Page 5 of Into the Fire: After

Twenty-four hours. Not a peep. From them. From anyone.

The longer we waited, the higher the chance wewouldhear a peep. But no guarantee who’d be making it.

I sat up, tucking my tangled hair behind my ears. “Teacup, we need to leave.”

Her nerves were like static in the bond. I spoke over it, telling her about my plan to find another cabin and, from there, figure out our next steps.

Worry lined her brow as she listened, and when I fell silent, she bit her lip. “Well?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “I’m so tired. I just…I don’t know if I can even stand, let alone wander through the mountainside hoping we stumble upon a new plan.”

An unexpected sting sliced through my heart. It felt too close to rejection, and I didn’t like that coming from my Teacup.

I took a breath, and then a hard look at my omega. Already she was so thin she looked frail, her eyes dull and cheeks hollow. She leaned against the cave wall, as though too weak to hold herself up.

Fuck. All this on the back end of her heat. Shame washed through me that I’d made her struggles about me. There was no time for self-flagellation, though. Only time for solutions.

Willing as I was to carry her on my back, with my own waning stamina, I didn’t know if I could for very long. If I collapsed with both of us somewhere out in the woods, we’d be sitting ducks, ripe for the hunting.

Here, Taryn was sheltered, and her location was known. The thought of leaving her behind had the alpha in me howling with displeasure, but it was the least atrocious of the possible choices.

“Okay,” I said, looking to Taryn. “I’ll go.”

She blanched even further. “Brea, no—”

“We can’t sit and wait forever, Taryn,” I said as gently as I could manage through my fear and exhaustion. “We need food and water, clothes and better shelter.” I cupped her cheek and leaned my forehead against hers. “I’ll find help, and then I’ll come back and get you.”

Silent tears slipped down her cheeks. “You can’t go alone.”

I forced a smirk onto my lips. “You don’t tell me what to do. That’s my job, remember?” I kissed her forehead, pushing aside the hot blade of fear trying to choke me. “And my job is also to protect you. Right now, that includes doing whatever I have to do to get you out of this forest and away from those men.” Her lip trembled, and my heart shattered. I looked to the cave entrance. “I need to go now.”

“What? No!”

I held my omega, who cried on my shoulder. I wanted to whisper comfort in her ear.It’ll be okay. I’ll be back soon. We’ll find the others. Everything’s fine.

But I couldn’t say any of that in good conscience. The future was a smoggy expanse of nothing. Like a misty forest full of danger. What was coming was unknown; all that was clear was what we needed.

So I whispered the only truth I knew still existed.

“You are our light, Teacup.”

And no matter how deep in the darkness I plummeted, I’d never stop reaching for her saving light.

Three

Taryn

Shesavedmylife,and I repaid her with lies.

I wasn’t too tired to leave the cave. Well—okay—yeah, I was, but I could have. I’d been too tired to make it here too and we still did.

But the thought of leaving Lin, Brooks, and Caine behind? Of assuming them lost while we made our own way forward?

A bridge too far. A whole galaxy too far.

My loves. My entire world.

Gone. Stolen. Extinguished.