Page 22

Nadia

When I raise my head again, I groan, feeling like my head is full of cotton. I work my tongue in my sticky mouth, desperate for some water –

Like a wish granted, my eyes fall on the bottle of it resting on the pillow next to me. I frown for a second before I grab it, twisting off the top and taking a long sip as I read the note next to it.

Gone to dinner with the Prince because we are fancy. Love you, Na-na, you dehydrated psychopath workaholic! Come join us when you wake up!

I smirk, looking at the line of scrawled hearts and stars that follow the words, knowing immediately who wrote it, even if it’s unsigned.

I sigh and sit up, looking around at my familiar little bed, wondering…how the hell I got here. And then a desperate little frown takes my lips as I realize that there’s only one realistic answer to that question. One I don’t like at all.

It takes a minute to gather some of my stuff, but then I head into the bathroom for a quick, much-needed shower and tooth brushing. But when I’m fresh and clean, I pull on new scrubs and my shoes, heading across camp to the mess tent.

As soon as I get inside, I see my friends at the same table at which we ate breakfast, sitting with the same annoyingly large forms, everyone just calmly eating soup and crusty bread like everything is fine.

But I only have eyes for one of them as I storm over, my sneakers smacking against the floor. God, even my steps sound pissed off.

“Cole,” I snap, glaring down at him. All conversation at the table stops, all eyes turning to me.

“Did you take me out of the nursing tent and carry me to bed?”

Cole looks up at me, his face annoyingly bland and handsome, only a friendly smile on his lips. “Of course not, Nadia,” he says, blissfully innocent. “We already agreed that me picking you up and carrying you without your consent is a huge violation of your autonomy and integrity.”

I narrow my eyes at him, glancing over at Grace and Shayne, confused. Because if Cole didn’t carry me, then how…

The Prince tilts his head to the side, considering me, his smile widening. “No, I didn’t carry you out.” He points to his blonde friend. “But Greg did.”

I gasp and turn my eyes to the big Alpha at Shayne’s side, who just grins and gives me a little wave.

I gape at the blonde. “You didn’t!”

He grimaces and shrugs, clearly disguising a smile. “Captain’s orders!”

I turn sharply to Cole, a scoff on my lips.

He doesn’t even look at me, calmly lifting a spoonful of soup to his lips. “Kincaids love a loophole, Nadia.”

I spin, ready to stride off, wanting be anywhere but here -

But Cole’s hand flashes out, wrapping lightly around my wrist.

I turn back fully, ready to give him a piece of my mind, but he just smirks and slowly shakes his head at me. “You were more comfortable in the bed, Nadia. And safer.”

“And Cole tucked you in!” Shayne squeals, her hands balled into fists and tucked against her lips. Her eyes shine with delight.

I gasp, looking down at Cole, who blushes and drops my wrist. “I so did not.”

I gasp again, louder, at the guilt so obvious all over his face. “Cole!”

“He just pulled the blankets up over your shoulders,” Greg says, grinning at me.

“And tucked them in under your chin,” Grace adds, leaning her chin in her palm. I glare at the traitor.

“And gave you the sweetest little forehead kiss,” says Tommy, laughing, all eyes on me as I grow redder and redder.

“Oh, you weren’t even there,” Cole growls, glaring at Tommy even as he starts to laugh. And then they’re all laughing. And suddenly I am too, with my hands on my hips, giving into the ridiculousness of it all.

“Oh, whatever, Kincaid,” I say, tossing my hair over my shoulder and suddenly deciding that I don’t care, even as my face reddens.

Even if being righteous and enraged is too exhausting right now, I’m not very good at admitting that I was wrong. But I have to admit that Cole is right - I was more comfortable and whoever carried me did a nice thing. I’m being far too prickly about this.

“I’m getting some soup!” I call over my shoulder, still pretending to be lofty and superior. “Don’t you dare talk about me while I’m gone!”

“You wish, Na-na!” Grace calls after me. I hide my grin, not wanting to give in fully just yet.

When I come back with my soup and a stack of saltine crackers about a mile high, my friends have graciously complied and moved the conversation on to something else.

Grace and Shay talk animatedly with Tommy and Greg about some action movies they missed while enrolled in active duty, where they have limited access to media, apparently.

And while they’re talking about films I like, I turn to Cole with a different question on my mind.

“The nurses are doing fine without you,” Cole murmurs, answering my query before I can get a word out. I blink at him, sitting back in my chair, looking over his smug half-smile as he continues to eat his soup.

“And why do you think I was going to ask about that?”

His smirk deepens incrementally as he glances at me from the corner of his eye. Without a word, he returns to his soup.

“Fine,” I say, lofty, turning to my own bowl. “If you know me so well, I don’t need to ask questions. Proceed to inform me.” I crumple a bunch of crackers into my soup. “You smug-ass wolf.”

He grins, laughing a little. “The patients got to the hospital just fine. A few came in during the day today while you slept, but nothing major. Well, one very broken leg, but the doctor handled it.”

I nod, frowning, considering this. “Any kids?”

Cole turns to me in surprise. “What?”

“Grace noticed it,” I say, raising my chin towards her. “All these women, very few men, not a single child. Not even anyone like…adolescent.”

Cole sits straighter and goes a little pale, glancing at Grace. He stays silent for a long moment, his mind clearly working through this information. “Shit,” he whispers, turning to me. “Do you have data on that?”

I shrug, even as I narrow my eyes at him, wondering what he knows that I don’t. “Age and gender information will all be in the computer if anyone bothered to enter it after I fell asleep. Why? I mean, why are you having such a strong reaction to this?”

He frowns at me, sitting straighter. “I’m not having a strong reaction.”

I just lean closer so he can better feel the burning wrath of my glare.

Cole sighs. “Fine,” he says, “bring your…wet cracker mush. I want to talk to your dad about this, I’ll tell you why on the way.”

Eager to learn more, I stand, hastily crumbling more crackers into my soup as I do.

“That’s disgusting,” Cole murmurs, watching me.

“Don’t police my eating habits, Kincaid!” I say, scooping up my bowl and grabbing my spoon. “Besides, you’re wrong.” I take a big crunchy bite to prove my point.

Cole’s face twists with half confusion and half disgust as he moves for the door. I grin around my food, waving to my friends and continuing to eat as I hurry to keep up.

When we get out of the tent, Cole leads me a few steps away and then glances around to ensure we’re alone. “What do you know about the Children of Solace’s whole kid thing?”

“What kid thing?” I ask, speaking around my food.

He stares at me again. “Do you want like, a minute? To finish that?”

“Oh, lay off, I’m hungry,” I grumble, waving my spoon at him as either encouragement or threat for him to continue. I let him decide which.

Cole just laughs a little and steps close, voice low.

“There are some rumors that we’ve gotten from the very few people who have escaped the cult,” he says.

“The people who reported its existence in the first place. There’s not a ton of detail – they keep everything very locked down even amongst their members – but we do know that children are frequently, maybe always, separated from their parents young and brought up in little gendered communities. Put to work young, that sort of thing.”

I look at him like he’s a little crazy. “That…that has to be exaggerated…” I murmur.

“Maybe,” Cole says with a shrug, leading me away to the abandoned fire circle where we sit. But then he continues to tell more details that they’ve gleaned from survivors about the way the children are apparently raised in isolation, trained to fight from a young age – at least the boys.

They’ve never met a girl from the community.

And that also romance is apparently deeply discouraged – that men and women do not interact, at all, except strictly in terms of procreation. And even then, only long enough to produce a child.

I look over toward the tents where some escapees sit and rest in small groups, desperate suddenly to ask them more about what their lives are like.

“So,” I whisper after Cole has been quiet long enough to indicate he’s finished. “You’re not…messing with me? These people produce kids like…unassuming breeding stock? Not people who love each other and want to have a kid?”

“This is what I’ve heard,” Cole murmurs, staring off into the distance, clearly lost in his thoughts. “We have little to no proof, though. Hopefully Jeanie and her crew can get us more answers, though of course her first priority is taking care of her patients.”

I straighten my shoulders a little. “Cole, you can’t ask her to break her patients’ confidentiality.”

“I know,” he says, nodding seriously to me. “But…hopefully some of them can be encouraged to tell us as well. So that we can help the people who are still within the Children of Solace.”

My scowl deepens as I think further about what these poor people have been though, but I see people starting to come out of the mess tent, indicating a change in shifts. “Okay,” I say, nodding. I bite my lip. “Um, I want to get to work, do you want to…”

“Go talk to your dad myself and then come back later and tell you every single detail so you can have your cake and eat it too?”

I give Cole my very rare, widest smile, the one that shows all my teeth. “Yes, please!”

But my smile fades a bit when he grins, blushes, and drops his eyes.

And then I blush too.

And then I kind of freak out and jump to my feet.

“Okay, bye! I have to go to work!” I shove my half-empty soup bowl at him and start to stride for the nursing tent.

Cole bursts out laughing, fumbling to catch the bowl before it falls to the ground. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Try it!” I call, waving over my shoulder. “It’s good!” I laugh to myself, kind of hoping he does because it’s just cold sodden gush at this point and that would serve him right for being all…

God damn it, all cute. And making me blush.

“Eat something real!” He calls. “A granola bar! Anything!”

“No!”

“Do it for me!”

I blush again, hating it, and don’t answer, thinking angrily that stupid Cole Kincaid doesn’t get to tell me when to eat.

But I passively grab a power bar off the table at the front of the nursing tent when I step in, forcing my thoughts to other things – my job, the people who need me.

Anything but that stupid boy.

I slip the bar into my pocket for later, ready to get to work.