Page 9 of Racing the Storm

Until I looked at those eyes and that soft hair and I realized just how intimately I knew this Wolf.

Years of practice kept me from reacting as I stared at him and listened to Zane sing his praises. Danyal—his name was Danyal. He was a genius and single-handedly going to save our people, his brother declared. He was working on projects that were meant to counter what the humans were doing in labs.

But I was lost, hearing nothing, deep in memories of heat-warm skin and slick as I sank my cock into his body.

He recognized me too. He was an open book, just like he had been the night I found him. I saw the betrayal in his eyes, the hurt, and even the edge of want.

And he was unbonded, which was maybe the worst of it all. No other Wolf had claimed him as his. He was just as alone as I was.

Because war had fostered the cruel beast inside me, I allowed my eyes to deaden, allowed him to believe I didn’t remember that night. In his mind, after that meeting, he likely believed he had been nothing more than a warm, slick, willing hole for me to relieve myself. The bond was a consequence I had never wanted, and it was forgotten as quickly as it had formed.

No one would ever hate me as much as I hated myself, so I allowed Danyal his indignation and disgust, and I would be sure to keep my distance.

It would have worked too. It would have been the perfect arrangement if Zane hadn’t gone missing and Danyal hadn’t run after him like the brave, gorgeous fool he was.

And now it was up to me, because things were a shit-show, and there was no one else to go after him. I knew if I did this—if I volunteered—that would be it. I wouldn’t be able to hide how much I still desperately wanted him—how much I knew he was mine. And I supposed, in the end, it would be worth it if I got him home alive.

I waited until everyone had cleared the room apart from myself and Kor, who was standing at the window. He faced the outside, and it was one of the few moments I wondered what it was like for him now—the months under the cruel hands of the humans, returning battered, sightless, then bound to a human.

But I had lived most of my life apart from others. After losing my mate, there seemed no point in letting myself focus on anything other than the mission. But Danyal destroyed that for me now, knowing he was in danger. Knowing what the humans were capable of and letting myself think for even a second about what he was suffering.

“Mikael,” Kor said softly, prompting me to speak.

I dragged my tongue over my lips, then let out a small breath. “I’m going after him.”

Kor turned his head, and his black eyes fixed on me. There was just the slightest sliver of yellow around his pupils that glowed with his frustration. “We don’t know where the hell he is.”

“I know, but we have contacts that might be able to trace him now.” He knew I was referring to Nadya. I had been her point of contact lately since Kor was attempting to mitigate the fall-out from the information going as wide as it did. “And you can’t tell me that you’re willing to just let him go.”

The day before, Misha’s brother—Alexei—had gone public saying he wanted to unite the human and Wolf government. We all understood it for the threat it was. Then we’d gotten the call asking for Kor and Misha’s heads, and suddenly those we believed we could trust turned into the unknown enemy once more.

The last thing in the world I wanted to do was abandon Corland, but we couldn’t afford to send a team of Betas we couldn’t trust after Danyal.

“There’s no one else,” I said after a long silence.

Kor bowed his head and took a breath, then made his way back to the table where his hand skimmed the top for his phone. “We can’t leave Corland to a council of two, and Misha and I have to leave.”

My stomach twisted, hearing the plans, but I supposed it’s what I would have done. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“I think so,” Kor said. “But I’m not going to tell you. I’m not going to tell anyone. I’ll get Orion and Zane back on the road before I head out, but I’m going to assume you’re not planning to stick around for that long.”

“You know I can’t. It would be stupid not to leave now,” I confessed, and I saw the resignation on his face. “I’ll make my way down south with Nadya, and then I’ll take it from there. If anyone can track Danyal, it’ll be her.”

He didn’t argue with me. “Give it another week,” he said after a long pause. “I don’t want to risk sending you out for nothing, and there’s every chance Danyal will manage his own get away.”

Of course, I knew that was bullshit, and so did Kor, but it was protocol. I wanted to tell him he could shove that request up his ass, but it made sense. A week would give me time to line up some contacts and get a better lead on where Danyal had been taken. It was obviously Kasher, but the man was always on the move. And now that Nadya had blown his cover wide open to the rest of the world, he was even further into the wind.

“Fine. But not more than a week,” I told him. “The gods only know what they wanted him for.” Though that was also a lie. We knew exactly what Kasher wanted with our top geneticist.

“Promise me you’ll check in with Talia before you go. She’ll be able to tell you what state Danyal’s in. If he’s as bad as Zane was…”

“Don’t say he’s not worth the rescue,” I snapped, and his mouth curved into a smile.

“I wouldn’t. None of us aren’t worth the rescue. Just…be prepared for what you find. Orion didn’t tell me much, but he didn’t have to. I could feel it in the pack bond.” He let out a trembling sigh. “Zane’s not going to be the same.”

“None of us are,” I reminded him. Even those of us who’d just been grazed by these wars were forever shadows of our former selves. It was the sacrifice we made to fight for our future. “Which Alpha are you going to bring in?”

“Her name is Aisling,” Kor said, and I frowned. I hadn’t heard of her, but there was something in his tone that told me he trusted her implicitly. “She won’t stay forever. I’m going to have to call in a favor for this, and I know Theo and Francisco won’t be happy.”

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