To Suffer With

Chapter Nineteen - The Past

I had several problems to solve before I could even bring up the subject of resistance prisoners to Roman. The first of which was going to prove the trickiest. How did I know about them? The packs had declared the resistance dead and gone years ago so the resistance's presence wouldn't be reported on. Which meant if I suddenly asked about them Roman would know I'd been in contact, something I wanted to avoid at all costs. Especially since Kelsey was hanging around for the time being. Against resistance orders. So, I needed to find someone who had their ear to the ground enough that they would know the full story.

Which is how I found myself in the warehouse district in front of what looked to be an abandoned building.

"I don't like this," Cade mumbles from where he stands beside me shifting nervously.

It was hard enough to convince him to leave Roxy at home alone with the door locked. Only the continual reminder that Ryan did it on multiple occasions managed to convince him.

"It'll be fine," I promise him, "like I said I'm just meeting a girl to take down some notes about what happened to her and then we can go back."

"Maybe we should wait until the Alpha gets back," Cade suggests running a nervous hand through his hair.

"I can't, she's flighty and she doesn't trust wolves. I barely got her to agree to meet me, it'll never happen again if I cancel," I push him.

It was a miracle that Cade wasn't as accomplished at telling when I was lying as Roman. There's no way Roman would buy this story.

"And she has to meet you here?" Cade questions me, looking around suspiciously.

"Yes, I told you her family don't want her meeting with me," I repeat the lie I had already told so many times this morning.

Cade mutters something under his breath before nodding, "Fine I'll be right out here."

"Thanks Cade," I say giving him a genuine smile.

Cade may have been a wolf, but I had to admit I felt bad at the trouble he was likely to get in after Roman found who I was actually meeting.

I make my way to the dirty stained metal door, that once would have shone red, taking a deep breath before knocking. A familiar face pokes her head out smiling when she caught sight of me.

"Al, come in," she encourages me opening the door wider to give me room to step inside.

"Eva," I greet her with a smile as I step past her.

If there was one organization that knew everything going on with the wolves it was EFA. They may believe in peaceful methods but their ability to gather information was second to none. And their database was shared by all members regardless of what pack they were under. And because this was a border incident Roman wasn't the only Alpha up there, so was Alpha Kane. EFA had a massive presence in Alpha Kane's territory which meant they would have an eye on the situation.

I glance around my surroundings the room we were standing in was basically bare. An old wooden table was stacked high with various papers and pamphlets. A stacked lot of chairs stood in the corner but other than that only the dust and dirt. Either EFA really was non-existent here or Eva had invited me to someone other than their main base in the city. I was betting on the latter; she had no reason to trust me. I reach up tugging on my black curls making sure they fully covered Roman's mark. The last thing I needed was for Eva to work out who I really was.

"I'm surprised you called," Eva admits warily.

This was not the same overly talkative girl I had met on the street. That might make it more difficult for her to give me the information I needed. Not that I actually needed her to tell me. As long as Roman had believed she had. That's why I had called the EFA contact number on Cade's phone, proof to Roman that I had been in contact with them.