Page 43 of Racing the Storm

High above, there were small holes, and I could see the overcast white-blue of clouds and sky. I stepped into a stream of sunlight and took in a deep breath of fresh air. I hadn’t realized how starved I was for it. Kasher hadn’t kept me for that long, but I supposed it was the promise of his little prison being all I’d know for the rest of my life that made it feel like an eternity had passed.

“Danyal,” Mikael said quietly.

I blinked, then turned to look at him. His expression was something close to curious, though he was as hard to read as ever. “Sorry. Lost in thought.”

He nodded, then gestured to the pool of running water, which was clear, but dark from the stone beneath it. “Can I ask,” he began, then cleared his throat. “Sorry, I just… How bad was it? With him?”

I took the pack from his hands and rummaged through until I found the soap, gathering my thoughts. “He didn’t hurt me the way he hurt others,” I finally said. I set the small bottle down on the side of the pool, then began to strip down without looking over at Mikael. “He needed me in one piece to help him with his research.”

Mikael hummed in thought, and I startled when I heard his own clothes hit the ground. “Why you? If he’s a genius that managed to turn Misha…why did he need you?”

“He’s dying,” I told him. I set a foot in the water, which wasn’t freezing, but it was far from tepid. I braced myself as I waded farther in, and the sharp smell of it overwhelmed my senses. “He’s losing cognizance right now. He would have known Mari was a Wolf if he hadn’t been sick.”

“But you didn’t know,” he pointed out.

I laughed, shaking my head as I finally submerged myself to the shoulders. An uncomfortable growl rolled up from my lungs, and I ignored the way he was smiling at me, his feet hanging in the water. When I scowled, he tossed me the bottle of soap and gestured for me to get on with it. “I’ve spent my life studying us, and they’re not the same. Kasher has spent his life comparing humans and Wolves. If I’d had enough time, it would have become obvious, but I’m not really sure I wanted to know.”

I lathered some of the liquid, the clean scent of lavender and spice soothing me almost instantly. I didn’t have anything to scrub with, but even the palms of my hands felt like a luxury. I could feel Mikael watching me, I could scent his arousal, and I didn’t let myself fall for it.

It would be foolish.

He and I had been through something harrowing—it was only natural that he wanted release. I just couldn’t be the Omega to give it to him.

Turning my back, I startled when I heard the sound of his body hitting the water, then a palm—cold from the spring—brushed down my arm and plucked the soap out of my free hand. “I’ll appreciate running water and hot showers for a long while after this,” he murmured, too close for comfort.

I felt my dick twitch again—my desire a long dead thing being rekindled. I wanted to rage against the unfairness of my biology, of the idiot beast inside me who couldn’t help but react to this Alpha I’d had once and continued to want to desperately. But there was no point in fighting it. He could smell my desire as clearly as I could smell his.

“Danyal?”

I didn’t turn, but I let out a small hum as I ducked low to rinse my arms off, letting him know I was present. Mostly.

“Did he hurt you?”

The fear and raw vulnerability in his voice had me turning in spite of myself. His eyes were heavy-lidded, his mouth turned down, and he was rubbing one arm absently over the other, brushing bubbles over his skin.

“Yes,” I admitted. “I was starting to wonder if I was going to make it out alive. He kept me locked up, and drugged, and half starved for two weeks. Then when he brought me here, he used Mari as a way of getting me to cooperate.”

Mikael’s eyes flared bright yellow for a moment. “How?”

I obeyed the command of his voice, my words flowing easier than I expected them to. “If I did as he asked, she was allowed to eat and sleep. If I didn’t…”

He swallowed thickly. “If you didn’t?”

“I found Yasin,” I told him, my voice very soft. “Kasher was keeping him as a dog. I knew,” my voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. “I knew that’s what they’d done to Zane. Some sort of infusions to keep him in a half-shift. He was torn to pieces, but he was alive. I don’t know how much of him was there, but I could see in his eyes he wasn’t lost. I fed him, and Kasher took it out on Mari.”

I could feel the fury rippling off Mikael in waves, like crackling electricity in the air between us. “I will kill him.”

“I think you’ll have to get in line,” I said quietly. Against my better judgment, I reached a hand out and laid it on his shoulder. He stiffened, but only for a moment, and then he leaned ever so subtly against my grasp. “Why did you come for me?”

He turned his head, staring at me for a long second, but I couldn’t read his expression. “We should get dressed,” he said after a beat.

My heart sank to my toes, but I nodded anyway. He was right. This was no time to be analyzing why he was there. I waded to the edge of the pool, then pulled myself onto the ground. We had no towels, so I did the only thing that made sense, and I shifted.

My bones ached with how long it had been, but the moment my paws hit the ground, it was like a breath of relief. All the aches in my body immediately began to lift, and I was comforted by the scent of my mate.

He was close, but not close enough—still human.

It was easier to process, though, as I shook myself over and over. My fur settled, damp but not soaked, and the sun coming through the holes in the roof warmed me to the skin beneath my coat. I stiffened when I heard his bare feet padding across the cave floor, but when he sank fingers into my fur, I rumbled.

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