15. Hollis

Chapter fifteen

Hollis

“ E xplain it again,” I demanded. I could feel my frustration and anger rising. I liked working in ones and zeroes, and I didn’t like that my brain was struggling to wrap itself around whatever bippity boppity bullshit that the Guild used to “download” information into their assassin’s brains without some technological implant of some kind.

“Once I accept a contract, the mark’s information just kind of… appears in my head and stays there until the contract is complete,” Mia told me again while the others groaned. To be fair, this might be the tenth time I’ve made her say this. “I don’t have any physical or electronic files to transfer to you.” She pointed to her head. “It’s all up here, so I can easily access and reference it on the go. Much more convenient for an assassin than having to stop to crosscheck something.”

I just didn’t fucking like it. When Mia said she could get information about Parote, I expected to have files I could comb through.

“Do you know what happened to his other experiments?” I asked.

Mia shook her head. “No, it doesn’t work like that. I only have information on him or about things that would help me kill him,” Mia replied. She slid into my lap and hugged my head to her breasts. “Don’t worry; when we take him down, we’ll make sure to get answers before we kill him.”

I nuzzled her breasts. I should be upset more often if this is the consolation I receive.

I rubbed my nose back and forth across her nipple as Aiden asked, “Do you know where he’s operating out of now?

“I do,” Mia replied, yanking on my hair to pull my head away from her nipple. “And that part is interesting. He’s back at a human psychiatry office, except it isn’t a new practice. Dr. Parote is a psychiatrist.” That was interesting, but not where my main focus was. As soon as Mia released my hair, I gently took her pebbled nipple in my teeth and bit down.

Mia’s moan filled the room, and I grinned up at her when she glared at me. “Could you try to fucking focus, asshole?” Aiden asked.

“Right, sorry,” I replied.

“I’m going to sit in my own chair,” Mia said, slipping away before I could stop her. “You’re a little distracted.”

“Parote being a psychiatrist makes a lot of sense,” Rome stated. “It explains why he can easily get into someone’s head and manipulate them. He already knows all of the tricks. He doesn’t have to have any crazy big powers to convince the paras to let him experiment on them.”

“It gets worse,” Mia said. “There is evidence that he plans to start experimenting on humans next.”

“What the hell is his end game?” Theo asked.

“There still isn’t a clear answer to that,” Mia replied. “But he pissed off the wrong people if he made it to the Guild’s contract list.”

“Do you have his home address?” Rome asked.

“Yep,” she replied with a sly smile. “I also know that he lives alone, and the house is usually empty from seven in the morning to about six at night.”

“So it sounds like it’s time for a little reconnaissance mission,” I said. “Sneak in, look around, see what we can see.”

“You?” Aiden laughed, “Sneak?” The others laughed with him. “I can be stealthy,” I said indignantly.

“You can’t walk down the grocery aisle without at least one thing falling off the shelves, big guy,” Aiden replied.

“Yeah, this is more a job for someone who can fit in tight spaces,” Mia said, returning to sit on my lap again.

I grabbed her hips and pulled her against my cock. “I can fit in tight spaces just fine, Kitty Cat,” I growled. “Or did you forget?”

Mia rolled her hips teasingly. “Oh, I remember,” she assured me, “but I think this will take a little more finesse than you’re capable of.”

I sighed. I knew they were right. It wasn’t like I meant to be so destructive; it just happened. “So then what’s the plan?” Theo asked.

“I say we verify that Parote is in his office today and then drop by his house and see what we can find out,” Rome said. He fixed Mia with a stare. “But if anyone goes in, you aren’t going in alone.”

“I’m the smallest one here,” Mia reminded him.

“Perhaps, but you aren’t the only small one,” he replied, looking at Aiden. “I’m not that small,” Aiden said indignantly.

“No, but you’re small enough to follow Mia without drawing too much attention to yourselves,” Rome replied.

“Right,” I snorted. “Because it’s perfectly normal for a honey badger to run around after a fluffy kitty.”

“It’s better than a fucking hot pink bull!” Aiden retorted.

I turned bright pink as Mia jumped off my lap and looked at me excitedly. “Yeah, that’s close to the color,” Aiden laughed.

“Show me!” Mia demanded, all but jumping up and down with excitement. “I have to see this.” I glared at Aiden, who was grinning maniacally at me. “Thanks for this.”

“She would have found out eventually,” he said with a shrug. “Pleeeeaseeee?” Mia begged.

I groaned as I stood and accepted my fate. The others chuckled as I moved furniture out of the way so I didn’t destroy it. They knew damn well I couldn’t deny Mia anything. They couldn’t either, and I looked forward to watching them in this position one day.

“Fine,” I said, “but stay back. He isn’t the most friendly beast, and I don’t want him to hurt you by accident.” The truth was, if he did accidentally hurt our mate, he’d likely go crazy, and it would be a while before I would be able to shift back into human form.

I shifted into my bull form and could already tell it had the potential to be a shit show. He was not happy to be paraded around like some sideshow.

In her excitement, Mia forgot my instructions and rushed forward. “Oh, aren’t you just the prettiest boy,” she gushed, stroking his head before anyone could stop her. “And soft, too,”

Panic filled me, and I tried to shift back, but my bull fought me. Oh no, oh no, oh no. I began the attempt again when my bull stretched out his neck to lick Mia’s cheek, making her giggle.

“What the actual fuck?” Aiden said.

My thoughts exactly. My bull was a fucking asshole. He chased squirrels, bit people, and other animals, and trampled flowers any time he could, just for the fuck of it!

“Aren’t you just the sweetest bull in the whole wide world,” Mia cooed, “Yes, you are.”

No. He wasn’t. Not even close. Of course, that was before we were mated. Maybe finding our mate mellowed him out. Maybe it mellowed all of our beasts out.

Aiden appeared by her side and reached a hand out to pet him. “I’ve never been able to touch him in a way that wasn’t beating the shit out of him to get him to stop being an asshole,” he said in wonder.

My bull’s eyes shifted toward him, but Aiden wasn’t paying attention. Before he could react, my bull turned his head and sank his teeth into Aiden’s hand.

I laughed as Aiden shrieked and tried to pull away, causing my bull to shake with each laugh as he playfully thrashed his head side to side, causing Aiden also to thrash side to side.

“Hey! No!” Mia yelled.

She thumped him on the nose to get him to release Aiden, and everyone looked at her in shock, my bull too stunned to react. No one had ever struck him before. He was also about to receive his first scolding as well.

“We do not bite each other! Hurting each other hurts me. Do you want to hurt me?” Mia asked him.

My bull snorted and shook his head.

“Then, no more biting!” She whirled on Aiden. “And as for you, would you like it if Hollis tried to pet your honey badger?”

“Fuck no. I’d bite his hand off if he tried to pet me!” Aiden exclaimed.

Mia looked at the hand he was cradling. “Then it sounds like you understand why you got bit and have no reason to be mad at anyone but yourself. I’m going to change into black clothes so we can leave. We’re wasting daylight, people, and kitty has a mark to kill.”

Before she walked away, Mia scrunched up my bull’s face with her hands. “You’re just so cute, all pink and pretty,” she crooned before kissing his nose and walking away.

When she had left the living room, I finally managed to convince my love-sick bull to shift and sat on the floor in stunned silence.

What the fuck just happened?

“How are we supposed to verify he is inside?” Theo asked as we sat in the parking lot across from Parote’s office.

“The easiest thing to do would be to ask,” Mia said, pulling out her phone and punching in a number. I was going to ask how she had the number memorized, but then I remembered that she had all of his information memorized for the time being.

“Yes, hi. This is Shelby from United Care. I was calling to speak to Dr. Parote regarding a claim he submitted to us. It would appear that he isn’t an in-network provider for us, so we won’t be able to pay his claim.”

I was pretty impressed by Mia’s ability to come up with a believable story on the fly.

“Oh, no,” the receptionist said. “I submitted that claim. There has to be a mistake. I know we’re an approved doctor for your coverage.”

“Really? Well, let me check my system.” Mia paused for effect, rolling her eyes at me. “Ok, I see what happened. You were an approved provider. However, some of our requirements changed, and we need to speak to Dr. Parote and verify a few things before we can reinstate him.”

“What do you need to know? I’m his office manager, so I’ll have all the information you might need,” the receptionist replied, sounding much less panicked.

“I’m sorry, but I have to speak to the doctor directly. Is he there?” “He is, but he is in with a patient for another thirty-five minutes.” “Ok, then I will call back,” Mia replied. “Thank you for your time.” “Brava,” Theo said when she ended the call.

“We’re in the clear; let’s go,” Mia announced, bowing her head at his accolades.

Parote lived far enough across town that we knew he couldn’t just pop over at the first sign of trouble, assuming he had security cameras or guards.

We parked several houses down from his home and watched it for several minutes. “That’s the guard that flirted with me at the clinic,” Mia said when one came into view. “Oh really?” Rome growled. “Noted.”

“Oh, knock it off. This was before I met you,” Mia replied, smacking his shoulder lightly.

“But not all that long before,” Aiden commented. “That’s who you thought I was when you asked me to get dinner with you? And rubbing?”

“Rubbing?” I asked.

Mia blushed but waved it off. “It was an inside joke; you had to be there. None of that is important anymore.”

“I don’t think I like you having inside jokes with other men, Kit,” Theo said quietly as his eyes stayed glued to the guard.

“Leave him be and focus on the task at hand,” Mia ordered.

“Aiden and I are going to sneak in and look around. See if we can figure out why this is happening and determine if his house is a good place to capture him or if we need a different plan.”

I hadn’t realized we had a plan, but Mia seemed to think we did.

“Be careful,” Rome said. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks. You have twenty minutes, and then I’ll come in after you, so be quick.”

“Sir, yes, Sir,” Mia teased before shifting. Her fluffy cat purred as she rubbed against all of us. Then, she placed her front paws on the door and meowed.

Aiden’s shift was far less adorable as his mud-colored bastard of a honey badger took his place in the seat beside me. I reached over to open the door for them, and he snapped at me. I barely resisted the urge to punch him in the head.

However, I didn’t have to worry about it because Mia’s kitty slapped him four or five times. She then pounced on him, and he let her pin him down as she chewed on his ear. When she was done, and the honey badger stood again, she rubbed under his chin from head to tail. Like my bull, he didn’t do anything about it and seemed to enjoy it.

This time, when I reached over to open the door for them, he didn’t do anything more than glare at me. I pushed the door open, holding the handle as Aiden hopped out. Before Mia followed him, she bit my hand lightly and then scampered away.

“Fucking cats,” I sighed.