Twenty Four

"I said I might know of a cure." His voice came back sharp. "Not that I have one. Those aren't the same thing."

"That's not—" I started to sit up again and the world tilted so violently I nearly went off the couch entirely. Nathan's hands caught me and pressed me back down.

"Easy," he said. "Easy girl, you're making it spread faster."

"Spread faster." A laugh came out of me that sounded wrong — thin and unhinged and not like me at all. "Fantastic. So I just lie here and let it kill me?"

"You lie there, shut up and let me think," Aiden snapped and stood up.

God, I wanted to blast him. My mouth has never wanted to insult someone as badly as I felt right now, but I knew it was best to let him work a solution out. I didn't even have the strength to do so anyway. I was holding onto my life by a thin thread.

I stared at the ceiling I couldn't fully see. My chest was heaving. Every breath hurt now, a deep pulling ache that hadn't been there an hour ago.

The room went quiet except for my breathing and the sound of Aiden pacing.

Nathan positioned me carefully and then stood up to go meet Aiden.

"How long has it been since he last bit someone?" Aiden's voice had dropped again, directed at Nathan as he glanced at Joshua who had passed out on the ground.

Nathan followed his gaze to where Joshua lay and replied, "I think it's been about six months. Maybe seven."

"That's bad. His venom will be more deadly?"

A pause. "It is, and it's affecting her badly."

"How long do you think she has?"

The silence before Nathan answered was the worst silence I'd ever sat inside.

"Three hours," he whispered. "She'll only last three hours from what I'm looking at." Nathan glanced at me and forced a smile, revealing all his teeth.

The number landed on me like a death sentence.

Scratch that — I was already living one.

I had only three hours. Three fucking hours.

I had been counting on more than that. I had been counting on fighting. Three hours wasn't fighting time. Three hours was barely enough to say goodbye to anyone, and I had no one left to say goodbye to except Stephanie, who didn't even know where I was.

God, I didn't deserve this. I don't deserve to die. I didn't do anything wrong.

I know a thousand ways to survive but I have never hurt anyone, so why did I have to be the one dying?

Why was my pack so determined to kill me? My father had always been cold — I knew that, I had always known that — because I was the wolfless heir, the useless twin. But him giving the order to have me killed was something else entirely. It was unexpected. It was unforgivable.

I would never forgive him. Never forgive May. And especially not Luke, who rejected me like I was garbage he needed to dispose of.

"The last girl Joshua bit — how did she die?" Aiden pressed.

"His venom attacked her body's entire system until even her werewolf healing was too slow to keep up," Nathan said. "By the end she was—" He stopped.

"Say it."

"She was begging to be killed." The words came out broken. "I've never heard anyone scream like that."

The room went completely silent.

I stared at nothing and tried very hard not to imagine myself three hours from now, screaming, begging for an end. I tried hard and I failed. The image arrived clear and horrible and I shoved it back down because if I sat with it I would fall apart completely, and I didn't have the energy for that.

"Aiden, there's only one way I can think of," Nathan said, his face going serious.

Aiden studied him for a long moment and then, a few seconds later, he understood exactly what Nathan had in mind.

"You have to mark her and—"

"No." Aiden's frown was immediate and absolute. "And that's final." He cut Nathan off before another word could come out.

"Aiden, she is going to die, you have to—"

Aiden turned to face him fully this time, something hard and final in his expression, and Nathan went quiet.

"I said no. If she dies then so be it, but I won't do that. Find another way."

"Alright, fine then," Nathan said quietly. "There has to be something. Some other way—"

"There might be," Aiden said, stopping his pacing. "But it's never been tested. And it might kill her faster than the venom."