Page 85 of The Last True Hero

Twenty-Two

IN THE ENDit wasn’t a choice. McClain’s breath started to rattle in his lungs, and Mia met Ellie's eyes. "Do it," she whispered, feeling like an inmate taking that last long walk. "Open Colton's cage."

“Mia,” Jake warned, but she was no longer listening to him.

“You got a better idea, Jake?” Ellie put the key in the lock, listening to the metallic click. “You’d better not be lying to us, Colton. You'd better not make him a warg, or hurt him."

"What about me?" Zarina called from the cell next to Colton's. She'd spat her gag out and lay on the floor, still hogtied.

"We'll deal with you later," Ellie told her.

And then she unlocked the cell.

Colton moved fast, but Jake had the shotgun now and had reloaded with shells from Rykker’s belt. He pumped the shotgun, and Colton held his hands up in the air.

“I’m not going to hurt her. Or him.” Colton knelt by McClain’s side and rested a hand on his forehead.

“Is he…?”

“Still alive,” Colton murmured. “Though not for long.” Grabbing McClain’s shirt by the collar, he started dragging her man toward the cell.

“What are you doing?” Mia demanded.

Colton laid McClain on the floor in the middle of the cell. “You… Jake?” When Jake nodded, he gestured to the cell door. “Make sure you’re ready to lock it if need be.” He looked between the bars of his cell toward Zarina. "I'd roll a little further away if I were you."

Mia didn’t understand. But Jake nodded and handed her the shotgun before slipping the keys in the lock. He held the cell door slightly ajar.

Colton looked up at her, and she saw some sort of message in his eyes that she didn’t want to understand. Then he started unbuttoning McClain’s shirt. “Be prepared,” Colton said softly.

There was something hanging around McClain’s throat. The wolf's head medallion he wore.

With a sharp jerk, Colton tore it from around McClain’s throat, then danced back out of reach.

McClain screamed, his spine arching off the floor. She’d never heard anything like that in her life.

Zarina's eyes bugged out of her head, and she swore and rolled across the floor away from him.

“What did you do to him?” Mia demanded, but Jake shoved her out of the way, and Colton slid back through the cell door, slamming it shut behind him.

Ellie locked it.

Inside the cell McClain spasmed violently.

Mia couldn’t just stand there. She grabbed the bars of the door, but Jake wouldn’t let her open it. "What did you do to him?" She turned on Colton. "You promised! What did you do? Did you scratch—"

“No! He didn't scratch him.” Jake dragged her back, hauling her into his arms. “Mia, he’s… he’s changing. I told you about the medallion on that warg up north, didn't I? This is who McClain's always been. Or what. I—I should have told you the moment I realized what he was.”

And that was when she saw the horrible truth.

Muscle bulged in McClain’s thighs as if something moved under the skin. Fur sprouted along the backs of his hands, and his jeans tore as his body began to change. McClain screamed again, his mouth elongating and razor-sharp teeth erupting through pale gums.

A warg. McClain was a warg.

"The transformation can heal him," Colton murmured, watching sadly. "They tried to create something pre-Darkening that could win any war. A soldier with faster reflexes and greater strength than any other, one that could heal from almost any wound. Of course, it all went horribly wrong, and then the Darkening hit. Man shouldn't mess with nature."

Mia stumbled back as Jake dragged her away from the cell, her entire body numb with shock. The change continued violently, an enormous hulking monster tearing itself free of McClain’s clothes. The screams of pain faded, leaving behind the angry huffing of something… not human.

“Adam,” she whispered, letting Jake wrap his strong arms around her.