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I still had no idea if they would immediately decide to just kill me, but I also knew that going with them—bound or not—was my best option. At least with the Wolves, I might have the chance to plead my case. I knew the same couldn’t be said for the humans.
“I’m going willingly,” I said, and Kor’s head snapped to my direction. “I don’t know if my father turned me into some ticking time bomb or if this is going to kill me. But this is my best option, Kor. So I’m willing to go, even tied up.”
His nostrils flared, then he let go and backed away from Orion, still at a crouch. I watched as the other Wolf stood, moving carefully. His eyes were narrow though, thin slits as he stared at me like he was trying to figure me out. I nearly laughed, because at this point, I didn’t know what the fuck I was either, or why the hell Kor had come to my defense. I was a mistake, maybe, or a weapon. I was most definitely not myself, and it was possible death would be preferable to a life like this.
“He smells—” Orion started, and Kor interrupted with a snort.
“I know. I can’t make sense of it. Do we have people who can figure him out?” The Alpha dragged a hand through his long hair, and it snagged on the tangles.
“We have people working on it,” Orion said, like the words were dragged out of him, and I doubted he’d give more with me in the room.
It was fine. It was something. I straightened up and tried to relax my shoulders, and I said nothing as Orion began to gather whatever evidence we’d left behind. There wasn’t much, but he shoved the remnants of our meals into the bag, and then gathered the old clothes from the lab under his arm.
“Wait here. I’m going to scout the area and make a quick call. We’re out in five.” He stopped by the door and looked back at the both of us. “Alpha,” he said, and I didn’t just hear the deference in his voice, but I felt it at the very core of my being, “please don’t let him loose.”
When Kor said nothing, I lifted my chin. “He won’t. I’m agreeing.”
Orion grunted in irritation, but he offered a nod, then stormed out the door, letting it slam behind him. Kor jumped at the sound, then reached backward and shuffled until his hand met the wall, and he leaned hard against it. He was drained, his face pale, but he remained upright, which I decided to count as a win.
“You almost shifted,” I finally said.
The corners of his mouth lifted, and he turned his head from side to side again before his expression fell. “Yes, but that’s not impressive. We almost never lose our ability to partially shift. It’s not enough to make a difference.”
“I know patience sucks, but…”
“If you’re going to tell me it’s a virtue,” he started, and in spite of the situation—in spite of the fact that I was tied up again and unsure what the hell I was walking into—I laughed.
“I wouldn’t. But it’s necessary. Just like being tied up is necessary.”
At that, his face shifted into a glower, and he tensed like he was going to step toward me. “It isn’t.”
“It is,” I told him. I crossed the distance between us, mostly unable to help it, but I was too damn tired to keep fighting my instincts when it came to him. The warmth of him being close enough to touch, even if I couldn’t move my arms, was enough to settle me. “I don’t know what they did to me. I know it hurts—I know it’s making me sick. And until we’re sure it’s not putting you and everyone else at risk…”
His hands shook a little as they lifted, but they found me. His fingers were too soft from his stay in the lab, but they felt like heaven against the cut of my jaw as he traced the shape of it. Then his palm—large and impossibly warm—pressed against my neck, and I could feel my own pulse beating against it. “I’m not going to let them hurt you.” The force of his promise almost knocked me to my knees, but his grip on me kept me upright.
I bit my tongue instead of telling him he couldn’t make that promise because they might have to hurt me. Or at the very least, they might have to kill me—and maybe they’d be kind about it. I had a feeling they’d be kinder than my father would, if he ever got his hands on me again.
Death by Wolf claw was far preferable than what I knew he was capable of.
Kor dropped his hands, and a few moments later, Orion walked through the door. His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed into a glare again, but he said nothing as he approached us. He allowed Kor to take his arm, and with his other on the back of my neck, he marched me toward the door.
The fresh air felt good for a moment—it felt like freedom. Then we pushed through a small brush and I saw the Jeep waiting, and I knew these moments had been borrowed time. There was a cell waiting again, and more tests. More dark eyes and unsmiling mouths who believed I was nothing more than a test subject.
But Kor was free. He would take his place where he belonged. And though there was no way to tell, something in my gut burned fierce with the belief that he would be the one to put a stop to all of this. Even if I didn’t live to see it.
Chapter Five
KOR
The moment Orion’s scent surrounded me, I felt a sense of home, of grounding in ways I hadn’t experienced in so long. Those nearly four months felt like eons—immeasurable in their misery—and for the long drive, I couldn’t shake the fear that I was about to wake up and be strapped to that bed in the lab. Orion had been my second for so long, and part of my hell was knowing I wouldn’t live to see him again.
But in spite of all that, it wasn’t Orion that kept me grounded when those old memories of the lab threatened to choke me. It was the scent of Misha in the back seat. The fact that he was bound and being carted back to our stronghold like a prisoner made my stomach twist, but he was willing to accept it, and a quiet voice in the back of my head that sounded like Orion told me it was necessary.
The truth was, Misha could be a weapon against us, even if it was against his will. Without examining him, we just had no way of telling what had been done to him, or what the labs were going to use him for. The escape hadn’t been easy, but it had been simple.
Bryn would have never betrayed us—I knew that much. I had known him most of my life. He was an engineering genius and had saved my ass more times than I wanted to count on the front lines. He had been a weaker Beta, but he’d fought alongside us with a ferocity most of the other Wolves couldn’t match. Not knowing if he made it out alive was weighing on me, but if he hadn’t, his sacrifice couldn’t be in vain. He’d seen to it that Misha was the one who got me out, and I would fight tooth and nail to protect the human Bryn had chosen to play hero.
I just needed to heal and take my place as Alpha.
