Page 48

“I’ve thought about it a few times. There are still days I feel like that, but I found two amazing people. They showed me a different view, I guess.”

“Great for you. But I got nobody. My own family didn’t want me. The Whiteacre Riders don’t deserve me!”

Galbraith huffed, still out cold but sounding as though he might be struggling to breathe.

“Jenny, I hear you, I do, but . . . right now, you have to let Galbraith go. Leaving him there to die isn’t going to fix anything. It’s not going to make you less angry. I know, trust me.”

“Yeah, it will. Actually . . . he’s gonna die and I’m going to watch the light snuff out of his eyes because I have sigma energy and I don’t need a pack . . . I don’t need anyone.” She spun and marched over to where Galbraith wheezed.

I could have been her. If I hadn’t found Zee, if Victor hadn’t checked into the hotel, I may have eaten everyone who I thought deserved it, and this would be where I’d have ended up—in a cave, in the woods, a little bit mad, and very alone. It could still happen. We were all just a few bad days away from going on a murder spree.

“Jenny.” I needed a way to get through to her—reason wasn’t working. “Jenny . . . what about your plants?” It was a long shot. “All those succulents?” Yeah, okay, it was a stretch.

“The plants are all plastic, bro. I tried to grow real ones, even they didn’t want me. They withered and died to spite me.” She knelt beside the wounded alpha. “It won’t be long now. You’ll die and maybe I’ll take over the pack, hm?”

I was beginning to get the impression Jenny may be beyond my reach, but I had to try. “It doesn’t have to be like this.” I inched closer. “You don’t have to hurt everyone else because you’re hurting.”

“I heard your speech, Adam. You can go now. Or stay and watch him die. You might get a kick out of it too, huh?” The smirk she sent over her shoulder did not convince me this was going to get better. “If we’re so alike, join me. We don’t have to stop here, we can go north, go town to town, make them all pay.”

Victor had told me several times that we couldn’t save them all.

I’d been saved, when I really shouldn’t have been. Jenny didn’t have anyone to save her . . . just us.

I took another careful step. “Jenny, please listen . . . It’s not too late. Stop now, let Galbraith live. We’ll help you find a way through this⁠—”

“You seem nice, Adam. If we’d met before, things could have been different. But I have a taste for blood, and as you know, deep down, once you feel this power, once you see the life drain right out of someone, there’s no going back.” Her form shifted and warped, splitting apart and stitching back together in the large, fluid, long-limbed humanoid outline of the loup-garou.

The other thing Victor had taught me is that you cannot save those who don’t want to be saved.

“Werewolf incoming!” Zee yelled.

I twisted in time to see fifteen hundred pounds of werewolf fur barreling down on me. Duke knocked me aside as easily as swatting a fly. I stumbled, braced against the rock wall, and whirled.

Duke reared up on his hind legs, huge jaws open to snap around Jenny’s neck. But Jenny was on her feet too. She met his assault with a vicious slash. Duke danced back, dropped to all fours, then lunged and sank his teeth into her arm. Jenny let out a screeching wail and punched the claws of her free hand up, delivering an uppercut that sank four vicious claws deep into Duke’s snout.

“Stop!”

“A little late, Kitten.” Zee sauntered in. “Hey, Gen Z, wanna cookie?” He tossed a packet of Oreos at Jenny’s face. Jenny, not knowing what he’d thrown—maybe a hand grenade—recoiled, dropping Duke. Reeling, she stumbled backward over Galbraith’s motionless body.

Zee poofed in front of her, illuminating the entire den with neon purple light.

She made an attempt at swiping for him, but blinded by purple sparks, she missed. Zee ducked, danced away, and smacked an accurate jab between her eyes.

Jenny rocked, dropped to the den floor in a limp fwlop, and lay still.

“Ah-ha!” Zee cheered. “Foiled by Oreos! Told you they’re versatile.”

Victor appeared and surveyed the scene. Duke huffed on the opposite side of the den, clearly in pain, but Galbraith was in a bad way and barely breathing. “We need to get Galbraith out of here.”

“You wanna lick his leg?” Zee asked Victor.

“Why would I lick a werewolf’s leg?”

“To make it better,” Zee replied, as though licking was an obvious solution.

“If you’re suggesting my saliva might help reattach a werewolf’s leg, I fear it does not work like that.”

“It stuck your finger back on.”