“I’m not talking straight away. I know it’ll take time.” Cole pulled him close, too close for Logan to think properly and he knew it. “Things changed for me, and I can’t pretend they didn’t. I don’t want to hide from sight with a bunch of strangers. I don’t want to be safe when others aren’t. Not if I can help. And I want to help, Logan. Like you do. Like you all do.”
What could he say to that? He wasn’t Cole’s keeper, and Cole wasn’t asking him for permission, but in doing this, Cole was putting them all at risk. “What do you think?” he asked Aaron. “If they question him and it doesn’t go to plan, then we’ll all likely be executed.”
Cole’s face paled.
Aaron shrugged, ignoring Cole and facing Logan. “We can’t keep saving a few people here and there, Logan. It has to stop. All of it. This wasn’t the life we were promised, the life we fought for. This isn’t equality.”
He was right.
He was absolutely fucking right, and it was terrifying. Deep down, Logan had always known they weren’t doing enough, but he’d convinced himself that saving a few was better than nothing and that it was enough for now. But it wasn’t. Not nearly enough. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Cole asked. “Just like that?”
Logan squeezed Cole’s hand. “You’re right. All of you.” He swallowed the fear trying to claw its way out. “It might all go to shit, but we have to try or we’re as bad as the rest of them.”
Aaron cleared his throat. “We still have to get our story straight, but we can go over that with Jacob in a moment. There’s one thing we need to be clear on.” He glanced at Cole, then back to Logan. “You can’t be seen tobe togetherif we go back to London.”
Logan sighed. He knew this was coming, but it still hurt.
Cole, on the other hand, hadn’t seen it. “What? Why?”
“Our pack will never believe Logan wasn’t involved if you two show up looking at each other like that.” He pointed a finger between them.
Cole looked stricken. “So we can’t be together? At all?”
“That’s not what I said,” Aaron clarified. “You can’t be open about it. The pack can’t know. But if you’re careful...”
Logan had thought their time on the beach was all he’d get to spend with Cole. The idea of more, even if they had to sneak around, brought a smile to his face, despite everything.
“So we’d be each other’s secret?” Cole looked none too happy with the idea.
“If we do this, our whole lives will be based on secrets, Cole. What’s one more.”
“And it won’t have to be forever,” Max chimed in. “The pack will start to trust you eventually, if you do things right. Then you can do what you like, as long as you make your budding relationship look authentic.”
“Right. I’m going to take Max downstairs for a cup of tea. Give you two some time to talk.” Aaron offered Max his arm, and she took it with a laugh. “But we only have a couple of hours before we need to leave, so don’t take too long.”
As the door snicked shut, Logan wrapped his arms around Cole and rested his head on his shoulder, breathing him in.
“I didn’t suggest this just so we could be together, you know,” Cole said, arms sliding around Logan’s waist.
“I know.”
“But I won’t lie, it was one of the reasons.”
Logan kissed the warm skin of Cole’s throat, wishing he could bite down, mark him as his mate for all to see. Maybe one day if they got through this. “We can still be together. If we’re careful.”
“And you’d be happy with that?”
“I thought I’d never get to see you again after today, let alone hold you in my arms. So yes, I’d be happy with it.” Cole grunted in response, so Logan kissed his way up to Cole’s mouth, coaxing a moan out of him. “Like Max said. It wouldn’t be forever.”
“We could all die.” Cole’s grip on him tightened as he spoke.
“We could.” Logan figured their chances of success were fifty-fifty, but he kept that to himself. “But I trust Aaron. If he says Jacob has a good shot at making it happen, then I believe him.”
“Fuck, my parents are gonna kill me.” Cole looked up at him, eyes wide but determined.
“No. They’ll be proud.”
