Page 40 of Omega's Bears

“How long have you known?” Ryan asks.

“Not long at all. It’s the worst possible time for something like this.” I sigh. “We were all so happy a few days ago.”

“We will be again.” He pulls me close, wraps his arms around me. “They’re good fighters, Cami. They’re going to come back. We’ll be a family.”

“You don’t believe that,” I challenge. “You didn’t want them to go out on their own.”

“But they did go,” he says. “And I have to trust them now. We both have to trust them. They’re very capable fighters, both of them. The plan is a good one. And Jack will go to the ends of the Earth to protect his clan. He’s a good alpha. He’ll get them both back here.”

Or die trying. Ryan doesn’t say the words—I’m sure he knows what they would do to me—but I hear the omission, all the same. I lean into his chest, trying to draw courage from his warm presence. Ryan is still here with me. But what will I do if the others don’t come back? I should have told them about the babies. How will I handle it if they die today, never having known that they were about to be fathers?

Suddenly, standing still is agonizing. I have to do something. I step back out of Ryan’s arms and hang the binoculars around my neck. “Okay,” I say. “I’m going to look outside and see if I can see anything.”

Ryan frowns. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Cami.”

“What are you talking about? It was your idea in the first place.”

“But that was before I knew you were pregnant.”

“Why does that change anything?”

He groans. “I don’t know. I don’t want to risk your life any more than I want to risk the babies’. But it feels more dangerous somehow. Maybe it’s just instinct, but I think you should stay here.”

“I just want to get a look,” I tell him. “Don’t you want to know what’s going on?”

“Well, yes,” he admits.

“This won’t take long. I’ll stay in the tunnel. We’ll feel better when we know something.”

He curves his hand around the back of my neck and looks me in the eyes. “Take care of yourself, Cami. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t.”

He nods and releases me, reluctance etched across his face.

I make my way carefully down the tunnel, moving more slowly than usual, afraid to make any noise. More than once, I freeze in place after accidentally kicking a rock or scraping my boot against the narrow walls. The wolves have remarkable hearing. If any of them are still out there, I don’t want them to hear me coming.

Finally, after what seems like forever, I reach the mouth of the cave. I stay back about a foot deep in the tunnel, so I won’t be seen, and train the binoculars on the woods.

At first, I don’t see anything. It was probably foolish to expect that I would. The entire point of this plan was to lure the wolves away from our den, to have the fight take place far from here. But as I pan the binoculars across the landscape, I see signs of their chase. Bear tracks. Wolf tracks. I try to count them, to figure out how many chased Jack and how many stayed behind, but I can’t figure it out.

And then, just as I’m about to give up and go back to Ryan, I hear it—an agonized roar. A bear in pain.

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