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“Starting with what the fuck happened to you,” Vale demands, not releasing his hold on his weapon. That’s okay. That’s good. At least I’m not dead yet.
I won’t fight them, and I won’t hurt them. I will let them kill me if that’s what they want. I always thought I could do anything and kill anyone—how foolish I was. I was so blind to my own feelings, but now the wolf inside seems to have connected me to them.
It’s exhausting feeling this much all the time. I have no idea how they handle it.
“First of all, I need you to know I’m still me. In fact, this is who I have always been. I just didn’t know it,” I admit sadly. “You know about when I was attacked when I was younger. I thought I survived and was human, but that wasn’t completely right. It seems the wolf inside me was trapped. I’m not quite human, not quite wolf.”
“Well shit . . . ,” Lucien mutters. “But what happened?—”
“You walked your ass into that forest,” Vale snaps. “We followed you, hunted for you, were ready to die to save you.”
“I didn’t want that. I had made up my mind. I was going to kill them, but they captured me. I was . . . held.” I leave out the torture part since there’s no need to piss them off. “And they freed the wolf inside me.”
“Why?” Vale asks, his nostrils flaring. “To use it against us? To switch a hunter to their side?”
“No,” I begin, but he’s not listening.
“It is a trap,” he hisses.
“Brother.” Lucien sighs. “Remember what we just discussed?” He eyes Vale meaningfully, and Vale seems to lose all steam. “Jai, was it Quinn?”
The wolf inside of me fucking purrs at her name.
“Yes, she freed my wolf. She felt sorry for me. Apparently, I will never be able to change. I am stuck like this. Not fully human, not fully wolf.”
“Shit, why would she do that?” Lucien groans.
“Because it was the kind thing to do so I could know who I was before I died. Her pack was going to kill me—not because they wanted to, but because I know their land. I was there, a threat to their family. Guys, I saw the pack.” They don’t seem happy, but hope blooms in my chest. “It was just . . . full of life. Kids and families were everywhere. Everyone was enjoying themselves. It’s just a village out in the middle of nowhere. They weren’t monsters roaming around. There wasn’t torture and death everywhere.”
“You would say that now,” Vale mutters, but Lucien kicks him.
“It was just life, and they weren’t evil. In fact, they didn’t seem to take joy in me being their prisoner. Quinn and I spoke while I was there. We realised a few things. We aren’t so different. We both just want to protect our families, and if thiscarries on, if we keep doing this, both of ours will die. There will be so much bloodshed and death. We have to protect our families, the people we care about.” I look between them. “I have to protect you. If we go in there, we’ll die, as will many innocents, and they are innocents. I know how that sounds, but I’m still me, still the man who hated wolves so much he dreamed of their deaths. I was wrong. I am wrong. They are not all evil, and if we do this, if we alert the hunters, then everyone will die. There has to be another way. We have to divert their attention and get them away from here. I don’t think I could live with the fact that you had their blood and souls on your hands, and you would. You would follow orders, and innocents would die, and it would change you. I can take the pain, the darkness, but I don’t want that for you. Quinn knew that. She saw it in my eyes, and she let me go. She gave me a chance to change the future, so I’m here, knowing you might kill me for simply existing, and I’m begging you, brothers . . . We have to stop this war. We have to save the innocents like we swore to do.” I drop to my knees, something I swore I would never do. “Please believe me.”
“Well, shit,” Lucien mutters after a time, seeming tired, and despite what I am now, he crouches before me, taking my hand. “Had you come a day earlier, this would be a very different conversation, but while we were in jail?—”
“Jail?” I query, but he just surges ahead.
“We decided the same thing. We can’t do this. Orders have changed. I—we don’t like what they have made us. We never signed up to kill innocents. We just want to save them, so if you say the wolves are good, then we believe you, brother.”
I look at Vale, and he drops his weapon, his shoulders slumping. “So how do we do this? How do we save both sides?”
“You—you aren’t going to kill me and start a war?” I blink, feeling confused.
Vale smiles softly and heads my way, dropping his hand to my shoulder and squeezing. “We’re brothers,” he tells me. “Where one goes, we all go.”
Lucien’s hand drops to my other shoulder, both of them holding me. “Brothers until the end. Now, let’s save the world.”
Something about the interaction has tears forming in my eyes. Vale kneels and tugs me into his arms, and Lucien wraps me in his from behind. Both of them hold me as I break.
“I tried so hard not to become this,” I mutter incoherently. “I fought it every day, but I can’t fight it anymore. This is who I am, and yet I was so worried I would lose the only family I have left because of it. That the wolf would steal another family from me.”
“Never,” Lucien replies gruffly. “We are with you until the end, even if your eyes glow like some weird-ass nightlight.”
“Exactly. Besides, Lucien has always been afraid of the dark so it will come in handy.”
I chuckle as Lucien huffs. “We’ll have our very own torch.” He chuckles, and I can’t help it. I laugh. They join in, our arms locked together.
Three men, three lost souls are finally exposed to one another.
