“Ok, tell me you weren’t thinking exactly that?”
God, he hated being so easy to read. “Fine, it crossed my mind, but can you blame me?” He sucked in a breath as a wave of pain hit him, fists clenched. “I’m literally bleeding out over the ground.”
“I won’t let you die. I can change you, if it comes to it.” She paused, and her words hit Cole like a sledgehammer. “If that’s something you want?”
“No, I—” He what? Would rather die? The idea of becoming a shifter had always filled him with horror, he’d never wanted it. But he hadn’t planned on dying at twenty-three either. “I don’t know.”
“I suggest you start thinking about it while you’re conscious. Because if you don’t specifically tell me not to, then I’m going to bite you. I won’t watch you die when I can save you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Part of him wanted her to decide for him, wanted her to take the choice away from him so he could live but have someone to blame for it. Because choosing it willingly felt so very wrong.
She fell silent, and Cole realised she’d stopped telling him what was happening in the cavern next door.
“Can you hear them still?” he asked, hoping they’d gone, then feeling instantly guilty for it. He desperately wanted to get out of the crates, but then that would mean they’d taken Logan with them.
Or worse.
“Yes, I can hear them.”
“What’s happening, then?” he snapped, frustration and pain getting the better of him.
“You don’t want to know,” her voice low, barely more than a whisper.
Cole was about to snap at her again when he heard it. Muffled and hard to make out, but he knew a scream when he heard one.
Max was right.
He didn’t want to know.
Closing his eyes, he considered telling her no—don’t save me. But the words never came, and he finally gave in to the pull of unconsciousness and let everything slip away.
PAIN.
So much pain.
Logan’s head fell forward, blood spilling down his chin. He watched it drip onto the cavern floor, mesmerised for a moment by the growing pool around his fangs.
Tim lifted his head up by his hair. Logan barely felt it through the agony in his jaw.
“Where have they gone? How many have you helped escape, Logan? Because I’m pretty fucking sure Moreton isn’t the first.” He thumbed at the empty sockets where Logan’s teeth used to be, then pressed down hard. Logan whimpered. “With that serum flowing through you, you can’t change back, and I can do this for hours...”
Logan didn’t doubt him for a second. He’d believed Tim when he’d said he didn’t want to torture him, but he seemed to be enjoying himself now. The change had been subtle at first—hesitant as he’d injected Logan with something his pack had apparently acquired. But as the half-change took hold, Logan’s pain brought out a sadistic side that Logan hadn’t expected at all.
“Just tell me, Logan.” He sighed and stepped back, taking another syringe from the kit he’d brought with him and holding it up. “This will stop it all and take the pain away.” Setting it down again, he moved closer, and it took everything Logan had not to flinch away, not to show how scared he was of what Tim might do next. “These must ache by now.” Trailing his fingers over Logan’s hands, he paused at the claws protruding from Logan’s fingertips. “Just tell me where they’ve gone. Where they all go.”
Logan swallowed, grimacing at the taste of his own blood. So much of it. “I don’t know.” And that was the truth, at least for that question. He didn’t know where they all ended up. He had a good idea, but nothing certain.
“Fucking hell, Logan!” Tim yelled, gripping his hair in frustration. “Why are you protecting him? He’s just a fucking human who thinks he’s too good to join our pack.” He laughed and shook his head. “Too good for the McKillan pack. He should be biting our hands off to get in, thankful for the opportunity.”
Logan huffed out a bitter laugh, a mistake, but he couldn’t help it. “Thankful for being forced into a life he doesn’t want?” He licked his lips. “Would you be?”
“I was!” Tim hissed, grabbing Logan around the throat. “And look at me now.”
Logan did, he took a long hard look and had never been more sure that he’d done the right thing. Cole wasn’t meant for this life. Logan didn’t know what Tim was like before he joined their pack, but he could never have watched Cole turn into anything like him.
And if he had to die to keep Cole safe, then so be it.
LEWIS AND ZAC reappeared a while later. Logan was starting to lose track of time; could’ve been five minutes, could’ve been an hour. The strain of being forced to remain half-shifted was making things blur around the edges. Was that Tim’s plan? To make him so hazy with pain that he didn’t know what he was saying any more? Too out of it to keep the truth to himself.
