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“Don’t bother.”

Keeping low, I take light steps back up the hill, heading in the same direction I saw Titus go, and at the distant sound of shouts and voices, I lower to hands and knees, crawling over the brush to take shelter behind a tree. In a clearing below, Titus lies curled on his side, before turning over onto his knees and crawling to get away from the men who stand around him. Among them, I recognize the blond curls of Remus, who tips his head as he crouches alongside Titus. The gasps of breath tell me Titus has been shot with those poisonous darts. Nothing else could leave him so debilitated.

“Tell me where she is, or I will watch you die a slow and painful death.” The sound of Remus’s voice hits the back of my neck like a cold brush of death.

“Fuck … you.”

Twisting toward his men, he gives a nod, and two of them step forward, seizing each of Titus’s arms.

Weak with poison, he throws a swing that misses, as they grapple to take hold of him. Two more men jump in and hold Titus’s arms outstretched, while the Alpha struggles to stay up on knees that seem to buckle beneath him as his muscles slowly fail him.

“Tell me where she is.”

Instead of answering, Titus chuckles and spits in Remus’s face.

Holding up a knife, Remus tips his head as he twists it in front of the panting Alpha. “I thought, for sure, you’d keep her close to your side. I find it hard to believe you’d separate yourself from her.”

Like a snake, Remus strikes, stabbing Titus somewhere I can’t see from where I’m crouched, but the tortured wheeze of an outcry that follows sends a wave of agony beating through me. Exertion has Remus’s shoulders bunched, his arms fidgeting, elbows jerking with the task. Titus’s arms tremble. His knees buckle beneath him. When Remus steps away, he seems to be out of breath with the toil, and I clap a hand over my mouth to cap a scream when I catch sight of Titus. Blood oozes from an open socket where his eye used to be, and Remus tosses the cut flesh into the forest.

Remus scans over the surroundings, as if he’s searching for something, and it’s then I realize that he knows I’m watching.

Nausea gurgles in my stomach, and before I can stop myself, I expel my last meal onto the forest bed. Muscles quaking with fear, I look back to see if Remus, or his men, heard me, but the way they don’t so much as glance in my direction tells me they didn’t.

Tears fill my eyes, every cell in my body begging me to go to Titus.

The Alpha’s chest jerks and twitches, as his lungs begin to shut down.

Go to him!

“Make no mistake, I will leave you here to die.” Remus circles Titus, never taking his eyes off the surrounding woods.

Titus shakes his head, but I get a sense it’s a directive for me, not for Remus. He doesn’t want me to make myself known. Both hands covering my face, I sob into my palms. Seconds tick away, chipping at my patience, while Remus stands with his hands tucked behind his body.

Waiting.

“Very well.” He raises his hand, and one of his men fires a shot that sends Titus crashing to the ground. The guards abandon the Alpha, letting him gasp and choke for air, and the moment they’re no longer in sight, I shuffle from my hiding spot toward him. Even at the risk of being seen and captured, I will not let him die.

I will not.

Falling to my knees, I gather his head into my lap and rifle through my bag for the lobelia.

“Hang on, Titus,” I say through sobbing, and wipe away the tears blurring my vision. Every cell in my body quakes with fear, churning a nauseous tremor in my stomach.

The sound of approaching footsteps paralyzes my muscles, and I turn to find Remus and all his men standing behind me, guns aimed down at me.

Remus shakes his head, dragging his clawed finger across his chin. “Stubborn woman. You’re much stronger than I am. If that were Agatha, I’d have given myself up much sooner. Spared her the pain and suffering.”

“Fuck you.” As he talks, my fingers continue padding around the satchel in search of the vial, until the bag is ripped from my shoulder by one of the guards. “Give it back! He’s going to die!”

“Yes. He is. That’s the tragedy in all of this. Had you turned yourself over, he might’ve lived.”

“Remus … I will do whatever it is you want. I will go wherever you want me to go. Please just let me save him. Please!”

“Whatever I want?”

“I swear it.”

Flicking his fingers, he directs the guard to hand off the bag, and he rifles through the pockets, before producing the vial of Lobelia. “Is this what will save his life?”