I scroll through profiles of realtors, making a list of people to call tomorrow, when I receive a call myself. I’m surprised to see it’s six in the morning already.
“Dude, you’ll never believe it!” Nick crows. ”We found Aurelia and her husband hiding in their cousin’s house in the city.”
I sigh in relief. Now Oliverreallydoesn’t need me. “Dalton spilled?”
“Dalton spilled,” Nick replies gleefully. “Turns out, they realized pretty quickly their little science experiment was failing, but since they took all this money from people, they continued it anyway.”
“Those humans actually paid to be shoved into closet-sized rooms and pumped full of mystery drugs?”
“They chose their targets well, insecure men who preached toxic masculinity too hard to even care about sanity,” Nick says.
“Shit, man,” I breathe out. The world we live in still manages to surprise me.
“Anyway, you wanna get breakfast?” he asks. “Or are you busy with your little human?”
“He has a name!” I remind him. Again.
Nick laughs like he expected my reaction.
I roll my eyes. “No, I have to look for a new place.”
“Fuck’s sake, Matt,” he complains. “You’re so…how are you so dense sometimes?”
“I don’t have the time—”
“Please go talk to him. For my sanity. Will you?” he pleads.
“He’s scared of me, Nick.”
“You know what? If you don’t go to him right this second, I’m going to drive to your foster parents’ house right now and give them a piece of my mind.”
“It’s not about them!” I insist.
“Are you going, or am I turning my car around? I’ve been wanting to give them a visit for years now,” he says, his voice dangerous.
“Why do you have their address, Nick?” I ask. Most people don’t get to see Nick’s other side, the completely unhinged one.I’ve only seen it twice in all the years I’ve known him. I don’t wish it on anyone.
“Finding their names and addresses was my second misuse of the LAPD database. You don’t want to know the first,” he responds ominously.
“Dude, you’re insane.”
“I’m hearing a whole lot of words, but I’m not hearing you walking towards Oliver’s.”
I groan. “Alright, I’ll go. But just to tell him I’m moving, so he doesn’t have to.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” he dismisses. “And tell him he has nothing to worry about anymore.”
“I will.”
I’m not taking Nick’s threat seriously. I mean, the guy was totally unhinged enough to do what he said, but he won’t. Not without a warning.
But his insistence makes me realize that I at least owe Oliver a conversation. I need to be a grown-up and apologize. And if that means standing there while he yells, chips away at my heart, or worse, gets scared of me and pulls away, I’ll take it.
Once that decision is made, I don’t wait even a single second. I rush to Oliver's apartment door and check if he’s up. Not that I’d stop if he isn’t. My wolf is too amped up, completely ignoring the reason why I’m here. It’s not to see my human but to check if he's alright. And to tell him he’ll have his normal life again, or some semblance of it.
I knock.
My throat goes dry at the sight of Oliver. My heart stops beating, or maybe it really wants to. Even with tussled hair, bloodshot eyes, crumpled clothes, and an exhausted face, Oliver still looks like an angel descended from heaven.
