*~~Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Nine~~*

{~~Logan Grey~~}

I sat behind the long, sterile desk, the hum of the lab equipment barely registering in my mind as I stared into the microscope. My fingers drummed impatiently against the cold surface, and my feet tapped aggressively on the floor. The rhythmic sound filled the silence, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the chaotic thoughts racing through my head. None of this felt real. It was as if time had warped, twisting everything into some cruel, inescapable nightmare. Avery was upset. I was upset. Everyone in this damn building was running around like their lives depended on it. But nothing felt like it was moving fast enough.

Hope’s blood test had come back earlier, and I had sent more samples back just to double-check, to make sure there hadn’t been some mistake. But the truth was staring me in the face, no matter how much I wished it wasn’t. Hope—Avery’s baby, our little miracle—was infected with LDS. Lycan Decay Syndrome. The words felt like poison in my mouth every time I