Page 45 of Own to Obtain

He felt her nod next to his neck and he turned then headed back down the stairs. When he exited the back door to check that the carriages had been secured, he was annoyed to see the doors of the kennel swinging open.

“What is it?” Shaya asked as he came to a stop in the center of the empty kennel.

“This isn’t a good sign,” he said. “The kennel is supposed to be secure.”

“Where is the sled pack?”

“They should have been taken to their bunker.”

Shaya was silent for a moment. “Are they safe?”

“I don’t know,” Kardos admitted. “We won’t know until the blizzard is over and we can search for them. Hopefully, if the kennel master has done his job properly, they will all be safe in their bunker.”

Shaya was silent, but Kardos could tell she was uneasy at the idea that the pack could be hurt. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. There was no way to know where they were or what had happened.

He turned and headed back out to the front where the blizzard carriage was waiting for them.

“Where is their bunker?” Shaya asked finally.

“It is farther out, a few miles from here.”

In the silence, Shaya’s next question was obvious.

“You want to check on them,” Kardos said evenly.

“Only if… if we have time,” Shaya said hesitantly. “I just don’t want anything happening to them.”

Kardos made a noise the back of his throat. “This is the way it is in a blizzard, Shaya,” he said firmly. “We have to trust everybody has done their jobs, that they have followed their training.”

“I know,” she said hurriedly. “But that pack is special to me, to us.”

Kardos growled in frustration but knew what she meant. That was the time they had spent together, with each other, and with that pack. She had named them— they were important to her.

With a frustrated sigh, he spoke to Denos and then opened the hatch and climbed in with her, kneeling on the cushion with her strapped to his back.

“We are going to check the bunker before we head to the village,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said softly, pressing a kiss to his neck.

He grumbled in response, but that kiss made it worth it.

The carriage took off and they sat in comfortable silence, Kardos’ hand stroking her thighs until that wasn’t enough. He untied the blanket around her and unhooked her legs so he could bring her around to straddle him again and kissed her and cuddled her to his heart’s content. The bliss that embraced him when she touched his face, stroked his beard, kissed him back was incomparable to anything he’d ever felt. It wouldn’t have mattered if the blizzard tore them apart at that very moment—he would die in his Omega’s arms and he would be happy.

The carriage abruptly stopped and the driver banged on the wall but it was too soon to have arrived at the bunker.

Kardos climbed out of the hatch. “What is it?” he asked.

“Over there,” the Denos shouted back. “On the edge.”

Kardos turned to see that on the edge of the island, where parts of the rock were breaking away, one of the wolves was on an enormous bit of broken icy rock drifting out into the sea.

Shaya gasped. “That’s Yepa,” she cried. “He’s drifting out to sea!”

Kardos’ heart dropped, seeing the smallest of the pack had become separated from the rest. If the pack were to lose him, they would never be the same, and yet it didn’t seem anything could be done. The wind was pushing him away too fast, and although there were a number of battered boats on the edge of the island, none of them were suitable to row out into the violent sea.

“Yepa! Yepa!” Shaya turned to Kardos, her eyes wide. “We have to get him! We can’t leave him to die.”

Kardos pulled her in close. “Shaya,” he said in her ear, his voice low. “We cannot save everybody in these kinds of circumstances. He is too far away for us to do anything, and it would mean putting you at risk. I cannot do that. You are my Omega. He is a beast.”

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