Chapter Five: Poison and Pride

"Three dead wolves in one night." Emma stared at the toxicology reports spread across her office desk, the numbers blurring after eighteen straight hours on shift. "All with the same modified poison."

Sarah locked the door behind her, carrying fresh coffee. "The labs came back on the latest victim. Blood work's identical to the others."

"And getting worse." Emma pulled up the molecular analysis on her computer. "The poison's evolving. Each batch is more sophisticated than the last."

Through her office window, she could see Steve's room across the hall. He'd finally fallen into a restless sleep, his fever hovering at dangerous levels despite her magical intervention. Even unconscious, he commanded attention—the Alpha in him refusing to be diminished by something as mundane as near-fatal poisoning.

"You should get some rest," Sarah said, studying her face. "You've been running on fumes since they brought him in."

"I'm fine."

"Right." Sarah's tone dripped skepticism. "That's why you've been staring at the same page for ten minutes. Look, I don't know what happened between you and tall, dangerous, and unconscious over there, but—"

A crash from Steve's room cut her off. Emma was moving before she consciously registered the sound, doctor's instincts overriding personal hesitation.

She found Steve trying to stand, monitors beeping in protest as he ripped out his IV. "I have to get back," he growled, eyes flickering between human green and Alpha red. "My pack—"

"Your pack needs you alive." Emma pushed him back with more force than strictly necessary. "Which you won't be if you leave before the poison's cleared your system."

His hand caught her wrist, fever-hot skin against her pulse. "Then help me. You've seen the reports. This isn't just about me or my pack anymore."

"Don't." She tried to pull away, but his grip tightened.

"Emma, please. Look at me."

She did. She wished she hadn't. Five years had carved new lines around his eyes, added silver threads at his temples. The cold aristocrat who'd rejected her was gone, replaced by someone who looked... haunted.

"I'm sorry," he said, voice raw. "What I did that night—there's no excuse. I was arrogant, stupid, and cruel. I've regretted it every day since."

"Regret doesn't change anything."

"No." His thumb brushed her wrist, right over her racing pulse. "But maybe this is fate giving us a second chance."

Emma yanked her hand back. "Fate? The same fate that let you break our mate bond without a second thought?"

"I thought I was protecting the pack." The words seemed to cost him. "There were threats, political alliances at stake. I convinced myself it was the right choice, that I could ignore what my wolf already knew—that you were perfect. Strong. Exactly what the pack needed."

"And now?" Bitterness crept into her voice. "Now that you need my help, suddenly I'm qualified?"

Before he could answer, Emma's pager shrieked. Another victim incoming. Her heart sank as she read the details.

"Female, seventeen years old." Her voice turned clinical, professional. "Same chemical signature as your wounds."

Steve's face went ash-white. "Claire. My sister."

Emma was already moving. "Sarah! Get a trauma bay ready. And bring me everything we've got on the antidote trials."

"Emma." Steve's voice stopped her at the door. "Save her. Please. I know I have no right to ask anything of you, but she's innocent. She wasn't even part of the pack when I—when everything happened."

For a moment, Emma saw past the Alpha to the brother desperate to save his sister. She thought of her own brother, lost to a hunter's bullet years before she'd even met Steve.

"I'll do everything I can," she said. "But afterward, we need to talk about the warehouse. About exactly what these hunters are planning."

She didn't wait for his response, already running toward the emergency bay. Her wolf stirred restlessly, sensing the weight of what was coming.

The ambulance sirens grew closer, and with them, a scent that made her blood run cold. Under the chemical burn of poison, she caught something familiar.

The hunters hadn't just copied her old pack's healing herbs.

They'd weaponized them.

They'd been watching her all along.