Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

MIKAEL

I peered at the compound from across the distance and felt my heart hammering like it wanted to beat straight out of my chest.

Danyal was behind those walls. It wasn't just the knowledge that's where he'd been taken, but I could sense him. I could almost scent him on the breeze. I had parted ways with the small group in Paris, making the drive on my own in order to get Danyal out without distractions. They wouldn't be far behind me, but this was to give me time to rescue him before they laid waste to Kasher's land.

I had a feeling they were near, but it was better that I didn't know where they were or how close they were to striking.

If I was captured, at least I wouldn't have information to offer.

I reached the compound just before eleven, and the sky was dark and hazy off in the distance. In the south, I could smell the ocean on the breeze, and it made me wonder what it would be like to enjoy the moment free from the weight of war.

But that had never been for me, not even before the humans fired the first shot.

Swallowing thickly, I crept closer, then checked my watch. Just before midnight, power would be cut off, and that was my cue to go. I was informed that I would have to find Danyal outside of the walls. There would be humans after him, armed with weapons trained to take down a Wolf, which meant our chances of escape were dwindling, but if he wasn't harmed, I trusted him to fight at my side.

I trusted him to be capable.

Feeling my wolf rippling beneath the surface of my skin, I kept low to the ground and waited. I hadn't fought like this in the war—this quiet, stealthy attack. I hadn't been trained for much beyond finding and killing any human that came across my path.

It was difficult to wait here in the shadows, knowing he was behind those walls. Knowing that he could be taken down before I got to him.

I felt like I was going out of my mind, but as the sky darkened even further, it happened. There was a sudden and profound silence as the electricity in the area died. I could see through the blackness though, to figures taking off at a run. There were several shouts, and I knew it was time for me to run. Hervé said they were going to disarm the security system; they were going to give the humans a chance to panic, and only then would they attack.

That was my window to grab Danyal and get as far from Kasher as we could.

I took off at a run, lifting my nose into the air and searching for his scent. It only took a minute to find it, and it was wrapped around someone else's. It wasn't a scent I recognized, but it didn't matter. If someone was holding him prisoner—they wouldn't be alive for long.

I tore through the grass, my speed picking up so no human could follow, and I saw two figures off in the distance toward the hills. There wasn't enough brush to block them from view though, and after a beat, I heard the gunshots.

Increasing my speed, I ran until everything was a blur, but I came to a skidding halt when I heard voices not far behind me, and the rumble of vehicles. They were gaining. I swerved to the right just as shots began to ring out again, and I smelled the caustic chemicals Kasher had provided armies across the globe.

Rage welled in me, and it only got worse—leaving my vision red—when I heard Danyal cry out. A growl rippled from my lungs, and my claws in both hands and feet extended. They tore through my shoes, digging into the earth as I covered the distance, and then I saw him.

He was almost close enough to touch, and he was clutching someone close to him. A woman. My eyes cleared a little, and my breath caught in my throat.

It was a pregnant woman. I couldn't see a glow in her eyes, which meant she was human, and I knew instinctively she was one of Kasher's experiments.

There was no time to make a judgment call. Danyal's eyes met mine, and his entire body froze. He knew—gods protect me. He knew it was me. I hesitated only a second, but it was long enough for the humans to fire another shot.

The woman screamed, then Danyal went to his knees with a soft grunt. I smelled more blood on the air, and my body obeyed me once again.

I had arms around them both after a second, and I clutched him close to me as the woman used to me to steady herself. "Which one of you was shot?" I tried to ask, and realized only then my fangs had extended.

"Both," Danyal gasped. "Mari…"

"I'm fine. It was just a graze," she said. She was breathless but holding her own, her hands attempting to support her stomach. "We need to run. They're close."

Her sentence was punctuated with a roar in the distance that chilled me down to my core. Hervé, I had to assume, and whatever back-up he brought with him. "We need to get the fuck into those hills and lay low," I growled. "There's going to be an attack, and I don't think they're going to be careful about who they're shooting."

The humans had turned back, distracted by whatever was happening at the compound. There was a rumble along the ground, and then an explosion. Heat tore up my back, and I tried to use my body to shield them both, but they gasped under me.

"Can you run?" Danyal asked.

The woman—Mari—gave a stiff nod, though I could see that only adrenaline was keeping her together. I quickly propped her up on my arm, then let go of my Omega— the Omega—and took a step back. "Can you make it without help?"

He nodded. "Yes. I can already feel it starting to heal."

I let out a soft breath, then I hoisted Mari into my grip as much as I could, and we began to run again. Her feet were barely on the ground once I'd regained my strength, and we made it up the rocky path. We were nowhere near the top, but around the side I saw a small indent—almost a cave, but not quite. It would be enough to regain some of our strength and wait out whatever the hell was going to happen. It wasn't the place Kor had set for us, but it was close. Just a little bit of rest, and I could get us there, though I hadn't planned for a pregnant woman.

Danyal was trembling by the time we hunkered down, and Mari was out of breath, leaning against me even heavier. She was holding her stomach, but when I tried to touch her, she shoved me way.

"Let her rest," Danyal said quietly.

I let her slip from my grasp, leaning her against the wall before I took a few steps back and ran fingers through my hair. I wasn't sure what to do now. I had no idea what Hervé and Amélie had done—or what more they could do. Was Kasher still alive? Were there other Wolves there?

"I can hear you thinking from here," Danyal said after a beat.

I was almost afraid to look at him, terrified of what I might find, but he was the same Wolf I had last seen in Corland. He looked more wary, like he hadn't slept or eaten in days, but he was okay.

Fuck, he was okay .

I swallowed thickly, then took a few steps closer, dropping into a crouch. The pack was full of supplies, but I was afraid to touch it in case we had to run again.

"Where were you hit," I asked him. I could see a trail of blood from his side, running down to his thigh, and he dragged his hand along his shirt.

"It hit one of my ribs, but it missed my lung," he said.

It was an easy heal, if he could shift. If not, it would take hours. "Anything else? Did Kasher give you anything…"

"No," he said, his voice tight. "Kasher wanted me for something else. He needed me cognizant."

I didn't have to try and guess what it was. There had been whispers about Kasher wanting Danyal's research for weeks before he was taken. "They went after him," I said, letting my legs fall beneath me. My back hit the wall of the little cave, and my eyes drifted to the distance—to the flickering flame and plumes of smoke. I smelled charred wood and stone, and under that, electronics and chemicals. "Their plan was to take Kasher into custody and rescue any Wolves inside."

"Yasin," Danyal murmured.

It took a second for the name to hit me, and then shock took over, and I stared at him with wide eyes. " Yasin ?"

"He was…a Beta," Danyal breathed out with a stuttered sigh. "A feral Beta. One of the first ones."

"No. He's dead. His mate…" I trailed off. It could have been another Yasin, but… "It's not possible."

Danyal grimaced. "Kasher's son told me they tortured him until his mate bond broke, and his mate thought he was dead. Then he began to experiment on him. That's what they were trying to do with Zane before Orion got to him."

I winced, but my heart was racing for Nadya because it meant…it meant her mate was alive. But it also meant he had spent too long under Kasher's heel, and I wasn't sure there was coming back from that.

"Zane came out of it," I told him.

Danyal let out a pained, wheezing laugh. "I know. I could feel him in the pack bond." He dragged his tongue over his lower lip, and I hated that I could remember what his skin tasted like. "Why are you here?"

I couldn't help my incredulous look. "Why the hell do you think I'm here?"

"For me?" he asked. "Were you the only Alpha free to go?"

This was no place for the truth, so I offered a soft grunt, then looked back at the woman who was still holding her stomach. She was more pale than before, and I could scent something on her that was…wrong.

"Are you…?" I started.

She shook her head hard, then curled into a ball. "It might be labor."

"Fuck." I pushed to my feet, pacing a few steps. "Fuck! We can't…this…" I turned to Danyal. "She's human. I don't know how to keep a human alive."

Danyal said nothing.

"We can't take her," I stressed. "We need to call the human authorities after we get the fuck out of here and…"

"It's Kor's child," Danyal said quietly.

I laughed, unable to stop myself, because that couldn't be true. "Very funny," I snapped. "Now isn't the time for…"

"I'm not joking." Danyal's voice was flat, heavy with the weight of that truth, and my ears began to ring a little. "The first thing Kasher did was tell me she was carrying Kor's child. That was how he got my cooperation." He paused for a second. "And she's most definitely in labor."

I took a step back, my head shaking. "Kasher was obviously lying, Danyal. Don't be an idiot. It's not possible. You know why that's not possible."

Danyal bit his lip, then nodded. "It is possible…because she's not human. Though, she hasn't told me what she is. But Kasher believed she was a human with a genetic anomaly that allowed her to carry a Wolf child to term. That's why he kept her for so long."

My ears began to ring louder, and I only stopped moving when I hit the wall again. Fuck. We couldn't leave her. We couldn't leave this child. Catching my breath, I turned my head to look at him, then down at her.

"What are you?" I demanded.

She didn't look at me, and she didn't speak. When my rage began to surface again, Danyal let out a small warning growl, and I quickly tempered my wolf.

"This isn't her fault. She was protecting herself, and we have no right to demand answers from her."

I swallowed thickly, then squared my shoulders. "She's carrying your Alpha's child. I think you have every goddam right."

At that, Danyal scoffed. "She was kidnapped, tortured, forcibly inseminated. She's carried this child to term against her will. I understand that this is Kor's child, but it's also hers. And she sure as shit didn't ask for any of this."

Fuck. He was right, and I was behaving like a goddamn monster. I felt sicker, if that was possible, and I turned my gaze back to the pillars of smoke rising off in the distance. Straining my hears, I couldn't hear anything apart from sirens as the human authorities rushed to the scene. We were too far to tell if any of Kasher's men had escaped—if Kasher himself had escaped.

I wanted to kill him more now than ever. After what he did to this woman—to Danyal and to Zane. To countless other Wolves and humans and whatever the fuck species this woman was.

I thought about Yasin, who was apparently alive, though I wouldn't be able to process that for some time. I could only imagine what Nadya would go through when she learned the truth. If I had mourned Galen and put him to rest, only to find him under Kasher's all-too human claws, I wasn't sure what the hell I would do.

Mari's breathing began to speed up, and just as I turned to see if her labor was progressing, I heard them. Footsteps. I'd been too caught up in my thoughts to realize someone was coming up the hill, and before I could take my stance, Mari screamed. A man—a human—had her by the neck, holding a blade to her stomach.

"Don't be stupid," I growled at him.

I could smell burned skin and hair on him, and his hands were shaking, but he was functioning on pure adrenaline. He probably didn't even feel the pain. "I'm under orders," the man said, and I saw red clinging to his teeth. He was bleeding internally, and if I could stall him, his strength would fail and he'd die. "I'm killing the bitch and taking the pup."

Danyal hopped to his feet, but before either of us could make a move, there was a roar from a few feet away. I blinked as a shadow leapt through the mouth of the cave, and before the man could do more than drag a shallow cut along Mari's stomach, claws ripped his throat out. He sputtered, falling to his knees as Danyal rushed forward to grab Mari, and then he hit the ground.

My breath came in a stuttered gasp as I looked up, and for a moment, my brain refused to process what I was seeing. It was Arturo. His hair had come loose from the tie, and his eyes were a dark, glowing, Alpha red. His mouth was full of fangs, and his fingers—clawed as they were—still held bits of flesh from the human's neck.

"What," I started.

He grimaced at me, his fangs protruding over his lip. "No time. We need to get the fuck out of here. About half a dozen of that fucker's men survived and," he sniffed, then his eyes moved over to Mari and he let out a soft whine. "What happened to her?"

Danyal swallowed thickly. "She's pregnant, and she's currently in labor."

Arturo stared for a long time, then his gaze moved back to mine. "Answers later. I promise."

I wanted to fling myself against him and force him with my own teeth and claws to make him talk, but he was right—there was no time. "The caves are too far to make it with her like this."

"I have a ride, but we need to move now before they realize which way we ran," he snapped. With that, he crossed the short distance between himself and Danyal and pulled Mari out of his arms. She let out a quiet groan and clung to him, and I shoved aside all of my questions as I reached a hand for Danyal.

He hesitated only a second, then his palm met mine and I was hit—like a bolt of lightning—with how right he felt. I wanted to bury myself in his scent, shove my nose into his neck and not move for days. For weeks.

I wanted to cling to him and make up for all those lost years I should have been his.

"Move," Arturo snapped, and my feet began to follow. He had a small, off-road vehicle that was idling not far off. The tires were huge, made for rough terrain, and it was the only thing that comforted me as I climbed in.

Arturo set Mari in the back, with Danyal at her side, then he climbed behind the wheel and gave me a sharp look. "You're the guide. Tell us where to go."

It took me longer than I wanted to dig out the coordinates, but eventually Arturo had them in hand, a small GPS unit the size of his palm guiding us. The engine was surprisingly quiet, but I supposed that was fitting for a man like Kasher who wanted to operate in stealth.

He'd been stealing us for years now, small, unobtrusive white vans snatching us off the streets. And no one had paid attention. I wondered how far his influence extended in this country. It was a ridiculous thought, but it was the only one keeping my sanity together because I had no time to process anything.

My big rescue mission had turned into a forest run with my mate by my side and a pregnant woman who was inhuman. And somehow this man had managed to keep the scent of his Wolf hidden from me. And never once had his eyes flashed. My stomach roiled, and my head threatened to spin, so I grabbed the edge of the door and stared ahead until we reached a small pass.

Arturo steered the car into the brush, then killed the engine. "Get walking," he said. "I need to disable this thing so they can't track it."

Part of me said I should be helping him, because that's where my skills began and ended. I was a fighter, not a hero, but Danyal met my gaze, and I was helpless against him. I slung my arm around Mari and lifted her to me, and Danyal quickly followed the path until the trees became thicker and—eventually—caves came into view.

Mari's body was almost dead weight against me, and I tried not to think about the fact that she was carrying Kor's child, though I wouldn't be able to ignore it for long. I wondered if Kor knew—but that was foolish. He wouldn't have gone off into the unknown with Misha if he had any idea that Kasher had bred a child from his seed.

He'd have torn a hole in the earth's crust to be here.

He was going to do exactly that the moment he found out.

My arms were trembling slightly as we finally reached the caves, and Danyal followed the path deep inside until it broke into two tunnels. He and I both inhaled, then he nodded to the right. "I smell…something."

"Supplies. Weapons," I said. There was the faintest hint of food and tang of metal Kor had left us.

Danyal's jaw ticked—visible in the dark—and he started ahead with one hand on the wall to guide him. We eventually made it to a small clearing, and I could hear water dripping from far off. There were small piles of stuff—MREs, packs, blankets—and Danyal quickly got a small, cushioned nest for Mari to lay down in.

My arms screamed in protest as her weight shifted off me, and when Danyal lit one of the lanterns, I could see she'd gone pale.

"Don't die on us, all right?" I told her.

She grimaced. "Don't be stupid."

I almost laughed. She sounded so much like Arturo, and then, after a beat, it hit me. "He's not your mate."

She huffed. "He's my brother. Is he…"

If Arturo was her brother, it meant she was also a Wolf, hiding in plain sight, just like he was.

"He's coming," Danyal told her. He walked over, then dropped to his knees beside her and gave her a careful look. I could see he was holding back, but I couldn't even begin to know what. "I'm sorry for what I did."

"No," she said, then sucked in a breath, and I could all-but smell her pain. "No. I would have done the same thing, but they never let me near him. And I couldn't let them find out what I was."

Danyal rubbed his fingers around his mouth, almost like he was physically holding back his questions. I knew the feeling well. After a beat, he took her wrist, feeling for her pulse, then he laid a hand on her knee. "Do you want me to check your progress. I've never done this before, but I learned the basics in med school."

She shook her head. "Not…not yet. Just…" She panted a bit, then relaxed all the way back into the blankets beneath her. "Please."

He gently withdrew his hand, then pushed to his feet and looked at me. "When her brother gets here…"

"Arturo," I supplied.

Danyal clenched his jaw, then nodded. "I'm going to explore the cave."

"Not alone," I told him swiftly, and his eyes flashed at me, but I wouldn't back down—though I refused to posture. "We don't know who the fuck has been here or if we've been tracked. Both of you could have devices in you."

Danyal rubbed his thumb over his wrist and shook his head. "We don't. We got them out before we left the compound."

I didn't want to insult his intelligence or competence by asking if he was sure. I just had to trust him. "All the same, it's not safe."

He hesitated for a long time, then he gave a stiff nod. I wanted desperately to fall to my knees and apologize—to make promises until my breath ran out that I would never, ever leave his side again. But I could see from the look in his eyes, it was the last thing he wanted.

Before either of us could say more, though, I heard Arturo enter the cave. He hesitated at the fork the same way we had, then he made his way down our tunnel. His gaze immediately caught on Mari, and he fell to his knees beside her, brushing a hand over her forehead.

"Are you going to give birth here?" he murmured.

She groaned softly and rolled into his touch. "It's likely."

Arturo let out a low, rumbling groan, and his hand twitched like he wanted to touch her stomach, but he was afraid. I could scent it on him. "Did they hurt you?"

"No worse than anyone else. Far less than the feral ones they were keeping," she said, then groaned with the pain. "They were too afraid to lose the child. They never knew what I was."

"A Wolf," I said aloud.

Arturo's eyes had faded back to their soft, human brown, but I could see beyond that now—to what he was. An Alpha. "It wasn't safe to tell you. I wouldn't have told you at all if I hadn't seen that man coming for my sister."

I felt betrayal and anger rising in me, but also understanding. "How?" It was the only question I could form. How had they managed it?

"We've always been like this," Arturo said after a beat. He fell all the way to his backside and stretched one leg out. "Many packs all over the world are just like us."

I let that information sink in, my head spinning from it. "How did we not know? How did we never know?"

"Because we never told anyone. We lived apart from humans and Wolves," Arturo said, shrugging.

I wanted to be furious at him, but I couldn't blame him. If I could walk amongst Wolves and humans without them knowing I was an Alpha—that I was a Wolf—if the people I loved could have done the same, I wouldn't have said a damn word. I would have taken the secret to my grave.

"How did they find your sister?" Danyal asked, his voice quiet and rough.

Arturo sighed. "One of our pack members had a still birth. She had been traveling on her own—she was two months early, and she went to the hospital because no one had ever been able to tell before." He let out a trembling breath. "The baby's eyes flashed orange at birth. An Omega."

An Omega from birth. It was rare, but not unheard of—except, I supposed, for them with their hidden Wolf scent.

"She was related to you, wasn't she?" Danyal asked.

Mari let out a small whimper. "Our sister. The youngest. Kasher lost track of her, but he was able to trace her to our farm. Men showed up in the middle of the night and took me from my bed."

Arturo let out a subvocal growl, and if I hadn't seen his shift before, I would have known just from that. "We searched for months, but we kept turning up dead ends until one of our hackers intercepted a transmission from Nadya. We were able to get a location on Mari, but she was too closely guarded."

"And then Kasher moved her," Danyal said.

Arturo nodded. "She wasn't supposed to go with you."

I took a step back, staring between them, and I realized there was so much information I didn't have. So much had happened when I was on the road, trying to free Danyal from a situation he probably could have rescued himself from.

"Then your mate turned up," Arturo began, and Danyal gave a sharp noise of protest.

"He's not my mate."

The words stung, no matter how true, and I felt Arturo's gaze on me, though I didn't look at either one of them. "I'm going to check out the other cave," I said after a beat.

I turned on my heel, but I was unsurprised to hear Danyal follow me after a moment. I slowed my pace until he caught up, and I waited for him to speak because there was nothing I could say to save the moment.

"Did you tell him I was your mate?" he asked.

I shook my head. "He assumed I was."

Danyal let out a soft laugh. "Why in the name of all the gods would he think that?"

"Because no Alpha would abandon his city to bring back a single Wolf," I answered—because it was true. If it hadn't been Danyal, I would have gone about this another way. I would have taken Kor's place in Corland and allowed him to solve the problem of the missing Omega.

Danyal made a soft noise in the back of his throat, but he said nothing as we took the second tunnel, which led down a little farther, but had nothing else of note. There wasn't an escape route, so if we were attacked from the front, we'd have to fight our way out, but it didn't matter. For now, we were unfollowed. I could hear nothing but scurrying insects, a few bats, and the far-off stream of ground water.

"Do you think we'll be safe here?" he asked.

I was surprised he didn't demand more from me, but I was going to take the reprieve for what it was. "Not for long, but for now."

He sighed, then nodded as we headed back toward the fork. "She's going to have that baby in the next few hours. I don't think her water broke, but it will."

I passed a hand down my face, wondering how the hell we were going to get out of this with a newborn. "Kor is going to lose his absolute shit when he finds out about this." I hesitated, then stopped him. We were just barely out of earshot, but I dropped my voice low anyway. "Will she take the baby and run?"

"If she's smart, she will," Danyal said. "This war is no place for a child, and unlike us, they can hide."

He was right, but I couldn't help thinking what Kor would do when we came back with the knowledge that he had a child, and we had lost it.

"She won't be able to keep away from him forever, though," Danyal added. Then, startling me almost completely out of my mind, he laid a hand against my lower back and urged me to rejoin the other two Wolves.