  &quot;What?&quot; it s like every cell in my body stops as a deathly silence fills the air, shock stilling my thoughts, my lungs ceasing to move, and you can hear a pin drop as his words sink in slowly—so fucking slowly. 
  Juan executed my family. They didn t die in battle. 
  That s a lie. It can t be true because they weren t the only pack to never return. The entire Whyte line, among others, all died protecting our kind. It was a war, for God s sake, and we had many casualties. Did Juan kill them all, too?
  The doc has to be playing me, lying to mess with my head for some kind of ulterior motive, and I m falling for it. Maybe it s a test to see if I m strong enough to turn, despite being in this isolation tank. Maybe I was wrong to trust him, and this is all a ploy to break me down and get intel he thinks I may have ... but how would he know her name?
  I take a much-needed breath

  &quot;Meaning?&quot; I turn to him fully and lock onto him, seeing him swallow hard. His mistrust of my current behavior is written all over him. At this moment he s afraid of me, and he s nervously spewing words to try to diffuse it or to keep me focused on anything other than turning on him. I can smell the terror coming in waves from him, even without my wolf sense. It s not intentional, but these feelings are bigger than me, and I have no will to reel them in right now. Fractured and seeping, and I don t know how to stop it pouring out and pooling around me like a dense smog.
  &quot;She got to you before Juan did. Ran and left the pack on their return to your lands. She bound her blood to you, so you became linked to her and completely protected from being slain too, thus meaning he could never kill you. And if he tried to isolate and imprison you, then his pack would have asked w

  &quot;What? Why? Do you think I m lying?&quot; The sudden rise of emotion in him has me on edge, too, and I panic that I m scaring away my only ray of hope to escaping. He appears to be running away, but as he turns to close the door, the tear I catch in his eye silences me and he pauses, taking a deep breath and lowering his hands. The open door between us keeping us a couple of feet apart, but his sadness overwhelms me.
  &quot;Eight years of silence. Eight years watching her sleep. Eight years hoping that one day the things she said … I d accepted that my friend had lost her mind completely. Eight years ... and I convinced myself that her visions and stories were that of a madwoman, broken by a battle that convinced her that her mate was an evil player in some bigger plan, and her confinement here was a betrayal to silence her. Eight years justifying that she was better off asleep t

&quot;What?&quot; it s like every cell in my body stops as a deathly silence fills the air, shock stilling my thoughts, my lungs ceasing to move, and you can hear a pin drop as his words sink in slowly—so fucking slowly. 
  Juan executed my family. They didn t die in battle. 
  That s a lie. It can t be true because they weren t the only pack to never return. The entire Whyte line, among others, all died protecting our kind. It was a war, for God s sake, and we had many casualties. Did Juan kill them all, too?
  The doc has to be playing me, lying to mess with my head for some kind of ulterior motive, and I m falling for it. Maybe it s a test to see if I m strong enough to turn, despite being in this isolation tank. Maybe I was wrong to trust him, and this is all a ploy to break me down and get intel he thinks I may have ... but how would he know her name?
  I take a much-needed breath as I begin to suffocate under the pressure of my mounting emotions, realizing I wasn t inhaling o

chapter 42