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“Stop.” I crouch before her, my fingers tenderly lifting her face, trying to wipe away the red splatter. “You’re in shock. Soaked in blood. Return to the cabin and clean this nightmare from your skin. Please. I’ll handle what remains here.”
Recoiling from my touch, she gathers the medical supplies, slings the pack over her shoulder, and steps out of the cage.
“You planned this when we argued.” She pauses before turning the corner. “You stonewalled me because you knew I would stop you.”
I hold her devastated gaze, my silence answer enough.
“We’re supposed to be a team.” Her voice lowers, fraught with disappointment. “You broke my trust.”
I made a deal with the devil. Same as her. But her deal was before. Before we made our alliance. Before we agreed that every decision would be made together.
Her anger is justified. I betrayed her. But if I had to do it all over again, I would. I would do anything to protect her and keep her alive.
“I know I hurt you, and I can’t undo that. I’m trying to be the man you believe in, the one you deserve, but I can’t do that if you’re dead.” Swallowing, I push down my rising volume. “I’m your partner, in every sense, even when I piss you off. Love means I won’t ask for forgiveness. I ask only for the opportunity to earn back your trust.”
She gazes into my eyes, her stare cutting yet vulnerable.
“I’m so angry with you.” She looks away, her expression falling. “But not nearly as angry as I am with myself.”
“I understand. But you did what you had to do. I’m upset only because it should be my hands covered in blood. It should’ve been my finger pulling the trigger. Not yours.”
“No.” She rapidly shakes her head. “I could’ve neutralized him without killing him. I lost myself to a darkness. I…I became something horrifying. Something more monstrous than the monster I murdered.”
“Who you are and who you need to be to survive are not the same thing. You can’t destroy a monster without stepping into the shadows, but that doesn’t dim the light within you. You are not like him.”
“Then what kind of monster does that make me?”
“An innocent one, forced by circumstance. Your heart still beats with compassion and remorse.”
My actions put her in that position. I’m the reason she had to make an impossible choice, and now she carries the guilt with me. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
“I’m sorry.” I hurt with the need to touch her, but as I step forward, the connection is interrupted by the sound of footsteps.
“What the hell happened to the door?” Wolf calls from the entrance.
More steps crunch through the snow, indicating Leo isn’t far behind.
They made it. I knew they would, but fuck, it’s good to hear them.
“Go clean up.” I delete the distance to Frankie. “I’ll explain the…”
She’s already running, dashing through the workshop. When she reaches Wolf, she falls into his arms.
“You’re safe.” Her hands run over his face and hair, her relief evident in every touch. “I was so fucking scared. I thought…I thought I lost you. Oh, God, Wolf, I…I fucked up. I’m so sorry.”
“Fucking snow machine broke down.” Leo bursts inside, covered in snow, his face blistered and red with frostbite. “We had to walk back and—” He takes one look at Frankie and yanks her from Wolf’s arms. “Whose blood is this?”
“Denver’s. All of it.” I step forward, meeting his astonished gaze. “He’s dead.”
A deep stillness sucks the air from the room as all eyes shift to the cage behind me. They can’t see the slaughter, but they have a sense of the violence based on the blood Frankie wears.
Leo breaks the silence. “Are you hurt?”
He directs the question at both of us.
“No.” I give him a stern look, wordlessly demanding he wait for the details as I turn to Frankie. “I’ve got this. Go get clean and warm.”
She looks around as if lost in a daze. Her adrenaline must be crashing, reality flooding in.
“You guys hungry?” I ask the room, keeping my focus on her.
“Starving. Literally,” Wolf mutters.
“Yeah.” Blinking, she nods and blinks again. “I’ll just…I’ll go clean up and pull a meal together.” Instead of leaving, she goes straight to Leo and hugs him with her whole body. “Thank you for coming back.”
“Forever.” He holds her just as tightly as if he hasn’t seen her in years. Then his head lowers, his mouth dipping to hers. But before he can kiss her, she pulls away.
Swallowed by a dozen blood-drenched layers, she collects her shotgun from the floor and disappears through the open door and into the darkness.
I want to rush after her, every muscle in my body tensing to do that. But my brothers wait, their faces frostbitten and weary.
“What the fuck happened?” Leo crosses his arms like he can smell my deal with the devil in the air.
