Chapter 16
“We’re here,” Logan whispered, and Cole moaned, clinging to sleep.
“Already?” He yawned, jaw cracking. “That didn’t take long.”
Logan’s laughter tickled his ear. “You slept the whole way. All four and a half hours.”
“Shit, sorry.” Cole had a thousand questions he’d want to ask, but the low rumble of the engine had lulled him to sleep before he could voice any of them. “I take it we didn’t run into any trouble?”
“No, the roads were virtually empty.”
“If Baker has succeeded in replacing me as alpha, then they won’t have announced my betrayal to the rest of the packs, yet. He will have sent HRU teams to track us but will call a meeting with the other London pack alphas to determine the best course of action. McKillan pack handles security, he’ll need to be very persuasive that we—they, can still do that.”
Cole caught the hitch to his voice. For Cole, leaving the McKillan pack behind wasn’t that much of a wrench. Yes, he’d started to feel the connection, the pull, but it hadn’t settled inside him for years like it had all the others. And Michael? Cole couldn’t possibly imagine how it felt for him. He yawned again, looking out the car window as the familiar sight of Mothecombe House came into view.
With sunrise on its way, the house looked like it belonged to another era. He’d forgotten how beautiful it was. “I never thought we’d end up back here. Not so bloody soon, anyway.”
“Me neither.” Logan nudged Smith awake as the car came to a stop.
The front door of Mothecombe House opened as they spilled out of the car. Isaac Mothecombe was as formidable as Cole remembered. He strode towards them with a wry smile. “Welcome back. Things happened a little faster than we anticipated, eh?”
He greeted Cole, Aaron, and Logan with crushing hugs, then eyed the newcomers curiously. “And you brought friends.”
Logan smirked. “Yeah, this is my cat Smudge.” He lifted the crate up and Smudge meowed her irritation at being back in there. At Aaron’s snort, he finally turned and gestured to Smith. “This is Smith, a former member of the HRU. Smith, meet Isaac Mothecombe, Alpha of the Mothecome pack.”
Smith shook the hand Isaac offered, looking around him at the impressive house and extensive grounds. His nose twitched, no doubt smelling the salt on the air, and he cocked his head to one side. “The sea?”
Isaac grinned. “Practically on my doorstep.”
Smith’s eyes lit up like a child’s. “I’ve never seen the sea.”
“Maybe we should get inside and out of sight first,” Logan muttered, rolling his eyes, and Smith immediately sobered.
“Yeah, sorry.”
Logan introduced Nick, then a car door shut behind them and Cole realised that Michael hadn’t followed them out. Michael stood by the car watching them. Then his gaze moved to Isaac, and Cole felt the tension in the air shift around them.
“Go inside and make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be in shortly.” With that, Isaac walked over to Michael’s car.
Logan picked up his duffle and nudged Cole. “Come on.”
“Just a sec.” This was the first time Isaac and Michael had seen each other in five or six years. Cole had caught the hint of longing in Michael’s voice when he’d mentioned Mothecombe. They had to have been more than friends at some point, and Cole was way too curious to go inside now.
“It’s not our business.” Logan tugged on his arm, and Cole sighed. He was right. But as he turned to follow Logan inside, out of the corner of his eye he saw Isaac pull Michael into a fierce hug, head buried in the crook of his neck.
Theirs had to be one hell of an interesting story.
“Wow.” Smith stood in the entrance hall, looking around in amazement, Nick next to him. Both of them with their mouths hanging open. “This is not what I expected the inside to look like.”
Cole had been unconscious when he’d first arrived at Mothecombe House, Max’s bite already working its way through his system. He’d not seen the front of the house until a few days after their arrival. The inside was as modern as you could get, stripped bare of anything relating to the period in which it was built.
Logan pointed towards the back of the house. “That’s all been converted into a medical facility—think, a small private hospital. It’s where they brought us after...” He trailed off, and Cole winced. Smith might be on their side, but it still felt like a touchy subject. He’d probably known all of those who’d died. “I believe the kitchen’s this way. We can wait there for Isaac and Michael.”
Logan walked down the hallway, everyone else trooped behind him for lack of anything better to do. The kitchen was a huge space, large French doors showing off the garden at the side of the house.
And the sea beyond.
Cole smiled at the memories of walking down to the beach and everything that followed. He looked up to find Logan staring at him, eyes a shade darker than normal. A familiar heat blossomed inside him and Cole quickly looked away.
