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“Pavel and Dr. Yoder have purposefully been making Ember sick, using her blood to bring wolves back from the dead. It’s their fault she has only a few months to live, and I will make this right, even if it kills me. Find Pavel now!”

That idiot furrowed his brows, his features softening. “She’s sick?”

“Yes, she’s sick,” I snarled, shoving him away.

“Alpha,” he said, addressing me with respect for the first time in a long fucking time, “I didn’t know that she was sick. When did you find out? Why didn’t she tell anyone? She only has a few months to live?”

My jaw twitched, and I turned around so he couldn’t see how much this hurt me. I tried to mask it behind my anger, behind my rage, but … but I didn’t want her to die. I had hurt her so much over the last few months because I … I was trying to keep her alive.

She didn’t deserve any of this, and I didn’t deserve her.

“Alpha …” Silas said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I stepped away from him and looked up at the moon, smelling her scent.

By now, Ember had to be going through her first heat without her mate, without me. The slight pull was still there; I could still feel it. But by the end of the morning, the bond would fully be broken. If not by the Moon Goddess, then by another person who claimed her.

And that someone would be Cade.

Had this been his plan all along? Move her to Black Hollows to bring my sister back, taunt me with my mate, then claim her too? What was wrong with him? Did he loathe me that much? Had my sister’s death hurt him that badly?

But she was alive. If she was alive, why would he want to mate with Ember?

I pressed my hand to my pounding head and released a low grunt. None of this made any sense. Maybe … maybe Cade didn’t know about any of this at all. Maybe this was all the work of the biggest dickhead of them all.

Alaric, leader of the Crimson Order.

It had to be that asshole.

“Please, tell me what’s going on. Anything you know. If her blood can really bring wolves back to life and if Hazel’s mate …” He trailed off, his voice shaking ever so slightly. “I saw her eyes earlier when she saw your sister. I know she’s hopeful that her mate will return, too, and …”

And then she would leave him.

My chest tightened. What had we done to upset the Moon Goddess this much? Nobody in this pack could ever be happy. People died, their mates found new lovers, and now … they were coming back to life and leaving them?

“I found out today,” I finally said, peering over my shoulder and into the living room, where Lilliana gushed to Hazel about Cade, and pressed my lips into a tight line.

This wasn’t really Lilliana. She had died. Hazel and I had fucking buried her. Why was she acting like this? Why was Hazel thinking that this was normal? Lilliana was one of them, a wolf that they had brought back with Ember’s blood.

She was the reason Ember was sick. The reason Ember would die.

Yet she looked so much like my sister, like the girl I had once loved.

When I had made it to Ember’s house, there had been zero questions asked. At all.

None by Hazel. None by Cade. Nobody wanted to hear anything I had to say either.

Why wasn’t anyone questioning anything about this?!

“One of the nurses, Janice, told me they’re using her blood to bring wolves back from the dead. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how. But they’re poisoning Ember, and she’ll … she’ll die in the next …” My voice broke, and suddenly, my lips were trembling. “She’ll die in the next month, the next few months. She doesn’t …” I collapsed onto my knees and dropped my head into my hands. “She doesn’t have much more time to live, and I’ve been a fucking asshole to her. I thought … I thought I was helping her. I thought that if I … if I rejected her …”

Suddenly, Silas was at my side, on his knees, one arm draped across my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Alpha. I know you have just been trying to keep her alive, even if Ember and Hazel don’t get it. I know. I’ve seen it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I sobbed. “She’s going to die. She’s going to fucking die.”

After a moment, Silas lifted me up and shoved me. “Get yourself together and fix this.”

“I …”