Page 225 of His Hungry Wolf

“What about classes? Are you gonna drive back and forth? That’s a long drive.”

“I think I’m going to drop out of school for now.”

“But you’re so close. This is your last semester?”

“My mother needs me. Nero needs me. He’s been taking care of her alone all this time. It’s been hard for him. He said that she isn’t always as in control as she was this weekend. He needs help and they’re my family… and my pack.”

My next question caused heat to flash across my face.

“What about us? Will you be coming back to see me?”

Every second Cage didn’t answer sucked the life out of me. I thought that was painful until he spoke.

“I’m not sure if we should be together.”

“What?” I said starting to sweat. “But, you said you loved me.”

“I do. You don’t have to question that. I do.”

“Then, what?”

“You are an incredible guy, the most amazing guy I’ve ever met. But, we want different things.”

“What do you mean, I want you? Don’t you want me?”

“I do. I absolutely do. And if you tell me that you can accept your wolf and be a part of our pack, then I will commit to you forever. Tell me that you won’t spend the rest of your life trying to “cure yourself” of the thing that makes us perfect for each other, and I’m yours.”

I looked at him silently. My heart was breaking.

“That’s what I thought. As long as you can’t accept yourself, you won’t be able to accept me or my family. And, let’s say you do discover how to kill your wolf. And, let’s say that it gets out and the rest of the world finds out about us. What would happen then?”

“I would never let anything happen to you, Cage. Don’t you trust me?”

“How do I trust someone who doesn’t trust himself?”

There was nothing I could say to that. All I could do was stare at him, because he was right. My father had opened Pandora’s box by telling the world about me. And I couldn’t guarantee that anything I did in my father’s lab wouldn’t get out. I could do my best to bury any discovers I made, but if I use it, its formula will always exist within my genetics.

He shouldn’t trust me. Dr. Tom shouldn’t trust me. No one should, least of all myself. All I would ever do to Cage and his pack is put them at risk. My soul burned realizing it.

“Cage, I love you,” I told him no longer able to hold back my tears.

“I love you too, Quin. I do. Tell me you can live your life with me as a shifter. Please. Please, Quin, just tell me that,” he pleaded.

The tears flowed down my cheeks knowing the answer.

“Cage, you can’t imagine what I’ve gone through.”

“And, with my pack, you can’t imagine the responsibility I now have,” he said his eyes filling with tears.

“Is this it?” I asked him desperate for him to say that it wasn’t.

“I guess so,” he said shattering my heart.

I knew I should have said something after that. Anything. But, I couldn’t. The pain I felt disconnected me from my body. I floated somewhere over the two of us looking down. I was sad for the boy crying his eyes out in the passenger seat of Cage’s truck. But I couldn’t feel him. It would have been too much.

I was grateful when he opened his door and stepped into the cold. Anything was better than watching him suffer. Now, he just needed to make it inside and to his apartment before his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed.

Wishing him forward step-by-step, he ascended the stairs. When he took out his key and attempted to put it into the lock was when I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Suddenly drowning in pain, the world around me spun. Luckily I didn’t have to open the door. A friendly face opened it and now it was looking back at me.

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