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I blinked rapidly. “What?”
“You can’t stop thinking, and we have hours before moonrise. Let’s go for a walk,” he said.
I opened my mouth to argue with him that it wasn’t safe, but I realized that was pointless. Although Orion still hadn’t gotten anything out of Sanderson, the investigations had turned up nothing. The guard on our apartment was increased, and there was no reason to believe anything would happen inside the compound with everyone watching.
“Okay,” I finally said.
He jumped up, and I heard him grab my cane off the wall as I shifted my feet around under the table, looking for my shoes. They slipped on, then I bent over to tie the laces before reaching a hand out, and I gripped the familiar rubber handle. I tapped it on the ground, listening to the way the sound of it bounced off the walls and the door.
Learning the echoes was going to take me the longest out of all the cane techniques—or so Cameron assured me—but practicing now was at least distracting from my anxious energy.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked as he opened the door.
I swiped the cane through the space between, found the wall, and adjusted my position as he came up alongside me. His fingers laced through mine, and I loved for a moment we could do this without him being my guide.
“Anywhere. Just a nice long walk,” he said.
We headed for the doors, and I heard the quiet murmur of someone speaking into a radio, letting the guards know we were on our way out. I didn’t bother speaking to them. Let them follow, let them watch. For a moment, I wanted to feel normal—like I was having an evening stroll with my mate.
My cane indicated the change from the pavement to the rough cave floor, and I listened for cars, but no one was out driving now. People were home preparing for the shift far from the open sky. The tension in the compound was high, and I knew we’d only survive a few more months like this before we all started to breakdown.
“How long do you think it’ll take to get everything up and running?” Misha asked as we started down the little road. My cane’s tap echoed off the high ceiling, and I wished we were close enough to the walls so I could run my hand across them.
“A couple of months, maybe less if we can get enough manpower. Orion says the last report is showing more and more discontent in the capital. We don’t want to spread the word too far just yet,” I told him, and I felt him gently direct me to the left where the tunnel began to curve. It was the opposite way of where the hospital was, and I understood why he was avoiding it.
“And what happens if they notice?” he asked. “I mean, what’s your plan, you know? Parlay, or jump right into another war?”
“They won’t want that. It’ll mean admitting to selling our people, and the ones who have been comforting themselves at night with reasonable doubt will be forced to accept it,” I told him. “They can’t afford to fight us and a civil war.”
I could feel a nervous tension growing in him. “So, then what? I mean, rescue the wolves that they’ve taken, shut down the labs. That all makes sense, but… then what?”
“We dismantle it all,” I told him. “Not just our side, but the human side.”
I could feel small pulses of worry and disbelief, and I didn’t blame him. The goal was lofty and would likely see most of us dead—but I wasn’t going to rest until the Wolves were all returned, until the people responsible for all this torture and death paid. And until the systems in place that allowed it to happen had toppled to the ground.
And my main goal was to ensure that if I didn’t make it, another leader was ready to take my place.
The Alpha Council here couldn’t grow, but it could elsewhere. I was ready to start a revolution—then teach others how to lead it.
I realized after a beat that Misha had tugged me to a stop, and I pulled my cane in close to my body before I turned to him. “You’re upset.”
He let out a small breath and squeezed my fingers before letting go. “I’m not upset, Kor. I’m afraid.”
Bowing my head, I nodded, because with every fiber of my being, I understood. “So am I. But I’m not sending my people into hiding either.”
He laughed, but there was no mockery in it, and he took a step closer to me, then another until he touched my face, and I realized how important that was now—like tactile eye-contact. “I have hundreds of pages written that offer evidence that staying in hiding only make things worse. That wars were fought over it, that people were slaughtered to keep secrets. I know why you have to do this, Kor. And I’m going to be here to fight right alongside you. I just don’t want to lose you.”
I gathered him close and kissed him. The afternoon was creeping toward dusk, and I could feel the pull of the moon tugging at the edges of my wolf. “We should go home,” I murmured.
He slipped his hand into mine, and we started on the path back.
Chapter Twenty
MISHA
Kor’s nerves were grating on my own as the clock ticked past moonrise, and then an hour. And then two. And I couldn’t pretend like my body felt normal, but nothing was out of place either. No bones shattered, no fangs descended, no claws broke through my skin.
I laid on the sofa with my head in his lap, his fingers pressed to my pulse like he was monitoring my vitals, and the silence laid heavy between us.
