by Amelia Jade
At one point Hector came to a wide street, one that seemed to be the demarcation point for the town and the outskirts of it. Almost nothing was built past it. There were several driveways cut out of the forest that came right up to the other side of the road however, and as Hector continued that direction, Noah wondered about what might be hidden behind them.
He watched his mentor and coworker head up one of the driveways. Noah picked his way silently through the trees just enough to see what was beyond the curved, forest-lined driveway.
It was a house. A good-sized house at that. Hector walked up, took something out of his pocket, and used it on the door. He had a key. Noah knew something weird was up. It was flat out impossible that one of the women who had been rescued from the Institute could afford such a place. Only a wealthy human…or a shifter.
He inhaled sharply as he realized that Hector must own the house. But even as his brain was overwhelmed by those thoughts, it was hit with fresh information as the scents contained in the wind registered.
Shifters. A lot of them. Nearly a dozen different scents. As an embassy guard, Noah was familiar with all the shifters who were in Cloud Lake at any given time on vacation passes. He might not recall their names, but he was very, very good with remembering scents.
Only two were ones he knew. Hector and Gray. The rest were completely unknown to him. Unknown meant unregistered. Unregistered meant illegal. Suddenly he understood everything. He knew why Cadian Intelligence had sent a spy, and he knew what they were trying to find out as well.
Noah grinned as he crept back out of the immediate proximity of the various scents, not relaxing until they had all faded beyond even his impressive ability to track. He had the leverage now that he needed, the information that he could use to figure out who the spy was. The only question that remained was what was he going to do with it? Reveal the spy…or reveal what he knew?
On the surface, the answer seemed crystal clear. There were shifters in Cloud Lake breaking the law. They were living amongst humans without permission from Cadia. That was illegal.
For Cadian shifters.
He leaned against a tree trunk as he considered that thought. It was true, the humans didn’t outlaw shifters living among them. Not on this particular continent at least. The only law they had that applied was the one that restricted their ability to change within the limits of a town or city, along with—of course—the normal laws that applied to all humans. Noah couldn’t just kill another human and expect to get away with it, on the human or shifter side.
But he could live among them, if he wasn’t Cadian by nature. As the largest of the shifter territories globally, his homeland did try to enforce its rules upon the other territories, aiming for a unified code. But Noah had learned that many of them did as they pleased, owing no allegiance to Cadia. If he was from one of their territories, there was nothing that limited him from living among humans.
But most of the scents he’d recognized had been Cadian. Like accents, scents had a certain trace to them that would allow him to identify if they were from his home or not. But while many of them had been Cadian in nature, a decent chunk had not. Until he met each person and was able to put a face and homeland to the scent he wouldn’t be able to sort through them all and catalogue it, but Noah was confident that four or five of them had not been of Cadian birth.
Which made his moral dilemma even tougher. Eventually he pushed off the tree and started back toward the embassy. Finding the spy and revealing what he knew to them was what any “good” Cadian would do. What bothered him, and was stopping him from having done so immediately, was the knowledge that Gray, Hector, and possibly even Andrew were all involved in it. They all knew what was at stake. Which meant that Rachel knew.
As did Angela.
This was clearly what she’d been hiding from him. It had hurt at the time that she hadn’t trusted him enough to reveal the truth. Now, however, he fully understood her reasoning. She’d known him better than he knew himself, to the point that she’d recognized he wouldn’t be sure how to act. So Angela had withheld the information, forcing him to find it on his own, and make his own choice, without her interference.
Which made his choice all the harder, he thought, jogging up the embassy steps and inside. He waved at Charles and Chase, his mind elsewhere, ignoring their friendly jibes as he went upstairs to his room. He needed time to think. To decide what to do.
Notifying Cadia would result in a whole lot of people getting in trouble. Angela wouldn’t be one of them, of course—being human, she hadn’t broken any laws. But her friends would. Mates would be torn apart from each other, homes broken into and defiled as Cadia came down in force on the offenders. It would not be pretty.
And Angela would never talk to him again if he did. That part was obvious to him. She would hate him for the rest of her life. He would be the one who ruined, the destroyer, or any other number of names that would describe how he’d torn apart something that so far, at least, didn’t seem to be causing anyone trouble. Everything out there had looked peaceful, and there were no reports of shifters terrorizing the town of Cloud Lake.
It was almost as if they got along perfectly fine.
“NOAH!”
The bellowed voice finally got through to him where he’d been standing in the hallway outside of his room.
“Huh?” he said, turning to locate the source of the voice.
It was coming from Braden down the hallway at the top of the stairs.
“Yeah?” he called back, shaking his head to try and clear it of the loud thoughts bouncing around in it.
“You have a visitor.”
Chapter Sixteen
Angela
She shivered slightly in the lobby, despite her winter jacket.
Cooper was with one of her friends Laura back at the complex while Angela was at the embassy. It had taken her quite some time after lunch to come to this decision. For far too long she’d paced back and forth, texting and then talking to Rachel, trying to figure out her course of action. She’d mentioned how Noah had caught on to the reference, and that he hadn’t seemed to believe her about it being a slip of the tongue.
The two had gone back and forth over whether doing this was a good idea, but in the end they’d both decided that, despite any hurt that it might bring to her, it was better to get it out of the way now, than it would be to continue along her current path. The heartbreak would only get worse the longer she kept things up. If her newfound relationship was going to fall apart, it was better to have it happen now, before she went and did something crazy, like fall in love.
Movement at the top of the stairs caught her eye, and she saw the shifter who’d gone to get Noah come back downstairs. He pointed a thumb behind him. “He’s coming.”
She nodded, crossing her arms under her chest as another shiver racked her body. It wasn’t from the cold, this time, but from her nerves about the conversation she was about to have. Nobody enjoyed saying things like what she was going to have to say. It could be hurtful, painful. Heartbreaking even. If there was any way around it, Angela would have gone that route, but she didn’t think there was.
Noah appeared at the top of the stairs, coming to a halt as their eyes met, his cerulean rings latching on to her lively hazelnut orbs. She saw the tenseness of his shoulders, the way they acquired an extra rigidity to them as soon as he saw her. He knew why she was here, there was no doubt of that. The finality of his gesture for her to come up the stairs was just another confirmation of it.
Angela ascended, feeling each footstep resound throughout her body as it brought her closer to him, like the beat of a drum sounding a death knell. Eventually she joined him at the top of the stairs. Without a word the huge shifter turned and gestured for her to accompany him down the hallway. They entered his room and she sat uncomfortably in one of the chairs. The front of his room was a little sitting area, perfectly suited to the occasion.
“Hi,” he said at last.
S
he was surprised by the tension in his voice. It was stronger, containing an almost audible hum that could have been played by the right musician. Something was wrong, she decided. There was more to this conversation than she knew. Her carefully laid speeches and words started to fall apart. What was she missing? What had changed?
“It’s okay,” Noah said, sitting back into his chair with a calmness that astounded her.
In the blink of an eye, one single word to open the conversation, and she’d gone from being in the driver’s seat to a passenger, forced to react to him.
“Is it?” she asked, her voice crisp and cool.
“Yes. Your secret is safe,” he said without preamble. “You didn’t reveal anything to me.”
“Of course I didn’t,” she said, trying to sound dismissive. “There’s nothing to reveal.”
Noah gave her a sad smile. “I wish you would stop lying to me. It doesn’t become you.”
Her jaw tightened. He could see right through her! Were shifters able to read minds? Is that how he was doing it?
“You get very uptight when you lie,” he said from his seat. “And unfortunately you’ve done it several times to me today, so I know what to look for.”
She stayed focused upon him, her eyes never wavering, but a flutter of fear swept through her stomach.
“Please,” he said, sounding hurt. “Relax. I’m not trying to cause trouble or drama for anyone. That’s not why we’re having this conversation.”
“It’s not?” She felt silly. This was supposed to be her conversation with him. Not the other way around.
“No,” he said calmly. “Angela, listen to me. I’m hurt that you lied to me, but I understand. I do. I get it now, and truthfully, I don’t blame you.”
She almost recoiled at his words. How could he get it? The only way for him to understand would be if…Oh. Oh no. He’d found out. She tried not to panic. Noah had somehow found out about the little community they’d been building on the north part of town. Now he was going to take that information back to Cadia, bringing it all down.
“You,” she said softly. “You are the spy. That’s why you pushed me.”
Noah did recoil, and violently. “What? No! That’s not…I’m not,” he shook his head. “Angela, for the last time,” he said, his voice ringing with truth and authority, “I. Am. Not. A. Spy.”
The words slammed into her with force, ringing about her brain in a way that forced her to listen to them. To him. He was speaking to her from the heart, telling the truth about himself.
“Then why are we here, like this? Having this conversation?” she asked, confused.
“Um, you came here to see me,” Noah said sheepishly. “Although, admittedly, I wanted to see you. To talk to you about what I’d found out.” He sighed. “About what I should do.”
“What you should do?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes. I found out what’s going on. Why they would send a spy here. Your avoidance of it earlier drove me to do something I’d preferred not to have done. Now I’m not sure if I’m glad I did or not.” He frowned. “It’s a relief to finally know what everyone is hiding. But at the same time, it’s left me with a dilemma.”
She guarded her words carefully, in case he was still digging for more information. “What kind of dilemma?”
His shoulders rose and fell. “I don’t know what to do with the information.”
“What are your options?”
“Well, I could take it, use it as bait to get the spy to reveal themselves to me, and then give Gray that knowledge.”
Her heart soared at the idea that he was even willing to consider such an option. One of her deepest fears was that Noah would be so beholden to Cadia that he would immediately tell them all about what he’d found. Although she’d only recently come into contact with Cadia, from what she’d been told, the war they’d fought against their rival territory of Fenris had shaken up a lot of the government structures within them.
At first it had been for the best, giving them a militant single leader who had been able to lead them to victory. But post-war, changes had been made, new figures brought into power, and the government had become something less than stellar. Hector and Gray still spoke in glowing terms of most of the people and the land itself. But the highest level of government, that which dictated most things, was now considered to be corrupt and in need of removal. That was about all she knew, because even folks like Hector were reluctant to talk too much about life on the inside.
Perhaps that shakeup was going to work in her favor now, by making him doubt the intentions of his government. Could she possibly convince him not to go to them? Hope blossomed inside her, though she fought it back as hard as she could, not wanting to let it take root. The fact that he’d gone with the choice she wanted him to make as his first suggestion was encouraging, but not by any means final yet.
“Or?” she asked him at last.
“Or,” he said heavily, “I find the spy and tell him what I know. Or I just bypass them and go straight to Cadian Intelligence myself. Same effect, in the end.” His voice caught on the final word.
End.
That’s what it would be if he went that direction. The end of a great many things, one of which being any hope of a relationship between them. Angela simply couldn’t be in love with someone who would turn in good people like Hector, Gray, the Koche brothers, and even the other group of shifters that lived out there. She didn’t know much about them, besides the fact that they came from a shifter territory that was now defunct.
No, not defunct. Extinct. The same Institute that had tricked so many women had also eliminated all the remaining members of their homeland. They were the final ones. She couldn’t bear to see them hurt again if Cadia came back to Cloud Lake in force, using its heavy hand against the hapless little group of shifters who lived here now.
They weren’t causing anyone harm. In fact, they were helping the town. Many of them had brought their wealth here in secret, and were slowly feeding it back into the town. Most shifters by trade were handy, and had started to volunteer around the town, fixing things and helping the humans make small upgrades to their places that they might not otherwise have been able to afford. More than just the shifters would be affected, and negatively at that.
Many of them had mates. Several had children or were expecting. It was a delicate situation, and she hoped desperately that Noah would do the right thing. So far though, he hadn’t said anything about which direction he was leaning.
“What are you going to do?” she asked bluntly, not wanting to beat around the bush any further.
He looked pained. “I’m torn,” he said quietly. “I should turn them in. Some of them are breaking the law.” His voice was tight and he didn’t sound convinced. “But the law is only that of Cadia, did you know that?”
She shook her head. She’d not really considered who had made the law, only that it existed.
“Yeah. There’s nothing in your code that says we shifters can’t live among you, as long as we abide by your rules. This one is simply from Cadia, a ruling that we must live amongst ourselves.” His lips compressed into a thin line and his forehead wrinkled as he thought some more. “I’m not sure why they feel the need to segregate us. Perhaps it harkens back to the days of old, when we were hunted by your kind and killed as freaks and monsters? I’m not sure.”
Angela blushed, momentarily embarrassed and ashamed for all of humanity at some of the atrocities they’d committed because of a simple lack of knowledge and truth. “Sorry,” she said.
Noah rolled his eyes. “You had nothing to do with it. You owe me no apology. But I would be grateful if you would try to help me figure out what to do. Do I stay true to what I know is expected of me, and what the law says I should do?” He lifted one hand palm up as he spoke. “Or do I go with my gut, with what my senses tell me is the right thing to do, but is technically illegal?” The other hand came up in a similar gesture.
“I can’t tell
you what to do,” she said, this line having already been something she’d thought about. “This is your decision, Noah. You have to make it on your own. All I can tell you is that you should weigh the good that will come out of what you choose to do. Think that over, follow through to the end of each course of action. What good will come out of going with your gut? What good will come out of going with the law? After all, the law is there to ensure that good things happen, not bad. If it does bad things to good people, then is it a just law? That’s up to you to decide.”
She stood, ready to go. “I’ll give you some time to think in peace.”
He didn’t move, and she nodded, heading toward the door, heavy of heart. It spoke well of him, in a way, that he was torn by the decision. Angela could respect the fact that he wasn’t willing to easily ignore everything he’d ever been taught, including the laws of his home. Noah was in a tough spot, trying to navigate his way through a tricky situation that didn’t have a perfect outcome on either side. No matter what he did, there was likely to be trouble ahead for him.
It was tough for her to fault that, and though she knew only one way would result in them being together, she knew she wouldn’t hate him if he decided to go to Cadia and tell them what was going on. It was, after all, the law-abiding thing to do.
But before she could open the door to depart, a huge hand closed over the handle, blocking her access.
“I would like you to stay,” a voice rumbled from her ear.
Angela didn’t turn around.
“I can’t stay without knowing your decision.”
There was a moment of silence. “You also can’t stay if I abide by the law.”
She nodded, still not facing him.
There was a deep breath. “So you’ll stay then?”
Her limbs began to shake, and she turned to look at him. “You’re not going to turn us in?”
He shook his head. “No,” he said, his voice barely audible.
She could sense the struggle within him, the waging facets of his conscience and his soul trying to figure out what the correct course of action was, and finding themselves unsure.