Page 26 of Omega Hunted
And you never, ever made them come looking for you.
“Which one?” he asked after a pause, but the answer caught in my throat.
A family name wasn’t just a name. It carried generations of power, money, favors, blood debts, and violence. It would tell Cassian exactly why I’d run, exactly how valuable I was, and exactly how dangerous the people looking for me were.
And it wasn’t just my family; it was the family of the alpha forced to impregnate me.
I shook my head.
“I can’t.”
For a long moment he stared at me, disbelief giving way to something close to horror. “You still won’t tell me?” The words came out rough. “After everything you’ve told me, after telling me one of the Families could be coming for you, you still won’t give me a name?”
I couldn’t.
Something in his expression shifted. The anger drained away, his shoulders dropping as resignation settled over him.
“Okay.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “You don’t have to tell me today. I won’t force it.” His gaze met mine again. “But if keeping that name to yourself puts you or your baby at greater risk, then you have to stop protecting me from it.”
“I will,” I said, then rested both hands over my stomach. Maybe if I gave Asha a name, made her real to him, made her more than a pure bloodline someone would pay for, he might see her as someone worth protecting. Someone he couldn’t betray. “Do you want to know about my baby?”
He nodded.
“It’s a girl. I’m calling her Asha. It means hope.” My throat pulled tight, and I didn’t fight it. “She is hope.”
“She’s a miracle,” he whispered.
“I know.” My cat pressed against my sternum.
“Fuck,” he said, and carded his hands through his dark hair. “I need Ronan to tell me what the hell he’s up to, and what plans he has now, and whether I can get you off this mountain, and over the border.”
“I said—”
“Or somewhere else, away from the Families, safe. While I’m still breathing, I won’t let them hurt you.” He rubbed his chest, right over his heart, and winced. “I don’t know what I need to do to help you.”
“I don’t know either,” I said. “If I can do this, if she’s born alive and I survive it, then she stays with me until I can get somewhere safe in the underground. That’s all I need.”
He held my gaze for another moment before giving a single nod, as though something had settled into place inside him. “Then that’s what we’re doing,” he said with certainty. “You’re safe here.”
A laugh caught in my throat, brittle enough to hurt.
“I’m not safe anywhere,” I said. “If there’s a way off this mountain—a snowmobile, walking, anything—I should leave before someone finds me.”
Chapter Ten
CASSIAN
No. He’s not leaving. My wolf scrambled to get me to stop him.
“You can’t leave.” The words came out hard before I could stop them, my wolf driving them with enough force that Soren stiffened. Fuck. I’d scared him, and regret hit me immediately. “I don’t mean you can’t leave. I mean, there’s no bridge. It’s snowing. You crashed a car. You nearly froze to death. You don’t have shoes.” I was sounding increasingly desperate.
“I’ll manage somehow.”
“How, exactly?” Fear sharpened my voice, made me push harder than I should have because he still didn’t seem to understand what could happen out there. “Walk me through it. You go out the front door, and then what? The bridge is still shut. The temperature dropped another six degrees last night. Where do you go, Soren? How do you keep yourself and your baby safe?”
His jaw pulled tight, and his hand pressed harder under his belly. “I want to take care of myself.”
Want to, not can, I thought. He wanted to be independent; he wanted control, but even now, he knew it would be nearly impossible. Be kind, my wolf urged, which was rich coming from the bastard flooding me with fear. Soren’s eyes were bright, and his face was too pale, and even as he’d told me everything with quiet confidence, he was shaking, a tremor through his hands and shoulders that hadn’t stopped.
