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“Or it might help. Besides, they pumped her full of the other stuff for months, and she survived.” It reminds me of how strong my mate is.
“You’re right.” She nods. “I doubt it will hurt her. I’m just not sure if it’ll help. That’s if she’ll even let me close enough to administer the shot.”
“Try. Please?” The words come out rough. I’m not used to pleading. “If nothing else, you could reassure her that she’s not alone.”
“Sure,” she says. “I’ll do whatever I can.”
I look over at where Edirn has been following this exchange. “I’m going out there. I need to figure this out.”
“I’ll go with.” He starts heading for the door.
“Why?” I can’t understand why he would help – especially when I’d basically abandoned him that day when he was trapped and caged at Whispering Pines.
“Because she deserves a fair chance,” he says, then pauses. “And because I’d like to see what damage she did to the fucker.” His smile is dark.
“What about your post?”
“Casey will cover for me. And Jagger will cut her some slack. They have history. Now, are you coming or what?”
With a wave to the doctor, I follow him out the door. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I’m going to get her out of that place.
Chapter 24
Cedara
I’m pacing the small cell, my claws clicking against the hard floor. The walls are closing in around me, trapping me in this hellish limbo between human and beast.
Have to get out!
I know I’m in trouble, but the details are hazy, like trying to make out shapes through a thick fog. Fragments of memory flash by – blood, terror, the instinctive need to hunt and kill. But there’s something else, too, something pulling at me, anchoring me to my humanity. Barrett’s face surfaces, and I latch onto the image, his warm eyes and reassuring smile anchoring me.
I pace faster, agitated whines escaping my throat. I need to change back. I need to explain, to make them understand that I’m not a killer. That whatever happened, it wasn’t me, not really. But the wolf is strong, its urges coursing through me, and I can feel myself slipping further away.
I can’t lose myself. I can’t!
A growl rumbles from within as the cell door opens. I bare my teeth, ready to defend myself.
“Cedara?” It’s the doctor. She moves cautiously to the bars that contain me. Bars just like the ones from before. “I’m here to help.” Her voice is a soothing murmur, but it’s hard to make out the words over the roar of blood pounding in my ears.
She takes a step closer, and I tense, muscles coiled tight.
“Barrett sent me, honey. He’s worried about you. He wants to make sure that you’re okay.” She runs an eye around the cell I’m locked in. Takes in the sight of me, tense and watchful. “How am I going to tell him that you’re fine?” she mutters under her breath.
Clearly, I’m not.
I bare my teeth as the doctor approaches, every fiber of my being screaming at me to attack, to defend myself against this threat. But there’s something in her gentle eyes, her soothing voice, that makes me hesitate.
“Cedara, honey, Barrett cares so deeply about you,” she murmurs, inching closer to the bars. “He loves you. And he’s not going to stop fighting for you, no matter what.”
My heart clenches at the mention of his name, and a flicker of hope sparks within me. Barrett. The one constant in this chaos, the thether to my humanity.
“You need to hold on to that hope, sweetheart,” the doctor continues. “I know it’s hard, but you have to keep fighting.”
I whine low in my throat, feeling the wolf’s instincts battling with my own desperate need to regain control. The doctor senses my struggle and pauses, giving me space.
“I’d like to try giving you the antidote again,” she says gently. “But I need you to let me get close enough. Can you do that for me, Cedara? For Barrett?”
Every muscle in my body is taut, screaming at me to attack, to flee, to do anything but let this person near me. But the thought of Barrett, of his unwavering belief in me, gives me strength.
