Mike sat in silence for minutes, while Lauren waited. His face was shadowed by more than exhaustion; it was weighed down by something that couldn’t be spoken aloud. She’d been around him long enough to know his moods, but this was different. This was heavy and dark. 
“So, you found him,” she prompted. She tried to keep her voice steady, almost afraid of setting him off. "Did he...did Scott recognize you?"
Mike didn’t respond at first. His hands clenched together on the table, knuckles white. “He wasn’t...he wasn’t Scott anymore.”
Lauren bit her lip, not sure of what to say. She knew what he was hinting at but was terrified to hear it. “Mike… are you saying he was—?”
“Rabid,” he finished, voice cold, clipped. “I went there to ask him for help, and I found... a monster. A wolf that wanted nothing but to tear me apart. And the worst part? I could see him—Scott. My friend. My best friend… just trapped, like a ghost, in those cursed red eyes.”
Lauren reached for him, her fingers hovering near his hand but not quite daring to touch. “Mike, I’m… I’m so sorry.”
He pulled his hands away. “I don’t need your pity, kid.”
“It’s not pity, Mike. It’s…” She took a breath, searching for the right words. “You shouldn’t have gone alone.”
His eyes flashed dangerously, that wolfish glint she’d grown wary of. “Would you have come with me?” he asked. “Do you think you could have done something to bring him back?”
Lauren flinched but held her ground. “I know it doesn’t help, but he would have wanted you to… he would have understood.”
Mike laughed bitterly. “Would he? Would he have understood that his best friend had to end his life?”
Lauren leaned forward, this time gripping his hand. “Mike, you can’t keep tearing yourself apart over this. Scott was already gone—Dr. Makovsky saw to that the day he injected him. It wasn’t your fault.”
Suddenly, Mike slammed his fist onto the stool beside him, startling her. “You don’t get it, Lauren! You’ve never had to look into the eyes of someone you loved and… and…” His voice faltered. “And kill them to set them free.”
A tense silence filled the room, only broken by the muffled sound of footsteps outside. Lauren took a deep breath, forcing herself to keep her composure. “I may not know what that’s like, Mike,” she replied slowly. “But I do know what it’s like to lose people you care about because of him—because of Dr. Makovsky. I lost my Alpha, Jacob. I almost lost you, and now I am on the verge of losing my best friend too. Trust me, I understand more than you think."
Mike opened his mouth to speak. Then his gaze drifted to the window, looking out at nothing in particular. “This has to end, Lauren. You don’t understand… if we don’t stop him, this will happen again and again. He’ll make more monsters, more… more rabid wolves. People we used to know, who we loved… and I don’t think I can go through that again.”
Lauren tried to think of something comforting, something that could ease the pain she saw flashing in his eyes, but there were no words. This wasn’t a pain that words could soothe; this was something that could only be faced head-on. “Then let’s stop him,” she said firmly. “We’ll do whatever it takes. If we have to tear down every lab he owns, if we have to—”
“Not we,” Mike interrupted. “I want you to be the one to kill him, Lauren.”
She blinked, taken aback. “Me?”
“Yes, you.” He leaned in, a strange intensity filling his voice. “You have to be the one to end this. I… I don’t know if I can do it. After what he did to Scott, to me, to all of us over the years, I think I have been broken. But you, you’re different.”
Lauren shook her head slowly. “I don’t know, Mike. I don’t know if I have it in me to do that. I mean, Dr Makovsky is still my father."
“You have to have it in you!” he snapped, his voice breaking. “If he’s still out there, he’s going to keep doing this. More people will suffer, more… more people like Scott. And I can’t… I can’t go through that again.”
She stared at him, her heart breaking for the man who’d lost everything to this nightmare. “Mike, I know we have to save these people from Dr Makovsky. But I don’t know if I can just… kill him.”
“Then learn to." He urged. "Learn to hate him enough to finish this. Because if you don’t… if you don’t, Lauren, you’re going to lose more than just friends.”
Lauren took a shaky breath. Despite everything else, she knew he was right—she knew that, if they didn’t stop Makovsky, the pain they’d both experienced would only continue to spread. But to take another life, even one as cruel and twisted as her father's… it was a line she’d never crossed.
“This anger is going to consume you. You can’t let him turn you into something you’re not. That’s what he wants. That’s what my father does.”
He laughed again, bitter and hollow. “I’m already something I’m not, Lauren. I was once a man, a cop, someone who had a purpose. I had you as my daughter. I had a life. And now? Now, I’m a monster. I’m a wolf, just like the ones he created. And every day, I wake up wondering if I’ll be the next one to lose control, if I’ll be the next one to—”
“Stop it,” she said sharply, and he went silent. “Stop it, Mike. You are not a monster. You’re still here, you’re still fighting, and that’s what matters. I'm sure that's why Scott held on for as long as he did. He believed in you. He believed that you’d be strong enough to see this through.”
She took a deep breath and continued speaking. “Don’t lose yourself to this anger. Let’s use it—let’s channel it and make sure that we end this nightmare once and for all. But let’s do it together. We don’t have to become what he wants us to be.”
Mike looked back at her. For a moment, he seemed almost vulnerable, almost like the man she’d known before all of this began. “Lauren, promise me you’ll finish this. If it comes down to it, if he’s there, promise me you’ll end him.”
She sighed and nodded slowly. “I promise, Mike. Whatever it takes, we'll find a way to end it. I’ll make sure he never does this to anyone again.”
In all honesty, Lauren was scared. But she knew that she would carry it—for him, for Scott, for Jacob and Eric and her mother and everyone else who had suffered. She would find her father, and she would make sure he paid for every life he’d destroyed.
And this time, there would be no hesitation.