AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes flared with recognition and rage. “You can’t see.”
It was almost fascinating, watching Kor straighten, watching fear and indignation crawl up his spine as he took a single step back from Orion. His jaw was set tight, and his shoulders squared like he was preparing to go a round. “I’m not finished healing. I haven’t even really begun. They were keeping me drugged, and I haven’t been able to shake it off enough to shift.”
Orion looked at me again, and I got a full glimpse of his face. He was beautiful—just like Kor was. He had scars littering the right side of his face, like he’d taken the full brunt of an explosion, but it did little to disturb the picture he made. He was a force of nature, just like Kor had been even in his most emaciated state. His Wolf sat just under his skin, and I could see the strength it took to hold him back.
“This is the one Bryn said would get you out? The human?” Orion’s voice was a deeper rumble than Kor’s, the baritone almost rippling through me.
Kor shrugged, but even from the side-view I had of him, I could see shock in his expression. “It was Bryn? Is he…?”
“We don’t know if he survived. I was against him going in, but he was the only one who could set up the explosives.” Orion took Kor by the elbow and shut the door behind him before walking him farther into the living room. I attempted to shift a little farther away, but Orion’s gaze pinned me, and I froze. “The only thing I had was word that you’d be here tonight with a human captive.”
He spat the word like I was a thorn in his heel, and though I understood, I realized I was a thing to these people. Just like they had been to mine.
“Bryn left Misha a car, an address, and some food,” Kor said as he felt for the wall, then sank down again like his legs couldn’t hold him up any longer.
Orion stood there for several beats of my heart, almost frozen apart from his gaze, which darted between Kor’s curled body and my own. There was fury in his Beta blue eyes.
For a moment, I tasted death on the air, and I knew I was far past making demands. A single word from Kor, and Orion would end me.
Finally, he crossed the room and fell into a crouch. His hands hovered, like he was afraid to touch, then one landed on Kor’s shoulder, and the other cupped the side of his neck. Once again, I felt like a voyeur, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away.
“We need to get the fuck out of here, sir.”
Kor let out a rasping laugh. “Do we have somewhere to go? I don’t… They took me before the treaty was signed, and I know I’m not the only Wolf who went missing.”
“There’s a stronghold,” Orion said, and his gaze darted to mine for a second. “We’re gathering Wolves who are sick and tired of the bullshit going on in the capital. On the surface, things are peaceful, but everything changed.”
“How many have been taken?”
Orion’s eyes closed like he was in pain. “Dozens. The press keep telling us that the Wolves who leave are abandoning society because of their beliefs that the war should have never ended. They’re selling some story that the deserters are bigoted against humans, and they’re fighting to keep us all separate.”
“Bullshit,” Kor spat, and Orion gave him a wry grin.
“The sentiment isn’t. At least, not everywhere. There are enough of us who saw through the treaty, and through the Wolves who rose to power.” Orion dragged a hand down his face, then stood back up and looked around the room. “We’ve managed to get a few people inside the government, and a few in strategic positions locally, but it’s not enough. People have been disappearing with greater frequency now. The human labs are getting… demanding.”
Kor’s head lifted, his dark gaze falling a few feet to the right of Orion. “What are they doing?”
“What we suspected they’d do. They’re trying to use our genetics to enhance humans. We haven’t been able to get any of our spies inside. They’re far too suspicious still, and I think it’s been decided we’re going to take the labs out instead of attempting to find a way in.” Orion’s voice sounded more tired than angry, and I supposed I understood it. I hadn’t been captured as long as Kor had, but it was long enough. The idea of fighting more made me ache down to my bones.
“They did something to Misha,” Kor eventually said, and his head tilted a little bit more toward me, though I wasn’t sure he knew where I was.
“They’ve been taking humans too, but a lot of that has been voluntary,” Orion said. His gaze darted toward the window, and though I wasn’t sure how, I felt a rippling sensation of urgency in the air between us. “They’re offering a lot of money for volunteers into their genetic programs. They didn’t have the same sort of luck with us.”
I almost laughed, because of course they wouldn’t. It wasn’t the same anyway. They were attempting to enhance humans—to shift their DNA. Weapons, of course, and breeding stock. But ultimately, the humans would live. The Wolves, however…
How long before Kor would have succumbed to the treatment? With the state I found him in, I knew he wouldn’t have lasted much longer.
“We need to get out of here,” Orion said after a beat. He reached into his back pocket, and my eyes widened when I saw what was in his hands. Plastic zip-ties, and I knew they weren’t for the Alpha.
“You don’t need to—” I started, but he quickly backed me into the wall, spun me, and wrenched my arms behind my back.
I let out a startled cry, and just as the plastic was tightened, Orion’s weight was gone. I heard a thud, and I spun to find Kor crouched over him, claws extending from his fingertips and pressed right against the Wolf’s carotid artery.
“What the fuck are you doing? Let me up,” Orion said, struggling against Kor, but he couldn’t seem to over-power the Alpha.
“What did you do to him?” Kor demanded. His words sounded thick, and I realized his fangs had extended.
Orion’s head tilted to the side—a sign of submission—and though Kor couldn’t see it, he seemed to understand because his posture relaxed a fraction. “He’s a human. I understand he rescued you—but it was to save himself, and I can’t trust that it’s not part of their plan. I can’t walk him into our base unrestrained.”
