” Anthony spoke when he realized that Lyle and James weren’t going to speak on the subject any longer.

“I agree” Martha chipped in “now we just figure out, who Wyatt is.”

“And the vampire they tried to capture.” Elijah added.

“Or… I can go and figure out what’s behind that door.” Olive pushed “look, James has a key card in his pocket, I’m pretty sure I can swipe it and be in and out of there in minutes.” There was determination in her voice and anyone who knew Olive, knew that she wouldn’t be backing down easily.

“No.” Anthony replied as soon as the words left his sister’s mouth “don’t push it. If you get caught, that blows all of our covers. There’s too much at stake here.”

“I know what’s at stake!” Olive snapped back “contrary to popular belief, I know what I’m doing.”

“I don’t care. The answer is no.” Anthony’s commanding tone left no room to question. He was the next in line to the Alpha seat and in charge of this entire operation, no one. And I mean, no one, could challenge that.

But then again when did that ever stop Olive? A mischievous glint sat proudly on her face, signaling that she had an idea regardless of her brother’s opinion. Olive skillfully removed her earpiece and placed it in her bra. She then placed a six inched diamond encrusted heel in the direction of the two men but was soon stopped by a colossal tattooed hand that gripped her arm, just above the elbow. Ignoring the electricity that sparked where Elijah held her, she suppressed a growl that grew from the base of her chest.

Eyes turning into slits, Olive glared vehemently at the hand with a single rose; inked on the surface, just below the knuckle. Letting her eyes roam passed the expensive Rolex watch, sitting casually on Elijah’s wrist, to the crisp white button down that wrapped and clung itself around his broad shoulders hidden under a black suit jacket, to his hard statuesque face.

With their eyes staring intently at each other, an underlying challenge evident in the cold air between them, the room came to a standstill and the growl she had tried to suppress almost ripped out of her mouth. She eyed Elijah’s hand again feeling her body heat up in more ways than one, her glare jumping back to his face. “Olive.” Was all he said, expressing a silent warning through the cadence of his tone. She wasn’t letting him in, not giving away a single motive or emotion other than complete disdain.

“Get. Your. Disgusting. Hands. Off. Of. Me.” She gritted out through clenched teeth. Olive’s level of contempt skyrocketed and she bit down on her jaw so hard that her teeth started to grind from the strain. “Don’t make me reject you…again.”

At her words, Elijah’s entire body went rigid with palpable rage. The control that he had spent years perfecting, was being held together by a thin string, forcing his eyes to darken. Both Martha and Anthony had never seen her react like that, leveraging rejecting her mate. It was a line that both would never dream of crossing.

“Olive.” Anthony cautioned, knowing that at this point his sister was going to do something crazy. Which was not exactly out of pocket for her but it surely would’ve caught the attention of the partygoers around them. That paired with Elijah’s ever accelerating fury, was a recipe for disaster. “This mission is over. We’re leaving.” Anthony declared, leaving no room for protest.

Olive’s fiery eyes tore - with much difficulty - away from Elijah and back to where Lyle and James had been standing. Both men had moved from their position and were nowhere to be found. Olive scanned the room twice but came up short. A tight, cold expression flooded her features containing a destructive hurricane of fury as she turned her heel to face the exit. Elijah’s hand was still planted quite firmly on her arm, making no movement of release. “Elijah.” With a tremor in her voice Olive warned him to remove it but he kept his composure cool, tightening his hold and guided her towards the exit.