Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

ORION

" Y ou're driving me up the damn wall," Kor snapped after the meeting.

I turned my head to stare at him, and it was then I realized I was drumming my fingers on the table and shaking my leg. I hadn't even realized it, but the fact that Zane hadn't turned up at all was worrying. His phone was going straight to a recording, but there were no voicemail options with the burners we all carried, so there was no other way to reach him apart from a text that wasn't going through.

He wouldn't have turned off his phone, but it was possible it had died. At the coffee shop, he'd looked more haggard than I had ever seen him, but nothing that would have worried me. Or, at least, not at first glance. After all, insomnia was plaguing every damn one of us, but we were stronger than a few sleepless nights.

We endured weeks of fighting on a handful of hours during the First War, and this was no different.

"Sorry," I muttered. Sounds and movements were more overwhelming to Kor than they had before he lost his sight, and it was easy to forget that. Cameron said it wasn't so much that his other senses were getting stronger, but more that his brain was trying to reroute his ability to understand the things going on around him.

"It's like if you were in a soundproof room for several hours, and then you stepped outside and right onto a busy city street. It can be a lot."

Part of me wanted to ignore his advice, but only because I was still frustrated that we hadn't been able to get to Kor before he was no longer able to heal his injuries. Any reminder that Kor's life was irrevocably different, that he was still struggling through adapting, reminded me I had failed him. I kept the guilt to myself, though it was likely he could sense it through the bond, but we didn't discuss it.

And it was getting easier.

A year had passed since he'd arrived at the compound, and he was moving on better than I expected him to—far better than I might have in the same circumstances, though it was hard to know for sure. Any one of us could fall subject to the monsters in those labs, and the gods only knew how we'd come out.

Kor had said repeatedly he was lucky he was only left blind when they were through with him.

I tried not to picture Bryn's fate—if he had even survived it. He'd been with them far too long, I couldn't imagine there was anything left of him to bring home, even if his body was intact.

"Why don't you take a walk?" Kor suggested. "In fact, you can come with me across the street, because I promised Misha I'd find something for dinner so we don't have to cook."

I scowled, mostly because this was nothing more than Kor trying to distract me. I was already frustrated by how badly the talks were going with the other bases, and I didn't need a missing Zane to add to it. "Can we at least send someone out there to check on their progress?"

Kor let out a sigh, but he reached for his cane and unfolded it, making his way to the door ahead of me. I heard a sharp command, ordering whatever Beta was just outside the door to go on a run, then he turned back to me with raised brows. "Happy?"

"Not really. I'm irritated that you're not more worried about him." I pushed my chair under the table, making sure there was nothing left for Kor to trip on, then I met him at the door, and we started down the hall.

"I'm trying not to panic right now, Orion," he said quietly. His head was bowed toward the floor, his eyes closed, which was still unsettling for me, though it made no difference to him. He was every bit the Alpha he'd ever been—except with a few more silver hairs at his temple from the stress of taking up this job. He looked happier now that he had Misha though, and I grudgingly accepted that the human was a welcome addition to our rebellion.

Of course, I still wasn't convinced they wouldn't find a way to use him against us, but for now, he'd given Danyal what he needed in order to start working on the serum that would likely save some of the Wolves who had been taken.

It had been Kor's idea in the first place, once Danyal was able to understand better what the labs had done to Misha in the first place. He'd ordered Danyal to research everything he could to replicate it—then asked him to make it temporary.

"If we can mask our Betas," Kor told me when I cornered him about taking a page from the humans' book, "we can send Wolves in with military training. Wolves who know how to get in and out of places. The humans don't look twice at Omegas who can't fight, but they have Wolves working for them who could scent someone with eye alterations. We need to be just as clever."

I still didn't think it was going to work. Any Wolf who put himself through that shit was likely to get stuck as some halfway between Beta and Omega. But I understood why we had to try. It was the only way we'd get close enough to the humans' database—and doing that was the only way we'd ever get ourselves more than an inch ahead of them.

At Zane's reluctance to the whole plan, I felt a little less alone in my discomfort with Kor's decision. I could see the frustration on Zane's face that morning when he brought up Danyal, and I could almost sense his fury at being unable to offer another solution. Of course, Zane's reaction didn't surprise me. He had done what he needed to do during the war to keep the Wolves serving under him alive, but he never developed a taste for it.

Not like so many.

Not like the ones who had seized power at the expense of civilians.

I blinked against the sun as we hit the street, still grateful I could feel it on my face after spending so long underground. Kor stepped closer to me as we hit the edge of the pavement, and I hesitated, my gaze fixed across the street at the little shop.

It took me a second, then I remembered what Cameron had said earlier. I had dinner with him and Talia more often than I didn't, and it was nice. It felt as close to family as I was pretty sure I'd ever get, and there was something almost hopeful about being around a child—especially since there were so few now in Corland.

"Wait a sec. Cam asked me to invite you and Misha to dinner," I told him, touching his arm to stop him before he stepped into the street. "Zane's supposed to show up too."

Kor hesitated. He liked Cameron, and had gotten to know him better, but I also knew the man was a stark reminder that Kor's blindness was permanent. And it had been a year, but it wasn't long enough for him to let go of the grief at how much had changed—and what he'd lost.

But I knew he liked Talia, and I could see something almost like relief in his expression when I made the offer. "Yeah. Misha would like that. He loves that kid."

I grinned a little and shook my head. "Wants a litter now?"

Kor elbowed me in the ribs, hard enough to knock the wind out of me. "Not in this fuckin' lifetime."

I laughed again, and for a very brief moment, I was able to forget that I was standing on the precipice of shit hitting the biggest fan we had.

Kor's living space felt like a minefield now that he needed everything a specific way—unmoved and unchanged. I wasn't exactly nostalgic for our disgusting barracks, but it was a mark of how different everything had become since he returned from his capture.

But it didn't help that I felt like I wasn't allowed to relax and just exist in Kor's home. Misha did his best not to over-step or over-compensate, but I could feel his eyes on me, like he was tracking everything I touched.

I knew part of my frustration with him was that he was human—or at least, closer to human than I was comfortable with. It wasn't his fault of course, and I liked to think that even if his father hadn't played God with his DNA, he would have sided with our cause. But it went against every atom in my body to trust him. It was a mark of how far we still had to go, even if we managed to put a stop to the governments' experiments.

And I wasn't sure I'd ever get over what the humans had done to people I cared about.

But I was trying, and I wasn't going to stop trying. I offered Misha a small grin, and he returned the greeting with a nod as he stepped aside so Kor could head to the bedroom to get ready. I followed the Omega into the kitchen with the bags, but as I started to unpack them, his hand clamped around my wrist.

Our gazes met, and there was a moment where I felt the urge to shove him to his knees for the disrespect. It passed as quickly as it started, but I couldn't hide from the guilt that surfaced after my breathing returned to normal.

"Sorry," I muttered.

Misha drew his hand away and shook his head. "I shouldn't have…I just." He cleared his throat. "I have to label everything before stuff can get put away."

Something else I didn't think about, because I wasn't forced to live that way, and I had long-since stopped spending time at Kor's after it was obvious he and the human couldn't keep their hands off each other for longer than a few minutes. I didn't mind—I wasn't about to begrudge my best friend any second of pleasure he wanted to take. But it only served to remind me that I was alone, and that the only time I had given my heart to anyone, I was betrayed.

"Do you want to help?" he asked.

It was an olive branch, but I wasn't in the mood to take it. "You go ahead. I'll uh…I'll watch."

Misha raised a brow, but he didn't argue as he pulled out a small sheet of stickers and a black electronic pen. I watched as he added the stickers to the top of each item, then quietly spoke the label into the speaker at the top before putting them on the shelf or in the fridge.

"Did Cameron convince you to invite us over tonight?" Misha asked, his voice nudging into my thoughts.

I glanced over at him and probably couldn't hide the guilt from my face. "Not exactly. He just suggested it." He hadn't needed to talk me into it. I was reluctant, but I was trying to be better—and not just for Kor's sake. I wanted to find it in me to like Misha on his own. "I figured you'd want to see that kid again."

Misha laughed quietly as he arranged the vegetables in their little crisper. "That kid. Not a fan?"

With a small scoff, I pulled out a kitchen chair and eased down, kicking my leg up onto the other one. "Not something I really wanted to get involved in. I didn't really think I'd live long enough, anyway."

Misha hummed softly, shutting the fridge door. Before he could say anything else, Kor appeared in the doorway. "You two in here?"

Reaching out, Misha touched his wrist, and Kor moved into his orbit. "Just finished putting the food away. You all set? Talia sent me a message and said we can head over whenever we're ready."

Kor's head turned in my direction. "You need anything before we head out?"

Shaking my head, I pushed to my feet. "Nah. Though… Did she say anything about Zane?"

Misha's brow furrowed as he grabbed his keys off the counter, then moved back to Kor's side. "No, why? Is he having a bad night?"

"He's missing," I said.

Kor shook his head, baring his teeth. "He's not missing. I sent him to check on a power failure at the edge of town, and he hasn't checked in. I think he forgot to charge his phone. It's not the first time he's done it."

"If something's wrong, won't Talia or Danyal know?" Misha suggested.

He was right, and neither of them had seemed concerned. If Zane was in trouble, Danyal would have been on the phone to Kor long before now. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

I didn't bother saying anything more. Kor would be able to feel it in the pack bond, and it wasn't worth arguing over until we had some answers. Kor still hadn't heard back from the Beta he sent out to check the area, and with the signal being what it was in the city, we had grown used to long silences.

Tension followed us as we made our way to Cameron and Talia's house. I led the way with Kor's cane gently swiping the pavement behind me, and Misha's conversation filled the gaping silence. I knew a lot of it had to do with the fact that there had been no action for months. We got some information from Sanderson, but his tracker was disabled within days of his escape, and it gave us a location to the middle of nowhere, without a single trace of evidence left behind.

Kor believed they killed him, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they swept him off to a lab and added him to the growing numbers of Wolves we would never see again. I tried to find some measure of pity for him, but his prejudices and his alliance with Lior—who had gone radio silent since his departure—wasn't something I would be quick to forgive.

Turning the corner to Cameron's street, I glanced behind me at the pair, then picked up my pace. I was growing antsy to see Zane's face, whispering a quiet prayer to the gods that he would be lounging on the sofa with his niece balanced on his knee. I hated that I was worked up over him—and it didn't entirely make sense, but I was too damn tired to think about it.

I was born and bred for war—not this quiet espionage that led to nowhere.

I reached the door before Kor and Misha stepped onto the driveway, and I hit the buzzer, tapping my foot as I listened for footsteps. I heard the dog first, then Cameron's quiet command before it was opened.

"Right on time," he said with a smile, stepping aside.

Cameron never met anyone's gaze the way Kor still managed it from time to time. His right eye was milky, the orange obscured by the scarring from the bomb. And his left eye was prosthetic—realistic, but lacking the natural glow of the Wolf. Still, I felt seen when he turned to face me, and he offered his hand.

His palm was warm against mine, and comforting, and I appreciated feeling like I had some sort of ally. "Is Zane here?"

Cameron's brow furrowed. "No. I thought he'd be coming with you all."

My stomach dropped, and I looked over my shoulder at Kor, who was coming up the steps ahead of Misha. His mouth was turned in a frown, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. "I'm going to check in with Keith. He should have at least sent a message by now."

My stomach started to twist hard as Cameron stepped aside so we could head in. "Is there something wrong," he asked, gently touching my elbow as I passed.

I didn't want to give him too much truth, but I cared about him enough not to lie. "Zane never showed up to the Council meeting, and his phone isn't ringing through. Kor sent a Beta to check out the site, but no one's gotten back to him."

"Shit," Cameron whispered under his breath.

My heart began to beat harder when I smelled fear on him. "What happened?"

"Danyal called Talia earlier. He said he felt something off coming from Zane, but he'd been so stressed lately, he couldn't be sure if it was anything worth worrying about."

I opened my mouth to reply, but Kor appeared behind me, reaching for my arm. "No answer. We need to get over there and see what the hell is going on."

My heart sank. "You know what we're going to find."

Kor's jaw tightened, and he shook his head. "We're not going to go down that road right now. Just…can we borrow Talia's car?"

"Of course," Cameron said. He turned, hurrying down the hall, and he returned a second later with a set of keys dangling from his first finger. "What do you want me to tell her?"

"Nothing," Kor said as I took the keys. "But if we're not back and you haven't heard anything from us in thirty minutes, I want you to have Misha call in the Council. No one is to come looking for us without a team."

I could smell how thick the fear was, rolling off Cameron in waves. "You don't think…"

"I don't know what to think," Kor interrupted, his voice rumbling with frustration. "I don't even want to speculate until we get some answers." He reached through the air, finding my arm after a second, and his claws all-but dug into my skin. "All I can say right now is that panic won't help us, no matter what we find."

Cameron's jaw went tense, but he straightened his shoulders and gave a single sharp nod. "Please just…let Talia know the moment you can."

I gripped his shoulder and squeezed once. "We'll find him." The urgency in me was only growing, and I appreciated that Kor kept pace with me as we hurried out and climbed into Talia's car. It smelled like coffee and baby, and it was almost cloying as I backed out and pulled onto the street.

Kor seemed to have the same idea, because his fingers searched the door until he found the button for the window, and I breathed out a sigh of relief when fresh air flooded the cab. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you," he said after a beat.

I startled a little, my hands squeezing the wheel. If this had been the middle of war—if it had been before the humans took him—Kor wouldn't have apologized. He would have told me he was doing the best he could with the information he had. I couldn't help but wonder if it was Misha's doing or the fact that he still felt uncertain about the world around him.

"It is what it is," I said after a beat. "Can you start up the GPS and get the coordinates going?"

It took him a moment with his phone, his finger dragging over the screen, the metallic voice-over filling the quiet between us. But eventually, I had the directions, and I didn't have it in me to say anything else as I hit the gas as fast as I could push the car and took the turns as recklessly as I dared.

It didn't take us long to find the downed powerline, but the only sign that anyone had been out there was a lingering scent of chemicals and Zane's Jeep, which was haphazardly parked on the embankment. Kor was tense, his nostrils flaring, and I rolled the car to a stop but didn't turn it off.

"I can't see anyone. Are you catching a scent?"

The Alpha ability to scent the enemy was naturally more powerful. Mine was honed from years of training, but Kor didn't need to try as he leaned his head out and breathed in deep. After a beat, he pulled back, and his cheeks were faintly pink. Fear, I realized when something sour and sharp hit my senses. He was afraid.

"There were humans and Wolves here several hours ago. And I can smell that… I can smell that shit they used to blind me." There was a faint tremor to his voice, but I knew he wouldn't have appreciated it if I reached for him. "It's fading though. I don't think anyone stuck around."

" Fuck ," I hissed, slamming my hands on the wheel. I turned the car off, then opened the door and pressed one foot to the asphalt, my head turning from left to right hoping to catch something—anything—that might give us a clue. There were some tracks not far from Zane's Jeep—tires that indicated either a smaller vehicle or a van—which was the most likely cause.

We knew the van they drove and what they used to subdue Wolves. I just couldn't believe no one had spotted them crossing the border. Or, I realized, the Wolves who had were in on it with them.

"Who called in the repair order?" I asked.

Kor, who had gotten out along with me, walked around the car with his hand guiding him. "I don't remember. Someone on my Beta team. I'll need to get back to the Council office and pull up the phone records." His hand curled into a fist, and I saw blood from where his claws pierced his palm. After a beat, his rage struck me just before his knuckles hit the car. The boom echoed across the wide expanse of road, and his growl rumbled low in his chest. "I'm going to fucking rip them limb from limb."

"We're going to have to find them first. It looks like they took down the one pole that had the CCTV cam." I swallowed thickly, hating the next question I had to ask. "Do you think we've got more eyes in the city?"

"I knew we did. I just didn't think they'd be bold enough to take one of the Council members," Kor said, his voice dripping with his anger. "They're most likely long gone, though."

I looked around one more time, then sighed. "What about Keith? He's not here, and he never checked in."

Kor sniffed again, and I recognized the look on his face. He was searching for a body. After a beat, he bowed his head and shook it. "I don't know. I want to believe he couldn't be in on this. That maybe he couldn't reach me, but…fuck. Fuck , I don't know who to trust anymore." He bowed his head and breathed out a long sigh. "We need to get back." He moved over to the door and got in as I slid behind the wheel. "We need to find Zane. We can't waste time debating how."

I opened my mouth to argue that Zane wouldn't have wanted us to rush in without a plan, but I realized I was feeling something entirely unexpected. Desperation, grief, anger, and fear. This felt like more than a mission, and the hollow ache behind my ribs was more terrifying than anything else I had experienced before.

I turned the key, but Kor reached out and grabbed my wrist. "Orion?"

My name on his lips stopped me from backing out, and I tried to pull away, but he would always be stronger than I was. "Don't."

"Is there something you haven't told me?"

I swallowed thickly. No, there wasn't. But there might have been something I hadn't told myself. Zane and I had spent so little time together, but he had gotten under my skin so unobtrusively and quietly, I only noticed now that he was gone. My neck burned with something close to shame, and I swallowed thickly as I gently extracted my arm away from my Alpha.

"Not right now," I eventually said.

His face was forward, but it still felt like he was staring at me as he nodded, then reached for his seatbelt and clicked it into place. It was a silent cue for me to get on the road, and I didn't hesitate as I jammed my foot on the gas and raced toward the city center.