“Would you rather I let him die?” He sits up and rests his elbows on his knees. “Because that’s what would’ve happened.”
“No.” Maybe it’d be better if I did, but I don’t. “How bad is he?” Now we’re back home, I’m starting to realise the enormity of what I’ve done. What I’m going to have to ask my pack to do.
“I won’t lie, Lynx. He’s not good.” He stands and walks over to lean against one of the supports along the edge of the patio. “They cut him up pretty badly. The ones on his stomach are the deepest, but he has claw marks over his back and thighs. Nothing broken but his ribs and most of his body is bruised. He’s also got multiple bite marks, and I suspect a mild concussion.”
Fucking bastards.
My lips curl up into a snarl. I want to fucking break something.
Corey’s eyebrows rise and I hope he attributes my mood to the mention of Feral Beasts and not anything else.
“Goddess.” That’s a long fucking list. “He’s not going to be out of here any time soon then. I forgot how long humans take to heal.” The longer he stays here, the more I put my whole pack at risk.
“We could still take care of it,” Corey says, quietly. “I don’t like saying it, but he’s a risk.”
“I know.”
“He’s unconscious. He wouldn’t know any different if we did it now.”
Theyesis on the tip of my tongue. For the good of the pack. It won’t be the first time we’ve killed someone, and definitely not the fucking last, but I can’t force the word out.
“No.” The relief is instant. “We’ll work out a way to handle it.” Not a conversation I’m looking forward to, but there’s no hiding from it either. “What about the other two? You got any names yet?”
“Yeah.” He retakes his seat next to me. “Tyler Cox and Nico Ward. They’ve both recovered from the aconite poisoning. Tyler should be good to go in a day or two. He has family down south that he’s eager to get back to.”
I nod, a smile curving my lips. It’s always good to be able to send them home. It doesn’t happen often. They’re targeted for a reason.
“What about the other one . . . Nico?”
Corey winces, then lowers his voice to barely more than a whisper. “I think he was human when they caught him.”
Motherfuckers.
“He doesn’t remember much before they put him in the ring. But he remembers being human. Remembers breaking his leg and having to have it pinned.”
There’s something about the way he says it that has me narrowing my eyes. “Tell me.”
“I think they made someone change him with the metal pins still in his leg. They’re out now,” he adds quickly, “but it’s not healed right, and I don’t think there’s anything I can do to fix it.”
For fuck’s sake.
It’s not enough that they snatch lone shifters to fight in their fucking death rings. They’re now taking humans and forcing the change on them too? Where are the hunters when you need them? Changing a human without written consent is punishable by death according to their laws. That should apply to humanswho force shifters to do their dirty work too. I doubt Nico Ward had any fucking choice in the matter.
“Will he be all right to travel when we move Cox?”
“Physically? Yes. Though I’d like to see how much that leg affects his mobility.” He runs a hand over his short hair. Another thing that reminds me of his brother. “But mentally? I’m not sure.”
I gesture for him to explain.
“He’s... broken. For want of a better word. I don’t know what those wankers did to him in there, but he’s not in a good place. The fact that he can’t remember his life before isn’t helping.”
“What are you saying, exactly?”
“I think we should keep him here for a bit. I’m not comfortable shipping him off to one of the other packs in the condition he’s in. This is the first safe place he’s had in who knows how long, and I don’t want to take it from him.”
“Then he stays.” I’d be a hypocrite if I said otherwise. Half the club, thepack, were rescued from one fight ring or another. If Nico needs time, then he can fucking have it.
“Thank you.” Corey’s tired smile reminds me that he needs to rest too.
