My Mate Gave My Life-Saving Cure to His Ex

**Chapter 1**

On the eve of the Blood Moon, snow fell hard over Silver Moon territory.

By the time I reached Moon Hall, my right leg was almost numb. The wound the ice wolf had left there had split open again during the climb, and every step up the stone stairs sent a sharp, burning pain through my knee. One of the warriors at the entrance saw me stumble and reached out, but I shook my head before he could touch me. I had carried the silver medicine case through three months of frozen forests, black marshes, and border roads soaked in rogue scent. I was not going to drop it at the door.

Inside the case was the last vial of Moonbane Cure.

I had made it for Alexander Reed, my mate, the Alpha-heir of Silver Moon Pack, and the man whose life had been tied to my blood for the past three years.

Three years ago, rogue wolves tore into his wolf core and poisoned him so badly that every healer in the pack said he would not survive the next Blood Moon. I was the only one who refused to let him die. When his wolf thrashed against the poison, I held him down with both hands and fed him my blood through silver needles. When the pain drove him out of his mind, he buried his face against my throat, breathing in my scent like it was the only thing keeping him human.

He used to cling to me after each relapse, his body hot with fever, his hands shaking where they gripped my waist. Sometimes his wolf would push too close to the surface, possessive and desperate, his teeth grazing the inside of my wrist before he drank. I would whisper his name until he came back to himself. He would press his forehead to my shoulder and say, hoarse and broken, “Scarlett, don’t leave. You’re the only one who never gives up on me.”

I believed him.

So when this year’s Blood Moon approached, I left the pack to gather the ingredients for the cure that could finally stabilize his wolf core. Frost lily from the northern cliffs. Venom root from the black marsh. A drop of blood from the healer who had kept him alive all these years. Mine.

For three months, I had imagined this night. I thought Alexander would see my injured leg, smell the blood under the snow on my clothes, and pull me into his arms. I thought he would finally understand what it had cost me to save him.

Instead, when I pushed open the doors of Moon Hall, I stopped cold.

Alexander was standing in the center of the hall with Victoria Lane in his arms.

His ex-girlfriend.

She was wrapped in his black coat, her face pale, her lips slightly parted as she leaned against his chest. One of her hands clutched his shirt, and his palm rested at the back of her neck, fingers spread over the sensitive place just below her hairline. It was not a casual touch. Any wolf in the hall could see that. It was the kind of touch used to soothe someone through panic, pain, or heat. Intimate. Protective. Familiar.

Worse, she was covered in his scent.

Not a faint trace from standing too close. Alexander’s scent clung to her skin, heavy and warm, layered over her throat, her hair, the loose collar of his coat. He had not simply held her for a moment. He had wrapped his wolf energy around her long enough for his scent to sink in.

My fingers tightened around the medicine case.

Victoria lifted her head when she saw me. For the briefest second, something like triumph flickered in her eyes. Then tears filled them, soft and shining.

“Scarlett,” she whispered. “You’re finally back.”

Alexander looked at me too. Relief crossed his face first, quick and obvious. Then his gaze dropped to the case in my arms.

“Where is the cure?” he asked.

Not “What happened to your leg?” Not “Why are you bleeding?” Not “Are you all right?”

Only the cure.

I walked farther into the hall, snow melting off my cloak and dripping onto the white stone floor. “It’s here.”

Alexander reached for the case.

I did not hand it over.

His brows drew together. “Scarlett.”

I looked past him to Victoria. His coat had slipped slightly from her shoulder, exposing the side of her neck. There was a faint red mark there, not deep enough to be a bite, but intimate enough to make my wolf go still inside me. A mark left by breath, by pressure, by someone’s mouth too close to skin that should never have been his to comfort.

Victoria noticed my stare and pulled the coat up, but too late. She looked fragile, frightened, innocent. Yet the way she leaned into Alexander’s body was practiced, as if she knew exactly how much closeness I could bear to see before it broke something in me.

Alexander’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Victoria’s wolf is collapsing. She won’t survive the Blood Moon without help. Give her the Moonbane Cure.”

For a moment, I thought the pain in my leg had made me mishear him. “What?”

Victoria’s eyes filled again. “Please don’t blame him. I didn’t want this. I know the cure is important to Alexander, but my wolf hurts so much. It feels like she’s tearing apart inside me.” She pressed a trembling hand to her chest and turned her face into Alexander’s shirt. “I just want to live.”

Alexander’s arm tightened around her waist at once.

That small movement hurt more than I expected. His wolf responded to her pain before I had even finished processing his request.

“This cure was made for you,” I said. “It was tailored to your wolf core. Victoria doesn’t have your injury. If she drinks it, it may not save her. It may even harm her.”

“You’re the chief healer,” Alexander said. “Adjust the dose.”

“There is no time.”

“Then give it to her as it is.”

The hall went quiet. Several elders stood nearby, watching. Sarah, Alexander’s mother, was there too, wrapped in a fur shawl, her face tight with concern for Victoria.

I stared at Alexander. “You know what happens to you during the Blood Moon.”

His jaw hardened. “I can endure it.”

A laugh slipped from my throat, small and bitter. This was the same man who had once bitten through my wrist during a relapse because his wolf could not bear the pain. The same man who woke in my arms after every Blood Moon, shaking with shame, whispering apologies against my skin. The same man who could only sleep afterward if my scent was still on his pillow.

Now he stood there with another woman pressed to his chest and told me he could endure it.

Victoria lifted her head. Her lashes were wet. “Alexander, don’t force her. If Scarlett doesn’t want to help me, I understand. She’s your mate. Of course she hates seeing you hold me.”

Her voice broke on the last word. She lowered her eyes, letting the hall hear her weakness and my supposed cruelty. “If I die tonight, please don’t blame her.”

Alexander’s expression changed.

I saw the exact moment guilt took hold of him. Victoria knew him well. She knew which wound to press, which memory to awaken. Years ago, she had left when the Reed family fell apart. Alexander had never truly recovered from that abandonment. Now she stood in front of him, helpless and trembling, giving him a second chance to be the man who did not let her go.

He looked at me again, and there was disappointment in his eyes.

“Scarlett, give me the cure.”

“No.”

His face darkened. “No?”

“No,” I repeated. “Not because I’m jealous. Not because she’s your ex. Because I made this medicine, and I know what it is. It is not for her.”

Victoria flinched as if I had struck her. Sarah sighed from the side.

“Scarlett,” Sarah said, “Victoria is suffering. You are a healer before you are a mate. A cure can be made again. A life cannot.”

I slowly turned to look at her. For three years, I had prepared her heart medicine every month. I had paid for it when the Reed accounts were empty. She called me daughter in front of the pack when she needed my care. Now, when my palm was scraped raw from the journey and my leg was bleeding through my pants, she told me to be generous.

Alexander stepped toward me. “Don’t make this ugly.”

“It became ugly when you asked me to give your life-saving cure to another woman.”

His eyes flashed. “Don’t twist this. Victoria is not just another woman.”

The hall went even quieter.

My wolf lowered her head inside me, wounded and silent.

Victoria’s fingers curled into Alexander’s shirt. She was close enough that her lips nearly brushed his collarbone when she whispered, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come back.”

Alexander looked down at her, and the anger in his face softened.

That was when I understood. He had already chosen. He had chosen before I entered the hall. This conversation was never about asking me. It was about making me surrender quietly.

I held the case tighter. “If you take this cure from me, Alexander, you face the Blood Moon without my blood therapy.”

His gaze turned cold. “Stop using the mate bond to threaten me.”

“I’m warning you.”

“No,” he said. “You’re trying to prove I can’t live without you.”

Then he reached for the case.

I stepped back, but my injured leg buckled. Alexander caught the case and pulled. The silver clasp sliced across my palm, sharp enough to split skin. Pain flared white-hot. Blood ran down my fingers and dripped onto the floor between us.

Alexander got the case.

He did not look at my hand.

He opened it, took out the silver-blue vial, and turned to Victoria. His focus narrowed to her completely, as if my blood on the floor was nothing more than spilled wine.

“Drink,” he said gently.

Victoria let him hold the vial to her lips. She did not take it from him. She drank from his hand, her mouth brushing his fingers once, then again, slow enough that my wolf noticed. When she finished, she leaned into him with a soft gasp, one hand sliding over his chest as if she needed to feel his heartbeat.

Alexander lowered his head. “Better?”

Victoria nodded, breathless. “Better.” Then she looked at me from beneath wet lashes. “Thank you, Alexander. I knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”

The words struck me harder than the cut on my hand.

He had once said almost the same thing to me. Only you won’t abandon me. I had built three years of loyalty on that sentence.

Now I realized it had never been sacred. It was only something he said to whichever woman needed saving in front of him.

Alexander finally glanced at my hand. For half a second, something like guilt crossed his face, but it vanished quickly. “When Victoria is stable, I’ll have someone treat that.”

I looked at him and almost smiled.

I was the best healer in Silver Moon Pack. My mate had just cut my hand open stealing the cure I made for him, and his solution was to have someone else bandage me later.

“No need,” I said.

He frowned. “Scarlett, don’t be difficult. Victoria was in danger. After the Blood Moon, I’ll make it up to you.”

“Make it up to me?”

“Whatever you want.” His voice lowered, impatient but still certain I would eventually yield. “Just don’t disappoint me tonight.”

Something inside me went very still.

I reached for the silver mate chain on my wrist. Alexander had fastened it there himself during our bonding ceremony. That day, he promised before the entire pack that he would protect me, honor me, and never let me suffer alone.

I unclasped it.

The chain fell into my bloody palm.

Alexander’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”

I looked at him one last time. “Confirming something.”

“What?”

I asked, slowly and clearly, “Tonight, during the Blood Moon, are you sure you don’t need me?”

His jaw tightened. “I told you. Stop threatening me with the bond.”

“I’m not threatening you.”

“Then stop acting like my survival belongs to you.” His voice cut across the hall. “You are my mate, Scarlett. Not my master.”

Murmurs rose around us. Victoria leaned against him, hiding her face against his chest, but I saw the faint curve at the corner of her mouth.

I closed my fingers around the mate chain and turned away.

Behind me, Sarah muttered, “She is making this about herself while Victoria can barely stand.”

Emma’s voice followed, low but not low enough. “She’s always been jealous of Victoria. Everyone knows it.”

Alexander did not defend me.

Not once.

The snow hit my face the moment I stepped outside. The cold should have hurt, but I barely felt it. My eyes were dry. I had always thought heartbreak would come with tears. Instead, it came like ice, quiet and clean, freezing everything soft inside me until I could finally move without shaking.

I returned to my private clinic and locked the door. Only then did I clean my palm. The wound was deep, and the disinfectant burned so fiercely that my fingers trembled, but I did not make a sound. After wrapping it in gauze, I opened the Pack Council system and pulled up the mate bond severance form.

Applicant: Scarlett Hayes.

Respondent: Alexander Reed.

Grounds: mate betrayal, medical coercion, emotional abandonment.

I stared at the final confirmation box for a long time. Outside, the Blood Moon was rising, its red light spreading over the clinic windows. My wolf whimpered low inside me. She still remembered Alexander’s scent, his hands, his body curled around ours after every relapse. She remembered the nights when his heat and pain blurred together, when he held me like I was the only thing anchoring him to life.

But I remembered the blood on the floor.

I remembered Victoria’s mouth on his fingers.

I remembered him looking away from my wound.

I clicked confirm.

A few minutes later, the Pack Council’s reply appeared.

Before mate bond severance can be completed, both parties must endure one final Blood Moon connection.

I read the sentence once. Then again.

Slowly, I smiled.

Alexander believed he could survive tonight without me.

Good.

Then he could finally learn who had been keeping him alive.