He took a step nearer, even though not much distance separated us. “You are not injecting yourself with fucking poison to test out atheory.”
I planted my hands on my hips. “Sillin isn’tpoison.”
“It messes with our werewolf gene, Ness. It’s poison! Ask Greg if you don’t believeme.”
“August is right,” Greg said. “It’s not lethal, but it’s notgoodforyou.”
“I’m aware of therisks—”
“Are you?” August’s tone was so sharp that it made me blink. “Because I’m not aware of them. And I doubt Greg’s aware of them since no one’s ever taken such a highdose.”
“Morgan has, and she’s still alive.Andshe became anAlpha.”
A nerve ticked in his jaw. “What if she lied toyou?”
“Lied tome?”
“So you’d poisonyourself.”
“She doesn’t want medead.”
“How do you knowthat?”
“August, you’re being completely irrational rightnow.”
“Because Icare! I care what happens to you even though no one else in this stupid pack seemsto.”
Silence settled as thickly as snow, making the air lose several degrees ofwarmth.
“Greg said the worst case scenario is impairing my gene for an undetermined length of time.” I didn’t want to be ahalfwolf, but it beat Liam being a dead one, because even though no one was speaking about it, if Morgan had an unfair advantage over us, and we didn’t figure out what it was, she’d win theduel.
“Not exactly, Ness. I said I didn’t know. It couldirreparablydamage your gene, your senses, your matinglink.”
Pain streaked over August’s face at that last part. He tried to disguise it by turning away from me, but I sawit.
“Thathalfwolfcomplication could become permanent,” Gregadded.
“I understand,” I said at the same time as August said, “I’ll do it.” Then, “Is it the samedosage?”
My hands slipped off my hipbones. “August,no.”
“Not exactly, but frankly,” Greg said, “I’d rather give you this dose than her. It’ll still affect you, but you should burn it offquicker.”
“No!” When August started for the chair, I wrapped my fingers around his forearm. “I amnotokay with this! I don’t want you to experiment on yourself.” My voice sounded sothin.
His lips flexed but didn’t produce words for ten whole heartbeats. “Everyone has to do their part for the pack. This is me doing my part.” He pried my fingers off his arm one at a time, then took a seat, pushed the sleeves of his sweat-stained navy Henley up, and laid his arm flat on thetable.
“Ready?” Gregasked.
August looked at the window. “Hitme.”
I crossed my arms to make them stop trembling. When that didn’t work, I went to draw myself a glass of water. As I brought it up to my lips, water sloshed over the rim and trickled down mywrist.
There was a hollow suctioning noise—probably the cooler—and then chair legs scraped against thefloor.
“Try to shift every day,” Greg said. “Once you manage, call me, and I’ll come and take a blood sample to see if any traces remain.” I heard him walk to the door, but I kept my back to him. “It shouldn’t give you any fever or seizures, but I’d feel better if someone was with you tonight. Maybe go sleep at yourparents.”
Chills zigzagged through my body, icing my already frigidlimbs.
