Chapter 120

Alyson

"Please," I beg, on my knees with tears in my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Alyson. I wish I could, but it's not that simple. Those experimental files are classified and let's face it, even with Ryan trying to help get the sick rogues back into the Wilshire facility, the elders are still unsure of your cooperation."

"He is wounded, Fritz. He is hurt because he wanted to help make things right."

"Then he shouldn't have made things wrong," Fritz gusts. "I'm sorry you feel this way, Alyson, but my hands are tide."

I gasp, crying out so hard that I threaten to scream, Olivera making it to my side, trying to calm me down, but it doesn't help. I need this breaking point, I need this dead-end, because it will only make me more determined to help my mate survive these wounds.

"Just tell me this," I gust, looking to Fritz who paces across his little cave. "Did you and the other elders ever find a cure?"

He swallows hard, hesitating. "I can't explain it easily, Alyson."

"So there is a cure, then?" Olivera snarls, patting my shoulder still. "So why keep the rogues locked up for testing instead of treating them and letting them go?"

"It's not simple, dammit, are you not listening?" Fritz snaps, throwing his hands over his head. "The cure is still in the testing phase. It could kill a wolf instantly if it backfires and the solution isn't correct. I will not be blamed for any more death and suffering!"

I gulp a deep breath, my heart racing, the pain in my side nagging me constantly. I feel sick, like I should puke, but I've had nothing all morning to eat. I've probably exhausted myself in sadness, in somberness, and I can't picture the outcome of my mate if I don't help him now.

"I'll find the cure myself," I gasp, standing abruptly and hitting the ground on my knees again. I'm exasperated fully and completely. "Agh, I can't—can't—" I feel so weak I collapse onto my side, the world turning circles in my eyes with a burning sensation gathering in the base of my spine. "Ry—Ryan—"

"Relax, shh," Olivera hums, looking to Fritz with worried, wide eyes. "What the hell is going on? Is she sick, too, now?"

Fritz riffles through his kitchen, bring over a thermometer and sticking into my mouth unprotested. I melt to the floor onto my side, dizzy and feeling my heart pound hard in my chest. Olivera brushes the hair off my forehead, pressing his knuckles to my skin while I'm worried if the fever is excessive, I could be sick like Ryan.

The meter beeps, and Fritz takes it back instantly. His body tenses.

"No fever," he mutters. "It's not the illness, thankfully."

I gasp, my body and my wolf body so sick in this moment.

"Then—then why—why am—so dizzy—"

"Save your words for now," Olivera growls. "You'll be fine. I'll carry you back to the palace. Just grab onto my back, okay?"

"No—No—Help Ryan first—"

"You're in no state to go anywhere except the palace," Olivera says.

Fritz nods in unison. "I agree. Get to the healer immediately. You have to worry about your health, Alyson. Ryan will heal from the illness eventually just trust his strong Alpha genes to take over the fight. This will all work out."

Olivera grabs me into his arms, whisking me out of the cave. When we're outside, I shiver, the pain in my side still unrelenting, now spreading down the lower half of my abdomen. He shifts, ready to help me climb onto his back but I grab a fistful of his whiskers first, steadying his dark, wolfy eyes on mine.

"Take me to Wilshire," I command, huffing between every word. "We get that cure now. If—if you take me to the palace—I'll shift and run—run there myself."

I can't hear him through a mind link but I see his wolf subdue against my command. He finally pulls away from my fist around his sensitive whiskers along his muzzle and hikes me onto his back. I lay against his spine, my head down, feeling the wind pass by me soothingly while we run through the woods. I can recognize the path we came here on and thankfully, he avoids it, heading North toward the facility.

If anything happens to me, at least I know I went out trying to fight for Ryan.

"Agh," I grumble, my stomach turning. I need to puke, I need to pass out, but I ignore the discomfort and press onward. "Faster, please. Need a break—"

Olivera snarls, displeased with my choice to find the experimental cure instead of finding the healer at the palace for myself. Either way, I can see him press on harder, faster, and he picks up his pace until I think I may fly off his back and be left behind in the rickety woods.

When we stop, Olivera lays down beside the doors to the mountainside facility, hidden away in an odd place as though to be unsees by any wolf in passing. Thankfully Olivera knew its location, otherwise I would have been wounded and lost in the woods alone.

The rogue Alpha shifts and swipes me into his pale arms. "Such a stubborn blood pet," he mutters under his breath. He kicks the door inward, seeing a few medical aids jump in surprise at our entrance. One of them, a young female aid stopping us in our tracks into the facility. "I have the wounded Luna of Crowalt pack. Alyson Clark-Alexander. She needs medical help, now."

"We aren't a healer's clinic, sir. I can't—"

"Now!" Olivera insists.

The aid is flustered and at last, she calls for a gurney to be brought over. Olivera sets me onto the bed and I gasp alive, my side pains draining me endlessly. The aid mentions something about a healer and his office nearby, ready for an examine, and Olivera tilts his head down near my ear, smiling coyly.

"Keep them occupied. I'll find our cure."

I watch him stay put as I'm wheeled away, the shock on my face apparent as I would have never assumed the brute, prideful, rogue Alpha would be so compassionate. His eyes don't leave mine for a second and in this scary, chaotic moment, I am happy to have him here with me.