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“Staying with the car is a good idea,” I assured him. “Makes it easy to get the fuck out of there, you know?”
He only nodded.
“I’m the fucking muscle,” Declan muttered. “Things I never thought I’d fucking say. But if either one of them needs to be carried out of there, I’m the best option for that.”
“Gabby, you’ll stick with them,” I told her. When she opened her mouth to argue, I shook my head. “They’re not fighters. Not like you. They need someone to protect them. Genevieve needs someone to protect her and Nolan as these guys get them out of there. Can you do that?”
“I hate this fucking plan,” Gabby shot back. “It’s banking on a lot of what-ifs. Everyone here except these two idiots and baseball boy over here are wolves that can be controlled. It makes all of us weapons against each other. How is this a fucking plan?”
“I have a plan for that,” I said quietly. A really stupid fucking plan—desperate and probably one I’d regret.
I made Lane and Beau follow me into the forest. I knew what I was about to ask of them was controversial as fuck. My brothers would’ve protested in a heartbeat, and I didn’t want to fight them too.
“Come on, Killy Boy,” Beau teased, “if you wanted the two of us alone, all you had to do was take us upstairs.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I shot back. I focused on Lane. “I want you to make me like him.”
That single request was more than enough to knock the smirk right off of Beau’s face. What I was asking probably came across as impulsive and unreasonable. I’d give them unreasonable, but I wasn’t being impulsive. I knew what I was asking of Lane.
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Lane said. He scrutinized me, watching me closely.
“I know exactly what I’m asking. I can’t fucking end this like I am. But if I’m like him? You bet your ass I can.”
“There’s no going back,” he told me. “If I choose to do this, that’s it. This would be your life.”
“It’s a great fuckin’ life,” Beau bragged, and I resisted rolling my eyes. I wasn’t after it for the same reasons he was. I just wanted to save my fucking family.
“Quiet,” Lane murmured. “Look at me, Byrne—”
“I fucking know what he is, and I know what he’s capable of,” I interrupted. “I want that. I want to know that I can walk into that fucking warehouse and protect what’s mine. I’ll do whatever the fuck it takes no matter the cost.”
Lane stepped closer. That deadly look on his face made my wolf threaten to riot, but I clamped down hard to keep fucking control. His hand dropped to my shoulder, gripping hard enough to make me flinch.
“Look me in the eyes and say it again,” he whispered, leaning in so goddamn close that our noses almost touched.
“Too fucking close, Lane,” I growled.
“Say it again,” he repeated. “Look me in the eyes and say it one more fucking time what you want me to do to you.”
“I want you to do to me what you fucking did to Beau.”
“I turned him into a monster. Tell me you want to be a fucking monster, Killian. Let me hear you say the fucking words.”
“Turn me into a monster, Lane,” I said. Lane fisted my hair. The tightness of his fingers was damn near enough to rip out hair as he wrenched my head to the side.
“Look at Beau. Look at what I fucking turned him into,” Lane hissed in my ear. Beau’s face changed flawlessly, his skin darkening to an ashy gray while his eyes turned blood red. A vicious growl resonated in his throat as he grinned, flashing a mouthful of sharpened fangs. He made a point of flexing his fingers to show off his claws when he crossed his arms. “He’s a fucking monster, Killian. An experimental anomaly designed by yours truly. Faster, stronger, and at his worst… he’s nothing but a fucking beast that I have to lock up in chains to control.”
“He’s fuckin’ with you,” Beau said. Even the sound of his voice was different—gritty and dark. “I like the fuckin’ chains.”
“He’s the first and only shifter I’ve ever changed,” he continued. “I’ve tried several times to replicate him, and you know what they all turn into? Uncontrollable beasts so fucking monstrous without a shred of humanity in them that I had to exterminate them.”
“I’m not them,” I told him, knowing full well he was trying to scare me out of it. “I can fucking take it.”
I could. I would.
“There’s no going back if I do this,” Lane said. He released my hair but kept a hold on my shoulder. I stared him down hard, making sure he understood I was fucking serious. “You do this and there’s no going back.”
“I don’t fucking care.”
