Chapter 2: Dying

Theodore’s Pov

Three years have passed so far and on this day there was a meeting with the Elders and the Top Strong werewolves in the pack which had gone on for hours... far too long that I had planned.

Werewolves in the pack voices were rising and falling as they were arguing about the subject of the alliance I was planning.

The Alliance of my pack and the Crimson Blood Pack.

The idea was simple enough: a peaceful treaty, dividing the territory so there would be no more bloodshed between us.

But the Elders kept on disagreeing claiming they had pride to keep. Pride that was making more and more people die whenever they clashed.

I stayed quiet at first. Listening. Watching. Letting them talk themselves in circles. But when it seemed the final agreement was finally close, I stood, feeling the weight of every eye on me.

“Soon, I will meet with the Alpha of the Crimson Blood Pack myself,” I said. My voice carried, calm but sharp. “We will sign this treaty in person. Our packs will..”

The words stopped and a sharp taste filled my mouth, it was bitter and it tasted metallic.

‘It was blood!’

At first, I thought it was nothing, maybe just a bite to the tongue. But it spread too quickly.

My tongue rolled in my mouth as I tried swallowing it back into my stomach.

'Not now.'

My actions only caused the blood to gush up fast enough that I could hold it any more. I held my stomach and spat out blood both black and red mixed up together.

I felt extreme pain hit my chest so hard my body jerked with it. My vision blurred, then sharpened in strange, twisted colors. The stares around me blurred, and my vision was becoming worse.

Then I realized what was happening.

My eyes… they were changing. I could feel it, burning inside my skull clearing into a deep, unnatural red.

A heavy weight slammed into my body, dragging me down as my knees vibrated. The throne at my back caught me, but I fell into it like a corpse with my limb numb and my strength leaving my body.

“Alpha!”

Diego’s voice loudly in my ears, he was definitely concerned about me. He was my most trusted friend, beta and like a brother to me.

His hands gripped me tight, stopping me from sliding out of the seat.

“Call the healer! Now!” he barked at someone else.

I was not getting by myself. My head was banging and in pain and my chest was getting hot in pain, my throat ached but I had to drink the water I passed. After drinking I calmed down a bit.

Diego half-lifted, half-carried me back to my chambers. At this point I couldn't even move my body as it was too heavy to move. By the time he lowered me onto the bed, sweat had drenched me.

Dina rushed in not long after, her healer’s robes fluttering as she crossed to me. Her eyes narrowed, scanning me quickly before her hands touched my skin, searching for wounds.

There were none.

Only the black veins popped outward from my chest, spreading like a strange mark on the surface of my skin.

When her palm pressed against my chest, the pain flared so sharp it stole my breath. She winced at the heat.

“He’s burning from the inside,” she whispered. Her voice was steady, but her eyes betrayed her fear. “On the outside, you seem fine. But inside…” She shook her head. “You’re dying.”

I tried to speak, but no sound came. My head rolled weakly from side to side.

“Let me gather every healer we can,” she said, already calling for more. “Maybe…maybe there’s still a way.”

Diego’s face was pale as he barked orders. Soon, more Betas and healers filled the room, crowding around me, their hands pressing to my arms, my chest, my temples.

“We’ll take his pain,” Fidelio muttered, his voice like a vow. Then the chanting began.

The air thickened, power rising heavy and electric. Light bled from their bodies, threads of energy weaving into me, trying to hold me here, trying to stitch my fading strength back together.

I wanted to believe it was enough. But I could feel the truth that my body was slipping.

I couldn’t die now. Not here. Not like this. If I did, the pack would fall. Rivals would descend on us like wolves on fresh meat. Everything we had built would be devoured.

‘I have to hold on, I have to protect my pack, I have to protect my family,’ I thought until my eyes laid to rest.

…….

---

Evelyn’s Pov

The phone was pressed tight against my ear, my knuckles white on the steering wheel.

“I’m on my way. Almost there,” I said, voice short.

I tossed the phone onto the seat and pushed harder on the gas.

I had been heading home, almost ready to call it a night, when the clinic called.

‘We have an emergency case, a critical patient bleeding out too fast.’

The roads blurred. My heart thudded, steady with focus. It wasn’t far, I was still nearby. I drove like the car itself understood the urgency. Then I met a traffic light that stopped me and turned to my side and saw someone out there.

A biker in a leather jacket, dark hair that fell shining to his back. His bike idled beside me, engine low and rumbling. I blinked at him, trying to focus, and the air seemed to change.

I had to lean slightly, squinting up at his face. He looked stunning and strikingly handsome. There was something about him I couldn’t name, something that made my chest tighten.

He looked at me, and I felt it instantly. A pull like a magnetic force together with heat in my veins I hadn’t expected.

I could smell him… he was a wolf and a strong one, and he was giving a dangerous vibe.

His eyes glowed red for a fraction of a second, and my stomach flipped. He knew. He could tell.

“Hey… beautiful,” he said, voice low, teasing, almost dangerous.

The traffic light switched green. He turned his bike forward and disappeared into the night before I could say anything.

I stood frozen for a moment. Heart pounding, mind spinning.

‘He is an Alpha… who is he?’

And somewhere deep in me, part of me wanted to know.

‘Wait, he was the one from 3 years ago,’ I thought once more, the day I had left the pack and had done something terrible.

I cleared my thoughts when I pulled up outside the clinic, I didn’t waste time. I was already moving, already unzipping my coat and shoving my arms into the sleeves of my gown as I pushed through the doors.

Inside, my colleagues were pale and frantic, hands slick with blood.

“You’re here,” Raya and Jonathan breathed together, relief crashing off them like a wave.

“Good,” I muttered, more to myself than them. “Report.”

They explained quickly, their words stumbling over each other. I listened, already scrubbing in.

“Alright. Let’s start.”

Jonathan’s hands trembled as he passed me the scalpel. I took it, steady and sure, and caught his eyes. “Relax. Focus. We’re not going to lose him.”

He took a sharp breath, steadied. Good.

We began.

Time stretched and folded in on itself. The world shrank to blood, steel, and the rhythm of my hands moving faster than thought. I worked until the bleeding slowed, until the crisis passed, until I could finally drop the scalpel onto the tray.

“We’ve got him,” I said, voice hoarse with focus.

This was why I kept going. This was why I built my life far from the place I had once called home. Saving people filled the hollow places inside me. It gave meaning where the past had ripped it away.

I removed my gloves with a hand, a stain of blood and disposed of it then pulled away the mask from my face.

My mouth was paining from the hours of tension.

That was when the phone rang. The sound echoed through the room loudly.

Jonathan checked the screen. “A call for you from… Diego.”

I was washing hands when I halted my actions, staring at nothing in particular but I was trying to digest the word I heard.

The name hit me harder than I thought it would.

‘Diego.’

I hadn’t heard that name spoken to me in years. A name I had buried. A name tied to memories I had never wanted to touch again.

Behind that name was another and it was the one I had once belonged to.

The one who had rejected me in front of them all.

The one I swore I would never see again.

I picked it up and before I could speak I heard what he said.

“Evelyn, I need your help… Theodore is dying.”