Page 215 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“Maybe you should.” There was no fear in his eyes, not even an ounce, and that disconcerted me. “But if you do, then who’s going to watch out for your boy? Who’s gonna keep him safe?”

“Wha—”

“I’m not innocent, Cole. I’ve done things I’ve despised, and I’ll answer for my sins one day.” He shoved a hand into his pocket. For a single insane moment, Iknewhe was going to pull out a gun and blow my brains out. But he didn’t. Instead, he pulled out two small vials, pale green liquid sloshing inside the glass.

“What’s that?” I asked, finally releasing his shirt to allow him to sit down.

“This is my penance. A gift to try and wash the stain off my soul.” He handed me the two vials. “I’m not as bad as you think, Cole. I did bad things to stay alive. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to repay all the shit I’ve done.” He pointed at the vials. “Use those on the two humans I turned. Intel says you’ve got one and the other is at the police station.”

With that, he slid out of the booth. Bewildered, I grabbed his wrist.

He glanced at my hand. “Yes?”

“Dallas, what the hell is all this about?” I asked, not liking the strained panic I could hear at the edges of my voice.

“It’s the end of a very long era. Don’t worry about Ashton. I’m making sure he gets back to you safe and sound. I swear to that.”

He tugged out of my grasp and left. All I could do was stare after him, my head spinning. If I’d been given a billion years to sit down and write out every possible way this meeting could have gone, Ineverwould have come up with this. I stared at thetwo vials dumbly, gently shaking them and watching the bubbles glide back and forth in the green liquid.

“Why’d you let him go?” Langston asked when I joined them a few minutes later.

“I don’t know,” I said, and that was the God’s honest truth. “It sort of felt like I had to, you know?”

“I really don’t,” Langston snapped.

“I have a feeling things might go badly for Ashton if I didn’t let him go. He gave me this.” I held up the vials and explained what they were.

Trent looked at them skeptically. “For all we know, that could be poison. Maybe Dallas wants to kill off the proof of his deeds. Or it could be some new chemical that fucking scientist came up with. It could turn them into fucking rabid lions who’ll rip heads or something.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I can’t explain it, but you guys didn’t look into his eyes. You didn’t see what I saw. I know Dallas hasn’t given us any reason to trust him, but I’m going with my gut here. He had a weird, pleading look in his eyes, almost like he was begging me to believe him. It wasn’t an act. All I can say is I hope I’m right, and that I don’t end up regretting this.”

Langston and Trent didn’t look happy, but they didn’t argue. If this was a mistake, and the people I loved ended up getting hurt, I’d never forgive myself. But like I’d told them, that look in Dallas’s eyes had told me most of what I needed to know.

Langston, exhausted from tracking Dallas for over thirty-six hours straight, napped in the backseat of Trent’s truck as we drove home in silence. When we pulled into the driveway acouple hours later, a pregnant tension filled the air between us. Trent had been dying to say something but had managed to hold off until we got home.

“Are you really going to inject that shit into him?” he asked, tilting his head in the direction of the garage.

Gabe Kolchak, or the wolf formally known as Gabe Kolchak, lay next to my truck. The wolf hadn’t eaten or drank anything since being changed. At the rate he was going, he’d die of starvation soon. Avery and Farrah were on the verge of taking him to the local vet to get a feeding tube put in to keep him alive. I’d never seen an animal look that depressed.

“Well?” Trent pressed. “Are you?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “It might go badly for him.”

“Cole, look at the poor bastard. He’s tiptoeing toward death as it is. Even if that vial kills him, won’t a quick death be better than slowly slipping away like he already is?”

I stared at Gabe. His sides rose and fell as he breathed, each rib sticking out against his skin. His starving body was nothing but angles and knobs.

I opened the door. “Fuck it.”

“Wha… what’s happening?” Langston said groggily as I strode toward the garage. A few seconds later, he and Trent hurried to catch up to me.

Kneeling, I scratched Gabe around the ears. He raised his head and gazed at me. I had the distinct feeling he was trying to speak to me. His eyes were those of a tired man who wanted to go home. Toshuffle off the mortal coil, as that old play said. Well,that wasn’t happening. Not on my watch. Not without trying everything.

“There’s a first-aid kit in the kitchen. Grab that,” I told Trent.

He returned a few seconds later with the kit. After rifling through it, I found what I was looking for: three sealed, sanitized syringes. Intended for insulin injection in an emergency, they’d do the job.

Unsure of the dosage, I threw caution to the wind and filled a syringe with the entire contents of one vial.

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