Page 69 of Love and War

“What did you hope to gain if he was gone?” I asked, pacing a little more.

I could feel his eyes following me. “Without him, you would have eventually seen reason. Lior would have made you see reason. Blind as you are,” he added to be cruel.

And oh. It made sense. We knew Lior had been sowing seeds of doubt amongst the members of our compound, but I hadn’t realized it had gotten as high in the rank as it did. I didn’t realize someone I had once trusted with my life could turn so damn easily.

He shifted again, and I heard the first telltale sign of his cuffs giving way. I felt him suck in a breath with hopeful triumph.

I pretended not to notice. “If you had killed him, I would have gutted you in front of the entire compound.” That was not a lie. “You wanted to sway me, but instead you made an enemy of someone stronger and more powerful.”

Crack.

He was on his feet, and his hand was around my throat. I fought him with a roar, my claws extending. He backed me up against the wall, then I felt searing pain across my face as his claws raked over my eyes. An instinctual move, but a foolish one against a Wolf who was already blind.

I howled at the top of my lungs, and we both felt the moment it was heard.

It was now or never. He would stay and fight—and eventually die. Or he would run.

I knew Sanderson wasn’t a fool. He dropped his hand from me, and as I fell to my knees from the pain, I heard his footsteps echoing off the concrete walls. In seconds, he was gone. The guards would put up a show—looking for him, just missing him. He’d make it to the exit, to fresh air, to the border. He’d continue running like we were on his heels—and we were. We were under his skin and tracking his every move.

One day, he’d realize he was the one who brought destruction to his own movement—that he was the one who started the avalanche I planned to bring down on their heads. I could only hope he survived long enough for me to tell him that a single shot—a single bullet in the thigh of my mate—solidified my purpose to end all of this.

For good.

* * *

I was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, feeling the sun coming through the window. My face was still aching, mostly from the salve Danyal had slathered all over me. But there was something freeing about being in the city. The electricity was only working in some parts, but the rebuild was going faster than I could have hoped, and the first moon after we moved our people had been a celebration.

I had stayed in my apartment, lying under the window in my wolf form with Misha’s hands in my fur. We had so long to go, but it was a start.

I could feel Misha hurrying down the hall, and I could feel his anger and frustration when he whipped around the corner and stepped into the room. “You dirty son of a bitch.”

I turned my face toward him as he approached, and his hands gripped the sides of my neck. “Hello to you too.”

“You said you were going to let him escape, not that you were going to let him claw your face off.” There was something like a growl under his words, so much like a Wolf that my cock twitched, and I laughed hard when he smacked me in the arm. “Stop getting horny!”

I lifted my hands and cupped his face, my thumbs brushing the sides of his mouth. “I can’t help it. You’re really sexy when you’re furious.”

He let out a groan, then let his head fall forward and breathed out. “This is what it’s going to be like, isn’t it? When shit hits the fan. It’s going to be me finding you in a goddamn hospital bed wondering how bad it is.”

I found his chin and gently tipped his head up to face me. “Are you looking at me?”

“No,” he groused. “My eyes are closed. I’m too irritated.”

I brushed my fingers over his lashes to confirm, and I laughed again when I realized he wasn’t lying. “Misha.” I felt his lashes flutter against my skin. “I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me. He wasn’t going to pass up escape just for the chance to kill me.”

“What if he had?” Misha asked gently.

I moved my hands to the sides of his throat and traced his jawline with my thumbs. “Then he would be dead, and I might have a few more wounds to heal. And we’d have to find another way to track one of the labs.”

Misha swallowed thickly. “You’re so sure you would have won?”

“I wouldn’t have walked into the room if I wasn’t,” I promised him.

His voice was small and vulnerable when he spoke again. “I’m trying to be okay with this, Kor. I really am. I’m trying to accept that one day people I’m starting to care about might not walk away from their next confrontation. I’m trying to accept that I’m going to lose people. But I’m not ready for any of those people to be you.”

“I’m not ready to be lost,” I told him gently, then dipped my head in to brush my lips against his. “We’re doing what we need to, and there’s risk in it, but I’m not rushing into battle. My fight is different this time.”

I knew what he was afraid of. He was terrified my blindness would eventually lead me to being reckless in order to prove I was the same Alpha I was before. And I couldn’t deny there were moments I was tempted. In the room with Sanderson, a small piece of me wanted him to choose the fight so I could prove that I could accept and win any challenge thrown my way.

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