“Yeah,” he agreed. Growing up in the council training center, there hadn’t been a time when in a large group they didn’t need to be on alert. A simple look or muttered word could cause instant chaos. They’d watched each other’s backs from other kids who wanted to be top dog and tried to take one of them out to prove their strength.
“I’m glad my brother found this.” Leo’s vice was full of emotion.
Bas pressed his arm against his friends. They weren’t big on physical touch but sometimes a touch helped to ground them. Missing pack bonds, or some shit that Bastian had read in a book.
“This is what we worked so hard for,” Aaron stated.
It was. Bastian had never been able to forget all the paranormals that he’d rescued over the years. There might beinformation on his laptop where he’d tracked and made sure that their lives were better off. Just to make himself feel better.
“Mates,” Leo said. “How did we never know anything about them not being found? Why didn’t the council do more?”
Bas snorted. “If it doesn’t affect them, they don’t do anything.”
Leo shook his head. “We did good working with them.”
“For them,” Bas corrected. “And we were always too late to save everyone.”
Leo turned. “Did you really hate it that much?”
“I didn’t hate it.” It was hard to find the right words to explain. “I just feel used. Like we could have done so much more. While riding around the country, I ran into so many shifters that are basically living in poverty or in fear of discovery. I did what I could, offered advice, or helped around their territory, but it never seemed like enough. The council never sent us to those places.”
Aaron hopped on the rail, much like Stryker had been sitting. “You’re not going to join us, are you?”
Bastian hadn’t made up his mind. Meeting Hudson earlier changed things. Bas wasn’t going anywhere until he knew the truth about Hudson. And if he’d found his mate? Well, he would decide later what that meant.
“What if we went another way?” Leo asked.
“What do you mean?” Bas was intrigued. While he didn’t want to go back to working for the council, Bas felt listless once he’d left. Riding around on his bike had given him the chance tohelp paranormals again. That was what he wanted to do with his life. It was all he’d ever wanted.
“I can still retire,” Leo told them. “I just didn’t know what to do with myself now that I found Gavin. I want to stay in town, but it’s not like we don’t have too many years ahead of us. We need jobs.”
Aaron nodded. “We’ve both been there. The trying to figure out what to do after. If you have any bright ideas, please share with the class.”
He met Bas’s gaze and Bas nodded. Bas had just been wasting time trying to figure out what he actually wanted to do. He’d enjoyed the solitude and being able to go wherever he wanted when he wanted but it was also a lonely existence. That was how he’d found the first pack of shifters that needed a helping hand.
“You want to still help the paranormal community,” Leo said. “So do I. Those packs you came across, did they say why they never contacted the council?”
“I asked,” Bas told him. “They all said that they had reached out to their representative. No one ever came to help.”
“We can help,” Aaron said suddenly. “And we don’t need to be part of the council to do so.”
“How?” Bas questioned. He’d never admit it out loud but this was starting to come together. He could feel it.
“Working with Aaron’s private investigator license gives us access to databases we might need. And we all have contacts with the council that we can reach out to if we need. All we haveto do is find the paranormal communities that need assistance and go from there.”
Bas considered it. Even Dean had been cautious about bringing a council office to town. The problem was the association with the council. He nodded slowly. Once he’d proven himself trustworthy, the packs had welcomed him. Word had spread throughout the communities that if he was spotted, the paranormal could reach out to him. Bastian could start by letting those pack know what Leo wanted to do. New resourced were something that was needed within paranormal communities now more than ever. There would be some very confused paranormals when they came across their mates. “I think we could do it.”
Aaron grinned. “Totally.”
Leo pressed his lips together. “I’m just not sure how to get our name out there to people who might need us.”
Bastian told them his thoughts about the packs.
“Will that be enough?” Aaron questioned.
“We can explore other avenues as well,” Leo stated.
Staring out into the yard, Bastian grinned. Lucifer, Gage, and Cary popped into view and the excitement and noise level in the yard grew. Leo and Bas might be thinking too small. It wasn’t just the paranormal in the human realm that needed help after all. Their reach could be far and wide. “I think we have all the connections that we need.”
