Chapter 141

JESSICA

I need them to submit to me.

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The metal bars hold the worst of them–no, the best–the farthest gone, the already half–born again, their skulls too wide, teeth all wrong, milk–sour drool and wrists rubbed raw from how long they’ve tried to fuck the air. One’s moaning. Another’s biting the floor.

But some are loose. Some are crawling.

I feel it before I see it: Logan.

He’s just sitting, knees up, elbows slung over them, blood drying on his temple. When his gaze hits mine, I stop crawling.

“Logan,” I whisper.

My knees burn. My wrists are shaking.

Logan’s eyes never leave mine.

I’m breathing through my mouth. Can’t close it. There’s heat in the pit of my back like something’s been summoned and it’s crawling toward the womb.

“Logan,” I whisper again, this time not soft.

He twitches.

Yes. Yes. That’s it.

I feel one of them sniff the back of my ankle. Another hisses, fists balled like a pup denied milk. But Logan- Logan is watching.

“Get up,” I say.

“You’re not real,” he whispers, but his body doesn’t back away. His shoulder leans like it’s nosing a den.

I lurch upright on my knees and he fucking groans. “I’m real, Logan. This is me. We have to-”

“No!”

“No!”

He’s panting now. Fingers clawing at the cement. Shit.

“I’m real, Logan. I’m the only thing real down here. Look at me.”

He can’t stop. His mouth’s open. Drool–or spit–or something worse–slack at the hinge, shoulders buckling

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Chapter 141

like they want to break into paws.

His jaw snaps once, twice, like he’s testing it for fangs.

“Jess…?”

here,” he gasps, and that second I realized he’s entirely

don’t care that

low. Almost canine. He’s close but still it’s so hard to fucking reach

Logan whimpers. “I can’t–I

can figure

if I wait too long. If I don’t move. If

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one hand twitching against the floor like it wants to dig, claw, nest, breed. He’s half–changed, half–ruined–ripe. His hips keep twitching forward like they want to mount something, anything, but his eyes are locked on

let

say,

I crawl past him.

contact like it’s the only thing anchoring him

stop at the

to go out?” I

She bares her teeth.

hand between his

“Open them,” Logan growls.

“I am.”

“No. Unlock them.”

know what he

slide back to the girl–cage. The latch is simple. Rusted. Wants a handprint and a promise.

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Chapter 141

Click.

The girl doesn’t bolt.

She kneels,

:

crawls out like a good fucking thing,

She smells Logan.

He growls.

“Not yet,” I whisper.

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it. Outside. The way’s open, Jess,

do we

as we can

door drops, they start to shift. The feral ones don’t wait–bone cracking, tendon snapping, legs bowing like they’ve

skin and scream and

say,

kicks the bars open before I do. He’s not shifting. Not yet. Not with me here. His chest is heaving, veins high

says, “we

at the hallway like he can already see it. The exit. Where the air changes. Where it stops smelling like meat and starts smelling like outside. The

But I don’t move.

Because I remember Riot.

Logan barks. Actual bark this time. His voice is going–he’s

I say,

leaving without

You

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Chapter 141

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