“Kane.”
At the sound of his name, he stopped. “What?”
Apex was still tall and built like a wrestler. And his hair was still all but shaved. And his lean face was as harsh as always.
But his expression was strangely bleak: “Kane…”
The male reached out a shaking hand, and his fingertips, dirty and bloodstained from fighting, trembled as they hovered above Kane’s chest—as if Apex couldn’t bear to touch the flesh. Or maybe didn’t believe it was real.
The sight of those skipping, tripping, almost-touching-him fingertips made him take a look at himself properly.
“Oh…,” he whispered.
All at once, sensory perceptions flooded into his awareness: He was standing up on his own two feet, and the earth under his bare soles was cool and prickly from fallen pine needles. He was physically whole, no longer covered in gruesome, weeping burn wounds. He was also physically strong, his body prepared to do what he demanded of it, with plenty of energy banked and ready for use.
But more than all of that…
“I have no more pain,” he said roughly.
He twisted around and looked back at the hut. The flap that had been pulled to the side by the old female was back in place, barring entrance—and he had the sense that he would never be welcome in there again. She was also nowhere to be seen.
He was on his own.
Putting his hand up to his head, he tried to remember what had happened in there. When nothing came, not how he’d been brought inside, not what he and the old female had spoken of, certainly not whatever had come next… he felt a strange relief. It was better not to probe, he decided.
He refocused on Apex. And in a voice that held a kind of aggression he didn’t recall ever having had before, he said, “Weapons. Now.”
“What happened in the hut,” Apex said.
“Leave it.”
With a quick shift, Kane’s eyes tracked a movement behind the male, and he flared his nostrils, testing the scent. The wolven who hadcome forward was an imposing presence, and unusual-looking with his white flowing hair. Yet Kane recognized him. He had been part of the rescue group.
“Do you have weapons,” Kane demanded. And as he spoke, he recognized that his directness was rude, bordering on offensive… but he just didn’t care. “Can I take some weapons from this camp? You’ve got to have some guns.”
The wolven stared at him without blinking. “You don’t need them.”
“I don’t have time for this bullshit.” He glanced back at Apex. “Where’s the stuff you had in the car you put me into. I heard gunfire—”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Why the hell are you asking that question?” As Apex recoiled once again, Kane couldn’t be bothered. “Look, someone just needs to get me a gun and then I’m out of here—”
“And clothes. You need clothes, you’re naked.”
Kane looked back and forth between the two males. Both were staring at him like he’d sprouted another head, and he wasn’t sure who had pointed out the naked to him.
“I’ll take whatever I can get.”
After a moment, the wolven cleared his throat. “I have clothes, and weapons. But what no one has is much of the night left. Dawn is coming fast.”
“I’m not worried about that.”
“You should be.” Apex cursed and stamped off. Then turned around. “What are you doing. You’re free from the camp. I don’t know what happened in that goddamn hut, but you’re… back, somehow. Why thefuckwould you pick a fight to get back in there.”
Kane stared the male right in the eye, aware that a strange feeling was coursing through him. “What does it matter to you,” he said in a low, warning voice.
Apex marched right up. “Because I’ve got to go back if you do, and I’m fucking free now, too.”