Chapter 122

Olivera

She finally fell asleep after much debate with he healer to spike her tea with a little herbal supplement meant to make her drowsy. The blood pet was already exhausted so it didn't take long for her to crash, laid up in bed beside her mate whose wounds I changed the bandages on. His blood reeks in scent, metallic and burning my nostrils.

Alyson shifts endlessly in her sleep as always, no longer stressed about menial things but instead focused on what could happen to her pup's future if her mate doesn't survive this illness. I would rather have her to myself, but I'm not cold enough to deny her the mate of her second chance in life, the father to her pups.

I grab a spare office, working with the healer in order to find out if this cure in question will actually work. I have a dirty, bloody bandage left over from Ryan and we add a drop or two to the bloody spots, waiting to see if anything happens under the microscope that will show the cure trying to fight the infection.

The healer jolts back from the microscope, shaking his head rapidly. "That's not good."

"What's wrong? What did it do?"

"The cure isn't some antibiotic, it's some kind of molding aspect to the blood. It's changing to molecules completely, not just healing them back to normal."

I roll my eyes. "Speak a little clearer, please, I'm not a healer."

He huffs an inhale, his face flushed in stress. "It could work, but it's going to wash his blood dry so quickly that it's going to completely bleach his system, basically. It's going to hurt like fire for sure. Worse enough, it might take his wolf. This cure changes the properties of DNA. It could stunt the Alpha's wolf from surfacing ever again."

I tap my fingers against the cold desk, lost in the thought of that option. It would save his life, but he wouldn't be Alpha. There is no Alpha without a connection to his wolf. It would never last and his pack would have to exile him, that means the Luna might have to stay, her pups the only thing with the blood of an Alpha in it.

If I were as evil as Alyson thinks I am, I would kick his wolf aside and take her as my own, but I'm focused on making her happy right now and killing off Ryan's wolf to make him live is hardly a choice she would admire for me to make.

"Is this a sure thing?" I ask, tapping my foot rapidly in anxiousness.

"We won't know a thing for sure without giving it to the Alpha, to see how it would react in his blood. If it takes his wolf, we will be responsible for that. I can't live with that choice," the healer mutters. "This may be a lost cause, after all."

I swallow hard, feeling the urge to step up in this moment.

"What about if the cure is set into an Alpha that isn't infected?"

The healer pauses. "Well, if they aren't sick, it won't cure anything, obviously, but the only harm would be is if the properties take their wolf. That process would not only be devastatingly painful, but it could also kill in retribution. I don't know much about this illness or the cure they've created."

I nod, standing to leave.

The healer stops me. "You're not thinking about—"

"I am." I move from the room, walking briskly down the hall until I'm back at Alyson's suite, seeing her out of bed and leaning against the sink, warm water steaming from the facut as she splashes her exhausted features. "What are you doing? Stop trying to wake yourself up, you have to rest more."

She shakes her head, stubborn as always. "I have to figure out how to help Ryan, not sit around and sleep. I need to focus on him first."

"You're a frustrating Luna, you know that, right?"

She nods, flipping off the water and patting the remainder of warm water droplets onto her neck, trying to force herself to perk up but she clings to her stomach again, groaning mildly. By the calculations she had told me outside the Wilshire facility, she is at least two months pregnant. She's already drained from it, too.

"Moon goddess, please," she pleads, whining.

"Do you need the palace healer?" I ask, wondering if he has cleaned up the office laboratory yet so he could see her and she wouldn't be distracted by the testing we've been running while she's been knocked out. "You look pale, blood pet. Sit down."

She stares at herself in the mirror. She doesn't show that she's pregnant at all, only focused on a tiny, miniscule bump of her stomach that must be what she is fixated on now, convinced already that she is huge and lugging around nine pups in that small belly of hers.

"I have to help Ryan," she insists, pushing past me. Her legs tremble with every step. "I just—my body is so weak right now. I feel like I've been running for hours."

I open my mouth, about to force her to sit down, but the healer barges into the room. His eyes are pacing me, then Alyson, and for a moment I don't think he could be that stupid. I'm proven wrong when he opens his mouth.

"I have the syringe ready for you, Olivera. Come meet me in the office if you really want to try this experiment out but I'll warn you, it's going to be painfully danger—"

"Hush," I growl, throwing my hands up. "Are you serious right now? Go! I'll meet you back there momentarily."

The healer leave but her glare burns into my neck.

"What was he talking about, Olivera? What are you going to get injected with?"

I could lie, which would save me the trouble of watching her talk me out of it, or I could simply agree to let her be a part of this trial, maybe saving her mate the trouble of losing his wolf or his life if the cure ends up taking one or both of mine.

"I've decided to make this right," I say simply. "I'm going to take the cure to see the affects it could have on his wolf," I say, motioning to Ryan still asleep in his sickness, "or to see if it will kill him instead of trying to heal him."

She is too shocked to speak and in this moment, my mind is made.

I'd do anything to make her happy; even if it pisses her off at first.