Page 4 of Racing the Storm

“I never got his name, and you can take your judgment,” I said when I felt it under my skin, “and shove it up your ass.”

After a beat, I felt a flicker of apology. “I worry about you,” he said. “I’m sorry. I just…I don’t want you to suffer.”

“I don’t think either of us has a choice in the matter,” I confessed. Rolling onto my back, I stared at the ceiling. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over, this shitty feeling will pass, I’ll move on with my life.”

“And do amazing things,” he said, like he always did. “When I get back from this fucking war, things will be better.”

I desperately wanted to believe him, but hearing the list of the daily dead, all I could do was lie there and wonder when I would hear his name next. “Please be safe. Please come home,” I begged.

I felt a pulse of grief for a situation neither of us could change. “You know I’ll do my best.”

That’s how we always ended the call, so I cradled the phone, curled up on myself, and tried to forget what the Alpha’s mouth felt like against mine.

Chapter

Two

DANYAL

It took six aching weeks for the last vestiges of that Alpha to fade, and I swore to myself I would never, ever let myself be vulnerable like that again.

Omega or not, my heats were my own. I would suffer, if it meant never risking my heart again.

I threw myself into my work until some days I swore I was nothing more than a walking lab experiment. Every time I felt a little tired though, or a little hot, panic would engulf me. Sometimes it was so bad, I’d get a call from Talia in a blind panic, thinking something was wrong, and it took long conversations to assure her that I was fine.

“It’s just stress,” I’d tell her, the lie coming easy. I think she believed it because it was easier than digging further into the psychological mess we all were in the height of the war.

Another heat never came though, and it made it far easier to ignore the advances of Alphas and Betas I worked with. Life moved on, the Alpha became nothing more than a dusty memory, and then the First War came to an end with the signing of the Equinox Treaty.

Of course, I wasn’t a fool—nor were any of the Wolves I worked with. I was recruited into the rebellion before word of Kor Titus’ abduction hit the public, but when I stood in front of the blossoming council with three Alphas, including my brother, it was the first bit of information they shared.

“We’re sending in Bryn,” my brother said, jutting his head toward a stoic Beta I had met a couple of times when Zane had come home on leave. “We’ve managed to pinpoint his location through a couple of Omegas that are working in the city.”

I stared at the Beta and realized what my brother wasn’t saying: this Wolf wasn’t coming back. It was a suicide mission.

“There has to be a better way,” I said, taking a step forward.

Zane let out a small breath and shook his head. “For now, we can’t think of anything. The closest we can come are our Omega spies in the city. They’re the only ones permitted to work in human government buildings. But they don’t have the training we do, and there’s not enough time to work with any of them. Not if we want to get our people back.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, my brain going a mile a minute. “Maybe I can come up with something. We can’t pass as human, but maybe…” I trailed off. The thoughts in my head were nothing but little starbursts—small atoms of ideas that were struggling to come together to form something bigger.

I needed time.

Zane smiled at me though and nodded. “That’s what I was hoping for. We’re moving underground as we recruit more members. We need a council of at least five, and that’s going to take some time. Most of the Wolves aren’t eager to believe this war is still on.”

I wasn’t surprised by that. We were all exhausted—we were all grieving more losses than we wanted to think about. We just wanted it to be over. “Well, I’m in. Just tell me where to go.”

“We’ve got facilities in a cave system,” one of the other Alphas said. If I remembered right, his name was Theo, but I knew there would be time to get to know them all. “We’ll make sure you have everything you need. And in times like these, we could always use a doctor.”

I wanted to tell him that my skills at practicing medical care were severely limited, but there was no point. After all, he was right—they could use men like me. I had enough training, at least, to help in an emergency.

Of course, I had no idea what was coming, and not just with the blind Alpha and the human Omega that was dumped into my lap a few months later.

No.

My past was about to jump up and bite me in the ass with sharp fangs.

The day the Alpha Council addressed the underground rebellion, I saw him. The night was too many years in the past, but his scent hit me first, and then his eyes fell on mine. Only they didn’t stay there. They grazed over me like I was one of many in the crowd. Like I was just one of the Omega Wolves who had pledged their loyalty to the ones trying to stop this underground war.

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