“Do you?” he played with the beer mat under his glass, picking at the edges, before looking up and meeting Cole’s gaze. “I met with three people from the Cox Pack. One was their mediator, one was a girl who’d joined them last year and had chosen to take the bite, and the third was an older guy who was one of the first to be affiliated into a pack. He was still human and had every intention of staying that way until he died. They aren’t going to force me into anything.”
“Good,” Cole replied, blowing out a breath. “And I’m sorry if I sound negative about it all. I’m just worried.”
Nick’s shoulders relaxed, some of the tension leaving him, and he offered Cole a small smile. “I know you are, and thanks, but I’m going to be okay.”
They drank in silence for a few moments, enjoying the lazy afternoon in the sun. Cole couldn’t help but wonder how many more of these they’d have. Greenwich and Westminster were only about forty-five minutes to an hour away from each other, but it wasn’t the same as being five minutes down the road. There’d be no more walking to uni together, no more popping round each other’s place on an evening. Not if Cole ended up where he thought he would.
“So...” Nick waited for Cole to look up before continuing. “Have you met with anyone yet or heard from any packs?”
Cole took a drink of his pint, putting the moment off for as long as he could. Saying it out loud would make it all seem far too real. “I’m meeting with Logan from the McKillan pack tomorrow.”
Nick flinched at the name but tried to hide it. Not quickly enough though. “Anyone else?”
“Nope.” Cole tapped the table, fingers drumming out a slow rhythm. “But that’s hardly surprising. You know what they say about McKillan.”
“That all the other alphas are frightened of him? Do you believe that crap?”
“I think there’s got to be a modicum of truth to it.” Judging from the other rumours out there about the McKillan pack, this one didn’t seem all that far-fetched. “I’m not bragging or anything, but the McKillan pack isn’t the only one that should want me. I have my teaching degree. I could teach sports, geography, or martial arts. Or join any of the forces. It wouldn’t surprise me if they never even passed my name over to the army selectors.”
The lead alphas for each county outside of London were supposed to send a list of suitable candidates to those packs in charge of the army, navy, and air force. Out of a whole country of twenty-three-year-olds taking the test, there wasn’t time to go through them all. No one enforced it, not really. The majority of candidates’ names got passed over to them, but they kept the top few for themselves. Same with the London boroughs, except the decision was made by all thirty two alphas.
The thought of them picking over everyone like vultures made his stomach roil.
Nick studied him for a long moment. “You wouldn’t want to join the army or anything though, would you?”
“No.” Cole shook his head. Pack structure was bad enough when you had thirty boroughs all trying to work together. He could only imagine how it worked in the forces. “But I don’t want to join McKillan’s pack either.”
“It might not be that bad,” Nick offered. “What do you reckon they’d have you doing?”
Cole sighed, not really wanting to think about it. “I don’t know. McKillan has his fingers in all sorts of pies.” McKillan himself no longer worked at MI5, but a lot of his pack did. He also had people in the Metropolitan, City Police, and in the National Cybersecurity Centre. And that was just what they went public with. Who knew what other things he was involved with?
“You’re good with computers and weapons and all that self-defence shit. Surely something in all that must appeal to you?”
He wasn’t wrong. When Cole was a kid, he was adamant he was going to join MI5 and be a 00 agent. Even when he got older, he still liked the idea of working there, collecting intelligence or something like that. But that had been before. Now he wasn’t sure what it would be like working there, or anywhere, now the packs were in charge. “I just... I guess I don’t want to be part of a pack. I don’t want to report to an alpha and have to do whatever he says whether I like it or not.” He paused, wiping a bit of condensation from his glass. “And I don’t want to be pressured into taking the bite. I don’t want to change what I am.”
“Even if it means you’ll never get sick and you’ll be stronger and faster than you are now?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, even considering all that. I like who I am.” He glanced around them again, noting the old couple had left. “There’s no telling what else might change along with my DNA.”
They fell into silence again, both lost in thought.
Cole’s mind was a jumble of imagining what it would be like to join a pack and wondering what questions he should ask Logan at the meeting tomorrow. There were loads he wanted to ask, but he had to be careful. If they suspected he might do a runner, they’d have security on him day and night.
Not that he’d thought about running.
While the idea itself was tempting, where would he go?
There were people that had died before they could join a pack and the occasional one that disappeared, never to be seen again. Cole had his suspicions about what happened to them, but he kept them to himself. With thirty-two alphas in London, surely it’d be easy to make someone vanish, one way or another. They couldn’t have people rocking the boat after all.
He shuddered and tried to block that thought from his mind.
“So, what are you going to do?” Nick nudged Cole’s foot under the table to get his attention.
Pretend none of this is happening.
“I’m going to meet with Logan and see what he has to say. What else can I do?”
“Hey.” Nick smiled, attempting to lighten the mood. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe you can get them to put it in writing about the no-bite thing. I know not all packs will agree to that, but it can’t hurt to ask.”
