“We thought he was. We were wrong.”
“So, he wants to kill your brothers and impregnate you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Laina grew quiet behind him.
He stopped working his makeshift lever and turned to face her. “Since the day I met you, I’ve known you were keeping something from me. I have no doubt there is more to this dark family secret than what you’ve told me. It’s time to come clean. Tell me the truth. All of it.”
Her body shook like he’d demanded something impossible of her, something that made her physically ill to accommodate. She closed her eyes tightly, parted her lips.
“I love you, Laina. Nothing you could say to me is going to change that. But the truth could save our lives.”
“I told you my family is not like other families,” she blurted out. “But I didn’t tell you how we’re different.”
“You said you were medical miracles. You’re strong and you heal fast.”
“But that’s not all. There’s more to it. We are also…magical.”
“Magical.”
“Alex left you here because he wants me to kill you.”
“I heard. But you won’t. Why would you kill me?” He succeeded in wedging the handle deeper between the metal and marble. “And what did he mean about youshifting?”
“Because when the sun sets and the moon rises, I will change.” Her voice cracked, and tears spilled from her eyes. “I will change into something that could kill you.”
He snorted. “I’ve seen you after sunset. I’ve spent the night with you. I think I would have noticed if you were a killer after dark.”
“It only happens during the full moon,” she said in a voice so soft he could hardly hear it.
“The full moon? What, are you, like, a werewolf or something?” He chuckled and rolled his eyes.
She wasn’t laughing. In fact, she was crying harder. Her head bobbed once. “Not just me, my entire family. Alex, too, although fairy magic has warped him into something else altogether.”
Kyle closed his eyes for a beat. “Don’t fuck with me on this, Laina. It’s not funny.”
“No, it’s not.” She bowed her head. “When the sun sets, I will shift into a wolf. My fur is dark brown, like a mink. And I won’t necessarily know you, not like I do now. When I’m the wolf, I’m completely in the moment, in the animal brain. When I’m myself again, I remember flashes of what I did as a wolf. But shifted, I can’t control her. She’ll be hungry. She could kill you, Kyle. If it comes down to that, promise me you’ll use something in this room to kill her first.”
Kyle turned his back to her and used his foot as leverage against the handle. It worked. The bolt slipped a quarter of an inch.
“Kyle, are you listening to me?” She sobbed.
He braced a foot on the wall and pulled with all his weight against the chains. One of the bolts gave slightly. He dug the handle in again.
“Say something. What are you thinking?”
He paused, staring at the veining in the marble. “When I was getting my business degree, I took some classes in psychology. I’ve read about this. You probably have some kind of schizophrenia. I mean, you talk about this wolf like you have another person in your head.”
“No… No… Kyle, this isn’t that.”
“I’m guessing that if your family believes it, it’s a sort of mass hysteria. I’m going to get us out of here, and then I’m going to find you help.” He leaned his entire weight against the handle and tried a different angle, carefully avoiding the sharp pins at the end of the wheel.
“You sensed something wild in me. You weren’t wrong. You sensed my wolf.”
“Yep,” he said, hoping that by agreeing she’d give up on trying to convince him.
