Page 36 of Racing the Storm

“I’m not joking.” Danyal’s voice was flat, heavy with the weight of that truth, and my ears began to ring a little. “The first thing Kasher did was tell me she was carrying Kor’s child. That was how he got my cooperation.” He paused for a second. “And she’s most definitely in labor.”

I took a step back, my head shaking. “Kasher was obviously lying, Danyal. Don’t be an idiot. It’s not possible. You know why that’s not possible.”

Danyal bit his lip, then nodded. “It is possible…because she’s not human. Though, she hasn’t told me what she is. But Kasher believed she was a human with a genetic anomaly that allowed her to carry a Wolf child to term. That’s why he kept her for so long.”

My ears began to ring louder, and I only stopped moving when I hit the wall again. Fuck. We couldn’t leave her. We couldn’t leave this child. Catching my breath, I turned my head to look at him, then down at her.

“What are you?” I demanded.

She didn’t look at me, and she didn’t speak. When my rage began to surface again, Danyal let out a small warning growl, and I quickly tempered my wolf.

“This isn’t her fault. She was protecting herself, and we have no right to demand answers from her.”

I swallowed thickly, then squared my shoulders. “She’s carrying your Alpha’s child. I think you have every goddam right.”

At that, Danyal scoffed. “She was kidnapped, tortured, forcibly inseminated. She’s carried this child to term against her will. I understand that this is Kor’s child, but it’s also hers. And she sure as shit didn’t ask for any of this.”

Fuck. He was right, and I was behaving like a goddamn monster. I felt sicker, if that was possible, and I turned my gaze back to the pillars of smoke rising off in the distance. Straining my hears, I couldn’t hear anything apart from sirens as the human authorities rushed to the scene. We were too far to tell if any of Kasher’s men had escaped—if Kasher himself had escaped.

I wanted to kill him more now than ever. After what he did to this woman—to Danyal and to Zane. To countless other Wolves and humans and whatever the fuck species this woman was.

I thought about Yasin, who was apparently alive, though I wouldn’t be able to process that for some time. I could only imagine what Nadya would go through when she learned the truth. If I had mourned Galen and put him to rest, only to find him under Kasher’s all-too human claws, I wasn’t sure what the hell I would do.

Mari’s breathing began to speed up, and just as I turned to see if her labor was progressing, I heard them. Footsteps. I’d been too caught up in my thoughts to realize someone was coming up the hill, and before I could take my stance, Mari screamed. A man—a human—had her by the neck, holding a blade to her stomach.

“Don’t be stupid,” I growled at him.

I could smell burned skin and hair on him, and his hands were shaking, but he was functioning on pure adrenaline. He probably didn’t even feel the pain. “I’m under orders,” the man said, and I saw red clinging to his teeth. He was bleeding internally, and if I could stall him, his strength would fail and he’d die. “I’m killing the bitch and taking the pup.”

Danyal hopped to his feet, but before either of us could make a move, there was a roar from a few feet away. I blinked as a shadow leapt through the mouth of the cave, and before the man could do more than drag a shallow cut along Mari’s stomach, claws ripped his throat out. He sputtered, falling to his knees as Danyal rushed forward to grab Mari, and then he hit the ground.

My breath came in a stuttered gasp as I looked up, and for a moment, my brain refused to process what I was seeing. It was Arturo. His hair had come loose from the tie, and his eyes were a dark, glowing, Alpha red. His mouth was full of fangs, and his fingers—clawed as they were—still held bits of flesh from the human’s neck.

“What,” I started.

He grimaced at me, his fangs protruding over his lip. “No time. We need to get the fuck out of here. About half a dozen of that fucker’s men survived and,” he sniffed, then his eyes moved over to Mari and he let out a soft whine. “What happened to her?”

Danyal swallowed thickly. “She’s pregnant, and she’s currently in labor.”

Arturo stared for a long time, then his gaze moved back to mine. “Answers later. I promise.”

I wanted to fling myself against him and force him with my own teeth and claws to make him talk, but he was right—there was no time. “The caves are too far to make it with her like this.”

“I have a ride, but we need to move now before they realize which way we ran,” he snapped. With that, he crossed the short distance between himself and Danyal and pulled Mari out of his arms. She let out a quiet groan and clung to him, and I shoved aside all of my questions as I reached a hand for Danyal.

He hesitated only a second, then his palm met mine and I was hit—like a bolt of lightning—with how right he felt. I wanted to bury myself in his scent, shove my nose into his neck and not move for days. For weeks.

I wanted to cling to him and make up for all those lost years I should have been his.

“Move,” Arturo snapped, and my feet began to follow. He had a small, off-road vehicle that was idling not far off. The tires were huge, made for rough terrain, and it was the only thing that comforted me as I climbed in.

Arturo set Mari in the back, with Danyal at her side, then he climbed behind the wheel and gave me a sharp look. “You’re the guide. Tell us where to go.”

It took me longer than I wanted to dig out the coordinates, but eventually Arturo had them in hand, a small GPS unit the size of his palm guiding us. The engine was surprisingly quiet, but I supposed that was fitting for a man like Kasher who wanted to operate in stealth.

He’d been stealing us for years now, small, unobtrusive white vans snatching us off the streets. And no one had paid attention. I wondered how far his influence extended in this country. It was a ridiculous thought, but it was the only one keeping my sanity together because I had no time to process anything.

My big rescue mission had turned into a forest run with my mate by my side and a pregnant woman who was inhuman. And somehow this man had managed to keep the scent of his Wolf hidden from me. And never once had his eyes flashed. My stomach roiled, and my head threatened to spin, so I grabbed the edge of the door and stared ahead until we reached a small pass.

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