His friend shrugged. “Dr. Saunders has me on a new drug regimen to try to stimulate muscle growth in my arm. He’s worried alcohol might inhibit the effectiveness of the drug, so I’m limiting my booze tonight.”
“That’s great!” Brooks sat up straighter. “I didn’t know he had you on something. Is it working?”
Zane snorted. “Calm down. This is about the tenth different drug regimen he’s tried, and none of them have worked so far. There’s no reason to think this one will, either. Nothing has worked, not one damn thing. Not that I thought there was ever a chance they would.”
Beside Brooks, Zane’s heart thumped like a drum, his body tensing as gold flashed in his eyes. His claws were starting to extend, too.
Shit.
“Zane, you’re losing it, man,” he said softly. “Chill out.”
His friend swallowed hard, his teeth grinding together as he took a slow deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out with a low rumble. It took a little while, but after some deep breaths, Zane’s rapid heartbeat slowed a bit more with each one. The glow faded from his eyes and his claws retracted.
“What’s going on, Zane?” Brooks asked after Zane had finally gotten it back together. “And don’t try telling me it’s about this drug regimen Dr. Saunders has you on. We both know that’s a crock. Is this about the hunters and the other prisoners who escaped? If it is, you can relax. If we don’t track them down, somebody else will.”
“We shouldn’t have to track them down,” Zane snarled, looking sideways at him. “Nobody should have to do it. They should have never gotten away in the first place. And they wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for me. They got away because I’m too fucked up to do my job.”
Brooks bit back a growl. “That’s bullshit.”
He should have seen this coming. After practically begging Gage to let him back in the field in some capacity, Zane had locked up the first time a hunter had shot at him with poison bullets. It was understandable, just not acceptable…for Zane, at least.
“I was useless out there today, Brooks. I could have gotten myself killed. Worse, I could have gotten you killed.” Jaw clenched, he stared down at the label on the beer bottle. “I’ve become a liability to the team. I think it’s time for me to walk away. Before it’s too late.”
Brooks did a double take. He didn’t like where this was going. “What are you talking about? You’d leave SWAT?”
“More like leave the force completely.” Zane shrugged. “I’m coming up due for my department physical fitness test soon. You and I both know I can’t pass it. The decision will most likely be out of my hands anyway.”
Brooks’s chest tightened. He didn’t want to hear this crap. “Don’t worry about that. You know Gage will cover for you. Hell, Deputy Chief Mason will, too. They’ll make sure you have all the time you need to recover.”
“I don’t want them to cover for me,” Zane snapped. “I’m nobody’s frigging charity case. If I can’t do the job, I don’t want to be on the team.”
“Shit, Zane. You almost died,” Brooks growled. “Why don’t you cut yourself some slack? You’ve been injured, and it’s going to take time for you to heal, but you’ll recover. You’re getting better every day.”
Zane shook his head. “No, I’m not. If anything, I’m getting weaker by the day. And I don’t just mean my arm. I tried to go jogging over the weekend, and I couldn’t make it a mile before I was on my knees coughing up blood.”
Brooks ground his jaw, pissed his friend had kept all this shit from him. “But Dr. Saunders is working on something to help, right? He hasn’t given up, so you shouldn’t, either.”
“Yeah, he’s trying. Can’t say he’s not.” Zane sighed. “But nothing he’s tried so far has come close to working, and some has made it worse. He gives me something my human body can handle, and my inner werewolf metabolizes it before it can do what it’s supposed to do. He gives me something designed specifically for my inner werewolf, and it nearly kills my human half. I’m getting tired of being his test dummy. Hell, I’m tired of all this.”
Brooks didn’t know how to respond to that. While he was trying to come up with something, another horrible thought hit him. “Wait a minute. When you talked about walking away, you don’t mean you’d leave the Pack, right? Tell me you’re not considering something that drastic?”
Zane didn’t say anything.
Anger surged through him. There was no way in the fucking world he was letting his friend—his packmate—walk away like that. But the moment he opened his mouth to unload on Zane, a delectable scent wafted across the crowded club.
Selena.
He inhaled deeply. Damn, her scent was even stronger and more powerful than it had been last night. He actually had to reach out and grab the edge of the bar to keep from falling off the seat.
Zane chuckled softly. “You really fancy this woman, don’t you?”
“Don’t try to distract me,” Brooks said, even as he looked through the crowded club, trying to find Selena. “You can’t drop a bomb like that about leaving the Pack and expect me to act like I didn’t hear it.” He looked at Zane. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, not without talking to me first.”
His phone dinged, letting him know he had a text, but he ignored it, his eyes locked on Zane’s.
“Look, I don’t know what I’m going to do. All I know is that I can’t keep doing this,” Zane said. “I promise to talk to you before I do whatever it is I decide. But in the end, it will be my decision.”
Figuring that was the best he was going to get at the moment, Brooks pulled out his phone. The text was from Selena, saying she was there and waiting in a booth near the left side of the bar with Becca. He sent a quick text back, telling her he’d be there soon.
