Chapter 14
By the time Aaron came back, duffle bag in hand, Logan was ready.
He gave a long last look at the place that had been his home for the past few years and pushed down a pang of loss. It was always going to end this way, he’d known it from the moment he chose to help the CEG. The Shifter Alliance was supposed to bring everyone together: shifters and humans finally existing in a world where no one was persecuted. But that hadn’t happened. Power-hungry pack leaders had gone back on their promises, and instead of living as equals, shifters had become as bad as the humans they’d fought to overthrow. If not worse.
It wasn’t what Logan had fought for.
His pack was his family, and the thought of losing that had always been terrifying, but he couldn’t stand by and watch as humans were treated so poorly. Not any longer. Not if he wanted to look at himself in the mirror and not feel ashamed.
So he’d risked everything to join the resistance and help in whatever way he could, knowing that any day his involvement could be discovered. And now here they were.
Aaron glanced down at the cat carrier next to Logan’s bag. “Um...”
“I know it’s not ideal, but I’m not fucking leaving her.” Smudge meowed as if in agreement. He couldn’t ask anyone to feed her without giving themselves away, and after everything went down, no one would want to touch his stuff anyway. He couldn’t risk her being abandoned again. They’d just have to manage. “We’ll leave her in the car while we go rescue Cole.”
Aaron laughed. “Goddess, you make it sound so easy. Like they’ll let us stroll in there and pluck him out of their hands.”
“I’m trying not to think about how bad it’s going to be.” The HRU were all trained fighters. He and Aaron might’ve attended their training for the last six weeks, but seasoned fighters they were not. “Paul’s overconfident in himself and his team though. I don’t think there’ll be all that many of them there. Maybe three, four?”
Aaron scoffed. “Against me and you?”
“We have the element of surprise.” He slung his bag over his shoulder and picked up Smudge. “Come on, Jacob said he could give us two hours before reporting us, and we’ve already used thirty minutes.”
They hurried out to Logan’s car, thankfully not running into any of their pack because Logan had no idea how he’d explain their luggage. He checked his watch as he got behind the wheel. They had one hour and twenty-eight minutes before Jacob would have to report them as unreachable and suspicious. If he didn’t, then he’d be under investigation and they needed Jacob to remain suspicion-free.
Logan started the car and pulled out onto the road.
They drove in silence. Logan couldn’t focus on anything other than getting them to their destination and praying for a miracle if they were going to get through this.
Aaron had his eyes closed, head resting against the seatback. He looked asleep, except for the way his fists clenched and unclenched on his lap.
Logan’s phone vibrated, loud in the quiet of the car, and Aaron snatched it up.
They’d left their pack phones in their flats, along with their credit cards and IDs. Not that they’d be hard to identify with their pack tattoos, but no point making it too easy.
“Jacob’s been officially notified about the raid. They’ve asked him to contact me and you and have us brought in for questioning regarding our connections to Cole. He’s not sure he can hold them off for as long as he’d hoped.”
“Shit.” Logan put his foot down and prayed they wouldn’t run into any police.
It vibrated again.
“Paul’s team are twenty minutes away from McKillan House. Michael has been notified. He and Baker are already there, Simon is on his way.”
“Fuck.”
“Yep.”
Going up against Paul’s team was dangerous enough. But if they ran into Michael and his two betas? It was all over.
“Maybe Michael will just let Paul handle it,” Aaron said, not sounding at all convinced.
“Yeah.” Logan agreed, knowing there was absolutely no chance of that happening.
There was one place they might have a chance.
“We need to snatch Cole before they reach the interrogation rooms.” Logan drove as fast as he dared; the last thing they needed was for him to crash the car. “If we can get to them before they meet up with Michael, then maybe...”
“How many of the HRU went on the raid? I don’t fancy meeting Paul’s whole team in one of the corridors.”
