“From one grainy video of a fight?” Dustin asked.
Kane’s eyes hadn’t left Logan yet, and now he had the urge to back to the door or fight. His bear was having trouble settling on one.
“Kannon Dayton,” Kane clipped out. The last name tapered into a snarl, but Logan had understood him well enough. The name felt like a fist to the stomach.
He shook his head, backed up a few steps. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he sure as fuck understood Kane was angry. With him.
Kane stalked him slowly. “Kannon Dayton, Logan. Tell me how you knew him. Fucking tell me!” he roared.
Logan flashed a look at Winter who was moving to stand between Logan and Kane. He shook his head in warning. God, he didn’t want to do this. Not in front of her. Not in front of anyone. Kannon Dayton was the reason he broke.
“My alpha gave me a job. A quiet one. There wasn’t much money involved, but he told me it was important.”
“Who hired you?” Kane gritted out.
Logan ignored the question because he hadn’t said enough to make him understand yet. “When I got out there, to this rundown cabin in the middle of nowhere, I was confused. It wasn’t how I usually did things. Kannon was alone, unregistered, and he felt like a wolf, but said he couldn’t shift.”
“Who hired you?”
“Kane, stop!” Logan held out his hand to keep the approaching dragon back. His bear was clawing at his insides now, chanting kill him, kill him, kill him.
“It’s not the kind of job I did, but Kannon was bad off. Kept talking to himself, crying, smelled sick, told me he wanted to kill anyone in his territory and had almost taken a hiker’s life. Told me he’d lost his animal, and he pleaded with me… Fuck… Kane, I don’t want to do this.”
“Who hired you?” he bellowed in Logan’s face.
Kill him, kill him. Kill him for challenging you.
Logan closed his eyes against the pain of his bear trying to force a Change. “He did.”
“What?” Kane shook his head, stumbled back a step.
“He hired me. Kannon did, but I didn’t take the money. I couldn’t. He hired me to take his life because he’d tried twice and failed, and he wanted it over with. He couldn’t Change, didn’t have the wolf, so I couldn’t kill him the way I wanted. I took his life because he fell to his knees in the dirt and clung to my jeans and begged me to.” Logan slammed his head back against the door three times to rattle the bear out of control. He didn’t even recognize his voice right now. Kill him. “And then I wasn’t okay to keep going because I took a fucking human’s life. He was basically a human, right? He smelled like a wolf, but his eyes were stuck glowing like a demon’s, and he couldn’t Change. He was empty. A shell without his animal, and I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t just leave him there like that, alone, dead inside but not on the outside.” His eyes blurred and burned. Fuck! Everything hurt. His head, his heart, every muscle as he strained not to let the monster loose in a house full of people he actually gave a shit about.
“Was it Kannon’s death that broke your bear?” Kane said, eyes narrowed with hatred.
“Yes,” Logan gritted out, clenching his fists against the urge to Change and kill everyone.
“Good. He was my friend. He was in Apex. They cut his wolf from his body like he was some fucking science experiment. He had a chance—”
“He didn’t,” Logan said. “You didn’t see him, Kane. Didn’t feel what he was like at the end. There was no recovery for him.”
“You killed my friend!” Kane barked out. “And then you had the balls to come to my territory and ask the same goddamned favor he asked of you? You want to end it, Logan? You want that quick death? You want it over with? You’ve got it.”
“No, no, no,” Winter said, pulling at Kane’s arm.
“Tomorrow night, six sharp, be here for your end, or I’ll hunt you down like the animal you are. Everyone get out.” Kane jerked out of Winter’s grasp and strode for the back door.
It slammed so hard the house rattled.
Rowan murmured low, “He really loved the people he was in Apex with. Really loved them. They’re experience bonded them in a way you or I or anyone can’t understand.” She dragged dragon-gold eyes to Logan and shook her head as twin tears spilled down her cheeks. “I don’t want this, and I wish you hadn’t asked for it. I wish you wouldn’t have come to us. I wanted you in the crew, not to be a black mark on Kane’s heart.” She dashed her hand under her cheeks quickly and made her way into the hallway, shoulders shaking in silent sobs.
A prehistoric roar shook the house so hard a trio of decorative plates fell off their wall stands and shattered on the floor.
Feeling completely numb, Logan followed the others out of the house. Kane had said yes. He was going to give Logan his wish, but now something inside of Logan wanted to flee. A pathetic part of him clung to the idea that he could change eventually, improve, and be worthy of Winter.
Winter slid her arms around his waist and sobbed against his shirt. She was getting tears everywhere. The sun was too bright, too harsh. Logan’s head was splitting in two. In the clearing beyond, Kane’s dragon stood much taller than the cabin. He stretched his gargoyle wings and lifted off the ground with powerful strokes. The wind under his wings was like a tornado, and Logan struggled to keep Winter upright. Dark Kane was a true monster—hideous and terrifying. The spikes down his back shone like weapons, and his black scales were matted and scarred as if he’d battled for centuries to survive. Long, black horns arched out of his face, and his claws were monstrous.