“Get up,” Winter commanded Dustin. And then she reared back and slapped Beast so hard the contact echoed through the parking lot.
Dustin staggered to his feet.
“Are you making the right decision?” Beast barked out, his face barely looking human.
Dustin jammed a finger at Emma’s door. “I’m making the decision that protects her.” She wouldn’t hear any of this. He’d made sure to put her hearing aids in the charger before he’d left her room. “I’m making the decision that protects the crew.”
Chest heaving, he covered the massive gash across his rib cage to hide it from Beast’s view. Warmth trickled through his fingers in a stream.
“I knew it,” Logan said. “I fucking called it. She turned him.” He pointed at Beast. “You and Kane were wrong.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Dustin asked.
“Everyone knows,” Winter said, shoving Beast back again. “We know about your meetings. We know you’re still Valdoro Pack. Kane wanted to see what you did in the end. He wanted to see if Emma could save you.”
Dustin dragged his gaze to her door. What the fuck? So much made sense now. The looks exchanged between Kane and Beast. The feeling like he was a jack-in-the-box and everyone was waiting for him to spring. The Blackwings were waiting on a betrayal. “Does Emma know?”
Winter shook her head and looked sick. “Dark Kane wanted us to let it play out. He ordered us not to tell her.”
“It’s not over,” Dustin gritted out. “This is the Wrecker Pack, not Valdoro.” He strode for his car keys, which had been tossed across the sidewalk with his Change. His jeans were in tatters but when he cut to make his way to his room for a new set, Logan tossed him fresh jeans and a T-shirt.
“How many?” he asked.
“Two if they haven’t dragged in another pack.”
“We’ll come with you.”
“Nope, this is my fight.”
“But we’re crew—”
“Not yet,” he barked out. “Parting with the pack is on me. It always was. I have to do this alone, or I’ll never feel okay joining the Blackwings.”
“I don’t understand,” Winter murmured.
“Axton is my alpha.” Dustin swallowed bile as he shoved his legs into the jeans. “He’s my brother, Winter. He’s my responsibility. There’s no honor in bringing a crew of titans into pack business. I have to carve my own self out of Valdoro.”
Winter made a pitying sound. “Dustin, you’re submissive.”
“Not tonight.” He used the T-shirt to wipe the blood off himself as he jogged to his car. “If…” Fuck, what was he supposed to say to make this okay? “If I don’t come back, make Emma understand, okay Winter? Tell her it was for her—all of it.”
Winter stepped back like she’d been hit in the stomach, and tears rimmed her glowing eyes. He couldn’t do this if Winter made him soft right now, so he slid behind the wheel, jammed the key into the ignition and, skidding on the asphalt, peeled out of the parking lot. He turned up the radio and forced himself not to look back in the rearview mirror at what could’ve been. At the friends he could’ve had.
He had to keep his head on straight, and right now, he needed to heal as fast as wolfishly possible and put on one helluva show to get close to Axton. Fuck, he wanted to go back to Emma. To the Blackwings.
Gripping the wheel harder, Dustin slammed his car into the next gear and hit the gas on a straightaway.
A snarl rattled up his throat. He was about to try his damndest to survive tonight because he wanted that make-believe future Emma had talked about more than he’d wanted anything in his life.
Axton was right.
He was the grenade, and the Wreckers had just pulled his fucking pin.
Chapter Sixteen
Emma woke with a start when something heavy shoved her. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. For a moment, she was still back in the coven house where it should’ve been daylight hours. But staring at her in the dark were two glowing gold eyes.
She gasped and reached for him, brought her knee up to peg him in the throat, but the sheets kept her trapped.
Two hands held her shoulders pinned to the bed, but then her eyes adjusted slightly to the dark. “Beast?” She could barely hear her own voice.
Shoving the behemoth off her, she reached for her hearing aids in the charger. The light flickered on, nearly blinding her. “Geez,” she howled in pain, closing her eyes tightly against the fluorescent light above.
“We have to go.” Beast had improved at forming his words carefully for her to read his lips. Why did he look panicked?
Emma scanned the room for Dustin, but he wasn’t here. Just Winter, who was on the phone talking too fast for Emma to read her lips, and Logan, leaned against the doorframe with his glowing, nearly-white eyes glued to his mate. Beast pulled her from the bed as she struggled to secure her hearing aids. The air smelled like feeding nights in the coven. The scent of thick iron wafted through the open doorway. What the hell was happening?
She parted her lips to ask, but Beast pulled one of Dustin’s T-shirts over her head, shoved a pair of rain boots onto her feet, and dragged her out the door.
“Kane has ordered us off this,” Winter said in a frantic voice. “He said Dustin has the right to handle it alone.”
“Then fucking stay here,” Beast growled out.