“I’ll keep her safe, because she’s mine.” Had been, for longer than Cassie even realized.

Dante left the room. Cassie sealed Trace back inside. Had she heard what the wolf said? What he’d said?

A tear slid down her cheek. Dante bent and wiped that tear away.

“He didn’t deserve this. Trace was just trying to help his friends. He was helping them when my brother—”

She had a brother?

“My brother injected him with Lycan-70. Richard knew how dangerous that mix was, but he didn’t care.” Her hand raked through her hair. “That’s always been my family’s problem. They just don’t care who they hurt.”

She cared. Cared so much that she was risking her life for a werewolf who could choose to take his own life at any moment.

“You aren’t like them.” Her tear was cool on his finger. “You were never like them.”

She swallowed and gave a slow nod. Then she exhaled. “You should get some rest. I need to run these tests.”

She pulled away, straightened her shoulders, and headed back down the hallway.

Dante didn’t move. His gaze followed her until she turned the corner.

He had two choices. He could destroy the lab and everything that linked her to it. Then he could take her. She would know only him.

Or . . . he could help her. Help her save the werewolf. Help her try to stop the primal virus from spreading.

He’d never been one to help.

He just took what he wanted. Let the rest of the world save or destroy itself.

No, that wasn’t exactly true. Centuries before, he had tried to help.

Madness had swept through his village. Turning all those of his kind against one another. He’d tried to fight the madness, tried to save his brother.

But there were some who couldn’t be saved. No matter how hard he’d tried, he couldn’t save them. He’d been forced to fight Wren.

And, in the end, he’d sent his brother to hell.

Dante glanced at the closed door.

Help or destroy . . .

For Cassie, maybe he’d do a bit of both.

CHAPTER TEN

When the alarm rang, shrieking through the lab, Cassie jumped to her feet. She’d been working with her samples for hours, and silence had been her only companion.

Until then.

Her gaze flew to the monitors. The alarm was coming from room eight.

Not Trace’s room.

Oh, crap. Room eight. It was for the only primal vampire she had in the facility.

She grabbed a wooden stake from her desk drawer, even as she prayed that she wouldn’t have to use the weapon. That primal—she’d promised his father that she would do everything possible to save him.

But if he was loose and tried to attack someone, she’d have to stop him.

Charles was in the underground lab. Jamie was there, too. He wouldn’t make it through another attack.

Cassie grabbed for a dosage of tranqs, then hurried forward. She shoved open the sliding doors that led from her work area and raced toward room eight. Her shoes slapped against the tile even as her heart thundered in her chest.

The door to room eight was open.

No, no, it shouldn’t be—

She sprang into the room.

Vaughn Adams, the vampire, had his arms wrapped around Jamie. The primal’s teeth were inches from the boy’s throat.

One bite, and Jamie would be infected too.

“Stop!” Cassie yelled.

Vaughn’s head jerked toward her. His nostrils widened.

“Let him go, Vaughn.” She’d had no treatment success with Vaughn so far. All of the serums, the drugs—nothing could give him back even a hint of his humanity.

Jamie whimpered.

Cassie’s fingers curled around the stake. She’d agreed to help Vaughn, but she would not let him hurt the boy.

She stepped forward, and her right foot kicked against—another stake? Her gaze followed the stake as it rolled a few inches away, then her eyes whipped back up when Vaughn hissed.

“Tasting . . . you . . . soon . . .”

So he’d told her before. Once upon a time, Vaughn Adams had been a New Orleans cop, a guy torn between the paranormal and normal world. A bite from a primal vampire had sent him into a walking nightmare. One that, after months, he still hadn’t been able to wake from.

“Why wait?” She lifted the sharp point of the stake and slid it over her wrist, drawing forth some blood. “Come and get it now.”

“No!” Jamie shouted, his eyes bulging.

Vaughn shoved him aside and came right at her, all those terrible fangs in his mouth snapping.