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When we lost this fight, these men would make good on their threats. They would take Quinn, take Lain and Ori and the detective and his boyfriend, everyone who had helped us, and send them to the Enclave. They would be changed, twisted and warped into something like me, if they could even survive the process.

A flicker of movement near Krenshaw's ankle caught my eye, and dread chilled my veins when I saw a flash of curly dark hair, barely visible in the shadows beneath the truck.

Quinn. The man who'd saved us when we were a mindless beast. He'd taken us in, treated our wounds, cared for us even before he knew he was ours. Quinn had given us our life back. We owed him… everything.

The fight drained from our body. In this, the beast and I were in complete agreement. We owed Quinn our life and this is how we would repay the debt.

Our wounds ached and throbbed as we moved, carefully lowering our shared body to the ground. Our tail dragged through the dirt behind us, lying limp and unthreatening on the cold ground. There was more movement under the truck, but I couldn't let myself look at Quinn. If I did, our resolve might break.

"That's what I thought," Krenshaw said. He hit a button on a small device in his hand, one I hadn't seen before but instantly recognized. The light on the other's collar blinked from red to yellow, and he retracted his claws, but his body remained tensed, ready to leap at me if I so much as breathed wrong.

Krenshaw reached into the back of the truck and pulled out a collar identical to the metal one on the other's throat. There would be no breaking free of this one, not like before. Once that went around our neck, it would stay there until we died. Our time with Quinn, the few weeks of freedom we'd ripped from the grasp of the uncaring universe, was all we would ever have.

We could still fight. We have bested the other before.

If he hadn't injured us already, we might have won, but now we don't stand a chance. We'll lose, and everyone will pay for our failure.

Krenshaw approached us, his steps never faltering, his confidence unwavering. He had us right where he wanted us, and there was nothing we could do about it. The sight of the collar made me sick, my fear and regrets biting into me, but it had the opposite effect on the beast. His desperation to remain free, the pure animal instinct to avoid a cage, rose in tandem with my fear.

They will chain us. Force us to hunt again. They will send us after those who helped us.

A fear I hadn't even allowed to surface yet, but now it took center stage in my mind.

The beast was right. I knew it in my bones. When had Krenshaw ever kept his word? My memories still lay in tattered fragments, glimmering sharp in the wasteland of my mind, but in their reflections I saw every time this man had lied to me. He'd promised me salvation even as he delivered me into the hands of my damnation. Instead of protecting those like me, he'd turned me into a weapon to use against anyone who disagreed with him.

The people of Lowery's Crossing had defied him at every turn. They'd hidden me away and protected me even after seeing the monster I'd become. We had hunted their own, a skin-changer barely more than a child, and possibly killed others. They had every right to turn on us, but they were here, fighting to protect us, while we lay in the dirt and surrendered.

Our tail twitched and Krenshaw's steps slowed, his cold eyes narrowing.

"Don't be stupid, Ibarra. This is a fight you won't win."

He's probably right, but we have to try, right?

Instead of words, the beast responded with action. I ceded control as he took the reins, the transition seamless in a way we'd never quite managed before. He didn't need my words to tell him what the biggest threat was. Ignoring the other creature, we lunged for Krenshaw.

We must have given ourselves away with that tiny hesitation a few moments ago, because we didn't catch him off guard like I'd hoped. Krenshaw's arms flew up at the last second, and instead of his throat, we caught his wrist in our jaws, fangs sinking into tender flesh and piercing through the other side.

He grunted, the only sign of pain he allowed, even as his face went white. We swung our tail, the wounds along our thigh burning with the effort, but we had to take him down fast, before he could activate the other.

Krenshaw knew us too well, though. He'd trained the beast, molding it into a hunter. Instead of trying to escape, which would allow us the reach to hit him, he stepped in closer. We couldn't hit him from his angle, leaving our deadliest weapon useless. We had our claws, though, and we raked at his thighs blindly, feeling skin split and rip. The copper scent of spilled blood permeated the air, but still he stayed standing.

We didn't hear the tiny 'click' of the remote, but we heard Krenshaw's one-word order all too clearly.

"Kill."

Then the other was on us, his claws ripping into us with mindless savagery.

We'd lost our chance with Krenshaw, but we would make him pay as much as we could. Instead of releasing him, we jerked our head back, ripping through muscle and tendon and bone. His hand spasmed, our bite nearly severing it from his arm, and the remote tumbled to the ground as he stumbled back, finally letting out the cry of pain the beast and I both craved.

There was no time to savor it, though. The other creature gave us no mercy, no leniency, as he tore and bit and clawed, tail poised to end us the second he could get a good angle on us without killing the human he was forced to serve.

I couldn't look for Quinn, as desperately as I wanted to. The beast needed every advantage he could get, and I had to let him fight. He was stronger than me and, while neither of us believed we would win, we would die trying if it meant Quinn had more time to escape.

Our Quinn. Our human. The brave man who still thought he was broken. The man who'd taken in a horrifying monster and loved us when no one else could have. We owed him our life and if that was the price we paid for his survival, we would pay it gladly.

Burying any regrets I may have had, I stepped back completely, giving the beast complete and total control of our shared body. This was our last stand, one way or the other, and all I could do was watch.

Chapter 25