***
Josh jerked upright and moved to her.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she said, her voice a mixture of anger and fear-induced sadness. Josh could see liquid well up in her eyes, but this time she fought it down, trying to hold it back.
Chad worked his lips. “Sorry,” he said, his voice no more than a rasp.
Josh shot a look at Connor out of the corner of his eye, and the shifter went to the washroom and got a glass of water. After taking several small sips, Chad began to speak. His voice was still weak, but it wasn’t as pained-sounding.
“Was trying,” he had to pause to catch his breath, though even as Josh watched color began to return to his face. Slowly, but visibly. “Trying to do the right thing.”
Hannah shook her head in disbelief. “The right thing? What right thing, you imbecile? You went to work for the mercenaries and then tried to what, bribe the Agency? You need to explain yourself,” she said sternly, trying to hold back the anger in her voice so much that Josh could see her shaking with fury.
He moved up next to her, and regardless of what the others saw, gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.
“I was trying,” he cleared his throat and downed some more water. “To save our species.”
Hannah rocked back on her heels. “Oh, this ought to be good,” she said with a harsh laugh.
“I was,” he said, his voice stronger. He reached over and undid the restraint on his other arm, and then his legs. He winced as the still-healing wound on his torso stretched and moved, but the healing powers of a shifter were remarkable, and he managed to make it through until he was standing on his feet.
“I met the man who cut me up at our last stop,” he said to the assembled group. “He said he could protect us, all of us,” he said with a look at Hannah, meaning werewolves. “That he could bring awareness to our plight and help to stop the persecution of werewolves. He showed me some of the resources at his disposal. It was impressive. I had to take a chance.”
Hannah frowned. “How did he know you were a werewolf?”
Chad shrugged. “I don’t know, but he did. He laid that fact out as soon as he introduced himself, and wasn’t fooled by my acting at all.”
“Do you know who that is?” Josh chimed in.
“I suspect that he is not who he said he was,” Chad said wryly. “He told me that to make this work, public support for me needed to be drummed up. Not just the speeches, but people had to believe that I was under attack just for speaking out about shifters being equal.”
“Holy shit,” Josh said as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “You hired the merc squad.”
Chad winced. “Um. Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?” he asked dangerously.
“Well, I hired the mercenary squads.”
“Great,” Jared said, chiming in. “Just how many more out there are there?”
“There were two initially,” he said. “Judging by what you’ve done, I’m going to guess there is only one left.”
“Unbelievable,” Hannah said into the stunned silence. “You hired men to attack us. Then what, this guy was going to step in and protect us, and reveal to the public the real reason why we were being attacked? Do you understand how stupid that sounds?” she asked harshly.
Chad nodded. “When you put it like that, it does sound rather ridiculous.” He looked around the group. “I’m sorry. I truly am. I thought I was doing the right thing.” His head dropped as he looked at the ground. “After a lifetime of living on the run, fearful of being attacked just for existing, I thought I had found a way to fix it. Not just for us,” he said with a gesture at Hannah. “But for the rest of us out there. Maybe werewolves could one day drop off the endangered shifter list.”
Josh felt sympathy for him. It had been a stupid choice in hindsight, but at the time, if someone had stepped up and presented him with a way to undo centuries’ worth of wrongs, that would have been a hard offer to resist. Josh could say he would say no now, but if he were put in that situation, he wasn’t sure what he would have done.
“Well, just so you know, that man was J, the elusive and brutal head of the Agency here in town,” Jared said.
“Yeah, I figured something was up when he and his goons overpowered me and strapped me down. They hit me with a tranq dart too. Bastards.” Chad looked up at them. “What is he, by the way? He’s not human, that’s for sure.”
Josh shrugged. “I have no idea. All I know is that he leads the Agency, and hates us with a passion. He would do anything to be rid of all of us.”
Chad’s head snapped up, and he paled.
“Oh my God,” he whispered.
Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”