Racing the Storm, page 17
“Should we head back to the cave?” I asked.
Mikael was obviously conflicted. “They’ve begun searching the town, which means they’ll probably start searching the hills soon enough. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk.” He turned, and I followed his gaze to the intricate wall clock. It was two in the morning, which meant we’d have to chart a course toward Paris and find somewhere to lie low before the sun rose.
We could make better time than a car by running as our wolves, but still not enough to make it to the chaos of the city before we were noticed.
“I think we should take the chance on sleeping here,” he said.
My eyes widened. “If these humans come home…”
“We incapacitate them and run,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t think they’re coming back any time soon, though. A lot of clothes were missing and nearly all of their toiletries.”
The idea of sleeping in a bed—of hiding out in this little flat for a day and being allowed to just pretend for a moment that things weren’t upside down—it was too tempting. “Is there anything at the caves we still need?”
Mikael shook his head. “I grabbed the phone Kor left and the cash. We’re going to need to abandon most of it though. Even between us, if we’re running as wolves, we won’t be able to carry it.”
Nodding, I watched him pull the curtains tight, and when all traces of the outside world were shut out, I crossed the room and pushed into his arms. He gripped me, a noise of surprise escaping his lips, but I felt him smudge a kiss against my temple as I squeezed my eyes shut.
“I almost asked you if this was what it was like during the First War, but that seemed wrong and cruel.”
He huffed a quiet laugh and nosed through my hair. “Sometimes it was. We spent a lot of time sitting around waiting—enough that we were taken off our guard more than once. But I don’t think that’s going to happen today.”
Biting my lip, I pulled back just far enough to look at him, and I felt another surge of warmth in my gut. His nostrils flared, and I realized he was smelling my desire.
“Danyal…”
“I can’t help it,” I told him. “I haven’t let anyone touch me since you. And I’m not saying I want to cross lines we’re not ready to cross, but…”
His hand lifted, and he cupped my cheek, his thumb dragging a line under my bottom lip. “I will take whatever you’re willing to give me…for the rest of our lives. If it’s only this—if it’s only this moment, I can live with it. When we get back to Corland, if you decide that you want to move on, I won’t stop you.”
I felt a strange pang of hurt in my chest. “You wouldn’t fight for me?”
“Have I earned the right to do that?” he asked.
My eyes narrowed. “Have you earned the right not to?”
He seemed startled by the question, and almost without thinking, he moved his hand to my throat. The gentle pressure had me wanting to submit, though I held fast. “Danyal,” he said on a half-growl.
I reached up and pressed my finger to his lips. “Don’t. If they hear you rumble like that…”
Mikael snapped back to himself almost like he’d been slapped. “Shit. This is exactly what I mean. It’s so easy to let the peace of the moment make you forget everything else.”
I wanted that, desperately, but I knew the only place we could let those moments happen was Corland—surrounded by those who wanted to protect us.
“We should eat,” I told him. “And drink. A lot.”
He laughed softly, then dragged his hand away like it caused him physical pain to do it. “Best idea I’ve heard in weeks.”
I gathered the wine, the bread, some of the fruit, and some cheese from under a little dome on the counter, then followed Mikael down the short hallway and into what had to be a guest bedroom. It was a little bit too put together and unlived in, and the smells there were of human, but muddled. I felt less terrible about what we were taking as we settled in there, Mikael drawing back the blankets.
It was something like heaven to sink against the sheets, and he let out a chest-deep groan as he laid his head on the pillow and stretched. “Would you think less of me if I soaked in the bath before we left?”
I laughed quietly as I used a claw to dig into the cork of the first bottle of wine. “Maybe, but I’ll also be thinking less of myself.”
The cork came out with a quiet pop, and then I looked at him. The smile on his face was sweet and indulgent—a side of the Alpha I hadn’t seen, even in heat. The possessive, needy way he’d taken me all those years ago had been a side of him I wanted to see again, but this new softness, it was something I wanted to cradle between my hands and protect it from harm.
I didn’t think he let his guard down like this often, and I was a little afraid to shatter the moment between us.
“Why is this three-day old bread the best thing I’ve ever eaten?” he asked, tearing off a piece and dragging it through the soft cheese. He let out a small groan that was almost pornographic—going straight to my cock—and I could see it in his eyes when he noticed my scent change.
“How long were you on the road?” I asked.
He cocked his head to the side. “Not long. Kor ordered me to wait two fucking weeks before going after you. I hit the road as soon as I could, and I found Nadya in Mexico.”
“It feels…” I didn’t finish my sentence, but I didn’t need to.
“I know,” he said quietly. He reached past me for a peach, then bit into the soft flesh. Juice dribbled down his chin, and I fought the urge to lean over and clean it up with my tongue. “Before we leave Paris, I want to find a way to contact Francisco or Theo. I need them to know we’re on the road. If Kor sends someone looking for us…”
“Do you really think we should risk it?” I asked. “Talia and Zane will both know that I’m not dead or in distress. We’re too far away for me to send them anything specific, but they can feel me. They have to know I’m with someone I trust.”
He looked at me a while, then shrugged. “I don’t know if it’ll matter, once we’re over the border. Kasher’s disappearance wasn’t reported on anything I could find online, which proves some faction of Wolves have him.”
My brows dipped. “How’s that?”
Mikael shrugged. “Because if he was free and any of those under his captivity escaped, he’d have made a public statement by now. Alexei has done a few rallies over the last couple of days and hasn’t mentioned his father once.”
It made sense. They were trying to distance themselves from Kasher’s compound and everything going on inside it. If and when captured Wolves came forward, Alexei could plead ignorance—assuming Nadya didn’t have something on him. But I had no idea what sort of information had been released since my capture.
“It’s going to get ugly again, isn’t it?” I asked, then punctuated my sentence with a long drink from the bottle. The wine burned going down in the best way, and I only stopped when Mikael gently pried it from my hands.
Instead of taking a drink, he set it on the floor, pushed the remaining food aside, then gathered me against him. I didn’t want to like it—to crave it—as much as I did, but there was no point in denying it.
At any second, we could be found. At any second, we might have to run. Or worse. I tried not to think of what those men could do to Mikael if they got their hands on him.
“Kiss me,” I said.
Mikael stiffened, but instead of pushing me away, he held me tighter against him. “You don’t want that.”
I wriggled back enough to look up at his face and made sure he could read my tone and see my eyes. “Yes, I do. I’ve wanted it since you looked at me like I was a stranger. I have wanted it every gods damned day since I woke up from my heat alone. I’m angry, but that hasn’t changed how much I…”
Need you. Want you. Crave you.
His fingers were trembling slightly as he touched my cheek—just a bare graze of skin against skin, then he pressed his palm hard and leaned in. At first, there was only breath—hot, sweet from the fruit, a rapid in and out dancing across my face. And then the distance was gone, and in place of it, were his soft lips and warm tongue as it pushed alongside mine.
I gave into him instantly. There wasn’t a single atom of my body that didn’t want this. If we only had a short time—if the threat was as big as we feared, it was stupid to waste what little chance we got to be together.
I might never have him in a heat again, but I had him like this, and it would have to be enough.
Rolling over onto my back, I took Mikael with me, letting him pin me to the bed as he devoured my mouth. But just before I lost all control, I stiffened, and he pulled away.
“Too much?”
I forced my breathing to slow, and I shook my head. “If they drive by again, don’t you think they’ll be able to tell? I don’t know how human I can appear when I’m…”
His eyes twinkled softly in the dim light, and he nipped my jaw before finishing my sentence. “This turned on?” I groaned again, and he laughed before dragging his tongue from the crook of my neck to my earlobe, taking it between his teeth. “I’ll listen for them. But I don’t think they’re coming back.”
I wanted him too much to argue—risk be damned. I spread my legs, letting him situate between them, and his hard cock brushed along mine. I remembered what it felt like inside me, fucking me into oblivion, stretching me on his knot until I swore I would split in half.
Feeling it pushing against my own straining dick now, I felt like I was about to lose myself. “Mikael,” I said, because I didn’t know what to beg for. I wanted everything, but I didn’t know where to start. The last Wolf who had touched me was him, and even then, I’d been entirely unexperienced and in the throes of heat.
I wasn’t unworldly, but this…it was so much.
It was everything I had wanted, and now I was petrified of doing something wrong.
“You’re panicking,” he murmured. His hand brushed down my side, like he was trying to soothe the frantic beast just under my skin. “Danyal, breathe.”
My lungs stuttered and shook as I tried to draw in air, and after a moment, it became easier. My limbs relaxed against his tender hands, and I was able to turn my head and look at him. “It’s…” I almost laughed, and I eased my arms around his waist, holding tight. “I want to feel you. Please just…help me do this right.”
He pushed up on his arms, dislodging my hold on him, and his gaze captured mine. “You couldn’t possibly do this wrong. But I understand. Just lie there for a bit. Let me make it good for you.”
The first real touch of his hand along my bare skin was almost too much. He rucked up my shirt and let his claws come out, raking them over my tender flesh. I arched into him, feeling them draw pinpricks of blood, and he chased them with his warm, rough tongue—just a hint of wolf in the gesture.
I was pliant—unable to be anything else—as he stripped my shirt all the way off, and when his hands went for my pants, I almost came right there. Years of not being touched by another person—of bringing myself off in perfunctory orgasms in the shower or to get rid of my morning wood—and I was ready to blow my load right there.
“Close,” I told him. There was no point in lying. I’d rather warn him instead of humiliating myself.
I expected him to laugh, or maybe even tease me a little, but instead, he groaned. His face pinked, his entire body heating up, and he nosed along my neck. “Fuck. You’re so…” He didn’t finish his sentence, and I was almost glad because I wasn’t sure I could take it.
We had been warped by war and twisted by circumstance. I had wanted to hate him forever, and yet here we were—in the bed of strange humans, relying on each other to stay safe and alive. And every feeling I had repressed for the last several years was bubbling to the surface.
Maybe I’d resent him later for it, but now, I just wanted this.
“Touch me,” I told him—a command, and it did something to me to watch him submit so readily. My gut went hot again, and I felt the very first pulse of slick in a long, long time.
It was uncomfortable, and my ass felt needy, and I couldn’t help but squirm with want.
“Gods, I can smell you,” he groaned. His fingers brushed under my balls, into my crease, and he circled my hole. I felt it twitch, felt my slick thicken as he pushed one finger inside. I wanted more—I wanted everything. I wanted his knot. I wanted his come to fill me.
“Don’t make me wait,” I told him. “Later, we can draw it out, but I need you right now.”
He seemed to agree, because before I could beg again, he was on his knees, pulling at his jeans, throwing his shirt across the room. He hitched my legs up on his shoulder, and I saw a hint of fang between his slightly parted lips as he positioned his cock against me.
“It might hurt,” he warned.
I sat up on my elbows and met his gaze, feeling mine burning with a fierce glow. “Good. I want to feel it.”
“Danyal,” he gasped, like it was a prayer—or maybe a curse—or maybe something in between. His fangs caught his lip, and I smelled blood before his hips pulled back slightly, then he pushed inside.
I arched off the bed at the sensation—agony and ecstasy all at once. I was utterly consumed with him—with feeling him against me. It was then and there I lost all hope of doing anything other than loving him. We were Animal and reckless now, and in the future—if we survived—we’d be lost to that slow, deep, impossible burn lasting for the rest of our lives.
For now, though, there was this. There was him driving into me fast and hard. It ripped my breath from my lungs, my words dying until all I could offer were soft grunts and stuttered moans. And his hands were everywhere, followed by his lips, and then his teeth.
He bit my side, then my nipple, and my neck. He was too far away from where he would sink his fangs in to create the bond, but I could feel it again. Even without the heat, it was there—a dull flicker, desperate for life.
I was too afraid to reach for it, so I shut down, even as he sped up, my heartbeat matching his.
He reached between us after an eternity of hitting my prostate over and over, then he pulled his head back and stared at me just as his fingers curled around my cock. “I could knot you, but I don’t think I should.”
I whimpered, unable to stop the noise. “Please…”
“We can’t afford to be locked together. Danyal, I want it more than anything, but…”
He was right. As lost as I was to the moment, I wasn’t lost enough because we weren’t safe enough. He was still listening for the humans who were searching for us, and I was still listening for his warning.
“Pull out,” I said. “Come on my cock—on my balls.”
He swore a long string of something not English, so low I could barely make out the curves of the vowels. He began to stroke me, and as my entire body began to spasm as I tumbled over the edge, he ripped his cock out and slapped it on top of mine. I came seconds before he did, hot ropes hitting my chest before I felt his knot swelling.
It caught in the cut of my hip, and I pushed him back to reach for it. It took both hands to wrap around him, then I squeezed, and he let out something between a roar and a whine. If there were Wolves with the humans nearby searching for us, that would have done us in.
But there was no other sound in the building apart from the sleeping heartbeat of humans, and the racing breath of my once-again lover as he came, and came, and came—marking me with his seed.
His orgasm seemed to last forever, but eventually I felt him deflate, though his knot remained large against the palm of my hand. He collapsed, and I was damn sure a stiff breeze would knock him over if he was forced to stand.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
He laughed, mashing his face into the pillow as one arm and one leg octopussed around me. We were a sticky mess, but the scent of us together was everything. Having him against me like that once more…was everything.
“We’ll have to bathe later,” he murmured.
I kissed the side of his head and felt him as he started to drift. “There’s time,” I told him. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but for this little while, I decided to hope.
Chapter
Eighteen
MIKAEL
At first, I thought it was a dream. The bed beneath me seemed surreal, along with the steady breathing and gentle heartbeat from the Omega lying with his back to me. The air in the room was thick with the scent of him—of us—and before opening my eyes to face reality, I let myself bask in it.
Once I faced the day, the spell would be broken.
Danyal had made it clear he didn’t want to make a decision about what we were or what we might be until we were back in Corland. It was only fair, but the wolf inside me whined and begged to just claim him. It had taken all of my self-control not to knot him—all of my restraint not to sink my teeth into his shoulder.
Without the heat, without knotting him, the flickering bond had faded before sunrise, and I felt the absence like a missing limb. Maybe it wouldn’t be forever, but my luck had been shitty enough these past few years, I’d lost the ability to hope.
Still, Danyal was here. He was with me, asleep in the bed, in this little flat.
The next few days would be hell, trying to creep into Paris, trying to find a way over the border and back to our people. But for now, we had this.
Peeling away the covers, I grimaced at my stomach. I was covered mostly in my own come, my knot having spilled a river that would have probably glued us together if I hadn’t rolled away sometime during the night.
I desperately wanted a shower, but I also wasn’t going to give up the chance to wash up with him, so I moved into the kitchen instead and found instant coffee and a kettle. I wasn’t sure if the patrol would be looking for us today, but I could only hope they’d moved on.
If they found our camp, it would probably look abandoned, and they’d assume we’d run—which is what I would have done if I hadn’t been told to wait for Kor. I was only slightly regretting it now, but of course, I was also trained to follow orders from my superiors. It made sense to just obey—at least, until we ended up stuck here.
