Page 54 of Defiance
“There’s nothing wrong,” Logan whispered, reading his mind and finally coming closer. He squeezed Cole’s shoulder. As usual, the touch far too brief. “Being part of the McKillan pack doesn’t mean the same thing to you as it does to me. Not yet anyway.”
Cole scrunched up his nose, confused. Before speaking, he glanced around checking for cameras.
“There’s none here, until past those double doors.” Logan waved a hand towards West’s room. “None in there either. We can talk freely.”
He bit his lip. “I thought you weren’t happy being part of the McKillan pack?”
“It’s complicated.” Logan glanced down at Cole’s tattoo again. “Being part of a pack is my life, Cole. Things need to change here,peopleneed to change, but I’ll always belong to a pack. I need it.”
Cole wondered if he’d ever feel that way. He felt close to Logan, Aaron, and sort of Jacob. But the rest of the pack? No, he couldn’t see himself ever giving a fuck about them.
“We need to get going,” Aaron interrupted. “They’ll be waiting.”
Deciding to let it go for now, Cole followed Aaron to the double doors, Logan behind him. “What were you talking to Paul about?”
Aaron glanced over his shoulder as he opened the doors. “Michael’s coming to training today.”
“Wait, what?” Cole came to an abrupt halt. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” The alpha of the pack, the guy behind all of this was going to be at the training session. Cole hadn’t met him yet, and he had no desire to any time soon.
Logan sighed from behind him. “We didn’t want to stress you out before your tattoo.”
Fair enough. He’d never have been able to sit for five hours with that going through his head. “Why’s he coming today?”
“To see your tattoo, probably. And to see how things are with you and your new unit.”
Cole’s skin prickled. “Because he wants to give me the bite.”
“Yeah. But you knew that.”
He did. They’d already told him, but it hadn’t seemed real.
With Michael waiting for him in the training centre, it was starting to.
“He won’t do it today, will he?”
Logan gave him a nudge to start walking again. “I doubt it. But I can’t say for certain.”
Not reassuring in the slightest.
The walk to the training centre took no time at all when Cole wanted it to take forever. The second they walked through the doors, Cole sensed a difference in the atmosphere. Subdued chatter still sounded throughout the room, but there was an air of anticipation, or nervousness maybe.
He glanced around.
Everything seemed the same—a group worked out on the weights, the rest of Paul’s unit who he normally watched stood around the mat, listening to someone talk. Their backs ramrod straight, no fidgeting or whispering like sometimes happened.
It’s like being at junior school when the Head suddenly appears.
That analogy was closer to the truth than Cole liked.
Michael McKillan was the head of the pack, the one who had the final say on everything. As Cole moved towards them, he finally came into view, and Cole could see exactly why that was.
It wasn’t so much his size—he was a big guy, but then a lot of shifters were—it was more his presence. Not that Cole had expected any different, he’d heard the rumours, but Michael oozed power, control, and the confidence that his every command would be obeyed.
The very idea of him raised Cole’s hackles. So not a good thing when you were a shifter, surrounded by other fucking shifters.
Logan cursed under his breath. “Calm down,” he murmured.
I’m trying.
