Page 44 of Defiance
Chapter 8
“How did the funeral go?” Jacob asked as he shut the door to his office and sat down. The main office was almost empty, most people having already left for the day. Logan shared a look with Aaron before turning to face Jacob with a shrug. “Cole behaved.”
The whole thing had made Logan uneasy, Aaron too from the glances he’d sent Logan’s way during it. They might not know any of the people who’d come to mourn Cole’s parents, but the grief was palpable. Knowing that it was all fake, no matter how necessary, left a nasty taste in Logan’s mouth. He could only imagine how much worse it had been for Cole.
Jacob seemed to understand without Logan having to say anything. He sat forward, elbows resting on his desk, and sighed. “You need to remember why we do this. As awful as some aspects are, we’re helping people.”
Logan bit back a scoff. Jacob wasn’t the enemy here. “Maybe one day all this won’t be necessary.”
“We can but hope.” Jacob’s wry grin went some way to easing his ruffled fur. Of course Aaron had to go and ruin it.
“I think we need to keep an eye on Nick Thomas.” Aaron tapped his fingers on the edge of Jacob’s desk. “He and Cole have been best friends for years. If it was me, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t believe Cole had come back willingly and happily taken the bite.” Turning to face Logan, he added, “You said yourself that Cole was adamant from the start that he didn’t want it. At the very least, Nick’s going to be suspicious and probably wants to try and find out if Cole’s okay.”
“He’ll be under alpha’s orders not to discuss it with anyone. Not even members of his own pack,” Jacob said, seeming unconcerned.
“But he’s not been bitten yet, has he?”
Logan shook his head. “No. Well, he was still human at the funeral yesterday, anyway.” He mulled over Aaron’s concerns. Would Nick be a problem? Logan knew he and Cole were close, but Nick was one guy. What could he possibly do on his own?
“Michael and the alpha of the Cox pack are old friends.” Jacob glanced out of his office window, eyes unfocused for a moment. “They go way back before shifters came into power.” When he faced Logan and Aaron again, the faraway look had vanished. “Michael wasn’t always as...hard-edgedas he is these days.”
Logan remembered. As vague as those memories were becoming, he couldn’t deny the Michael McKillan he knew from his youth wasn’t the same one who led their pack today. The shifter uprising had changed a lot of people.
Not all for the better, either.
Jacob sighed again, and Logan noticed how weary he seemed. “If Michael asked Sebastian to keep Nick quiet, then we don’t need to worry.” His tone had a finality to it signalling the conversation was over.
Logan hoped he was right.
“More importantly,” Jacob said, shifting topics, “how’s training going?” He sat back in his seat and scrubbed a hand over his face, some of that weariness reappearing. Not for the first time, Logan wondered how much shit Jacob dealt with that they had no clue about.
“About as well as you’d expect.” Logan tried not to think about what had happened on the first day. “Paul’s team gave him a warm welcome.” Sarcasm laced his tone, and Jacob gave him a pointed look.
“They weren’t going to let his actions slide, Logan.”
“I know, but—” He bit his lip and focused hard on not letting his temper get the better of him. “It was hard,” he said quietly. “Paul sent Aaron and me to get changed even though he had no intention of having us join in with the training. I knew what was going to happen but couldn’t stop it. With the soundproofing in place, we couldn’t fucking hear it either.” The whole thing had set his wolf on edge, and if it hadn’t been for Aaron, Logan was pretty sure he’d have lost control and done something he couldn’t take back.
Jacob sighed and leant forward. “I heard about what went down, and I know you don’t want to hear this, but itwasnecessary in order for things to move forward.” He ignored Logan’s huff, but his voice softened. “If there’s ever going to come a time when forced pack affiliation becomes a thing of the past, then we need to start somewhere. And like it or not, Cole is key to getting the ball rolling.”
Logan knew all that, he did, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. “Have you managed to contact anyone?” Jacob would never reveal the names of his contacts in the CEG, and Logan wouldn’t ask him to, but he wanted to know that what they were doing wasn’t in vain.
“I’ve put out feelers regarding Cole. I don’t have direct contact with the humans involved in the decision making, but there’s definitely interest in him.” He shook his head, lips curving into the barest hint of a smile. “I think Cole’s parents knew far more about the CEG than they let on. I didn’t need to tell them that Cole had been bitten by another pack but chose to return to the McKillan pack to help the resistance. They already knew.”
“How?” Logan scrunched his nose in confusion. If Jacob hadn’t fed that piece of information back, then who?
Jacob shrugged. “There were only a handful of people on our side who knew the details. Someone got word back.” He let that sink in.
After a few seconds sat in silence, Logan broke it. “It doesn’t matter in the scheme of things, though, does it?” He glanced at Aaron. “The main thing is they know about Cole.”
Aaron nodded in agreement. “And all we need to do is get them to trust that he’s on their side and so are we, right?”
Excitement curled inside Logan at the thought of it. Judging by the expression on Jacob’s face, though, he didn’t share their enthusiasm.
He sighed, giving them both a pointed look. “Cole is only one man. It’ll take a lot more than that to persuade humans in the CEG that we, as inshifters, can do more than help candidates flee London. It took a long time to get them to trust us in the first place. Suggesting something bigger...” He sat back in his seat and shook his head. “We have to be patient.”
Patient.
Not something Logan usually had a problem with, but where Cole was concerned?
