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Mike crouches close to the doorway, cradling his arm with tears in his eyes as he watches the room Bees just fled into. I walk over to the opening and calmly close the door, cutting off any possible view of her.

This is one of her worst nightmares. For people to see what she believes makes her a monster. It’s all here, written in black and white, and she sees it as proof of her evil doings. I can already feel her withdrawing back into the shell I was able to crack open simply by virtue of not being a ‘person’ when we first met.

I don’t considerher evil. Iknowevil. She’s so far removed from that it’s unimaginable.

Many people see my Mom as evil simply by existing and doing her job. So what if she enjoys it? So what if it isn’t what others accept as normal? It’shernormal.

But there is a certain something that is missing in Bees that would denote a darker soul. She just can’t see it. Even if she did have that darkness inside her, I would cherish it because it is hers.

“That isn’t right,” King points something out from over Kimi’s shoulder. I don’t know how he can read anything with how fast the cat flips through.

“Is it not accurate?” Mitri asks as he stoops to pick up the red folder. His lack of emotion causes a tremor of hunger to start inside me, but I don’t lose focus. I need to see what their reactions are. If I need to get rid of them all.

Either way,someonewill pay for this fiasco.

“She didn’t kill them for sport,” King explains, and Kimi pauses his page-turning to listen. “They begged her to do it. She made sure they didn’t suffer. She thought she was setting them free the only way she could. I saw it when I was in her mind.”

Mal stares down at the plethora of pages in his hands with sorrow. “She thinks she’s a monster because she gave them what they wanted?”

“The only freedom is death,” King replies with resignation. “The first one told her that, convincing her to kill her. She was soyoung.”

I forgot that he took some little joyride in her head when he tried to manipulate her out of her disassociated state.

Was that just last night? How many hits can my mate come back from when they keep flying at her? Hits that I have yet to shield her from.

“They were killing her,” Mal says with disgust.

“Over and over,” King says softly, and the hunger grows.

“No,” Mal snarls. “Theywere killing her. The other patients. What would it do to her mind, amender’smind, to help someone die?”

Silence follows as they contemplate. At least the dragon is following the emotions as well as the facts.

They’re treating this as if it were some case they’ve been assigned to work on. As if Bees isn’t in there falling apart with no one to help her pick the pieces back up again.

I want to go to her, but I can’t be in there yet. I need to make sure they aren’t a threat. I don’t know if this is their way to compartmentalize and focus, but this isn’t what she needs right now. I want them all out of here. I want her to feel safe again.

“Fyodor,” Mitri intones from where he stands, a single page held in his hand.

It draws the attention of the entire room.

He places the red folder gently on the table and sets a single sheet on top of it. I step closer to look, and my inner shaking increases, my control slipping.

The photo reflects dark hair and blue eyes so light they appear almost translucent.

I know this face. I understand things in her nightmares that she was too young to comprehend. This scientistwantedher. Not just to torture but to play with in an even more sickening fashion. He was obsessed. I also know the berserker tore him apart before leaving my mate strapped to a table, slowly dying.

Everyone stares down at this with varying degrees of emotion. Impassive, enraged, sickened. Kimi is the only one not looking at the page, his eyes glazed and far away.

“It seems he had a hand in this,” Mitri continues.

He looks up at King before turning to Mal. I can’t see his flat expression from this angle, but King and Mal nod once at him in agreement.

Kimi stands abruptly from his seat, holding Bees’ folder loosely in one hand, and steps towards the sliding doors behind him.

“What are you doing?” King asks with a disgruntled frown.

“Plan B,” Kimi says with all the calm in the world.