Page 40 of A Lion's Heart
“Lial isn’t here tonight,” Decan continued. “And neither is the FBI guy, Wilson.”
“And neither is Cole,” Blaez replied. “So you can report that to Jace Maybon.”
“I’d rather find out why a Shadow Shifter came to you in the first place. How did he even know who or what you are?”
Decan wasn’t buying this connection that seemed to have just surfaced. Rome had told him that Jace had a new lead on finding Cole. Then, when he’d met with Jace last night, the FL had spoken of an arranged meeting with Blaez Trekas. How and why was the communication between the Shadow Shifter and the lycan so casual?
Blaez sat back in one of the lounge chairs surrounding the small glass-top table. He shrugged as he asked, “He didn’t tell you?”
“All I know is that you told Jace you had a lead on Cole’s whereabouts. How you knew Cole was even missing or how to contact the Faction Leader of the Shadow Shifters to tell him this, is a mystery to me,” Decan told him.
A mystery that he’d like to solve before he moved any further.
“I’m not a fan of keeping secrets from your pack,” Blaez replied and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Shadow Shifters don’t have packs,” Decan told him. “We’re a community of feline shifters fighting for our place in this world.”
“You’re a species on the run.” Blaez corrected him. “We all are. The humans fear us because they can’t control us.”
“And you want to change that? You want to help the humans to accept us?”
Blaez shook his head. “Not in a million years. But I’m not running or hiding. I did that before. It didn’t work. So here we are.”
“You’ve seen Cole?” Decan asked.
Blaez nodded.
“Maybon showed up at my door years back. My home wasn’t easy to find so I knew instinctively that things were about to get worse simply because he—a Shadow Shifter—was there,” he said.
Decan listened. He sat facing the entrance and each of the exit doors. His senses were on high alert for any species other than human in this room. So far he’d only picked up the scent of the wolf sitting across from him. Satisfied with that he waited while Blaez continued.
“We’d watched in horror on television as the Unveiling unfolded, so as Maybon told us about his missing friend we sympathized with him. My mate offered to help.”
“Your mate?”
Blaez gave a wry smile. “Our pack works a little differently than your so called democracy. Anyway, Kira was able to locate Cole in the southwestern region. My pack went out and found him.”
“But you didn’t tell Jace?”
“Cole did not want us to.”
“So where is he now?” Decan asked.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Blaez told him.
“Wait, you said you found him, but now you don’t know where he is? How is that possible?”
“In the beginning Cole asked us to help him and we did so, for years.”
Decan wasn’t sure if he was believing this. The wolf’s words matched what Jace had told him, still Decan felt like something was off.
“How did you help him?” What could you and your pack do that Roman Reynolds and the other Faction Leaders couldn’t?”
Blaez smiled and nodded at the woman who then appeared at the table with fresh drinks. Decan didn’t offer a smile, but instead inhaled deeply as a secondary check. They hadn’t ordered any drinks so why was she replacing them? He glanced around at that moment, spying small groups of humans together talking, and more guests arriving even though the gala had been in full swing for at least an hour now. What he didn’t see or sense was Nisa, Gold or any of the other shifters that were supposed to be here working.
“We could still move around above ground without detection,” Blaez continued when the woman was gone. “After the President’s tirade and eventual death the entire world knew who and what Roman and his friends were. That’s why he had to close his firm and go underground.”
“But they didn’t know Cole because Cole had gone missing the night of the Unveiling,” Decan said.
