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My chest tightened even more, and I found myself sitting upright on my own. “Is Ember okay?” I asked Janice. Had I hurt her so badly that I sent her to the hospital? Where was Hazel? She had been with Ember. She should’ve kept an eye on her, right? “Please, tell me she’s okay.”

“Alpha …” Janice said. “There’s something you should know about Ember.”

I snatched her throat and yanked her closer. “Tell me that she is fucking okay!”

“She’s okay,” Janice said, grabbing my hand.

When I released my grip on her, Janice rubbed her throat and stood to put distance between us, and I didn’t blame her. If Ember had hurt herself because of me, I would lose it. I would fucking lose it.

“What is it?” I asked, finding the strength to stand. “What’s wrong with Ember?”

“Please, don’t be upset when I tell you,” she said. “But … Ember has a terminal illness.”

All the pain, the rage, the emotion vanished from my body, and for the first time … I was empty. Just a shell of an alpha, of a man, of a mate. Terminally ill? Ember was terminally ill, and she hadn’t told me?

No. No, she wasn’t. She couldn’t be.

“What the fuck do you mean?” I growled. “She’s not terminally ill.”

Janice looked to the ground, brows drawn together. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re lying. You’re fucking lying to me. Say you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying to you. I’m sorry.”

I stared at her, waiting for her to take it back, waiting for her to laugh, to tell me that this was all some sort of sick joke that Ember was playing to get back at me for breaking her heart, that this was a lie.

It had to be a lie. It had to be a fucking lie.

My chest tightened, and I shook my head. “No … no, I don’t believe it.”

“At least, that’s what Dr. Yoder told me.” Janice sighed softly, tears welling in her eyes. “Well, she does have a terminal illness, but the illness is progressing much faster than it should. Dr. Yoder has been telling us for months that her health is improving, but that is not the case. It has never been the case.”

“How do you know?”

“When Dr. Yoder left work the other night, I snuck into his office to look through her files. He has always kept them hidden away and cited that he did so because she was one of the only humans who was treated at Silver Moon; however, he lied. There were no files on her.”

“None?”

“If he had some, most have gone missing,” Janice said. “So, I went looking for answers.”

“Come on,” I said, desperate for her to give me good news. “Tell me.”

Something. Anything.

“Every day that she comes to the hospital, we run tests and draw blood. A lot of it. Dr. Yoder told me he was using it to look for a cure because this was a new disease that had never been studied before.” She balled her hands into fists. “And I stupidly believed him.”

That fucker. I knew I didn’t like him!

“From what I could find after searching every part of the hospital and our records, Ember wasn’t ill before she started getting treatment at our medical center. In fact, her blood was better than the average human. While I’m not a doctor, I have been in the medical field for longer than you’ve been alive, and I … I don’t think this is reversible anymore. He made her sick, and now she will continue to be sick until she dies.”

“Where is that fucker?” I snarled, rushing to the door. “I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him!”

She jogged to catch up to me and grabbed my wrist. “There’s more. She⁠—”

“How long?” I asked, my chest tightening. “How long does she have?”

Janice dropped her gaze to the floor between us. “Less than a year.”