She shuffled over to Cole again, checking his vitals. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.” Motioning for Logan to slide back the hatch to the driver’s area, she waited for John’s face to appear. “Can you see what’s happening?”
Fear trickled down Logan’s spine as another thought occurred to him. He glanced back at Max. “You don’t think they’re checking cars, do you?” His pack knew where they’d been; wouldn’t take much to check the main roads surrounding it.
“John?”
The seconds it took him to respond seemed to last a lifetime.
“No,” he said eventually. “There’s a couple of ambulances and a fire engine. They’re not checking cars. It’s just a really bad accident.”
Logan wondered if any of those involved would end up being offered the bite. Critically injured patients were always offered that option first—or their relatives were—because it was a cheaper and easier option. It wasn’t always successful though, but if the alternative was death, some were willing to take that chance.
Despite what Max seemed to think, he still didn’t believe Cole was one of them.
Another twenty minutes and Max grabbed Logan’s hand. “It needs to be now.”
“No.” Logan shook his head. “He doesn’t want it.”
“He doesn’t want to die either.”
“But—”
“Logan. When we were stuck in that crate, I promised him I wouldn’t let him die unless he specifically told me not to bite him.” Her gaze drifted to Cole. “And he never told me no.” She moved close to Cole, and Logan was torn.
A big part of him wanted her to bite him, wanted her to heal all his wounds and make him just like them. But he hated how selfish that made him feel. If they turned Cole into a shifter, then he wouldn’t be able to join his parents. Even on the off chance they allowed a new shifter onto the island, Cole wouldn’t be accepted into the human colony established there. He wouldn’t get the life he was looking forward to. The one Logan told him he could have.
But the idea of watching him die was unbearable.
His heart hurt at the thought.
Fuck.
He dropped his head into his hands, not wanting to make this decision. He couldn’t bear Cole to look at him with disgust if they did this and he didn’t want it. Not after what they’d been through, after what they’d already shared. They might not have a future together, but Logan would be crushed if Cole ended up hating him.
Movement in the van pulled him out of thoughts, and he lifted his head, mouth dropping open in shock as he saw Max sitting back down, wiping her mouth as her fangs retracted.
“What the fuck have you done?” he whispered, gaze darting from her to Cole and back again. Emotions swirled inside him, a confusing mix that he had no idea how to deal with. Relief, anger, hope... He looked to Max, desperate for something to help make sense of how he felt.
She eyed him warily. “He was going to die, Logan. That’s not what he wanted, and I know it’s not what you wanted.” Her expression softened. “I know you like him. Far more than you should. Which is why I did it. So you didn’t have to make that decision.”
What did he say to that? Thanking her seemed wrong, because he didn’t want this to be about him. It was Cole’s life that she’d irrevocably changed. “What if he hates you?”
She shrugged. “Then I’ll live with that. I’d rather he hate me than have watched him die and regret that I didn’t save him.” She sighed, looking tired, and Logan wondered how this whole thing was affecting her. He didn’t dare ask though. “I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t honestly believe he’d rather be one of us than dead.”
Logan hoped she was right.
With nothing else to do but wait for Cole to wake up, he reached for his hand and twined their fingers.
A little after thirty minutes, they started moving again.
For the first time since they’d left London, Logan had no idea what would happen with Cole, and it unsettled him in a way that set his wolf on edge. The full moon in two days wasn’t helping either. He’d accepted that his own future was up in the air, it was a risk he took every time he did one of these runs. But Cole... Logan had no clue how he was going to react, and that was what he found the hardest to handle.
He was both dreading Cole opening his eyes and anxious for him to wake up so they could get this next bit over with.
Closing his eyes, he let the gentle motion of the van lull him to sleep.
“HEY, LOGAN.” John’s hand on his shoulder roused him with a start. “We’re here.”
“What?” The back of the van was windowless, but the sliding side door was open, and Logan peered past John to see green countryside. Sea air met his lungs as he inhaled, and a jolt of excitement ran through him. Living in the city for all his life, the sea held a kind of magical mystery and Logan longed to follow the breeze down to the water.
