Chapter 109
+25 BONUS
I’d been through a lot of things in my life rogue ambushes, park betrayals, the death of my father–but nothing compared to standing there in a thorescent–lit hallway, watching the woman loved crane indone in front of a stranger in a lab enat..
Elena’s voice was low at first. Chilet. Her pustine still, her eyes locked on the doctor like he was the only thing keeping her upright, but trould see it the way her hands twisted in the hem of her sweatshirt, the way her chest kept rising and falling in
shallow bursts.
The doctor’s words were measured, clinical, but something about the cadence made my skin Itch
Elena’s face changed. Her brows pinched. Her lips parted. She asked something, too soft for me to hear. The doctor shook his
head.
I took a step forward, instinct mating in me, but I stopped. I didn’want to crowd her.
Then she flinched–visibly. Her hands flew up like she was trying to bat something away. Her whole body jerked
And then she said it. Screamed it.
“No!!
The word echoed down the hall like a gunshot.
I was moving before I even realized it, brushing past nurses and volunteers, my heart in my throat.
The doctor had reached for her, catching hecelhow as she buckled nurse rushed in from the other side with a wheelchair. I
was at her side a second later.
“What’s happening?” I barked, trying to keep my voice level, but it came out sharp. Elena’s head was bowed, her breath ragged, her body trembling. The nurse was trying to guide her into the chair
“Just a moment,” the doctor said, helping ease her down. “She’s in shock. Someone get her water.”
A paper cup appeared in Elena’s hand. She stared at it like she didn’t know what it was. Then, slowly, as if she were an automaton, she took a sip. Then another.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Elena blinked, looked up, and turned to me. Her eyes were glassy, red–rimmed, and shining
“He said they don’t have enough blood.”
The floor tilted beneath nie.
“Aiden needs a transfusion,” she whispered, her voice shattering around the edges. “And they don’t have enough.”
I shook my head. “No. That can’t be right. They have blood. That’s what hospitals do. They have blood.”
“Not enough,” she said again, tears tracking silently down her cheeks.
Everything inside me went hot.
“What kind of hospital doesn’t have blood? I snapped, rounding as the doctor. “What kind of third–rate operation are you running?”
He held up a hand. “Sir, please‘
“No, you don’t understand. I can get whatever you need. I can have private jet in the air in twenty minutes. Just tell me where
Chapter 109
+25 BONUS
to send it. Tell me what you need. Name it.”
1 was already pulling out my phone. Already dialing
The doctor lifted his hands calmly, but his eyes were fired. “It’s not that simple.
The hell it isn’t.” I was already dialing, already opening a line to by logistics team. “Tell me what you need. I have a private jer on standby, medical couriers, my Pack’s full supply chain. I can have the jet in the air within the hour. Whatever you need here in
Tlooked at Elena’s face and my voice trailed off
ELENA
I watched him untas
unravel
The great Alpha of Silverclaw, the man who always had a plan, always had power, always had options–coming apart at the
seams.
He wasn’t used to this. Wasn’t used to watching, helpless, while someone he cared about suffered.
His hands were shaking. His voice was too loud. He kept pacing, scholling through contacts on his phone, snapping orders at people who couldn’t fix this.
For a second, I almost pitied him.
Money couldn’t fix this. Power couldn’t fix this. Resources–the great resources of the Silverclaw pack maybe could, but he wasn’t close to Silverclaw and the resource we needed was rare. And we needed it now.
The doctor spoke again, gently. “It’s not the hospital, sir. Or the region. We simply don’t have enough donors.”
Derek’s jaw clenched. He looked ready to argue again, but something in the doctor’s face stopped him.
“There are privacy laws,” the doctor said gently. “I can’t tell you more.”
But I could.
I reached out, my fingers brushing Derek’s arm. He tensed at the contact–just slightly–but didn’t pull away.
“It’s not that they don’t want to help,” I said softly. “It’s not the hospital, Or the staff. It’s Aiden. He has a rare blood type. One that’s hard to match. They just don’t have enough of it. Even if they flew it in. Even if you flew it in. It wouldn’t get here in time. They need it now, Derek. Right now.”
His eyes shifted to mine.
The fury that had been pulsing beneath the surface–fueled by adrenaline and helplessness–didn’t disappear, but it changed shape Focused. The sharp edges dulled into something far more dangerous. Something personal.
He turned toward me slowly, like his entire world had just tilted on its axis
“What blood type?” he asked.
The question was quiet. Not barked. Not growled. But the weight of it hit me like a stone. His voice was different now–low and raw, like it cost him something just to get the words out.
Thesitated
“ABX,” I said. My voice barely a whisper.
Derek went still
Unterly still.
His eyes widened just slightly–enough for me to see the first flicker of recognition there. His jaw tightened. His throat moved
Chapter 109
with a hand swallow
“I“Tu ARX,” he said.
The words fell between us like a boulder cracking open the earth,
+25 BONUS
The froze.
The nurse beside us blinked in suprise, glancing at the doctor. Her clipboard tilted in her hands, forgotten. Even the best of the hospital lights seemed to din around
The doctor straightened, the lines on his face smoothing into something that looked like cautions hope.
“You are?” he asked.
Derek didn’t answer at first. He nodded once, slowly, but his eyes stayed locked on mine. And for the first time since we’d walked into that building, he looked completely unguarded. No Alpha posture. No steel in his shoulders. Just… joy. That could finally be of some use.
“Would you be willing to be tested as a donor?” the doctor asked. “It’s a process, but
“Yes,” Derek said immediately, cutting him off. And then louder: “Yes. Whatever you need. Test me. Take it. Just–takrit.
He grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and yanked it up past his elbow, already presenting his arm like he expected someone to stick a needle in it right then and there.
His voice was trembling now. Just enough to crack at the edges. “You said he needed it now. Then take it now.”
The nurse stepped forward, recovering. “Let’s get you into a lab room,
sir.”
I stared at him.
He was breathing fast, his eyes bright.
He was ABX
The same rare type as my son
And as he followed the nurse down the hallway, I finally let myself ask the question I’d been dreading for six years.
Was my secret about Aiden still safe?
Or had the Moon Goddess just pulled back the curtain?
Chapter ti
