Page 1 of Into the Fire: After

One

Brea

Once,therewaslight,and lightness. The warmth of five people piled together in a lull of our omega’s heat.

Among the trees, there was no light. Only the one I carried, burning and whimpering, on my back.

In the dark, I couldn’t see Brooks’ dimples when he laughed, or Lin’s gaze that so often sliced me to pieces. Or Caine’s vulnerability he’d entrusted to me almost from the day we met.

Those memories didn’t matter just now. Neither did the sting of my bare feet sprinting through a rain-soaked wood. Or the exhaustion that made my muscles scream. Or how vulnerable we both were in our men’s drenched t-shirts and nothing else, a single knife our only weapon. Or the cloudiness of my mind from a heat haze that wasn’t my own.

I forced it all from my mind. Only the path to safety mattered. Only the directions Caine had forced me to memorize before we all succumbed to the magnificent chaos of our omega’s heat.

Had to focus. Had to move. Had to save our omega.

Once upon a time, I was the only one who’d needed her. Now, I had to save her for all of us.

Many,manystepslater,my legs finally gave out. I managed to twist myself so Taryn didn’t fall to the sopping ground, but we landed with matching grunts.

We didn’t move.

We didn’t speak.

I stared up at the raindrops, like so many silver knives pelting us from heaven.

If that was heaven, was this hell? The Underneath, the realm of unending toil and misery? That would be a sly bit of irony, if we stupid mortals told stories of a fiery hell when, in fact, it was nothing but black and cold and rain and fear. If it existed all around us, disguised in plain sight.

If this really was hell, then it wouldn’t be so sad that the guys were gone. Maybe they were up high, above the knives. Away from the fear and rain and cold and black.

Maybe they were where the light was.

Light!

Like I’d willed it to existence, a flash blinded me, making my dark-sensitive eyes squeeze shut right as the very air around me cracked with anger.

Light.

Lightning. Thunder.

Taryn!

I slapped my own face. And again.

The boys weren’t in heaven, and we weren’t in hell. I couldn’t say if either place existed. Whatdidexist was the boiling,beautiful omega at my side, still suffering heat pangs that bent her double and pulled desperate whimpers from her.

I had to focus. Had to force my mind to stay on task. Getting Taryn to safety. Finding the little cave Caine had told us about, remote but well hidden, where we’d circle up once it was safe.

Exhaustion couldn’t defeat me. Rain and cold couldn’t. Taryn’s heat could try to sneak through the bond and addle my mind, but it would lose.

Because where my omega—ouromega—was concerned, I would force myself to be invincible.

I loosed a breath and rolled to my knees. I willed my legs to hold me upright. I stood. I pulled Taryn with me, draping one of her arms around my neck as I hooked mine around her waist. She clung to me like I was a piece of driftwood in a roiling ocean. My teeth chattered in the summer rain, but her skin was still so warm. I gripped the knife in my free hand until my knuckles cracked.

Find a safe place. Tend to Taryn. Keep her safe. Await the others.

With a plan—a half-delirious plan crafted from recitation and necessity—we hobbled on.

Straightouttheback,go for the trees. Walk northeast, go until you find the stream.