AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Given that I haven’t known her for that long, it won’t be as hard as if I’d grown up with her as a part of my family. Then again, I don’t like to kill, even in self-defense. I would rather find a way to defeat her without that kind of violence involved.
I’ve tried everything to come up with a way to do just that. There isn’t one. The only option is death. It’s just a matter of which one of us will die. I hope it’s not me.
James waves a hand in front of my face and says my name. “Garnet.” From his tone, I can tell that he’s said it a few times already, while I was lost in my thoughts.
“Sorry, I got distracted. What did you say?” I feel my cheeks heat as he stares at me.
“I asked if you were really ready to face Amber. She wants to kill you and take your powers. Why can’t we just run away?” James steps closer to me, and I realize that he’s about to reach for me. Could this be the breakthrough I wanted?
“I have no choice but to be ready. I can’t run. Even if I did, she’d find me. Of course, that would be after she killed everyone I’ve ever cared about.”
LUCA
Vincent’s injuries are so much worse than I expected when we walked into the training center. I can see why Mark sent the young ones home. They didn’t need to see this. I wish I hadn’t seen it. I don’t know that I’ll ever get this image out of my head. Just when I think I’ve seen the worst of his injuries, my eye catches something else.
His body is broken, he’s covered with open wounds that are seeping blood and pus. And as if that’s not enough, he has bones sticking out nearly everywhere. But that’s not the thing that makes me feel sick. I can see the magic bubbling under what little unbroken skin there is left. It’s as if the magic is crawling around inside of him, looking for a way out.
Before anyone can say anything, Vincent starts to shake and writhe. “What’s going on?” I ask. Mark looks at me and shrugs.
“This is new. We’ve been trying to treat his wounds the best we can. Obviously, we should get Grammy, but none of us wanted her to see him this way.” I nod at his reasoning. I don’t want Grammy to see this either.
“You made the right choice,” Ryland tells him. “It looks like he’s trying to shift. But he’s barely alive, and not conscious. It has to be the magic forcing it.”
I lean closer as he thrashes, noticing something strange. “Ryland, Orym, look at this,” I say, holding Vincent’s head still and pulling his upper lip away from his teeth. “These don’t look like wolf fangs.”
“Fuck. Amber gave him the mutation potion. I wonder if that’s what broke him,” Orym says quietly.
“It’s possible, but there’s no way for us to know for sure without asking Amber. Since we can’t do that, we need to prepare for what needs to happen next. There’s no way we can save him, especially if he has magic inside preventing him from getting any real rest.” It takes a moment for Ryland’s words to sink in, and then I realize that he’s talking about killing Vincent.
“You can’t mean—” Orym stops himself short of saying the words out loud.
Ryland nods somberly. “I’ll do what I must. It’s my responsibility as territory alpha. I can’t let one of my wolves suffer like this. I would expect any of you to do the same for me in this situation.”
Knowing that it’s what any of us would want doesn’t make it any easier to make this decision. And understanding that it’s the right thing to do won’t ease the pain I see on my alpha’s face.
“We’re here with you, Ryland. We’ll do whatever you need us to,” I offer. I know that he won’t let either of us do this for him, but that won’t stop me from offering to help.
“Good, because I’ll need you both to hold him down. I’m going to make it as painless as possible,” he says.
RYLAND
Logically, my decision makes sense. It’s the right thing to do, even if I’m not sure I can actually follow through. These are my people; this is my responsibility.
I ask Luca and Orym to hold him still while I step away to grab a hunting knife. I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Red won’t have to see this. She grew up thinking this man was her brother, and even though they hated each other, I know that she loved him too.
Pushing those thoughts away, I grip the knife tighter and turn back to Vincent. Or rather, what’s left of him. Orym and Luca look uncomfortable, and somehow that eases my mind a little. I’m not doing this alone. My pack is with me. I step up to the table where they’re holding his arms and legs down.
He’s still thrashing, but they’re using blankets to hold him in place, since we’d rather not get stabbed with jagged bones covered in magic goo. I nod to Mark, and he grips Vincent’s head. Once he has one hand on the top of his head, and the other on his chin, I take a deep breath.
I plunge the hunting knife into Vincent’s head at the temple. With it fully inserted, I twist a little, and Vincent stops moving. “We’ll bury him before anyone sees what happened,” Mark offers. I nod, stepping away from the body.
Doing the right thing shouldn’t feel this bad. I force myself to take one last look at Vincent before Mark and a couple of other shifters cover him up. I’ll never get this image out of my head. I close my eyes for a moment and watch myself stabbing into his brain. This one will be hard to keep from Red.
As much as I want to protect her from this, I know that I can’t. We’ll have to tell her before she sees it through the bond. There’s no way we can actively block her forever. And even if we could, it’s not fair to her. I just want to spare her the gory details.
Almost as soon as I have the thought, the training center door slams open and Red rushes in. “Where is he?” she asks before her eyes lock on the corpse laying on the table, currently being wrapped up by Mark, Dave, and Steve. Red shoves them out of the way and uncovers Vincent. Tears flow down her face. “What happened to him?”
She looks from him to me, then Luca, then Orym. “Did Amber do this to him?”
