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My brain finally finished the memory. And relief crashed through me, so sudden and sharp that I felt something wrench free in my chest.

Except that there was a small sliver of him—a speck of the man I loved—that hadn’t allowed his body to obey him. Even though there would never be anything more dangerous to his plans than me. Not unless I was just like him.

Not him. Never Michael.

It had been Danny’s voice, still fighting against the darkness that had taken him over. And the creature wearing Danny’s face had felt alarm at the sound of it. It had expected Danny to be completely gone.

But he wasn’t.

“I heard him through the bond,” I said, fixing Thierry with my gaze. “Right before he took off. He was thinking about turning me. But Danny stopped him.”

“Impossible,” Thierry breathed, taken aback.

“I’d stake my life on it. His, too.”

And I realized, like a crack of thunder, what I could do about it.

“The situation with your brother was different,” I said slowly, still staring him down. “Because he hadn’t met his fated mate. He wasn’t tethered to a person who still had their humanity. He didn’t have anyone whocouldbring him back.”

Thierry’s eyebrows slammed together at that.

Blinking rapidly, he released me.

I staggered backward but remained on my feet. Shock flooded through me as I realized I was right: Dannywasstill there. A flicker of his old self had forced the monster to let me go.

There was a speck of Danny—myDanny—remaining, still buried somewhere deep inside of him. It had been eclipsed in my memories by the horror of seeing what had happened to him. Of feeling the horrible change in him through the bond. But I knew it was real. Because I had felt the way it resisted the impulse to hurt me.

I had felt the fear that had filled Danny—allof Danny—at the idea of something awful happening to me.

“Oh fuck,” I whispered. I let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Oh fuck, he’s still in there. He’s still fighting.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Thierry replied, sounding uneasy. His eyebrows were still knitted together as he watched me in mounting alarm. “And you would say anything you had to in order to stop any harm from coming to him. You wouldn’t have any choice. It’s understandable, but you mustn’t—”

“Listen to my heartbeat and tell me I’m lying!” I snapped, practically spitting the words at him. “Danny is still fucking in there, Thierry! I heard him!”

Thierry paused, considering me. Then, after a long moment had passed, his whole expression filled with a mixture of disbelief and shock. “That proves nothing.”

But I could tell from the way he stared at me, the calculation slowly but surely replacing the surprise and disbelief on his face, that they were just words. Noises of refusal he was making out of habit.

My heart raced in my chest as I considered what this realizationmeant.

My brain whirled into action, racing ahead to what I was going todoabout it. And there was only one possibility in front of me, clear and sharp-edged.

I turned my back on Thierry, oddly certain he wouldn’t act to harm me, and screwed my eyes shut, trying to blot out the world so I couldthink.

Could I give up everything for Danny?

Or would I remain frozen in fear, unable to bring myself to act in order to save him?

No, I couldn’t do that.

I wouldn’t do that.

Because I wasn’t the same man anymore, was I? I wasn’t the helpless mundane mechanic who had been frozen in fear, watching monsters destroy the only thing I loved. I was a hunter. A fighter. And Danny was the only thing in my whole world that was worth fighting for.

I had already lost him twice. First when he had been turned. And then this time. And there had been nothing I could do either time. But I could do something now. And if there was anything—anything at all—I could do to at leasttryto save him from the darkness, I would. I couldn’t lose him a third time.

But what about lazy days spent in the sun?