Page 29 of Racing the Storm

Zane, my brain supplied. I didn’t recognize him like that—on all fours, closer to an animal than he was in his wolf form. He was covered in filth and blood, and he was drooling rivers between his fangs. My stomach sank, drowning in bile. Zivko Kasher had done this, and I hadn’t received any updates about his condition since the first time Orion had checked in.

If he was still this way—if this was permanent…

My breath caught in my throat as I watched Zane attack another figure—a blue-eyed wolf in the same feral state as him, though his body was worse. Though the image wasn’t clear, I could still see the mottled scars marring his face that hadn’t been able to heal without a full shift. Something about that Wolf was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“How long ago was this?” I asked, my voice rough.

Amélie ’s look was full of pity, and she shrugged one shoulder. “About two weeks, maybe a little bit more. Nadya doesn’t believe there’s a lot of this footage. Most of it is the labs and the…” She swallowed thickly. “The training.”

The torture, she meant, because that’s what this sort of training was. I bared my teeth, but forced myself to take several breaths and prevent my fangs and claws from coming out because the last thing I wanted to do was set the humans on edge.

I met Hervé’s Alpha gaze—understanding better than anyone else in the room possibly could. It was a fate that could be ours if we didn’t fight hard enough. If we didn’t win.

Amélie reached out and flicked the monitor off, and it jolted me back to myself. I glanced at her, then Hervé again before I let out a breath. “We can’t delay much longer. If he’s using Danyal like that…”

Hervé gave a single nod. “Your Head Alpha will be calling shortly, and then we’ll sit down to make our plan. You understand we must part ways before the compound, yes?”

My head dipped. “I do. And you understand I’ll need some actual time to extract him—especially if he’s—” I stopped and gestured toward the computer, not willing to say it.

That could not be his fate.

“We can give you some,” Amélie said, “but we won’t be able to delay. We have a short window, and we have orders.” At that, she glanced to her left—into the kitchen where Arturo was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. His face was stoic, grief in his eyes, and I wanted to ask why.

Was it love? Was it something else?

Maybe he’d been a human raised in a pack. They were rare, but not unheard of.

“It won’t be long before this is all over,” Arturo said.

Before I could respond, a phone started to ring, and Amélie’s gaze darted over to mine, and she gave a stiff nod before reaching for an archaic flip phone perched at the edge of the desk. She opened the top, then handed it to me, and my heart beat hard as I lifted it to my ear.

“Kor?”

The Alpha let out a sigh. “You made it.” There was a punch of profound relief in his tone, and it comforted me in ways I hadn’t expected it to. I hadn’t realized just how damn isolated I’d been since leaving Corland, but Kor was a touchstone.

“I’m safe. I’m with some people in Paris,” I told him, though I assumed he already knew.

“I’ve been given the brief,” he said. “Misha and I are preparing to head out to retrieve Zane right now.”

I blinked in surprise, pushing away from the table and moving down the small hallway toward the bedrooms. “Misha’s with you? Is that safe?”

Kor scoffed. “Safer than Corland without me there. I’m not sure how many of Marion or Lior’s eyes have infiltrated the borders, but there’s enough of them that I can’t leave him.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and leaned forward until my forehead hit the wall. “Fuck.”

Kor laughed bitterly. “Mm. I have a couple of contacts I’ll be meeting up with. I can’t really discuss it now, but I wanted to speak to you about putting Zane in charge as Head Alpha until my return.”

At that, I stood up straight. He wanted to put the feral Wolf I’d just witnessed on the security feed in charge of Corland—in charge of our piece of the rebellion? “Is that wise?”

“You know that Francisco and Theo won’t be able to take it,” Kor said.

I nodded to myself, because it was true. They could serve side by side, but the power that came with Head Alpha would be too much for their relationship. And there was no telling when I’d be back, not that I wanted the job. I was made to lead, but not like that, and I was too damned distracted by losing my would-be mate.

“How is he?” I finally asked.

Kor let out another long breath. “Recovering. He’s regained cognizance and speech. Orion says he’s got a way to go, but I trust him in Zane’s recovery.”

I almost laughed, because for all that the two of them had tried to hide their feelings from both each other and themselves, it was obvious to every one of us. “I’m sure. But will he be able to shoulder this?”

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