Page 17 of His Claim

“I don’t know how that… other side of me came out. I’m not like that. I swear I’m not.”

He didn’t answer right away. He just studied me calmly, his jaw tight like he was cataloging every flicker of expression across my face. Then, like a switch being thrown, the memory slammed into me.

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Wait.”

Varek’s brow lifted.

“I remember.” My pulse jumped. “There was this girl. She was new, I think. She was brought into the cells a few days ago. Blonde, soft-spoken. She… she gave me something.” A flash of horror zinged along my nerves. “She gave me an injection. I can’t remember exactly; I was kind of dazed. But after that? That’s when everything went wrong. That’s when I lost myself.”

Heat flared in my chest, the pieces finally clicking together. “That bitch poisoned me.”

Varek’s expression darkened, his silver eyes narrowing. “A human?”

“Yes.” My hands curled into fists. “She acted normal, kind even, but she’s the reason I tore those soldiers apart. Whatever she shot me up with made me intothat.”

His jaw flexed. “Then she’s more dangerous than she looks.”

“Or she’s a pawn,” I snapped. “Either way, I don’t give a damn. Whoever she is, she doesn’t matter right now. We’ve got bigger problems.”

His gaze flicked back to me, sharp and appraising. “The fertility drug.”

I nodded, fury hardening into steel. “Yes. Whatever’s happening with me, we deal with it later, but if what you said is true? We don’t have time to waste.”

Varek inclined his head once. “Then we’re agreed. Bigger fish to fry than a lone girl with a secret rage serum.”

For the first time, I didn’t feel like I was standing on the opposite side of a battlefield from him.

For the first time, I felt like we were aimed at the same enemy.

And that in some strange twist of—I hated to say it—fate, we were allies.

CHAPTER 3

Mariah

I sat on a wobbly stool at his counter, clutching the glass of water in both hands, trying not to notice how the meaty taste of the jerky still lingered on my tongue. Trying not to notice how my chest had stopped heaving, and how my body had stopped trembling like a cornered animal even though he was still in the room.

Varek leaned against the edge of the desk, arms folded, his startling eyes gazing back at me. He hadn’t moved closer again, hadn’t tried to touch me and his restraint unnerved me almost more than his bite had.

I cleared my throat, breaking the silence. “Why are you willing to help me with this?”

His brow lifted slightly.

“I’m not stupid. You’re a commander. You’re Outer Guard. Wolves like you don’t save girls like us. So why?”

He didn’t answer right away. He just watched me, like he was weighing how much truth I could handle. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet and composed.

“Because I don’t like what the Council is doing to human females like you.”

The words scraped against my chest. I clenched my jaw, but the fight drained out of me as fast as it flared. I hated that his calmness had that effect on me. Hated that part of me wanted to lean into it, to let it steady me.

“Who are you really?” I asked after a long moment.

This time, an emotion flickered across his face. Not pain exactly, but an emotion close to it. He shifted, standing straighter, and he squinted slightly, as though remembering ghosts.

“I was a human once,” he said. “Before the bite. Before the Collapse twisted the world. I fought. I bled. I lost.” His voice roughened, just a fraction. “And I’ve been at war ever since.”

He didn’t elaborate, but he didn’t have to. There was weight behind his words, a weight I recognized. He’d lost someone.