Page 59 of Can't Be Love

“Collier? Why would you be in Collier?”

I turned wide eyes towards Thomas. I couldn’t believe no one had mentioned our mating to Chase, even though he was away at college. How could he not know?

“Um, that’s a conversation for later. I really want to get out of here. I promise I’ll call you when I’m settled in. We have a lot to talk about.”

Thomas

Chapter 22

We stuck around the old emergency shelter where the humans were keeping Lily and the other shifters in until Patrick’s team had thoroughly gone through every bit of research being done there. Unfortunately, it was a new facility and they were only just getting started.

When Patrick arrived at Tulok’s, the sun hadn’t quite risen yet, so he took some time in a closed-door, confidential meeting with myself and the Alaskan Alpha before we went to rescue Lily to fill us in on some pretty crazy stuff that was going on. I had never heard of the Verndari before, a human faction that discreetly monitored shifter activity worldwide. I didn’t even think there was a shifter group that kept up with that sort of information.

I was a little pissed that Kyle had been keeping all of this from us. If these humans were a threat to the packs, all Alphas should have been notified about them, yet he’d chosen to keep it on a need-to-know basis. Earlier this year the ten biggest packs had joined together to stand with Chase, the youngest of the Westin children, when his panther mate’s father declared war on the wolves. We were all together then, and he had still mentioned nothing about the Verndari.

Some rational part of me knew that wouldn’t have been the time or place to release such a bombshell of information, but had I known about these people, I would have taken drastically different measures when I went looking for the missing shifters. I would have never let Lily out of my sight until they were found to save her from the nightmare she’d had to endure.

Patrick told us he had strong alliances on the inside—humans. The current group we are dealing with are the new generation of the Verndari, the new generation who believed their parents were wrong in protecting and observing the shifters. They saw our enhanced gifts and strengths as things to be studied for the benefit of humans. I couldn’t argue with their logic, just the method they chose to obtain it.

Patrick’s human friend on the inside had tipped him off with the coordinates to Lily. I would be forever indebted to him, and I hoped I’d get the chance to at least shake the man’s hand and thank him properly. I was still in shock with this new information, and by the quick response of the task force that Kyle had sent. He hadn’t mentioned who exactly they were, but they clearly were not just a bunch of random Westin wolves helping out. I still had a lot of questions, but they had to wait as my need to ensure my mate was safe was stronger than anything.

I had been told to hold back while the team went in first to clear the bunker. They were heavily armed and obviously trained. Again, I wondered who they were, but I was too busy trying to keep control of my wolf to press the issue.

Since the moment Karis crawled into sight the day before, my wolf had been on edge and fighting to break free. The brief time tracking when I’d let him have control only made him harder to restrain him when we didn’t return with our mate. Seeing that we had stopped a mere twenty feet from the hidden door to the bunker made me physically sick. We’d been so close. I couldn’t stop the feeling that we had let Lily down.

Seeing her locked in that cage made me see red. Patrick had to take the lead to free her because my body was vibrating in anger and I was seconds away from sprouting fur. I kept my voice light and so much calmer than I actually felt as we got the cage unlocked. It wasn’t until she almost fell from the damn thing, dangling there, stuck, and I’d wrapped my arms around her to support her that my wolf started to relax. She looked ridiculously cute, but she wasn’t in danger and it felt like my heart began to finally beat again.

Now that I had her back and she was safe, I was struggling not to touch her, grateful when she didn’t pull away from me, staying by my side. Even when she moved to give Patrick back his phone after ending the conversation with her youngest brother, Chase, she held my hand and never lost contact with me. I wondered if maybe her wolf was more on edge than usual, too.

I knew I was ready to get out of that place. It gave me goosebumps just thinking about it and what could have happened there. Even with my mate’s touch, I knew I couldn’t fully relax until we were out of there. Going back to Tulok’s was not an option. I needed to get us home.

Patrick and his men were still busy working when I pulled him to the side. He hadn’t introduced the team he’d brought with him, and from what all I had learned, I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear more, so I didn’t bother asking who they were or where they came from. I wasn’t even sure if they were shifter or human.

“Your guys look like they have things under control. How bad would it be if I ditched and got Lily home?”

Lily looked confused all of a sudden. She stared around the room. “Your guys? What’s he talking about? These guys are with you, Patrick?” I could see fog slowly lifting, and questions began to pour out of her. “Wait, how did that Dave guy know you? He warned me you were coming. He knew exactly who I was and told them to let me go. But how? Why? And Jacob Winthrop was here. I kept my mouth shut about that and didn’t question it because Dave was signaling me not to, but seriously, what does Maddie’s dad have to do with any of this?”

“Wait, Maddie’s dad? My sister? Are you saying my father was here?” I asked, suddenly needing to know what was going on.

“No, sorry, I meant her father-like figure. Jacob and his wife, Annie, took MC in after . . . the incident. . . and helped her raise Oscar all those years. He’s been like a dad to her and every bit the grandfather to Oscar. I shouldn’t have said ‘dad.’ I don’t really know what else to call him, though,” she explained.

Patrick scrubbed his face with his hands. He looked exhausted, and I was certain it had been a very long night for him. “Jacob’s also a Verndari.”

“Come again? Vern-what-ya-said-ie?” Lily asked.

“Verndari,” I repeated for her. “Patrick was explaining them to me this morning that they’re some sort of human faction that monitors shifter activity.”

Her eyes widened at the implication. “So, are all these guys Verndari?”

“No.” Patrick answered. “We learned about the Verndari more or less through Maddie, or rather Jacob. Turned out Liam was doing business with several of them, but we had never heard of them. We were caught off guard and didn’t like it. Most of them are actually good people. They are sworn to keep our kind secret and it’s been cool to learn about the various things they’ve done throughout history to throw humans off our tracks and allow us to live in peace, but there’s a small rogue group, mostly young people, that are taking things to a scary new level. Last year Maddie and I had freed a bunch of shifters they were holding captive. The facility was a lot bigger and more state-of-the-art than this place, but you can imagine. They were running all sorts of experiments. Raina was being held there, Lily. That’s why I got involved, for Kelsey.”

“Who’s Raina?” I asked.

“Kelsey’s aunt from Bulgaria. She was supposed to have come to visit in time for Zander’s birth, but never showed up. I know Kelsey was worried sick about her. If you saved her, where is she now?” Lily added.

“The packs are still monitored closely. We couldn’t risk tipping them off by a sudden appearance in San Marco. Jacob helped us fake her death to get her out of there, so she’s lying low in a facility we built just outside our borders. It was done in secret alongside the new lodge.”

“So like, the lodge was a cover-up for this place?” Lily asked, sounding surprised.

---