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She didn’t respond.
With a trembling hand, I touched her throat. At first I felt no pulse, but when I applied a bit more pressure I could feel it beating—only barely.
Relief slammed into me so hard that my own heartbeat stuttered. Beside me, Dom dropped a pair of pants for me. He was still in his wolf form, but must have anticipated my need.
“She’s alive?” Dom asked.
I nodded, pulling on the pants. “She’s got a pulse, but it’s weak.”
“I’ll get the doctor.”
“Wait.” He stopped immediately. “Tell Doc to come to my cabin. It’s not safe here. And let the others know to stand by.”
Dom nodded, but hesitated before he left. “Her wound. It smells sort of strange, doesn’t it?”
It did. In addition to the stench of blood, there was a sickly-sweet, almost licorice smell to it. I thought I knew the cause of it already, but I wasn’t ready to confirm my fears.
“Tell Doc that she was bit by an Alpha,” I said. “And tell him to fucking book it.”
Dom shuddered, his skin rippling under his fur in horror. Within seconds, he was out the door, his wolf kicking up dust and dirt in his wake.
Gingerly, so gingerly, I scooped Mom into my arms and ran to my cabin. I was sticky with her blood—it was smeared over my chest and arms—and my nose was filled with it. My mom was such a strong, incredible woman, it ripped at my soul to see her like this. My wolf whined and howled, torn in two. He wanted to make sure our mother received the assistance she needed, but at the same time, our mate was gone.
I gritted my teeth. I felt like I was being ripped in half.
At my cabin, I placed Mom in the same room where I’d kept Bryn. It looked the same as the day she’d left to live with Mom. Clean, beige linen and a faded blue quilt lay folded at the foot of the bed. It was sparse, simple, and so very, very unlike Mom’s bright, colorful cabin.
The moment her head hit the pillow, I left her just long enough to throw on a shirt and grab a clean linen sheet. There was a gaping, gory hole at the spot where her shoulder and neck met. Since she was alive, the wound should have started healing, but it hadn’t. The skin around the wound was puckered and covered with thin, black veins. Those veins prevented the muscle and sinew from knitting back together.
I knew the cause of those black lines from the bitter, saccharine stench of it. This was an Alpha wound. Those veins would send Troy’s will for her to die through her body like a virus, one that she would have to fight off even after the wound healed. The wound would scar, and the black veins would remain like a brand. If she healed. If she survived.
I was vibrating with rage as I tore the linen into strips. I pressed the cloth to the wound and applied pressure to slow the blood flow. When I thought about Redwolf, I thought about vengeance and death. I wished I had the monster in front of me now. I longed to taste Troy’s blood on my tongue. I would kill him even if it took my dying breath.
After what felt like hours, Dom and the doctor arrived. I turned as they stepped into the room. Dr. Damon Stan was in his mid-fifties, with short, wheat-blond hair that was graying at his temples. He was small for a wolf, but clearly that hadn’t stopped him from pursuing his hard choice in career.
Doc cursed under his breath when he saw Mom, scoping the Alpha wound immediately. He didn’t waste time in greeting me, immediately starting to treat his patient. He knew that formalities meant nothing to me as my mom lay dying on the bed in front of us.
I backed away as he worked, pressing my spine to the wall. My blood coursed boiling hot through my veins, and my hands clenched into fists. My wolf’s growling became more insistent and he began banging around inside me, scratching for control. It was annoying and distracting, but I wouldn’t ask him to stop. My muscles were so tense that veins stood out visibly on my arms and my legs. It felt wrong for me to just stand there, doing nothing as Doc saved her life.
“Come on, Violet,” he mumbled under his breath, pouring some fluid onto a strip of cloth. “This isn’t your time to die.” He touched her forehead, her hair.
She groaned, her fingers twitching at his voice and touch.
He took a deep breath and pressed the cloth to her neck. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She arched off the bed, gasping with pain. It was too much for me to watch, to hear. I stormed out of the room, ripping the doorknob free from the door as I did. My heart pounded hard in my chest, my fangs slowly elongating. I was going out, I was going to find my mate, and I was going to murder Redwolf.
But a hand gripped my shoulder, bringing me up short. I snatched myself away from the hand, tearing my shirt in the process, whirling around to find my beta standing there. Dom’s face was pale and pinched tight, and his forehead was beaded with sweat. His eyes were full of concern.
“Night, you can’t leave.”
“What do you mean?” Speaking through sharpened fangs, my voice was a barely discernable growl. “My sister is out there. My mate is out there.” Tavi and I weren’t blood, but that didn’t matter. She was pack, and she was family. “Who knows what Troy and his lackeys are doing to them?”
Dom raked a hand through his gold hair. “Do you think I don’t know that?” he demanded. “I’m trying not to fucking torture myself by thinking about that right now.”
He and I stood in the foyer of my cabin. I was feet away from the door, feet away from feeling the moon-chilled air across my face as I hunted Redwolf down. But my beta was stopping me.
I understood that he was hurting, too, but there was blood that needed to be spilled. “I have to go,” I said, turning back to the door.
