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The moon hides behind a cloud then, throwing his face into shadows. “Will you stop me?” His voice is dark and cruel. “Would you kill your own brother?”
“If I have to,” I reply. “It would ruin me, and I would follow you into the grave, but I will not let you live to become a monster. I would rather you die a martyr, a man. I have followed you all this time.” I walk closer and wrap my hands around his. “I have followed you to hell and back. I would die for you, and I would live for you . . . but do not ask me to become this. Do not ask me to kill my own brother. It isn’t too late, Vale. It’s not too late to do the right thing.”
“Even if it means forsaking our family, our legacy, and everything we know?” he hisses.
“What use is a family or a legacy if it hurts us?” I mutter. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hurt her. She’s a wolf, and I let her gotoo, Vale. That night in the storm, I let her go. Will you kill me too?”
I feel him jerk under my grip.
“Can you kill me, Vale? Because that’s what it will take.”
“I don’t see another way out,” he replies slowly, his voice tight and desperate. “This is what Father wanted. This is what we wanted. There’s no other way out. If it’s not us, it will be them, and we will be dead anyway for betraying them. We have no way out, Lucien. We are trapped. We are the weapon they wield, and as soon as we crack or break, they will toss us into the inferno. I have been fighting every day to stop that from happening and keep us alive, together, and safe.”
“I know, brother, but we have to change. I would rather die on my feet, proud of who I am than on my knees as a coward. It’s time to let go of the past. It’s time to move forward. Change is not easy, but it must happen. I have buried my head, and that’s my fault. I never should have let it go this far, brother. Please, Vale, please. Don’t make me into our father, don’t become him. I can stand a great many things. I can endure pain no other can, and I can lift more than most others and withstand the storms coming our way, but I cannot stand losing you to a hatred born centuries before us.”
“What if we try and it’s not enough, Luc?” he asks as the moon breaks through and shows me his glassy eyes. He looks so young right now.
“What if we try and it’s enough?” I counter. “It’s better than never trying.”
He searches my gaze. “Is this what you want? You would stand with the wolves?”
“No, I would stand with you, brother, until the very end. Let us die how we lived, like those two boys who, even at such a young age, understood innocence despite species. That would be enough for me. Wouldn’t it be for you? Let us be the first huntersto truly live for the cause and upstand the values they all shirk. Let us become the men I see in you every day. The man who let that little girl go, the one who cried after every kill no matter how right it was.”
“And Jai?” he whispers.
“He made his choice, and we must make ours. We choose where to stand.” I clutch him tighter, pressing my head to the bars, and he copies me, tears dripping down his face as he watches me.
We are two brothers caught in their father’s legacy of hatred and pain, forged into weapons for a war they did not start.
“Choose, Vale, and I will stand with you until the end. Choose, and I will be at your side, brother, forever,” I beg.
I beg him to choose this for us, to choose to fight, even if it’s not easy.
His eyes close. “I don’t want to kill innocents. I don’t want to be my father.” That’s what this boils down to. His eyes open, glassy and blue—the bright light in the storm, providing a way home. “Yes, we will do what’s right, even if it gets us killed, brother. We will do what’s right.”
“Thank you.”
We stay like that as our world changes around us with no one else the wiser.
When there’s a clank, we break apart, turning as a bored, impatient guard heads towards us, unlocking both cells and jerking his head. “It’s your lucky night, get out.”
Vale and I share a look before glancing back at the sheriff.
“What’s happening?” I ask.
“Something bigger than you, so go before I change my mind,” he demands.
We do just that, knowing this is the universe rewarding us.
It has to be.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The trees blur past me as I run as fast as I can, following her directions. I heard music and people, and I avoided them like she said. Part of me expected some wolves to jump out and for it to be a joke, but no one stops me, and when I’m far enough away not to hear them anymore, I turn.
I look back at the lights of the pack in the distance.
Guilt and shame muddle my emotions. Everything I thought I knew changed in those cells. I don’t even feel like myself anymore. I am different, reborn, but can I do this?
