Page 42 of Racing the Storm

Chapter

Fourteen

DANYAL

There was something to be said about sleeping after a battle. I wouldn’t have wished it on anyone. My dreams were intense and powerful, sucking me deep into the pit between reality and delusion, but I also slept deeper than I ever had in my life.

I wondered if that’s what it had been like for all of the Wolves who had gone to war. I remembered how exhausted Zane was when he’d come home, and how many times he’d gone without sleep. Maybe he needed the rush in order to reach that point he could truly rest, and that was a terrifying thought.

But the worst of it was the sleep had claimed me hard enough, I didn’t wake when Arturo returned. And I hadn’t woken when he picked up Mari, the baby, half the supplies, and disappeared.

What dragged me out of the slumber was Mikael’s swearing, the way he was flinging stuff around, and then the quiet roar of frustration. I bolted upright, my eyes squinting in the dim light that was barely filtering down the tunnel from the mouth of the cave. I fixed my gaze on him, and then I realized what was wrong.

There were only two heartbeats.

“He drugged us,” Mikael spat. He shook his head, then dragged both hands down his face. “He fucking drugged us and left.”

I realized the truth of it after he said it. It wasn’t just the adrenaline crash from the night before. My limbs were sluggish, and my brain was still struggling to catch up. I tried to stand, but my legs weren’t eager to cooperate, and when Mikael noticed my struggle, he hurried over.

His hands were powerful, but his grip wasn’t what it had been before, and I could only imagine his frustration with it. He managed to get me to my feet, though, and then he produced a water bottle and shoved it into my hands. “I tested everything else,” he said, waving his hand at me. “I think Arturo had some sort of gas. I don’t think it was the food.”

I was frustrated, but a part of me understood. After everything Mari had gone through, she wasn’t about to lie low—with her newborn baby—with two Wolves she didn’t trust. Especially since that baby was the product of her and an Alpha who would not stop until he found her. I knew she wouldn’t make it easy for Kor, but that wasn’t my problem now.

“Do you want to go after them?” I asked after drinking my fill. My head was finally starting to clear, and I stepped away from him when I was sure I could stand on my own.

Mikael stared at me as his hands dropped to his sides. There was something in his gaze—almost hurt—but I couldn’t read into it. Not now. “What’s the point? He left us enough to survive on.”

That wasn’t very comforting, but Mikael was right. We couldn’t blend into a human crowd, and there was no doubt that if any of Kasher’s men had gotten away, our faces would be everywhere. Without knowing the terrain or a place to lie low, it was only asking to get caught.

“The Wolves in Paris,” he said, then stopped and let out a small, tense laugh. “Fuck, they were Wolves, weren’t they?”

“Who?”

He waved me off. “Never mind. I was staying with some Wolves in Paris. They had a flat there, and we might be able to get sanctuary with them if we can make it. But it’s a long journey, and I’m not sure I want to risk stealing a car.”

I started to pace, trying to get my blood flowing so I could shake whatever Arturo had drugged us with. “We could leave at night—run as wolves. We’d have to leave everything behind though. We can’t risk being slowed down with supplies.”

He bit his lip, then let out a long, slow sigh. “Let’s wait a little while. If we don’t get some communication from the others in a few days, we can try it on our own.”

I let out a small laugh and ruffled my hair, realizing how filthy I felt. I was still bloodied from the gunshot and from all of Mari’s afterbirth. “Do we even have a way for them to reach us?”

Mikael walked over to the small pile of supplies that Arturo had upended, and he sifted around until he came out with a phone. “I already tried to make a call on it, but it won’t go through. I’m assuming Kor will activate it when he has something for us. I could have kept trying, but I don’t want to waste the battery.”

I nodded, feeling only slightly better knowing that our Head Alpha had at least planned this far into the future. We were alone, but we weren’t abandoned. With another glance around, I saw canvas bags full of food that Arturo had clearly left—maybe his way of apologizing for what he’d done.

“He didn’t want to hurt us,” I said.

Mikael scoffed. “No, he just didn’t trust us. I want to be relieved that he took the baby off our hands, but…”

But we’d have to explain that to Kor, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. “There’s nothing we can do now.”

Mikael nodded, then he looked at me. “We should bathe. The water’s freezing, but I found some soap in one of the travel kits. You’re still wounded,” he pointed out when I opened my mouth to argue.

I passed my hand down my side and realized he was right. I was healing, but the wound wasn’t entirely closed. There was little chance of infection, but I was also a doctor, and letting it fester like this went against everything I had ever been taught.

“Okay,” I said finally. I wasn’t looking forward to getting naked in front of him. I was softer than him in all ways, unlike my body when I was younger, and he first took me in that heat. But I supposed if he still didn’t remember, there was no reason to be bothered.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he grabbed one of the packs, then he jerked his head to the side and led me through a small exit hole carved into the rock. It wound through a long tunnel, and the sound of water got louder, and then the room exploded into patches of sunlight.

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