Page 34 of Defiance
“Going a little stir crazy?” Logan prompted.
“Yes!” He waved a hand behind him in the direction of the window. It only opened a few inches but enough to let in the early morning breeze. “I can smell the fresh air. I can even taste it, and it’storture.”
“I can imagine.” Logan had been expecting this. He was surprised it had taken so long. One day trapped in this apartment and he’d have been climbing the walls.
“I don’t think it would’ve bothered me half as much if I was human, but now? Now the need to get out there is driving me a little insane.”
“I can ask if we can take you outside?” Logan doubted anyone would agree, but no harm in asking, right?
Cole’s head snapped up. “Could you?”
“Don’t get your hopes up, you’ve only been here a few days. But I’ll ask.”
“Thank you.”
Logan eyed the open books on the table. Everything about the McKillan pack could be found online, of course, but Michael was old-school. He liked paper copies, liked to hold books in his hands. Logan remembered many a night from his childhood where Michael and his parents had sat discussing the merits of holding an actual book in your hand.
But that was a long time ago.
He gestured towards the open pages. “That’s not the only thing that kept you up though, is it?” He sat down and pulled the nearest one towards him. “I see you did a bit of reading.” Logan had purposely avoided covering the worst parts of their pack history. Stupid, really when Cole could pick up the books and read for himself once they’d gone. Which apparently he had done.
“I didn’t realise the McKillan pack was so involved with creating the new laws.”
Their conversations were no doubt being recorded, even if no one was observing them right this second. Logan needed to choose his words carefully. “We were—and still are—one of the bigger packs. And I’m not sure how much you read or what they taught you in history class at school, but Michael was one of the founding members of the shifter uprising. Makes sense he was involved in setting up the new laws and governing body.”
“They glossed over the messier parts of that particular history, as I’m sure you can imagine since the curriculum is monitored by the Shifter Alliance Party.”
Logan winced at Cole’s scoff.
It wasn’t supposed to turn out like it had.
His people had lied, gone back on their word. However you wanted to spin it, they’d taken the trust the humans had placed in them and thrown it back in their faces. Greed and power took over, and Logan was ashamed to say he’d been too scared to do anything other than obey his alpha, naively thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.
And it wasn’t.
As long as you were a shifter.
He closed the books and pulled out his phone. “I think we’re done with rules and etiquette. Aaron?”
“Yep, I’d say there’s nothing more to be gained here unless we want Cole to resent our pack even more.”
Logan shot him a warning look. Aaron sounded dangerously sympathetic, like Cole had a reason to be angry and upset, when as far as the pack was concerned, he was one hundred per cent in the wrong.
Cole ran.
Pack members died.
They owed him no sympathy and no understanding.
Aaron frowned, realising his mistake. “I just want this over with. Babysitting Cole isn’t what I want to be doing for the foreseeable future, so the sooner we can hand him over to Paul the better.”
“We can’t just hand him over, though.”
“What d’you mean?”
“Jacob said we have to help Paul’s team train him. And escort him on the full-moon run.”
Aaron sighed like it was the worst news he’d heard all week. “Great.”
