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Chapter 8

Author: Shirley
Willow’s POV

Aunt Maeve lay on the cold infirmary bed, her face so pale it was almost transparent, her body connected to a web of IV tubes. The heart monitor emitted a faint but steady beep. Lucian's Shadow Guards had not arrived yet.

The healer on duty looked up, startled. "Alpha, you cannot be in here..."

"Disconnect all of her IV drips," Rowan ordered.

The healer's eyes widened in shock. "What did you say?"

"I am ordering you to cease all treatment. Now."

"Alpha, that is a grave violation of the ancient healer's oath..."

"Do it now."

"Alpha, once the medication is stopped, her inner wolf's healing will not last more than a few minutes..."

"I know what will happen to her," Rowan's tone was as if he were discussing a sheep to be slaughtered. "I said, pull the IVs. Now."

"Alpha, the Pack Medical Council..."

"I am the Alpha of this pack," he snarled. "That means every resource in this infirmary, including you, is under my command. Defy me, and I will not just banish you. I will cripple you until you beg for death. Then I will burn this infirmary to the ground. Do you understand?"

The color drained from the healer's face. With tears of humiliation in her eyes, she began to shut off the valves one by one.

"No!" I lunged forward like a madwoman, but Rowan grabbed me by the neck and pinned me against the wall.

"Please," I wailed, my voice raw. "She is the only family I have left. The only one who ever loved me. Please, let her go..."

The equipment that sustained her breathing shut down completely, and the room fell into a deathly silence.

The frequency on the monitor began to plummet.

"Rowan, please!" I fell to my knees. "I will do anything! Please do not do this!"

He looked down at me. "Apologize to Isolde."

"I apologize!" I screamed. "I apologize for everything! Just save her, save Aunt Maeve!"

"Say it louder."

"I am sorry!" I had completely lost my mind. "I am sorry, I should not have burned Isolde! It was all my fault, every last bit of it! Please, Rowan, spare her!"

He watched me cry at his feet. He watched for a long time.

"Resume the treatment!" I rasped. "Please, just save her!"

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded from outside the door. "Alpha!"

Another guard rushed to the doorway, out of breath. "It is Miss Isolde! She has had a terrible shock! The pup's life is unstable..."

Rowan instantly released his grip on me. "Get every healer in this facility over there. Immediately. If anything happens to the pup in Isolde's belly, you will all pay with your lives."

He strode out, and to my horror, he dragged the only healer in the room with him.

I ran into the hallway like a madwoman.

"Help!" I screamed. "Someone help me! Please, save her!"

But the entire floor was empty. All medical staff had been summoned to save Isolde's unborn pup.

I looked frantically at the complex IV tubes, at the baffling knobs and arrays.

"I am sorry," I whispered into Aunt Maeve's ear, sobbing uncontrollably. "I am sorry. I do not know how to start these things..."

I slammed my hands on random buttons, trying to force the medication back into her veins, but it was all in vain.

Aunt Maeve's heartbeat was fading rapidly.

"No, no, no," I cried, tears streaming down my face. "Please, Aunt Maeve. Please do not leave me. I am begging you..."

The wavering line on the monitor flattened into a piercing, straight line.

"No!" I collapsed over the side of the bed, weeping. "Aunt Maeve, please do not go. You said you would be with me to see the pup born, please..."

She let out one last breath, as light as a falling leaf.

And then her soul had returned to the embrace of the Moon Goddess.

I do not know how long I stayed, clutching her cooling body, crying until I had no tears left.

After what felt like an eternity, the healers finally returned. They tried to pull me away, but I clung to her body, refusing to let go.

In the end, they had to call the pack enforcers.

Rowan and Isolde were in the waiting area. She was clutching her stomach, making theatrical sobbing sounds, while my birth mother stroked her back soothingly.

When Rowan saw me being dragged away by the enforcers, disheveled and broken, his face showed no emotion.

He simply continued to comfort Isolde in his arms with an impossibly gentle voice.

Aunt Maeve was dead. My Alpha mate had killed her with his own hands.

Just as he had brutally sacrificed my pups.

With trembling hands, I pulled out my encrypted phone and sent a coded message to Lucian.

[He killed her. Your people were too late.]

The reply came almost instantly.

[Report.]

I sent him the whole story. Every word felt like I was chewing on my own heart.

A long pause.

[I will make him pay, Willow. I swear it.]

If Rowan thought Aunt Maeve's death would break me, he was about to learn what a fatal mistake he had just made.
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