Page 17 of Rivers and Roads

“I mean no disrespect,” she said, gently touching the side of her veil.

I pulled my hand back quickly and offered her a slight nod. I realized it was probably testing the boundaries of her faith to even be alone with me, so I made a note to be as careful as she needed. “Is there anything I can do to make this easier?”

She waved me off. “No. I understood what I had to do to get this plan off the ground. Kor assured me that you were the most effectively trained Beta serving under him.” She stopped and gave me a calculating look. “You are a Beta, yes?”

I nodded. “Despite my appearance.”

She lifted a brow, then her lip curled up. “Fascinating. So, the serum is as effective as he hoped.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant, and her question felt like a test. “It’s as effective as Dr. Bereket could accomplish in such a short time, uh…Nadya?” It felt wrong to use her first name like that, but I hadn’t been given anything else.

She gave me another once over before backing up and turning toward a low table covered in papers, stuffed haphazardly into a file folder. “My name is Nadya Abbas. I requested that General Titus not use more than my given name in case anyone else from your city is taken into human custody.”

It made sense, in spite of the fact that leaving me out of the loop might have been more dangerous. “I understand. Is that…” I jutted my chin toward the table.

“Everything you need to know, including what you need to access the database. I have you listed as a new hire at ComTech, working in IT as an analyst. How much do you know about computers?”

“Next to nothing,” I told her. “Sorry.”

She lifted a brow at me, but she didn’t seem deterred. “It’s fine. I’ll be working as your direct supervisor. I’ve been there as a director for the last year. I’m one of four Omegas as a sort of…” She wrinkled her nose, “I forget what the humans called it. Bridge hire?”

I scoffed. “Right. I remember my parents talking about that before the war. Hiring Wolves to bridge the gap.” It was true. I was young, but it was a last-ditch effort the humans made in trying to keep the rebellion from turning into war. The working conditions and pay they had given the Wolves were enough to tip the scales, and just weeks later, the first bomb dropped.

“It’s better now. At least, on the surface. They’re only willing to hire Omegas at the moment, although…” She trailed off, giving me another long once-over. “I don’t know how well you’ll slip in and out unnoticed looking like that.”

I absently rubbed one hand over my arm. “I don’t plan to be there long. I just need you to show me where to look and what files to take.”

“That’s simple enough,” she said with a shrug. “Breaking into the system is easy. Leaving footprints is the problem. Another one of my colleagues can cover your tracks, but there’s going to be a space between you downloading the files and him being able to erase the last traces of where you’ve been. If they catch wind that you know where the missing Alpha is being kept, they’ll move him.”

“If they don’t kill him first,” I muttered.

At that, she offered me a smile that was almost cruel, it was so sad. “They won’t kill him. Not with what they have planned.”

Her words were like ice in my veins. “How much do you know?”

At that, the smile dropped from her mouth, and she took several steps back, sagging into the chair. “Too much and not enough. Some of the what, a lot of the why, but where they were taking them all was always too dangerous for me to dig much deeper than the surface.”

I let out a frustrated growl, tired of fucking riddles. Moving fully into the room, I paced a little to calm the restlessness in my bones. I had tucked my claws back in, but my wolf was desperate to run, and I had no time for it. There were only a few more hours left before I had my next dose, and by morning, I would be on Zane’s trail.

“Now would be a good time to clear some shit up,” I told her, glancing over my shoulder to where she was sitting. “I need a starting point—beyond learning how the hell to navigate some dark web mess.”

Nadya let out a small sigh, then she kicked her leg up on the table. “I can tell you that Kor’s human was just the start of what they’re planning. There are at least two dozen more like him in various states of…change,” she hesitated on the word, and I understood why. Change wasn’t right, but neither was anything else. “A lot of them die.”

“Do any of them shift?” I asked, unable to stop myself from voicing the question Kor had been asking since he brought Misha to the compound.

“Not that I can tell, but not all of them are capable of handling any sort of Wolf DNA,” she answered. “Most of them die of organ failure after the first month. Our team was responsible for building the reports.” At that, she grimaced. “They were listed as stem-cell patients, but it was easy to read between the lines.”

I dragged my hand through my hair, then glanced down at my watch, doing everything I could to be mindful of the time. “What about the Wolves?”

Nadya was quiet a long time. “Kor was the only one so far who escaped. I happened to overhear them talking about who I believe was the Beta that arranged his escape. He’s presently still alive, but I have no idea what condition he’s in.”

My heart thrashed in my chest at the thought of Bryn alive all this time, suffering at their hands. Fuck, what could they possibly want him for? “Do you think they’re keeping him in the same place they’re keeping Zane?”

“I couldn’t be sure. Zane is…” She bared her teeth. “He’s a prize. An Alpha. They lost a lot of their progress when Kor escaped, and they’re not wasting time with him now. I only know he’s just the beginning of what they’ve got planned.”

“So, what happens after this?” I asked. “You can’t expect me to extract one Wolf and leave the others there to their fucking torture.”

She shook her head, leaning over her thighs, and she met my gaze. “I don’t expect that at all. I’m working with more than just Kor. We’re going to use this opportunity to drain the database and send everything we can to every single Alpha Council that’s formed against the humans.”

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