Page 142 of Broken Wolf Heart
I loom over him, ready to end this—at last.
Lexi’s hand lands on my shoulder.
“Don’t,” she rasps. “If you kill him, you’ll absorb all that power. All that darkness. It could kill you—or worse.”
Fuck. She’s probably right. I stop and look down at my father cowering on the ground. He’s wheezing. Bleeding. Not quite dying, thanks to that stupid serum, but rendered immobile.
“Let’s go,” Lexi says quietly. “This place is falling apart.”
And I realize what she means to do.
I turn away from my father as Dutch kneels beside Andy. She’s bleeding, barely conscious, and covered in glass. It’s not until he lifts her into his arms that I see the body behind her.
Severin. Still in his lab coat, which is now coated in blood. A large piece of glass protrudes from his throat.
“You did good, baby,” Dutch tells her. “You did so fucking good.”
“Can we get the fuck out of here?” Mia asks.
“Yes, please,” Lexi says.
I look back at my father.
And I let him go.
Lexi’s right. Killing him would mean inheriting his alpha essence. And there’s no part of him I want surviving in me when this is all over. So, instead of taking my vengeance on the one man who deserves it the most, I shift back to my human form so I can take the hand of the woman I love.
“You’ll die alone,” I tell him. “It’s no less than you deserve.”
Then I turn my back on him forever.
A moment later, his voice stops me. “I knew you couldn’t kill me,” he rasps. I look back to see he’s shifted to his human form. A form that will make healing impossible. All so he can taunt me one last time. “You’re too weak. I was always stronger than you.”
A steel beam breaks loose and crashes through the floor.
Dutch curses, darting out of the way as more chunks rain down. He cradles Andy more tightly against his chest, his eyes wide with urgency now.
All around us, the walls crack.
The floor tilts.
“Out!” I shout. “Everyone out!”
We run.
The hall collapses behind us.
The ceiling buckles.
We don’t stop.
We don’t look back.
We don’t breathe until the sunlight hits our faces.
33
LEXI
