Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
MIKAEL
A t 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.
Until I stormed the fucking castle only to find Danyal with a pregnant woman who turned out to be a new breed of Wolf no one knew existed. I knew the shock of it was going to hit me, but I was grateful for my time at war because it allowed me to shove all that into small, dark boxes in the back of my mind to unpack later.
Drumming my fingers on the counter, I tuned my hearing on Danyal, who was starting to wake. The clock on the wall said it was almost eleven, which meant we’d slept most of the morning. We both had desperately needed the rest, and considering he’d been with Kasher all this time, I had no doubt he needed it more than me.
I stopped the kettle before it began to whistle, then poured two cups, and rummaged through the fridge until I found a small container of milk. It was on the edge of turning, but it would be good enough for the coffee, so I added it to the little box of sugar cubes, and I made my way back to the bedroom.
Danyal was up now, staring at me looking adorably sleep-rumpled and delicious. I wanted to drop everything in my hands and pounce, but I wasn’t sure he’d appreciate it. I didn’t know where I was allowed to go from here—what the hell last night meant. What it might predict for the future.
It was crawling up my spine, making me feel like I was about to lose my goddamn mind, because I wasn’t the kind of Wolf who could suffer the unknown. It was only the fact that he deserved my patience and respect that kept my mouth shut as I set the sugar and milk on the little nightstand.
“You look like you’re about to claw out of your skin,” Danyal said, his voice rough and low.
I shuddered and closed my eyes in a slow blink. “This is…a lot for me.”
“Sorry,” he began.
I dropped to the bed and grabbed his calf in a tight hold. “Stop apologizing. This is the very minimum of what I deserve. I’m just trying to deal with all this and figure out the best way for us to get the hell out of here without being seen.”
He inclined his head just once, but it was enough. He understood. Hell, maybe he was feeling it too. I watched him as he turned his coffee pale and sweet, then he took a long drink and let out a happy sigh, eyes fluttering closed.
My gaze settled on the column of his neck, the soft beat of his heart, and I wanted to bite.
“I can smell you,” Danyal said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “We should probably shower.”
He was right, but it hurt that he wanted to wash it all away.
“Yeah, I can see you over-thinking,” he added, and laughed when my face dropped into a scowl. “I don’t regret last night, but you said they have Wolves with them. We reek of shifter, Mikael. Any one of them wouldn’t need to do more than stroll by across the street.”
Fuck. He was right.
I pushed to my feet, walking to the window, and I cracked the curtains before opening the glass just a few inches. A soft breeze wafted in, and after a short while, the smell began to dissipate.
“I was hoping you might shower with me,” I said after a moment. There was no point in hiding what I wanted and no point in being a coward anymore.
He looked at me over the rim of his mug, and I could see a smile in his eyes. The green that morning was softer, gentle in the stream of sunlight. Everything about him was just so fucking beautiful, and I half-wondered if I had stuck around into the morning the night of his heat, would I have been able to walk away?
I doubted it. Even with the pain and fear I’d been suffering then.
“We probably shouldn’t take too long. If the neighbors here know that these people are on vacation, I don’t want them to hear the shower and come over to investigate.”
“Or call the cops,” I added, though I hated it. All I wanted to do was linger in the stolen luxury we had for these last few hours.
Setting his mug down, he reached for my hand, and I did the same. As my coffee thumped softly next to his, I used his grip on my hand to pull him into me. He let out a soft moan as I buried my nose in his neck, which turned into a growling purr as I laved my tongue over the place where I’d bite to create our permanent bond.
“Come on,” he said, slightly breathless. He didn’t move though, in spite of his words. He rocked his morning wood against my thigh and tilted his head for a kiss. He was sleep-sour and coffee-rich, and I loved it.
I kissed him like I needed the taste of him to survive, and it wasn’t until he was shaking and close to begging that I pulled away.
“Bastard,” he breathed out, the word trembling.
I laughed, trying to cover up that he had me just as off kilter. I twisted our fingers together again, and we separated as I went into the bathroom to start the shower, and he moved to the WC for a morning piss. I could hear him humming through the wall, and it made me grin as I stuck my hand under the stream, waiting for it to warm.
The room was perfectly steamy by the time he arrived, and I sucked in a breath when I saw he was still mostly hard. My own erection throbbed at the sight of him, and I felt a little too close to the edge when his warm body pressed against mine.
“I want to make you come,” I told him, nipping at his jaw.
“Yeah, I have no plans to say no to that.”
I laughed as he exposed more of his neck to me, and then I helped him over the short lip, easing the door closed. It was a modern design, which contrasted with the age of the flat, but I loved it. It was nestled in the corner and the water ran hot and glorious over my skin.
“Gods, I could stay here all day,” he moaned.
I eyed him for a moment, then reached for the soap and poured a generous amount into my hand. It was floral and thick—expensive most likely—and it turned into rich bubbles against my fingers and palm. Danyal watched me with hooded eyes as I gently moved my hands to his chest, and he sucked in a sharp breath when I circled the pads of my thumbs around his nipples.
“Yes,” he sighed out.
I stepped closer, then dragged one hand down toward the hair surrounding his cock. “Yes?”
His eyes went a little more focused, narrowing into a glower. “You want me to beg?”
At that, I leaned in and kissed him, sucking his tongue into my mouth, biting at his lips until he was pliant and soft again. “Never. I just want to make you feel good.”
His hands gripped my waist, just above the cut of my hip, and I felt the tips of his claws dig into my skin. “You do.”
That was almost too much for me to hear—too on the edge of the things we agreed not to talk about until we were home—so I stopped him. I curled my hand around his dick and let the soap guide me in a firm, slick stroke.
“Fuck, fuck,” he hissed out.
I sped up, letting my own cock brush against his thigh as he humped my hand. “Yes. Take it. Take what you want, my Omega.”
His eyes rolled back in his head a little as his body began to tremble. Dragging my free hand away from his nipple, I backed him up so he was braced against the wall, then I cupped his balls and rolled them in my hand. They were heavy and tight, and I knew he was about to spill.
“Give it to me,” I ordered.
And he did.
I wasn’t sure Danyal was a Wolf who often obeyed anyone, but he gave up his orgasm at my command, and that alone had me tumbling toward my own. He gripped me tight and pulled our bodies flush, and with a single roll of his hips, it was over.
It was nothing like the night before. My knot was the furthest thing from my mind, but it was enough. I spilled hot along his skin, and as I caught my breath, I looked down and watched the water take it toward the drain.
There was a moment after that, a sort of profound silence I was terrified to break. Then Danyal pulled away from me, grabbed the soap, and poured it into his hand. He met my gaze with something like purpose in his eyes, and he gently lifted his hands to my hair.
“You’re taller than I am,” he murmured.
I couldn’t help my laugh, though the sound was more tense than anything, and I bent at the knee just enough that he could scrub his fingers from the edge of my hairline, all the way to the back of my neck. If I thought the orgasm was heaven, then this was something else that far transcended it. Pleasure was fine, but this was a gesture of something like love, and it was equal parts terrifying and addicting.
“Don’t over-think,” he murmured gently. He used what was left of the suds to wash the grime, spring water, and come from the rest of my body. His nails scraped through the hair on my lower stomach, the heels of his palms dug into my muscles, kneading until I started to relax.
And when he pushed me under the spray, I let my eyes slip closed, trusting that he would take care of me.
It was new—it was entirely alien, and I was terrified of getting addicted.
“You have a tell,” he said quietly as he reached past me to turn the water off.
I shook my head, spraying him with water, and his laugh was a balm on my frayed nerves. “Yeah? What is it?”
He gave me a shove, and I almost tripped over the lip of the shower as I stumbled out and reached for one of the towels hanging on the back of the door. “Your heart, asshole.”
I turned my head and grinned at him. “Oh?”
He stalked toward me, still soaking wet, and backed me against the door. Stealing the hanging towel behind me, he pressed it between us, then leaned into my chest, laying two fingers to my pulse. “When you over-think, your pulse stutters. It’s like you’re trying to reboot.”
I scoffed, but before I could give him a smart-ass response and break the moment, he kissed me. It was slow, tender, almost painful, and I leaned into it like it was everything.
Because it was.
And I knew if he left me when we got home, I would be ruined.
“You’re doing it again,” he murmured against my lips. His fingers pressed harder against my pulse, and I felt it start to slow again.
“I’m afraid,” I confessed once I’d regained enough sense to speak. Pushing him back gently, I secured the towel around my waist, then took his from him and began to dry his limbs. It felt good to do this—simple, easy. He leaned into it like he was starved for the touch, and I realized he probably was.
Just like me, though it clearly affected him in a different way. His head tilted back when I scrubbed over his hair, and I couldn’t stop myself from taking a taste of his neck. “When we get back, and this all ends…”
“Mikael,” he said, and I forced myself to meet his gaze. He lifted a palm and touched my cheek. “I don’t know how the hell I’m going to feel when we get home. This has been so fucking much. But I can tell you that in spite of what I should do—which is never speak to you again, or at the very least, make you grovel for years—all I want is to keep you close.”
“Am I a monster for wanting to encourage that?” I asked.
He snorted a laugh and reached past me for the door handle, giving me a shove through when he opened it. “Maybe, but it is what it is.”
It felt wrong to steal from the people living here, but we found jogging bottoms and t-shirts in a drawer that fit comfortably enough, and I figured I’d leave them a handful of Euro to make up for it. I hated surrounding myself in human scent, but so long as I didn’t mark Danyal with my come again, we could slip by the humans unnoticed.
For a while, anyway.
Danyal gathered up our clothes, along with the sheets and duvet, and grinned at me over his arms. “I’ll get these started, then we should probably eat?”
He was right, even if my appetite was shit. We’d need to fuel our bodies if we were going to make our way to Paris in wolf form. I nodded, then he wandered away, and I carefully gathered up everything we’d left, including the half-gone bottle of wine that I was tempted to finish.
I wanted to make sure we left the place as decent as we found it, but I also knew there was no way to hide that we’d been there. If that patrol came looking again—if they started digging deeper, they’d know we weren’t far ahead of them.
“I found a TV,” Danyal called quietly from the kitchen.
I wandered out and found him holding half a stale baguette, his eyes fixed on a small cabinet that opened up to what looked like a computer monitor. He’d landed on a news channel, and though the volume was off, there were captions scrolling across the screen that he’d turned to English.
‘…the search for Alpha Wolf and soldier Korin Titus and his human companion Misha Kasher has continued abroad. Misha Kasher is the son of prominent geneticist Zivko Kasher and brother to the presidential candidate Alexei Kasher. Alexei Kasher has denounced the actions of his younger brother and warns that he has a long history of inciting violence between humans and Wolves. The pair are considered to be armed and very dangerous. There is a reward for information regarding their whereabouts.’
I turned to Danyal, my heart somewhere near my knees. “Fuck.”
He swallowed thickly, then nodded and walked back into the kitchen. The news articles I’d found the night before had hinted at this, but I hadn’t realized how quickly the information was moving. I desperately wanted to be able to contact someone, but it made sense now why Kor hadn’t activated the phone.
He hadn’t been caught, but it was likely he and Misha were deep in hiding.
“Do you think those Wolves will still be in Paris?” Danyal asked a few seconds before appearing with a small tea tray. There was dried sausage, cheese, and what was left of the fruit spread across; it wasn’t much, but it was enough.
The pair of us slid down to the floor in front of the coffee table, and Danyal began to pick at the meat as I considered his question. “I don’t know. I want to say that they’ll have left something behind, but chances are, they tried to erase all of the evidence that they’d ever been there.”
He hummed, chewing on some of the meat and bread, then he turned his head to look at me. “Maybe we should take the boat option.”
My brows raised. “Seriously?”
“Why bother heading to Paris if it’s just going to end with us getting caught? They might be friendly toward Wolves, but if they’re airing shit about Kor and Misha already, there’s every chance you and I are going to end up on that most wanted list. If we’re not already.”
He had a point. He had more than a point. It was something I’d been thinking about since last night, even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it. Going to Paris was easier because it meant there might be a chance for answers—it might have offered us the opportunity to have help.
But I knew better.
“I have to believe that Arturo wants us to succeed and get the hell out without being caught,” I answered. I hadn’t given it enough thought, but then again, I hadn’t been given time. We had no real options though. It was either brave Paris and turn up nothing, take our chances in another country, or take the possible Trojan Horse that might just end up being a gift after all.
“I trust you,” Danyal said after a beat.
The truth in his voice was almost painful, but I accepted it all the same. “I’m going to look up where we’re heading, and see how long it’ll take us to get there. If it’s only a few hours away…”
Danyal looked at me, and I realized he knew where I was going. “If we leave in the middle of the night, we can make up the hours before anyone knows their car was stolen.”
I felt like I was corrupting him, but in this world, we had to compromise right and wrong to survive. It had been the same with war, and now with Danyal back in my arms, I would do anything to get home with him in one piece.
Even if it meant braving the goddamn unknown.