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Six lifts his gaze to mine, and I swear there’s defiance in his eyes. A burning flame that won’t be doused by my preoccupations, or Kenny’s arguments. If there’s even the slightest chance of getting back inside and finding that cure, I know he won’t hesitate to try.

“You’re wrong,” Cali snaps. “You’re all wrong! I’ll find a way inside. With, or without, you.”

The moment the girl jumps to her feet, a stab of pain strikes my abdomen. Sharp and piercing, it feels like a blade penetrating my guts, and I cry out, falling to my knees.

“Wren!” Six rushes to my side, his eyes wide with fear.

Bent over myself, I clutch my stomach, while the rest of the group stands on the fringes. Pulse after agonizing pulse moves across my belly, and I can feel my organs shift against the palm of my hand set there.

“She’s pregnant. With your baby?”

I look up to see Kenny staring down at Six, his face mirroring the same grave look of both Six and Cali.

All of them.

They stand around me as if they’re watching the reaper himself steal another piece of my soul.

“They’ll get worse.” Cali’s voice mirrors the same grim tone as her expression. “As the baby grows, you become one step closer to your own demise.”

“Shut up!” I manage to scream, before another round of pain hammers against my stomach. “Get the hell out of here! All of you!”

Chapter 13

Cali

Running my hands through my hair, I settle down by the fire, after having checked on Titus. The Alpha continues to sleep, which I’m assuming is the result of whatever was given to him by the medicine woman—Hesaya, as I’ve come to learn. The bullets apparently didn’t travel too deep, thanks to the density of his muscles, which must truly be like steel. She tells me, with a bit more rest, he should be well enough to travel again, and I hope that’s true, because I don’t think we’ll be welcomed here much longer.

I don’t intend to stay idle for long, anyway. Each day I waste on their impossibilities is another day Valdys remains trapped behind those doors.

Cadmus sleeps behind me, his large body shadowing mine, as I stare off at the fire. Since my estrus, he hasn’t gone out of his way to touch me, but hasn’t avoided me, either. In fact, he’s watched me closer, for some reason, always guarding me. I’m grateful, as it’s helped my mind and heart to know we’ve not been damaged by what happened between us.

At the sound of rustling, both Cadmus and I jolt upright, twisting to see Kenny plopping down beside us. His lack of knowledge on how to get inside the hospital has made him essentially useless to me.

“What do you want?” I ask, lying back down on the sleeping bag. Behind me, Cadmus shifts too, as though disinterested by his presence.

From his pocket, he pulls a cigarette and leans forward to light the end of it in the bonfire, stealing a few puffs to get it going. “She was pregnant.”

“Only a couple months along, as I understand.”

“Not Wren. Roz.” His words hit like a lightning bolt to my chest, searing my ribs apart. “The plan was to get her out of there. So she could be free. So the baby wouldn’t be taken away.” Voice wobbling with tears, he clears his throat. “Had they found the baby, she would’ve been killed. They would’ve studied it. Probably kept it for their experiments, or sold it off to a family in Szolen. Either way, the outcome would’ve been the same.”

“She never told me.” The flames of the bonfire dull, as my mind drifts back to any point when my friend may have tried to confide in me, and I didn’t listen. “I’m sorry. For everything, Kenny.”

“Wren has been good to me. Kind. Lot of the survivors treated me like Legion in the beginning, but not her.” He sniffs and pulls his knees up to his chest. “I want to help her.”

“You said you can’t.”

“There might be a way.”

I push myself up and dare to look into his eyes, to see if there’s any possibility that he might be lying, any chance that he might be getting my hopes up for nothing, but all that reflects in his eyes is the sadness. “How?”

“There’s a man in Szolen. He engineered the building. Designed the tunnels and the underground lab. He’s the mind behind the whole community. If there’s anyone who can get us inside, it’s him.”

My heart pounds to life so fast, I can scarcely draw in a breath.

“Getting to him will be tricky. What’s left of Szolen is heavily guarded. And I’m not certain he’ll entertain a meeting with us.”

“We won’t ask for one. We’ll get in and get out. With him.”