Page 8 of Into the Fire: After
Both of us so goddamned grateful not to be alone.
Eventually, we slowed, pulled back, stared into each other’s eyes. After a moment, he seemed to fully take me in. My greasy hair with bits of dirt and twigs caught in it. The tiny scratches that criss-crossed my body like plaid. And, yes, finally the fact that I had literally zero clothing on. He sighed, pursing his lips together as he brushed the backs of his knuckles along my temple.
“First thing’s first,” he murmured after we’d retreated just inside the cave once more. “Have you eaten anything?”
Then he pulled a small bag from over his back that I hadn’t noticed, opened the drawstring, and pulled out the most beautiful granola bar I’d ever seen.
“I fucking love you,” I said, snatching it from his hands. It was unwrapped and half gone before the thought that we may need to ration even occurred to me. Still chewing, I motioned to offer the remaining bite to him.
One corner of his mouth tipped up in a smirk. “All yours,” he whispered. “And I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just tell me you loved me for the first time over a granola bar.”
Fuck. Thatwasthe first time I’d said it. I swallowed and tore off another bite. “That wasn’t to you.”
“Oh, really?”
“I was talking to the granola.”
“Ah,” Brooks said with an even wider grin. Those fucking dimples would be the death of me.“My mistake.”
The moment was so normal, so like all the other joyful moments with my sunshine beta. I tried to pretend we weren’t sitting in a cave, hundreds of miles from home. That our alphas weren’t all MIA. That we weren’t on the run from a massive corporation with all but endless resources to find us.
For the next few minutes, we didn’t speak. Brooks offered two more granola bars and a bottle of water—all odds and ends left in the vehicle, which he’d hidden a few miles from our current spot.
I made sure there was enough left for Brea, when she returned.
Brooks
Ishouldn’thavefelthappy. Caine and Lin were down for the count, Brea was…somewhere. We were now officially on the lam; Wainwright-via-Phoenix Labs was apparently no longer pulling punches, if the massive show of force at the cabin was anything to go by. That meant Taryn was in constant danger, even more than we’d realized before her heat.
But she was here. In my arms. Breathing and safe for the moment.
Neither of us fell asleep again, content to just lay together, grateful beyond telling that we were no longer alone. But we had three alphas depending on us, and this bubble couldn’t last forever.
But it could last tonight.
Threenightssincetheraid. Two full days since Brea had left, and she still hadn’t returned. Each passing moment shaved Taryn’s thin facade of calm thinner and thinner. For the first time, I was glad we didn’t share a bond, if only because I didn’t want my own fear and panic to add to hers.
And, as I prepared to say what needed saying, I was glad I wouldn’t feel her anger toward me.
“Taryn,” I said gently around midday, “we have to leave.”
She whipped her head toward me in the dark. “We can’t leave.”
“We can’t stay,” I whispered.
“Brea’s still out there. And Caine and Lin—”
“Do you know how much it would hurt them to know you were here, cold and hungry, when you didn’t have to be?” I raised my hand to cup her cheek, taking comfort in the fact that she leaned into my touch instead of away. “Their goal—all of them—was to keep you safe. And we are notsafehere.”
She pulled away then with a huff, standing up as fully as she could in our cave and making for the exit.
“Taryn…” I called out as I followed. We were too exposed outside. Her scent, our sounds could travel.
“Where exactly would we be safe?” she snapped, turning around and crossing her arms over her chest. I’d luckily thought to grab a spare shirt from the back of the car so she was at least dry. “Wainwright is a global fucking corporation. Anywhere we go, they can follow.”
“Then we keep moving,” I said quietly, trying to model safe behavior in hopes she’d follow. “You lived below the radar before, you can again.”
She laughed, bending to pick up a dark stick so she could snap it between her hands. Once, then again. “I don’t want to live below the radar. I want tolive.With my pack. The full thing.”
