“Yes, to work for them. They can’t tell me where to live, but they can tell me where to go for jobs.”
Derek could tell it took every ounce of self-control Cal had not to show how distressed the idea made him. Cal had thought he was safe. Thattheywere safe, and now this.
“It’s not your fault,” Cal said firmly. He stared at Nico until the boy—young man, Derek reminded himself—pulled away from his father for long enough to meet Cal’s gaze.
“It’s not your fault, Nico,” Cal repeated. “You were talking to your mom about what’s going on around here. You were happy for me and Kit and Derek. There’s nothing wrong with that, kid. Nothing at all.” Cal gave Nico a wavering smile, then got to his feet.
Even at nineteen, Nico was almost a head taller than Cal, although much slighter in build. When he got up and went to hug Cal, it looked odd in an endearing way.
“Okay,” Nico whispered. He didn’t sound completely convinced, but he knew better than to argue.
Rider and Nico left soon after, and Kit cuddled against Cal’s side on the couch. They both seemed troubled, which Derek couldn’t blame them for.
When he’d gotten out of the hospital and the Council had offered him the IT job, he’d told them no. Then he’d asked about where Cal and Kit had gone, and he’d been told that he wasn’t entitled to that information. After that, he’d asked for his release papers, and he’d gotten them the next day.
For Cal, for an enforcer, things were different.
“From what I know and what I’ve heard, there aren’t many ways for enforcers to retire,” Derek said as he joined his family on the couch.
“No, there aren’t.” Cal sighed. “There’s a reason why most of us are people who were either thrown out by or otherwise lost their families. They collect the young, broken ones and mold them into something they need.”
Derek understood the bitterness in Cal’s voice.
“Yeah. If I’d been a shifter, they would’ve made me into an enforcer, too.”
“How did you end up with them?” Kit asked, probably to take his mind off things.
Derek realized he had never told the story to Kit and Cal, it hadn’t been important before.
“I was seventeen and saw something I shouldn’t have,” he started, and Cal flinched ever so slightly. Derek took his hand and they sat there, side by side with Kit under Cal’s other arm, and Derek explained them what had happened.
“How did you… I mean, you say you freaked out?” Kit asked. He knew what happened to people who would freak out in those situations.
Derek snorted. “I could see in the bigger guy’s eyes that he’d kill me. So I thought about my family, and I begged. I told them I would never tell anyone, that I’d get over the initial shock. And then they had a brief conversation and the smaller guy told me I had a choice to make; either go with them right then, leave my life behind, or to lose my life.”
Cal let go of his hand and pulled him close. Derek realized the tears on his own cheeks only when he put his face on Cal’s shoulder and Cal’s T-shirt got wet.
“So you went with them,” Kit murmured, reaching for Derek’s hand over his dad’s lap.
“Yeah. You know how they operate. Private jets and covers ops and all that stuff. I checked a few years ago, I was pronounced dead a decade after I went missing. My parents… they divorced soon after. My dad passed away a year later, and my mom remarried. I don’t….”
“You lost everything, because of the secrecy,” Cal murmured into Derek’s hair. “I’m so sorry it happened to you.”
“Me too,” Kit said, squeezing Derek’s fingers.
“I got kicked out of my home for being gay when I was fifteen. Someone my parents knew had connections with the Council, and as soon as I hit the streets, I was scooped up again,” Cal spoke in a quiet voice.
“In Scotland?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t quite such a journey for me to Italy, although I wasn’t in Council’s city until much later.”
“Fuck the Council,” Kit grunted. Then, after getting no reaction from his dad or Derek, he looked at them and said, “Seriously. I get that they brought us all together and that’s great. But there has to be a way to get you released, Dad. We won’t let them take you again.”
Cal closed his eyes and sighed.
“The only thing I can think of that would work would be to tell them you have a mate,” Derek said quietly. “They won’t use enforcers who are mated, because they’re less likely to put themselves into harm’s way for the Council.”
“Yeah, I know that. It was my first thought after Nico told us about the call. But the problem is, how do we tell them that and have them believe it, without any repercussions? If Mikael’s contact hasn’t found any proof of there having been previous cases of shifter and human bonds, how are we going to make them believe it?”
