Page 35 of Racing the Storm

Danyal was trembling by the time we hunkered down, and Mari was out of breath, leaning against me even heavier. She was holding her stomach, but when I tried to touch her, she shoved me way.

“Let her rest,” Danyal said quietly.

I let her slip from my grasp, leaning her against the wall before I took a few steps back and ran fingers through my hair. I wasn’t sure what to do now. I had no idea what Hervé and Amélie had done—or what more they could do. Was Kasher still alive? Were there other Wolves there?

“I can hear you thinking from here,” Danyal said after a beat.

I was almost afraid to look at him, terrified of what I might find, but he was the same Wolf I had last seen in Corland. He looked more wary, like he hadn’t slept or eaten in days, but he was okay.

Fuck, he was okay.

I swallowed thickly, then took a few steps closer, dropping into a crouch. The pack was full of supplies, but I was afraid to touch it in case we had to run again.

“Where were you hit,” I asked him. I could see a trail of blood from his side, running down to his thigh, and he dragged his hand along his shirt.

“It hit one of my ribs, but it missed my lung,” he said.

It was an easy heal, if he could shift. If not, it would take hours. “Anything else? Did Kasher give you anything…”

“No,” he said, his voice tight. “Kasher wanted me for something else. He needed me cognizant.”

I didn’t have to try and guess what it was. There had been whispers about Kasher wanting Danyal’s research for weeks before he was taken. “They went after him,” I said, letting my legs fall beneath me. My back hit the wall of the little cave, and my eyes drifted to the distance—to the flickering flame and plumes of smoke. I smelled charred wood and stone, and under that, electronics and chemicals. “Their plan was to take Kasher into custody and rescue any Wolves inside.”

“Yasin,” Danyal murmured.

It took a second for the name to hit me, and then shock took over, and I stared at him with wide eyes. “Yasin?”

“He was…a Beta,” Danyal breathed out with a stuttered sigh. “A feral Beta. One of the first ones.”

“No. He’s dead. His mate…” I trailed off. It could have been another Yasin, but… “It’s not possible.”

Danyal grimaced. “Kasher’s son told me they tortured him until his mate bond broke, and his mate thought he was dead. Then he began to experiment on him. That’s what they were trying to do with Zane before Orion got to him.”

I winced, but my heart was racing for Nadya because it meant…it meant her mate was alive. But it also meant he had spent too long under Kasher’s heel, and I wasn’t sure there was coming back from that.

“Zane came out of it,” I told him.

Danyal let out a pained, wheezing laugh. “I know. I could feel him in the pack bond.” He dragged his tongue over his lower lip, and I hated that I could remember what his skin tasted like. “Why are you here?”

I couldn’t help my incredulous look. “Why the hell do you think I’m here?”

“For me?” he asked. “Were you the only Alpha free to go?”

This was no place for the truth, so I offered a soft grunt, then looked back at the woman who was still holding her stomach. She was more pale than before, and I could scent something on her that was…wrong.

“Are you…?” I started.

She shook her head hard, then curled into a ball. “It might be labor.”

“Fuck.” I pushed to my feet, pacing a few steps. “Fuck! We can’t…this…” I turned to Danyal. “She’s human. I don’t know how to keep a human alive.”

Danyal said nothing.

“We can’t take her,” I stressed. “We need to call the human authorities after we get the fuck out of here and…”

“It’s Kor’s child,” Danyal said quietly.

I laughed, unable to stop myself, because that couldn’t be true. “Very funny,” I snapped. “Now isn’t the time for…”

---