Page 36 of Rivers and Roads

“That got complicated,” Kor said, regret in his tone. “Most of us here were trained for war. Physical war. My contact at ComTech was an Omega Wolf who had to go into hiding. I have a scheduled meeting with her, but she’s got a target on her back, and not just by the humans.”

I knew that. There had been enough Wolf scent around that compound to know that we were in bed with more than just the enemy. We were married, bonded, creating a family of corruption that stretched from top to bottom.

“She has everything we need, but it’s going to take time for her to finish it all.”

I took in a breath, then nodded. “I get it. Look, why don’t Orion and I hit the road and meet you…”

“No,” Kor barked, and my jaw snapped shut against my will. “I know for a fact you have more healing to do, and your faces will be everywhere. You can’t move.”

I backed up until I hit a tree, then braced myself on it as my legs started to feel weak. He was asking me to stay here? With the Wolf I had just…taken? And the gods help me if Orion went into heat again.

“I can’t,” I told him flatly.

Kor scoffed. “You can and you goddamn will. I didn’t just risk and lose lives for you to get caught again.”

I was hit with a small surge of guilt, though it didn’t change the fact that my point stood. I couldn’t stay here. “You don’t understand.”

“I do. What you just went through…”

“It’s not that,” I told him quickly, though I regretted it instantly. It would have been easier to let him think the reason I couldn’t stay was trauma, but I had never been able to lie effectively. Not when it counted. “Orion went into heat.”

Kor sucked in a breath. “Shit. Tell him to get off the fucking serum.”

My brow furrowed. It seemed like a logical solution, but it seemed illogical that Orion wouldn’t have done that the moment he left DC. “I don’t know if he’s still on it.”

Kor was quiet for a long moment. “Are his eyes still changed?”

“Yeah,” I said. At least, they had been the last time I had seen him, when I was thrusting into his ass, knotting him full and filling him with my seed.

“Fuck,” Kor whispered, then said it again louder. “How bad is the heat? Are you with him right now? Jesus, he’s gonna send you into a rut…”

“I’m outside the cabin,” I told him, not willing to voice the rest. “I’d be more help if I could join in the search for Danyal.”

“You know why you can’t do that,” Kor answered softly. “Look just…ride it out as best you can. Orion trusts you more than any other Wolf besides me.”

That felt like a dagger to my heart, and I bowed my head on a burst of pain. “I know.”

“He’ll trust you to get him through this. And the moment I hear from Nadya, I will be in touch. Just…stay safe.”

I ended the call with nothing else to say, because what else could I do besides confess the greatest sin I had ever committed?

Chapter

Sixteen

ORION

Iwoke aching and sore, but more sated than I had ever been in my entire life. The day before was hazy, but it didn’t take long for humiliation to creep up my spine when I remembered how shameless I had been. How the heat had crept over me, how I had rolled over and begged for Zane to take me.

I wasn’t sure how I’d ever be able to look him in the eye again—assuming he remembered what happened. But that, somehow, made it worse. Knowing he had no control, that he was all instinct and rut, and I hadn’t been able to stop my heat?

The humans had done this, of course. They had forced our hands and removed our choice, but I should have run. The moment I felt the heat creeping up on me, I should have lost myself in the woods until it passed. I would have left Zane undefended, but he would have remained undefiled, and I had to trust he could have taken care of himself in the few days it took for the heat to pass.

Now, I would have to live with this for the rest of my life, and if he ripped my throat out, it was the least I deserved.

Rolling onto my back, I realized I was still sticky with slick and covered in his scent. The last vestiges of the heat were fading, but not fast enough to stop me from burying my face in the pillow and breathing in a chest full of us. It settled something in me I hadn’t realized was worked up, and I forced myself to stand because it wasn’t fair to linger like that.

I felt a small pang of nerves when I realized Zane wasn’t in the room, but a quick hunt found him passed out in the bedroom at the far end of the hall. He was clothed, and he looked clean. No trace of my scent remained on him, and I wasn’t sure what that meant.

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