Page 73 of Can't Be Love

“My men stay in this wing,” he informed me as we got on an elevator. Kyle swiped a card and punched in a combination of numbers on the pad. The elevator started to descend.

I knew we were on the first floor. I hadn’t even noticed there was a basement. The elevator seemed to be dropping even lower than that, though. When it finally stopped and the doors opened, Kyle said, “Welcome to Base 1.”

I was not prepared for what I stepped into. There was a dozen or so people all sitting at work stations with at least three large monitors, each tuned to nearly every news station on the planet. One window looked out into a data center filled with thousands of servers.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Who’s that, boss? I don’t have any visitors on the schedule today and no time for tours,” said a short, portly man with glasses too big for his face as he approached.

“Thomas, this is Archie. Archie, this is Thomas Collier,” Kyle said, making the introductions.

“Thomas Collier, wolf, future Alpha of Collier Pack, official notice of bonding with Lily Westin was just released this week. Congratulations.” Before I could say thanks, he turned to Kyle. “Now what’s he doing here?”

“Be nice, Archie. Thomas is family now,” Kyle warned. “They took my sister right under our noses. I don’t ever want that to happen again. Thomas will protect Lily, but only if we give him the knowledge and resources he needs to do so. Plus, we always talked about spreading out to include our ally packs. You know that.”

“Yes, but we’re not ready for that yet,” Archie argued.

“Well, too bad. We’re there. Collier Pack is our first official ally, and privy to all information. Got it?”

Archie nodded, causing his too-big glasses to bounce on his face. “You’re the boss.”

He started walking away, but Kyle followed, so I did, too.

Archie sighed, stopping at the window looking down into the data center. “So, this is Base 1, headquarters. The moles have been monitoring shifter traffic for many generations. Joining forces with Kyle and the Westin Foundation has allowed us to bring our facilities up-to-date with all the latest and greatest technology. What you’re looking at here is a new state-of-the-art data center, housing super-computers that allow us access to nearly every private and government agency in existence, as well as major satellite systems, to aid in our efforts.”

“The moles?” I asked, trying not to snicker and hoping I heard that wrong.

“Yes,” Kyle confirmed. “Archie is a mole shifter. It was sheer luck that had us stumbling across the moles as we began start-up of Westin Force. Jacob had passed along copies of documents of known shifter families throughout history, and we started mapping out last known locations and researching old family names in the areas.”

“My boys flagged the activity during their online searches, and we basically stumbled right over each other,” Archie concluded.

“After some initial hesitation on both our parts, we made a pact and joined forces. Our combined efforts give us so much more reach and knowledge,” Kyle explained. “The moles already had the infrastructure in place, to a certain degree.”

“We have underground facilities and tunnel systems through most major cities across the world. What can I say? It’s in our DNA, and what we do. Some moles were designed for building, some were built for designing. I keep a small team of six of us here, all designers, like me. We excel in coding and keeping a low online profile. We can dig into code, break through firewalls, and place tracker software with virtually no footprint, which helps us monitor top secret government and private systems.”

“So you’re highly skilled hackers is what you’re saying?” I asked sarcastically.

Archie glared at me but continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Kyle insisted on having headquarters close to home, and who were we to argue? My boys had been itching to dig, something that hadn’t been done in decades aside from upkeep and repairs. Let’s face it, we can’t exactly get away with digging in today’s modern world with all the red tape, permits, and humans watching. Fortunately for us, my ancestors took care of everything we would ever need in that regard. But this place,” he said, looking around proudly, “this is a masterpiece. It’s fortified, virtually undetectable by satellite even. The project was covered by the building of the lodge and entirely protected behind the greatest firewall system ever invented.”

“Let me guess? You designed it,” I said, starting to understand the ego of this guy.

“Of course I did,” he snapped.

“Okay, you get the gist of the monitoring side of Base 1. Thanks, Archie. I’ll take it from here,” Kyle said as the mole shuffled off, talking to himself. “I know, he’s a strange one, but the things he can do with a computer would blow your mind.”

“I have no doubt about that,” I said, trying to wrap my head around it all.

Kyle led me to the end of the monitoring room and through another door. There was a long hallway with several doors off to either side. Kyle told me they were offices and emergency escape routes. We didn’t stop till we reached the door at the very end of the hallway.

“They’ll be in training right now, so we need to be quiet, but I wanted you to get a glimpse of Bravo Company. This is also their headquarters. There are also Charlie and Delta teams. For security purposes each elite forces unit has a different operations headquarters. Bravo is our top team. They’re the ones that went in to help rescue Lily.”

He opened the door and we walked out to an observation deck. Below, the team was working out in formation. I saw an indoor shooting range, more tactical gear than I could ever fathom, a full gym, and a room with chairs and a white board. The men were big, built, and looked mean as hell. I recognized one or two of them from our adventure in Alaska, but I had been so focused on Lily that I hadn’t stopped to really give them the time of day. Somehow, they looked even more intimidating here.

Kyle waved to the one I assumed was the team leader and then motioned for us to leave. He didn’t speak until the door was closed behind them.

“I don’t really mess with those guys. So far, I really haven’t needed them for much. They’ve assisted with things like the roundup of some rogue tiger shifters that were harassing Chase last year after escaping a Verndari facility, and of course, most recently, the helped with Lily’s rescue. Archie sends them out to acquire information that even he can’t get online. They also have their own private mercenary jobs for extra money. As long as it stays on the up-and-up and doesn’t interfere with Westin Force business, we have the understanding that they are free to take on those type of assignments. Right now it’s a win-win for all of us.”

“And the Verndari—you’ve mentioned them a few times. You work with them? But aren’t they the ones who kidnapped my mate?”

---