Episode 11

Behind the door, Alpha Jeremy lies on the floor convulsing. The nurse kneels beside him, pressing her hands against his chest to keep him still.

"What happened?" Ryan rushes to his father's side, dropping to his knees.

"I don't know," the nurse says, panic evident in her voice. "He was fine, then suddenly he started seizing. It's like his body is fighting against something."

Jeremy's eyes roll back, showing only the whites. His mouth opens and closes, but no words come out, just terrible gasping sounds.

"Dad, stay with me." Ryan grabs his father's hand. "The wedding worked. The curse should be broken."

But Jeremy keeps convulsing, his back arching off the floor. If anything, he looks worse than before.

High Priestess Morrigan pushes past us into the room. She takes one look at Jeremy and goes pale.

"This is wrong," she whispers. "The supernatural balance has been disturbed."

"What are you talking about?" Ryan demands. "We did everything right. We got married, just like the prophecy said."

The priestess kneels beside Alpha Jeremy, placing her hands on his forehead. She closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, she looks terrified.

"Someone tried to force their way out of this curse instead of following the proper channels. The magic is fighting back."

"That's impossible. We fulfilled the condition."

"Did you?" She looks between Ryan and me. "In werewolf culture, the father of the bride must give his daughter away in marriage. Without the father's blessing, the supernatural realm doesn't acknowledge the union."

My heart stops. Dad. Dad was supposed to walk me down the aisle and hand me over to Ryan. That's how werewolf weddings work. That's how they've always worked.

"But her father is dying," Ryan says. "He can't give his blessing."

"Then the curse remains intact. And trying to break it by force has made Jeremy's condition worse."

Jeremy's convulsions suddenly stop. His body goes completely still, and for a horrible moment, I think he's dead.

"I've got him," the nurse says, checking his pulse. "He's stable, but barely. If this happens again, he won't survive it."

Ryan stands up, hands shaking with rage and frustration. "So the wedding was for nothing."

"Not for nothing, it’s just… incomplete." The priestess looks at me. "Your father must give his consent before the curse can be lifted."

"My father is being poisoned by his own wife. He's barely conscious most days."

"Then we have a problem."

Ryan turns away from all of us, his shoulders tense. I can see the anger building in him, the frustration of being so close to saving his father only to have it torn away.

"Everyone out," he growls. "Leave us alone."

The witnesses file out of the room, followed by the nurse and the priestess. Soon it's just me, Ryan, and his unconscious father.

I'm still wearing my wedding dress, still holding the bouquet they gave me. The flowers are wilting now, just like everything else about this day.

I sit down on the floor hard, my legs giving out. The reality of what just happened hits me.

"It was all for nothing," I whisper in tears. "Everything we just did, it was pointless."

Ryan doesn't answer. He's staring at his father, watching the rise and fall of his chest.

"If Dad needs to bless this marriage for your father to be healed, then I'm screwed." The words come out broken, defeated. "Because my dad is the one who needs saving. How can I save him if he has to be healthy enough to save yours first?"

"It's a fucking circle," Ryan says without turning around. "Your father needs our help to survive, but my father needs your father's blessing to live."

I laugh, but there's no humor in it. "Perfect. Just perfect."

Ryan finally turns to look at me. I'm sitting on the floor in a wedding dress, holding dead flowers, probably looking like the most pathetic bride in history.

"There has to be another way," he says.

"Is there? Because right now it looks like we're both going to watch our fathers die."

He's quiet for a long moment, just watching me. Then he walks over and sits down beside me on the floor.

"What if we save your father first?"

I look at him. "What?"

"What if I help you stop your stepmother and your ex-fiancé? What if we save your father and your pack first, and then he gives his blessing for our marriage?"

"You'd do that? You'd help me save the man you've been planning to destroy your whole life?"

"If it means saving my father, yes."

I stare at him. "Why would I trust you? The second my father is healthy, you could kill him."

" I'll take a blood oath." He blurts out. I pause, turning to look him in the eye.

A blood oath. The most binding promise a werewolf can make.

"You're serious."

"Dead serious. I'll swear on my blood that I'll save your father and protect your pack. In exchange, you swear to save mine after your father gives his blessing."

"And if either of us breaks the oath?"

"We die. Both of us."

I look down at the wilting flowers in my hands. A blood oath isn't something you take lightly. If Ryan breaks his word and kills my father, the magic will kill him. But if I refuse to honor my end after Dad is safe, it'll kill me too.

"It's the only way," Ryan says quietly. "Unless you have a better idea."

I don't. We're trapped in an impossible situation, and this might be our only way out.

"I need to think about it."

"How long?"

"I don't know. A blood oath could kill us both."

"And if we do nothing, our fathers die anyway."

He's right, and I hate that he's right. But the idea of binding my life to his, of trusting him with everything I love, makes my skin burn.

"There's something else," Ryan says. "If we do this, if we make this oath, there's no going back. We'll be connected until both our fathers are safe. If you die, I die. If I die, you die."

"I know how blood oaths work."

"Do you? Because once we're bound, I'll be able to feel your emotions, your pain, your fear. And you'll feel mine. We'll be linked in ways that go deeper than marriage."

The thought terrifies me. Being connected to Ryan, feeling his thoughts and emotions, having him inside my head.

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

"We both have a choice, but we're running out of time."

I look at his father, lying so still on the bed. Then I think about my own father, getting weaker every day while Rebecca poisons him slowly.

Two dying men. Two desperate children. And one blood oath that could save them both or kill us trying.