Michael’s low growl came unbidden, echoing around the cave, but Cole didn’t flinch.
“Hey.” Cole held his hands up in front of him. “I know you don’t want to believe it could be him, but I’m asking anyway because the alternative is Logan’s parents, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to believe that either.”
That stopped the growl in Michael’s chest. “You’re right. I’m sorry, it’s just...” He sat back, hands gripping his knees. “Baker took my fucking claws to his chest. I almostkilledhim so Simon wouldn’t be suspicious.” He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, casting an apologetic look at Logan. “It’s not Baker.”
Logan surged to his feet. “And it’s not my fucking parents, either.” Cole stood and put a hand on his arm, but Logan shook him off. “No. I get that it’s not Isaac, and it’s not Baker, but why do you all automatically assume that it could be mymum and dad?”
“Actually,” Michael said, standing up and walking towards him, “I agree with you.”
“You do?”
Michael gripped Logan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I even doubted them for a fucking second. I’ve known Marie and Andrew for a long time, and you’re right. They would never betray you, me, or anyone else involved with the CEG.” He waited for Logan to catch up with his train of thought.
“Not willingly, you mean, right?” Logan said, slumping down into his chair with his head in his hands. “Fuck.”
Michael cursed himself for even thinking that about Logan’s parents. They’d saved his life, for fuck’s sake. And they were some of his oldest friends, who were now quite possibly being held by Simon.
“They were taken because of me,” Logan muttered, echoing Michael’s own thoughts. “Simon took them because of what I did.” He looked up at Michael, and the anguish in his eyes cut right through him. “What the fuck did he do to them to get that kind of information?”
Michael’s stomach sank.
Everyone in the cave knew exactly what methods Simon had at his disposal for extracting information, and none of them were pleasant.
“But if he knows for certain that we’re all here,” Smith cut in, “why send Paul and his team to search the place? Why not arrest Isaac and make him talk? Make him reveal Michael’s exact whereabouts?”
“Because he’d need Baker’s backing for that.” Michael walked backwards until he faced them all. “To bring in an alpha for questioning, you need at least your own alpha’s approval, maybe more than that, depending on the importance of the pack involved. But Baker would never go for a full-blown interrogation of Logan’s parents just because of Logan’s treason, and they have no other proof. We made damn sure of that. So there’s no way Baker even knows that Simon has them. And without his approval, Simon can’t pull Isaac in for questioning, so the only option he had was to send Paul in.”
“Hoping he’d find proof,” Isaac said, frowning. “But he obviously didn’t count on Paul’s change of heart or whatever the fuck it was in my library last night.”
The cave fell silent again as everyone took a moment to absorb the new information.
Michael wanted to scream at the fucking injustice of it all. He’d kept his distance from Logan’s parents over the last few years to protect them, even though it had nearly killed him. Losing them and Isaac had left a hole in his life, but it had been worth it to keep them safe.
And the second he came back into their lives, they were dragged into something he fought so hard to keep them out of.
Michael didn’t realise he’d turned away from everyone until he felt Isaac’s hand on his shoulder, his body a warm, comforting presence behind him.
“It’s not your fault,” Isaac whispered.
“Isn’t it?”
Isaac squeezed his hand, fingers gripping Michael’s tight enough to make him flinch. “No, and you need to hear me this time because things like this will probably keep happening and you can’t keep blaming yourself every time they do. Everyone who joined the CEG and the Human Resistance did so by their own choice. You are not responsible for anything that happens to them because of it.”
“But I—”
“No.” Isaac’s voice cracked like a whip, alpha power so strong Michael shuddered. “We need you to be strong, to lead, and you can’t do that if you’re crippled with guilt. We’re at war. Bad things are going to happen to people we care about, but you can’t shoulder the blame for all of it. Everyone involved made their own fucking choices and we all knew the risks.”
Michael hung his head, knowing Isaac was right. But knowing it and believing it were two separate fucking things.
“He’s right.” Logan was the last one he expected to say that. “As much as I want to blame someone for what’s happened to my parents, I don’t blame you.”
Michael slowly turned back around to face everyone.
“I blame Simon. And any other fucker who helped him.” Logan leant heavily against Cole now, but when he met Michael’s eyes, there was nothing in his expression but fierce determination. “So what do we do now?”
“First things first,” Isaac said, hand still clasping Michael’s shoulder. “We need to make contact with Logan’s parents to confirm that Simon’s taken them and there’s not something else going on that we don’t know about.”
“I don’t have my CEG phone,” Logan said.
