Jared (River Pack Wolves 3)(24)

Nolan was clapping along with everyone else. He leaned over to Grace. “Do you see this?”

She nodded. “Do they really believe all this stuff?”

Jared whipped his attention to her.

“Hell yeah, they do,” Nolan said. “I took half this speech straight from the online sites where they rant about this stuff all the time. It’s what the people believe, Grace, and remember… we represent the people.”

“What happened to doing what’s right?” She was scowling at the crowd, not even looking at Nolan.

“What’s right for who?” He pulled back and gave her a frown. “I’m all for protecting the people—if they’re innocent. Shifters aren’t innocent bystanders in this, Grace. They’re involved in the drug trade, weapons dealing, who knows what else. They’re legitimately dangerous. You wouldn’t let convicted criminals run around in the streets, would you?”

“I’m not saying that, and you know it, Nolan.” She turned her scowl on him.

Nolan’s determination faltered. He leaned toward her. “It’s what your father wants, Grace. And I want to keep my job.”

She gave him a pinched look, but Nolan dropped his gaze and moved across the stage toward the Senator. He was already walking down the three steps into the crowd to shake hands.

Grace stayed where she was.

“He’s kind of an asshole,” Jared said.

“He’s not. He’s a good man.”

“Doesn’t look that way from my angle.” Jared studied how Nolan moved through the crowd, following in the wake of the Senator, pressing flesh with people and chatting them up. “He looks pretty comfortable in the hate crowd.”

The sound of a hundred conversations was making it so that he had to speak up, but it also meant his voice wouldn’t carry. A few people trickled in and out of the two sets of doors—one in back and one off to the side—but for the most part, people were grabbing cups of coffee from the refreshment tables and hanging around for more hater chit-chat.

Jared couldn’t wait to leave, but he wasn’t budging from Grace’s side.

She turned to peer up at him with her bright blue eyes. “Nolan’s just doing his job.”

“I’ve used that excuse, too.”

She frowned. “What happened to you? When you were in the military, something happened.”

“This isn’t about me,” he said coolly. He already told her what he was—she didn’t need to know he had one of the highest kill counts in Afghanistan. “This is about you, and whether you’re going to do what’s right, or if you’re just going to do your job, like your ex-boyfriend.”

Grace’s eyes unfocused as she gazed out into the crowd, watching Nolan again.

Jared sensed an opportunity, a moment—she was faltering. He could feel it. “You’re not one of these people, Grace. They would string you up if they could. They’re already doing medical experiments on people like you and me.”

Her pretty face whipped back to his. “What?”

He dropped his voice to just below the murmur of the crowd, so she had to lean in to hear him. “Civilian shifters. Military shifters. There are already people in the government who feel free to kidnap them and perform experiments. They’re already treating us like we’re subhuman—your father is just trying to make it legal.”

Her face twisted up, horrified. “How is that even possible?”

“I saw it with my own eyes. I was one of the ones taken, but I didn’t suffer anywhere near as much as some. There are a few who’ve died; several more on their way. Tortured, kept in cages.”

Her expression just got more and more disbelieving—no, she believed him. That was why she was so horrified. “Why don’t you tell someone? Why not go public with this?”

“We might. Probably will. But there are lots of people in high positions of power protecting this, orchestrating it. We have reason to believe your father is involved.”

“No.” She actually took a step back this time, almost like she was losing her balance.

Jared instinctively reached for her, caught her by the elbow, and kept her upright.

She was shaking her head. “No. Stop it. Stop saying these things.” She jerked her elbow out of his grasp.

“I’m only saying what’s true, Grace.” He hated doing this to her. It was tearing him up inside to see that look on her face. His wolf surged up with the need to protect her, even if it was from the truth about her father. And herself.

She shook her head more violently, then turned away from him. Her heels clacked across the wood floor of the raised stage.