Page 15 of Rivers and Roads

“You and I both know we can’t trust them. Not right now. We’re not going to play roulette with the people we’re trying to save—and right now the name at the top of that list is Zane’s. I have all the information I need, and I might not be at full strength, but I know how to take care of myself. I’ve been trained for shit like this my entire life.” I eased back a little, and his chin rose, though he kept his eyes closed.

“If I lose you…” His words echoed the ones he’d spoken after the shift.

I wanted to promise him he wouldn’t, just like I had desperately wanted to promise Danyal that I would bring Zane back safe and alive. But I cared about them too much to risk it being a lie. “You know I’ll do everything in my power to bring us both home.”

Kor took in a breath, then nodded before letting me go. My skin stung as it healed from where his claws had torn at me, but the pain was grounding. “I want to go over everything before you head out. How’s the…treatment going?” He hesitated on the word, almost like he was afraid of it, and I didn’t blame him. After everything the humans had done to him and his mate, I couldn’t imagine how this was making him feel.

“It’s hell,” I admitted, easing back onto the bed as he dropped into the chair. “It feels like my insides are being ripped apart and set on fire, but Danyal thinks it’ll get bearable by the time I reach DC.”

Kor’s brows furrowed, and his eyes opened, though they were pointed nowhere near me. “How sure is he?”

“As sure as he can be with this shit that hasn’t been properly tested,” I told him, not hiding my frustration or resignation that I was the lab rat.

Kor’s jaw tightened, and he gave me a stiff nod, because it was the one thing he and I had nearly come to blows over. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that he’d agreed to this project at all—considering how close he’d come to losing Misha thanks to his father’s fucked-up experiments. But at the moment, I was grateful we had something.

“I’ve spoken to Nadya and arranged for you to cross the border into Canada the moment you have him,” Kor said. “She’s got a plant at the border check point to get you both over, and then a place to hole up in until we can get a team up there to get you home.”

I stiffened instantly. The most I knew about Nadya was that she was an Omega spy and that Kor trusted her for some reason. I’d also seen the way her name made Zane flinch, which set my hackles rising. “I’m not sure about her…”

“Please don’t,” he said quietly. “Not now. We’ve come too far to start doubting her.”

I swallowed thickly, the reality of the situation hitting me hard. “Fine. But what if Zane’s not in any condition to cross the border?”

Kor lifted his chin and fixed me with his endlessly black gaze. “Then you figure out how to get him there. There are too many human cities for you to cross between DC and here. The moment you’ve got him, you’ll get a matter of hours—maybe a day before they’re hot on your ass.”

“He’s gonna be chipped,” I warned him.

Kor laughed. “I have no fucking doubt. Especially since they failed to track me. But it’ll be easy to find and remove once you get him out. Nadya said she’ll walk you through it.”

It was only slightly terrifying that I was putting my fate, and the fate of Zane, into an unknown. Was she actually on our side, or was she going to use this opportunity to take another high-powered, well-trained member of our rebellion and deliver me into human hands? I was afraid that by asking, Kor would think I was second guessing his judgment, and I wasn’t prepared for another one of those fights.

“You got a file for me to read over before I meet with her?” I asked.

“I’ll give you everything I’ve got before you head out, but you know why she hasn’t been able to send everything over the network,” Kor said. He rose, taking shuffling steps toward me with his hand out until he found the bed, then he gripped my wrist and sent pulsing emotion through the bond. Fear, pride, gratitude, hopelessness. It was everything I was feeling, magnified by the fact that he couldn’t strap on a weapon and just go get our people back.

Even if he hadn’t been blinded, the humans had him by the throat and were forcing him to play dirty.

“Look, if I don’t come back,” I started, and I felt the prickle of his claws against my skin. I shuffled closer to him, grabbing him around the back of his neck, and I pressed our foreheads together. “If I don’t come back,” I said again, “I need you to promise me you will find a way to get Zane.”

“I’m going to burn every single one of their cities to the ground if they lay a finger on you. Do you understand that?” he growled.

I nodded, letting him feel it against his forehead.

We said nothing more. I had no one else besides him that I could call family. Not anymore. The war had robbed me of my parents, my pack, my future. If I wanted a hope of building something—anything—I had to succeed. And even if I didn’t, I had to know that the resistance wouldn’t give up so other Wolves could.

Chapter

Seven

ZANE

The floor beneath me was cold stone, cutting into my flesh. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been able to move from my hands and knees. The chains kept my wrists and ankles bound in one position, metal cutting into my flesh. My eyes saw nothing but red—and the occasional shadow when they came, dark and looming over me.

When I disobeyed, there was pain, when I obeyed—more pain. It was easier to fight them, but I didn’t know how long I could hold out.

There was a sharp noise—metal against stone, and I knew what it meant. They were here. Icy water splashed over me, and I turned my head, nostrils flaring to catch their scents. A hand—clammy, weak, human—brushed over me, and I bared my teeth against the gag.

“Why isn’t it working? It’s been down here for weeks.”

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