Page 58 of Racing the Storm

Danyal gathered up our clothes, along with the sheets and duvet, and grinned at me over his arms. “I’ll get these started, then we should probably eat?”

He was right, even if my appetite was shit. We’d need to fuel our bodies if we were going to make our way to Paris in wolf form. I nodded, then he wandered away, and I carefully gathered up everything we’d left, including the half-gone bottle of wine that I was tempted to finish.

I wanted to make sure we left the place as decent as we found it, but I also knew there was no way to hide that we’d been there. If that patrol came looking again—if they started digging deeper, they’d know we weren’t far ahead of them.

“I found a TV,” Danyal called quietly from the kitchen.

I wandered out and found him holding half a stale baguette, his eyes fixed on a small cabinet that opened up to what looked like a computer monitor. He’d landed on a news channel, and though the volume was off, there were captions scrolling across the screen that he’d turned to English.

‘…the search for Alpha Wolf and soldier Korin Titus and his human companion Misha Kasher has continued abroad. Misha Kasher is the son of prominent geneticist Zivko Kasher and brother to the presidential candidate Alexei Kasher. Alexei Kasher has denounced the actions of his younger brother and warns that he has a long history of inciting violence between humans and Wolves. The pair are considered to be armed and very dangerous. There is a reward for information regarding their whereabouts.’

I turned to Danyal, my heart somewhere near my knees. “Fuck.”

He swallowed thickly, then nodded and walked back into the kitchen. The news articles I’d found the night before had hinted at this, but I hadn’t realized how quickly the information was moving. I desperately wanted to be able to contact someone, but it made sense now why Kor hadn’t activated the phone.

He hadn’t been caught, but it was likely he and Misha were deep in hiding.

“Do you think those Wolves will still be in Paris?” Danyal asked a few seconds before appearing with a small tea tray. There was dried sausage, cheese, and what was left of the fruit spread across; it wasn’t much, but it was enough.

The pair of us slid down to the floor in front of the coffee table, and Danyal began to pick at the meat as I considered his question. “I don’t know. I want to say that they’ll have left something behind, but chances are, they tried to erase all of the evidence that they’d ever been there.”

He hummed, chewing on some of the meat and bread, then he turned his head to look at me. “Maybe we should take the boat option.”

My brows raised. “Seriously?”

“Why bother heading to Paris if it’s just going to end with us getting caught? They might be friendly toward Wolves, but if they’re airing shit about Kor and Misha already, there’s every chance you and I are going to end up on that most wanted list. If we’re not already.”

He had a point. He had more than a point. It was something I’d been thinking about since last night, even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it. Going to Paris was easier because it meant there might be a chance for answers—it might have offered us the opportunity to have help.

But I knew better.

“I have to believe that Arturo wants us to succeed and get the hell out without being caught,” I answered. I hadn’t given it enough thought, but then again, I hadn’t been given time. We had no real options though. It was either brave Paris and turn up nothing, take our chances in another country, or take the possible Trojan Horse that might just end up being a gift after all.

“I trust you,” Danyal said after a beat.

The truth in his voice was almost painful, but I accepted it all the same. “I’m going to look up where we’re heading, and see how long it’ll take us to get there. If it’s only a few hours away…”

Danyal looked at me, and I realized he knew where I was going. “If we leave in the middle of the night, we can make up the hours before anyone knows their car was stolen.”

I felt like I was corrupting him, but in this world, we had to compromise right and wrong to survive. It had been the same with war, and now with Danyal back in my arms, I would do anything to get home with him in one piece.

Even if it meant braving the goddamn unknown.

Chapter

Nineteen

MIKAEL

We spent the afternoon in a sort of casual anxiety, clinging to each other, not moving much, but not daring to take more. Having Danyal close was enough for me though, especially knowing that could change in an instant.

It almost felt like a dream, lounging on a comfortable sofa, in a stream of sunlight, my fingers in his hair. The rest of our plan—the chaos of it—was sitting outside the door. And I was happy to let it wait.

“Tell me about Galen,” Danyal said as the sun started dipping low along the horizon.

I stiffened, not expecting the question, and I looked down at his eyes to try and read them. He didn’t seem uncomfortable, or even worried, and I realized that if I was going to let Danyal in, he’d have to know all of me.

“What do you want to know?”

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