Page 33 of Racing the Storm

He scoffed and shrugged. “You may be right, but it doesn’t matter either way.”

I tensed, clutching the back of the chair he’d wanted me to sit in. “Is it enough?”

“For what? To feed her?” he asked with a grin.

I clenched my jaw and met his gaze. If I had to choose between tortures, I would allow her hunger for as long as it wasn’t dangerous, but I knew it was safer not to answer. He would get more joy out of telling me know, reminding me her condition was my fault.

Kasher let out a sigh. “For now. But tomorrow is another day, dog.”

I didn’t flinch. Instead, I strode out of the room and to my own. I half-expected to be followed, but Kasher’s arrogance would be his downfall. He believed I was losing hope, and he was confident that even if someone came for me, there would be no point.

But I wasn’t going to wait. I was going to push Ivan into pulling the trigger, because enough was enough. It would be difficult to escape with Mari, but I would do it. I had no other choice. Kasher was closing in on his research. He believed she was a human—but it wouldn’t last forever. Her genetics were close, but not enough, and it was only the fact that his disease was eating away at his brain that he hadn’t figured it out.

It turned out, however, that I wouldn’t need to. Ivan was ready.

Moving into my room, I came to a halt when I saw Mari standing there, pressed against the wall. Ivan was on his knees, shoving something into a bag, and he looked over his shoulder at me. “The systems are going to go down just before midnight. You have to be prepared to run.”

I glanced at Mari who was staring at me with wide eyes. I wasn’t sure about the expression on her face, but she remained still, giving nothing away. “How do you know they’re not listening?”

“Because I’ve made it so they’re not,” Ivan said. “It won’t last, but it won’t matter after tonight.” He zipped up the bag, then shoved it under my bed. “He’ll spare a few men to go after you, but not many. And there’s a Wolf on his way to intercept you.”

“Who is it?” I demanded.

Ivan spread his hands. “They wouldn’t give me their name. I wasn’t given a lot of information in case my father gets the upper hand.”

It made my job difficult, but it also made sense. “I’m not proficient in human weapons,” I told him, eyeing the spot where he’d shoved the bag, then I looked up at Mari. “I can’t protect you that way.”

“I’m not worried about that,” she said.

I wondered what she was. She was so…human. She looked fragile and terrified, her stomach showing off her vulnerability. But there was more to her than that. She clenched her jaw, then took a step forward.

“Can I trust you, Omega? To do what needs to be done.”

I flinched at that, the slight unexpected from her. She wasn’t human, but she clearly held the same misunderstandings and prejudices. “I’ve survived the First War alongside every Alpha and Beta who fought. And I’ve survived this far under Kasher’s eye. So yes.”

She didn’t drop her gaze, but she did look over at Ivan, then she nodded. “Unlike him, I’m proficient with human weapons. Make sure I’m armed.”

Ivan made a soft noise, his face warring with indecision, then he crossed the space between them and took her face between his hands. “I’m sorry.”

I took a step back. I thought for a moment he’d been lying to me about loving her, but then he leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead in a soft kiss. There was love there, but not the kind I imagined. I burned to ask again, but it wasn’t the time.

“The Wolves are going to take me tonight, and with any luck, they’ll take my father,” he said.

My brows lifted. “What will they do with you?”

“Whatever they choose, I deserve it. But I’ve made sure they know Yasin must be rescued. There’s a plan in place for the others my father hid away. The information was released by one of your own.”

Orion had done it—exactly as planned—and I could feel in the bond he had also saved my brother. “You can trust me with the rest,” I told him, and I saw in his eyes that he believed me. I wasn’t trained for this, but I had to believe I was capable of saving both myself and Mari from whatever was coming.

We would have to lie low until the threat from Kasher was neutralized. After that, we’d face the whole world, because Kasher’s plan wasn’t just to torture Wolves. The first domino had already fallen with Alexei—and we wouldn’t see the bigger picture it made until they were all on the ground.

But I wanted to be free for that—to be unrestrained, because I would fight—training or not, Omega or not.

I looked at the pair of them—somehow family, likely to never see each other again. The consequences of this hate, this prejudice, this beastly cruelty—it went so far. And I wasn’t sure there was a way to pull any of us out.

Chapter

Twelve

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