Page 23 of Bite

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” River deflates with a long sigh.

“Why, though? What could possibly be the reason?” River looks pained to admit that he doesn’t know. I continue, “I gotta admit, this is really not ideal for an alliance. How can I possibly enter an agreement with you, knowing that at any moment your position here could be revoked and any alliance we made would dissolve? I need to try and contact a community in the eastern territories, and if I can’t trust the stability of this compound, I’ll have to look elsewhere for an alliance.”

“Then stay and help,” River pleads.

“I can’t stay,” I tell him. “I’ve been gone from my territory for too long, and I have to get back.” That’s the truth, but I don’t mention the constant nagging in my body, or the pain-laced edge of my wolf wanting to be back on his land.

“Is this the end of the alliance, then?” River asks. His eyes are intense and his body is rigid, like he’s primed to convince me in any way he can.

Can I leave here without my true mate? If I leave, who knows what the future of this compound will be. Will River be removed from power? Then what happens to Raine? I can’t stay to solve all of this alpha’s problems, but I can’t leave knowing Raine is in imminent danger, either.

Then there’s Ferris. There is something about him that intrigues me and calls to my wolf. It’s obvious that he’s important to Raine, too. I don’t know the situation between them, but I have to wonder if he is as trapped here as Raine. I quickly scan what I can see of his neck, but I don’t see any bites. Good, my wolf growls. River hasn’t pack-bonded him, and he never smells like River, so they obviously aren’t in any kind of romantic relationship. Perhaps he’s not as trapped as he thinks.

“I’ll need to confirm with my people,” I say with a rough voice, “but maybe I can leave Aspen and Koda here to assist you for one month. Tore and I need to return, but I truly don’t want to see this place eaten alive, and Aspen is who you’d want helping, anyway.”

River considers my proposal. “If your people are amenable, then I accept. But . . . if you want access to our comms, I have one condition.”

“What is it?” I ask, suspicious.

He lowers his voice. “I know that your people have been liberating the bunker communities on the western coast. At least one of those bunkers was doing medical research on Biters. I want access to that research.”

I narrow my eyes at him, cautious. This is fucking dangerous. What could a random Midlander want with the Biter research? I control my scent, trying not to give anything away. How much does he already know? Does he know about Ren and Shawn, and if so, how?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie.

“Just like I don’t know the real reason you want to make contact with the east,” River says, green eyes glinting like blades of jade.

Ferris’s gaze shifts between us, his face painted in concerned confusion.

“Look,” River says, “we have a family here that escaped one of those bunkers, and I know for certain that they were conducting medical tests. I also know that you’re desperate to contact the east. I think you’re looking for someone specific, someone important to the Lunar Mother.”

He doesn’t have it all figured out, but he’s dangerously close. We aren’t looking for one single person, but rather a community of shifters. This mission is of the utmost importance to the Lunar Mother, though, and she did give me permission to get access to the radio tower at any cost. Fuck, what if she is looking for someone specific? I take a deep breath and pray to the moon that Ren doesn’t fucking kill me when he finds out what I’ve promised.

“Fine,” I grunt. “I might have access to the medical research, but it doesn’t belong to me or the Lunar Mother; it belongs to the survivors of the bunker. I will not force them to share without knowing why you want this information.”

River stares at me long and hard. “What I’m about to tell you is top secret,” he says. “No one aside from myself knows this and telling you is a giant risk. This information must never be shared outside of the three of us, understood?”

I nod. “Agreed.” Ferris’s eyes blaze as he voices his agreement as well.

“When my mother died, I accompanied the small group of guards tasked with taking her to the burning grounds. The guards watched my back while I arranged her body to set the fire. My parents were betas, which means they never could exchange mate bites, yet I found a healed bite on the top of her shoulder—somewhere no one would see on a normal basis.

“I was shocked, to say the least. As far as I knew, my parents had only ever been with each other, and Mother never spoke about having a mate bite. Anger pulsed through my veins, thinking she’d been bonded without consent or something equally horrifying. However, when I examined it further, I noticed that there were small, barely perceivable black veins marbled throughout the long-healed scar tissue.”

“What are you saying?” Ferris growls, scent fearful and unsettled.

“I have no way of knowing for certain, but I think my mother was bitten by a Biter without becoming one. Maybe even the same Biter that infected my father, nearly twenty years ago.”

“What. The. Fuck,” Ferris breathes, brows drawn. “That’s impossible.”

River looks me dead in the eye and asks, “Is it?”

My heart races. This is incredibly close to the research that Ren is still working on, so close that he would definitely want to know about it. Would maybe even be comfortable sharing what he knows with River if it meant gaining this information.

“Here’s my proposal,” I say. “If they agree, Aspen and Koda will stay here for one month to help you rebuild and maintain control of the compound. You will grant them private access to your radio several times before they leave. I will leave within the day to return home and speak with the bunker survivors. I will only allow their research to be shared with one of the survivors residing at Grand Prairie on a private radio channel.”

“Fine,” River agrees. “All I need is to get the assembly to agree. Give me a day and I’ll get everything sorted.” He holds his hand out and we shake on it.

Ferris stalks off without another word. I watch him leave, the bitter scent of oversteeped tea trailing in his wake. Later, I might need to track him down for a conversation of our own.