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I closed my eyes and stared at the light behind my closed lids. “You’re not wrong. The crap they used to teach us in school.” I shook my head and sighed. “It was obviously nonsense, but everyone was so ready to lap it up. It didn’t help that every time one of us tried to question Wolf biology, we’d get in trouble for it. My father never hid the truth from us, but he was more obsessed with how he could use it in humans than how Wolves functioned.”
I could hear a faint growl coming from Kor, and though I didn’t know how or why, I could tell that if he’d had the strength, he would have shifted.
“We can stop talking about this if it makes you want to claw my face off,” I offered, and the growl stopped abruptly. When I looked, he was wearing a faintly apologetic grin, though there was something a little dark about his edges.
“It’s not you. I don’t think you’re a threat, Misha.” He stopped for a moment, then something in his face turned sad, and I swore I could feel the emotion pulse between us. “I’m not sure any of my people will agree with me,” he said, as though I didn’t already know what a massive risk I was taking in staying there with him.
“I don’t think what they could do to me would be worse than what he did,” I told him. I pushed to my feet, and when I realized I was stable, I held a hand out. “Want help up?”
He brushed me aside as he stood, but when he looked a little lost at sea, I put his hand back on my shoulder and led the way into the living room. “I think they’ll be here tonight,” he said when we reached the pile of old cushions. “The bond is like an electric current—the air right before a lightning strike.”
Yes, I thought, because I could feel it whenever he was close to me. I just didn’t know why or how. Even if I wasn’t entirely human anymore, I shouldn’t have felt anything with him. He and I were brought together by circumstance, and if he was smart, he’d abandon me as soon as he had the chance. I was a freak, after all. Whatever my father’s lab had done to me, it turned me into something wrong.
Which was likely why my body was rejecting whatever it was trying to become.
As though my body wanted to remind me, I was hit with another cramp just as Kor let me go, and I dodged his questing hand as he reached for me. “I’m fine. Just not feeling well. Let me get some food or something.”
He bared his teeth, and I swore his canines were sharper than before. It probably wouldn’t be long before his full shift—and I had no idea what that might mean for him. In truth, all I had was the information written by humans trying to prove that Wolves were nothing more than beasts. I knew better than to take them at face value, but reading between the lines was harder.
After all, there had to be some measure of truth to all of it. I just wasn’t sure what part.
I appreciated the space between us as I rummaged around in our supplies. We had canned food, but nothing to cook it with, so our last choices were the MREs or the rest of the bread and half a jar of peanut butter that had seen better days. I had a feeling preserved meat would only make me feel worse, so I took the loaf and jar and wandered back into the living room.
Kor was there, on his knees with his hands feeling across the floor. He was a few feet too far to the left for the stack of water I’d left, and I debated a long moment before speaking. “About three feet over,” I told him.
He swore under his breath, but he adjusted himself and eventually found what he was looking for. “Thanks,” he grunted, and I fought the urge to tell him not to thank me when he clearly didn’t mean it.
Settling on the floor, I let my back rest against the wall, then I tore the bread into pieces and used the crappy little plastic knife to spread some of the peanut butter across the thick crusts. I could almost see the way hunger rippled through him, and I knew this was probably damn-near starving him. There wasn’t a lot I could do about it except hope he was right about his friends showing up.
“Here,” I told him and put the bread within reach. I tried not to stare as he searched for it, using his thick fingers in delicate ways I hadn’t thought a Wolf of his size was really capable of. He stared at me too—almost like he could see me. And it was unsettling with the way his pupils consumed his irises, and the way his nostrils flared like he was watching me through scent. “I’m hoping we can get some better food soon.”
Kor grunted as he finished off the makeshift meal, then he sat back and swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “If they don’t get here in the next day or so, we have to leave.”
My eyes widened. “Uh.”
“I’m not going to finish healing out here,” he went on, my pathetic attempt at a protest going ignored.
“Yeah, well, I don’t exactly have cash on me to get us anywhere, and believe me, if my father’s men get their hands on us again…” I trailed off, knowing I didn’t need to go into specifics. Not with him.
Kor’s jaw went hard though, and his chin lifted. “It doesn’t fucking matter. We’re running out of food pretty goddamn fast, and it’s not like I can go hunt like this.” He waved his hands at his eyes.
A small part of me wondered if that was actually true—especially in his Wolf form. There were plenty of animals that survived—even thrived—without sight. But I knew that losing a sense was a shock to his system. Maybe even worse because he wasn’t just a Wolf, he was an Alpha.
I had no real basis for my argument though, so I kept my mouth shut, and probably wisely. There was irritation rising from him, bringing up my own hackles in defense. I knew he couldn’t see it, but he could probably sense it because he kept back and didn’t try to touch me the way he had the last time we sat together.
I regretted it a little—his touch had been grounding and comforting, though I didn’t deserve it. Even if I hadn’t been the one to fill him full of poison, to take pieces of him, it was my people who had. My father who had. It was reason enough to kill me, but I didn’t really want to put that idea in his head.
It didn’t matter that I was the victim of circumstance—I was the living embodiment of so much of his pain.
Before I could speak again, I startled from sudden headlights in the window. It was at the same time Kor leapt to his feet—and I knew then the moment had come. My heart thrashed in my chest, and I found myself trying to shrink back and stay as small as possible.
It worked—at first. When the door was flung open and a massive body slipped inside the room, I was nothing. I was nobody. The Wolf had Kor, first by the arms, then in a crushing grasp. The new stranger tilted his head to the side, and Kor rubbed his face against his neck. I had never seen two Wolves like this before, and it felt oddly voyeuristic, watching them trade scents.
I could almost hear the subvocal growling—a vibration rippling over my skin as the Wolf tipped his head farther and allowed Kor to drag the flat of his palm over his pulse. They didn’t stay more than an inch apart, and when that was done, their foreheads pressed together.
“Orion,” Kor eventually breathed out. There was a sort of punched-out, grieving tone of relief in his voice, which made my stomach ache because no matter who found me from my people, I would never be welcomed home like that.
It didn’t take long for the other Wolf’s eyes to catch me though. He looked over Kor’s shoulder, then pulled back in defense. His mouth opened to speak, but then he turned his head and his gaze caught Kor’s.
