Page 15 of Racing the Storm

She said nothing else, giving me a last nod before shutting the door behind her, and when the silence settled around me, I sank to the edge of the bed and let out a shuddering breath. It would be a miracle if I could find Danyal. It would be more than that if I could get us both out alive.

But I was willing to try.

And, at the very least, I was willing to die before letting him go.

Chapter

Six

MIKAEL

It took a full three days to track Kasher to a house just off the coast. They hit Nice, then went north, to a château we were able to view when Nadya hacked into a satellite. The images were grainy and difficult to see. Even with our vision, and her ability to enhance the shots, I couldn’t tell one person from another. The only thing we got was a figure on all fours with glowing yellow eyes.

An Alpha. An Alpha crawling like a beast.

It was almost too much for me, but I tucked my rage deep inside me to use when I got there and got that monster alone.

“From what I can tell,” Nadya said as I was preparing my second leg of the journey, “they’ve settled in for the long haul. I’ve got a tracker on Alexei, so I’ll be able to tell if he’s on the move, but I don’t think he’s going to be leaving the States with his current bid for president.”

I grit my teeth and nodded. “If I can get my hands on his father, that’s good enough.”

She looked like she wanted to argue, but she held back whatever she wanted to say. “The plane is going to get you about an hour out, and I have a car waiting for you. There’s money and supplies in the back, but you’ll be better off if you don’t stay anywhere public. There’s been some rising anti-Wolf sentiment in France, and we can’t take the risk of you getting detained by some uppity hotel manager.”

It was nothing less than I expected. “I planned to rough it.”

“Kor sent me a message saying you’ll need to lie low until he can secure transport back for you and Danyal. When you get him out, head here,” she pushed a small sheet of paper toward me, and I glanced down to see coordinates written in light pencil. “They’re caves. They’re not the most comfortable, and it’ll be difficult for him to heal if he’s in the same state his brother was in, but they were used during the rebellion about six years ago. The Wolves there have been keeping a lot of them stocked for…well…”

“Days like this?” I asked.

Her eyes turned a little sad and frustrated. “I’m so tired of this, Mikael.”

“I know.” I wanted to reach for her and offer her physical comfort—and maybe take some for myself, but I didn’t want to cross that line or tempt her to cross it. “I’ll do everything in my power to help end this. And I don’t know what Kor has up his sleeve, but I know it’s big.”

Nadya drummed her nails on the table, then let out a sigh. “I’ll be heading for Corland in about two weeks if I’m lucky enough to get this all decrypted. And if not…”

“Go anyway,” Mikael said firmly. “Information or not, we need you safe.”

Nadya stared at me a long while, then offered the ghost of a grin. “Kor said the same thing.”

“I know it’s not ideal. Nowhere is right now, but we’re better together.” I pushed up from the table and headed toward the room. “I owe you for this, by the way.”

“Repay me by making him happy. By being able to find happiness after everything we lost,” she said, and the sincerity in her voice almost brought me to my knees.

I left in the dead of night. I shifted, then Nadya strapped my bag to my back, and I ran for miles, until my strength had nearly depleted. But eventually I found the tiny airfield and the plane waiting for me. It would make a single stop before our destination, and I had no other choice but to trust Nadya’s contact to get me where I needed to go.

I shifted behind an old, dilapidated bathroom, then dressed in the clothes she left before creeping toward the plane. There was a man—human, which startled me—waiting by one of the wheels, a cigarette pinched between his teeth. He was massive—as large as any Alpha I had ever known—with broad shoulders and huge hands. He eyed me carefully, then crushed the burning embers of his smoke under his boot and took a few steps forward.

“Do you speak Spanish?” he asked me in his mother tongue.

I let out a small breath and couldn’t help but smile. My mother, whose entire family had come from Spain, spoke it with me every single day she was alive, and it was something like a visceral relief to use it. “I do.”

He nodded, then gestured for me to step back, and he grabbed a set of short rolling stairs and shoved them toward the door. I was surprised at his strength and at the way he held himself. He was almost like a Wolf, though he had no outward indication of being anything other than human.

But there was something off about him—the way he moved gave off a strength he shouldn’t possess. I took a deep inhale, but his scent gave away nothing. I saw him look over his shoulder though, and I swore he had a knowing grin on his face as he wrenched the door open and headed inside.

The plane was small, but I could tell it was powerful. It had a small seating area for passengers, and he popped open a small bin just as the lights flickered on. They reflected in his rich black hair, which was tied in a messy knot at the back of his head, and he looked at me with his mahogany eyes.

“Do you know how to fly?”

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