“Maybe, maybe not.” He made a disgusted gesture toward himself. “I’ll wash as soon as I can, and I’ve got Silas’s fucking filthy BO all over me, which might throw ‘em off. If they don’t catch a fresh trail, it’ll be lost within a day.”
A dark cloud passed over Simon’s face. “I hope so, man. If they catch you running off with one of their women...”
Cal’s jaw tightened. “Once we’re bonded, they won’t be able to do shit without hurting her too.”
Simon didn’t look convinced, squinting one eye at Cal. “You reckon they give a shit about that?”
“Let’s hope we never find out.” Cal rubbed the back of his neck. “You and Matteo gonna be able to keep yourselves in check without me? I know I’m running off on you both.”
Simon held out his hand, and they locked arms for a quick, solid embrace. “It is what it is, brother. You’d do the same for me.”
Cal gave his friend one final slap on the back. “Go on now, we got work to do.”
CHAPTER NINE
Della
Dripping water plunked in an unrelenting pattern, luring Della into unwilling consciousness. Water was a problem. Was there a leak in her cabin? Had the framing of the door settled again? Or was it the roof this time?
She’d been dreaming. Dreams about a breakneck horse ride through the dark, snugged up tight against a man’s chest, the smell of coffee and cinnamon tickling her nose. Slowly, the dream remnants released their sticky hold, and glimmers of bright light assaulted her barely--slitted eyes. Her eyelids trudged the rest of the way open, only to be greeted by a window of midday sun that blinded her with its intensity yet failed to illuminate the shadowed corners of...
Della shot upright, her head spinning with the sudden movement.Where the fuckwasshe?
Her stiffened, sluggish neck swiveled around her surroundings as she grappled for pieces to put together. Was she... in acave?
Turbulence crowded her head, her last memories fuzzy and uncooperative. She’d been at home, looking at her photos. Rue came in, but something was wrong. The patrol hadn’t returned, and Della’d gone to investigate. Snoop, maybe more accurately. Shouting Alphas, a fight, and then her head throbbing with overstuffed misery.
A deep male groan ricocheted around the stone walls before being swallowed by the cavernous space. To her right, a large man sprawled on the ground. Not next to her but a mere arm’s length away. Della ran a panicked hand over her shirt and underneath the blankets that covered her. Her boots were off, but otherwise, she was fully dressed, everything in place as it had been since she got up yesterday morning. Had it been yesterday? Or had she been asleep for days? Had she been drugged?
The man smacked his lips, a pink tongue darting out to wet them as the arm slung over his brow slid off and fell to his side, revealing his face.
Cal.
That face,hisface, full of hovering concern, came back to her in foggy snapshots. Cleaning blood from her forehead. Checking her for broken bones. Carrying her across the stable. Laying her gently in a bed. The dreams took on a new significance, turning her queasy stomach into a solid block of ice.
The dreams, the ride on the horse... those weren’t dreams at all! In her confusion, he’d packed her up and taken her...somewhere.Advice from her old life floated up from her memory like a taunt: “Never go to a second location. Your chance of survival drastically drops when you’re taken to a second location.”
Another quick perusal of the cave confirmed that “second location” was the absolute best spin on her current situation. She needed to get out of here and fast.
Quickly, tooquickly, Della rolled and staggered to her feet. Her insides sloshed like she was aboard an unsteady ship, and shadows flirted on the edges of her vision. Hands outstretched, she wobbled to the nearest wall, the cool rock rough and indifferent under her fingers but blessedly unmoving. Shit. What was wrong with her head? Was sheconcussed? That wouldn’t make this any easier. Hand on the wall, she tested her unsteady gait with a few tentative steps. Ignoring her heaving stomach, she shuffled toward the opening and peered outside, her heart immediately leaping into her throat at what she found.
Squinting into the sun, fifteen feet of stone stretched between the cave and a briskly flowing stream below. Too far to jump, scaling the wall would be dicey even if she weren’t woozy and on the verge of passing out. Sweat misted her forehead, and a surge of dizziness had her drooping to position with her head between her knees.
Her sinuses burned with desperate tears. No. No crying. Her dad’s voice chided in her memory, “Solve the problem, Adeline.”
A sudden longing for her father reared up like a rampant lion, threatening to grind her to dust beneath its giant paws. Six years old, ringed by the scattered remains of a block tower, cheeks streaked with tears as her dad’s patient face brimmed with love. His deep voice rumbled, “Cryfor a minute, Adeline; then solve the problem.”Nineteen years old, her college-aged self raged against the latest injustice or bigotry. The clear blue eyes he passed onto her peered over his spectacles as he softly chided, “Rant for a minute, Adeline; then get to work and solve the problem.”
No single person shaped Della’s existence more than her father, Senator Michael Anthony Cabrese. They were people of action, she and her father, yet Della never took for granted the privilege of being a senator’s wealthy daughter. Being a person of action only worked insofar as you possessed sufficient power to actually make things happen. Yet none of the privilege of her former life helped her when TheEnd came, and it wouldn’t help her now.
Taken to a cave in the middle of nowhere with a strange Alpha who’d already made his intentions crystal clear, she longed not for her father’s wisdom or guidance but a far more basic, primitive need: protection. That feeling of being a small child scooped up and held tight with one arm while he waved with the other to the roaring crowd of amped-up supporters, secure in the knowledge that as loud, frightening, and intimidating as all those faces looking at her family was, she was utterly, completely safe.
Despair cut through her nausea. Her father, long dead, couldn’t protect her. Rakesh, long dead, couldn’t protect her. This was the AfterEnd, and she hadn’t been safe since civilization fell. Within the confines of Morris Hill, she’d believed Hunter and his Alphas offered a reprieve from the constant threat of lawlessness. Yet, somehow, right under their noses, she’d been spirited away, cut off from the security she’d taken for granted. Della hung her throbbing head, wrestling her emotions back from the brink and failing miserably as tears drenched her cheeks.
“Cry for a minute, Adeline; then solve the problem.”
Solve the problem. Solve the problem. But...shecouldn’t.Not this problem. Not right now. Not like this. Breaths, fast and shallow, wheezed between her lips. Her lungs begged for a deeper, purifying inhale, but an iron band confined her chest and imprisoned the air inside. Her mind refused to settle, spiraling into a full-on panic like a child hurtling down a hill on an out-of-control bicycle.
“Hey, now.” A deep voice crashed through her hysteria, startling her and upsetting her precarious footing. Her body jerked, her vision reeled, and the steep, stony precipice teetered in and out of focus as if beckoning her toward the headfirst plunge. Maybe Hunter had the right idea after all: it would take nothing to pitch over the edge and leave the rest up to fate. What was the point of pretending she had anything resembling freedom and choice in this stupid, backward world, anyway?