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Her nostrils flared, her breath coming faster. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming…”

I looked her dead in the eye. “The drug kills us, Kendra.”

Her body went rigid and the color drained from her face. “What?” Her voice was a whisper of incredulity.

“That’s the part they’re hiding,” I said, my voice shaking with barely contained rage. “A shifter scientist smuggled out proof. If a human woman carries a shifter child under this drug, she either dies in childbirth or loses decades off her life. It’s not just some side effect; it’s a death sentence.”

I watched the way her face changed as her anger at me gave way to understanding. Kendra staggered back a step, shaking her head. “You’re fucking kidding.”

“I wish I was,” I whispered. “They’ve been testing it for months. The minute they figure out how to mass-produce it, they’ll start using it on every human woman they take. And when they don’t need us anymore?” My throat constricted. “We’re gone, Kendra. All of us.”

She was breathing hard now, hands on her hips, her face dark with anger. “How do you know all this?”

“Because I saw it myself.”

She froze. “You saw it?”

I nodded. “I was there when the scientist smuggled out the research. I saw the files, the charts, the reports.” My voice dropped. “I saw what happened to the test subjects.”

Kendra’s lips parted slightly, her fingers twitching at her sides like she wanted to punch something. “Jesus Christ, Lia.”

“That’s why I ran.” My voice cracked. “That’s why I came here. That’s why Mariah told me to run. I needed help. I needed—” I exhaled sharply. “I needed Silas.”

She let out a humorless laugh. “You didn’t just randomly stumble into his camp; you came looking for him.”

“Yeah.”

She shook her head, pacing again. “Now what? You think he can stop this?”

“I don’t know.” The truth tasted bitter. “But I know we can’t do it alone.”

She stared at me for a long moment, then finally nodded. “Fuck. Guess we’re doing this then.”

“Yep,” I murmured, my stomach tumbling over. “I guess we are.”

Kendra let out a long breath, rubbing her face with both hands before leveling me with a look that made me pull back. “So, let me get this straight.” She held up a finger. “You escaped the city with top-secret intel on a drug that will literally wipe out humanity.” She held up another finger. “You came here, to the middle of nowhere, to find him to ask for help.”

I nodded, wary of where this was going. “Yes.”

A slow, knowing smirk tweaked at the edges of her lips.

“And now,” she continued, dropping her hands to her hips, “you’re shacked up in his bed?”

I folded my arms and scowled. “Not like that.”

Kendra snorted. “You’re literally in his cabin. In his bed. Wearing his shirt…”

“It’s just a place to sleep,” I muttered, but even I heard how unconvincing that sounded.

She arched a brow. “Mmhmm. Sure.”

I huffed, shifting uncomfortably. “It’s… complicated.”

Kendra crossed her arms, tilting her head. “Complicated like, ‘Oops, I tripped and fell onto his dick’ complicated?”

I choked. “Kendra!”

She cackled, clearly enjoying herself. “What? I mean, the man looks like he could bench-press a car. If you’re gonna throw yourself at an Alpha, might as well be that one.”