Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Amber’s POV

My world was silent. Like a bubble underwater, I was separate from reality. Then the bubble burst. And my harsh truth came crashing into me.

My lips were parted, but no screams came out. Only a dry heaving rasp as I shook my best friend’s body. Over and over again. No response.

“Amber, you have to get up,” 

From the furthest part of my brain, I registered the alarm in my wolf’s voice. But I ignored her.

Mina’s eyes were closed. She looked almost asleep. But she had no heartbeat.

A part of me was waiting for her eyes to blink open. Waiting for her lips to part in an amused smile as she threw a quip at me.

A sob tore from my throat. My insides were cutting up all over again. I was in so much disbelief, it killed me. 

How could they do this? How could they—

“Amber!” Vera snapped with more urgency this time. “You have to get up now!”

My head shook as I clung tighter to Mina’s body. 

I couldn’t just leave her here. Maybe if I hold her tighter. Maybe I could give her some warmth. Maybe—

“AMBER!” My vision swam as Vera pushed sharply against my mental barriers. “NOW!”

My heart raced, and I doubled over, gasping for breath. My veins felt alive as adrenaline began to pump through my body.

“Get up now!” Vera commanded again, her voice scorching my mind. “Mina’s life cannot be a waste. She didn’t die for nothing!”

No, she didn’t. Mina didn’t just die—she was murdered!

The storm brewing in my blood began to morph into anger. 

How could they do this?! Steal her life like it was nothing, then frame me?! My entire frame shook. My claws pushed against my fingertips, threatening to let loose. I wanted to—

“Good,” Vera approved, her barely concealed rage spilling over and fueling my own. “Now, stand up. I heard Lucas say something on the way out,”

My shaky hands slowly let Mina back to the floor as Vera replayed Lucas’s words to me. 

In all the emotions of the moment, I hadn’t even heard him speak.

“We can’t let her get away,” Vera recounted to me. “Otherwise, Maggie will not be saved. She’s waiting for us at the hospital.”

“Maggie?” My sister’s name left my lips in disbelief. “Is she part of this, too?”

I was going insane. Just how deep did this betrayal go? 

My dress was soaked with blood. The copper smell would make me an easy target for the hunting pack members, but I wasn’t worried. 

“Vera?”

“I got you,” My wolf responded immediately. The familiar weightless feeling wrapped my limbs as she masked my smell.

I let the claws in my right hand out and bent to slash the hem of my dress. The ends fell away, leaving me with a shorter gown. Easier to run, fight, and shift in.

One last look at Mina hardened my resolve. Now wasn’t the time for grief or pain. 

No. Now was the time to get to the bottom of everything—even if it was the last thing I did for Mina. 

With that, I slipped out of her bedroom and melted into the shadows.

The Pack hospital was as familiar to me as my own house. The antiseptic smell, a core childhood memory. I’d spent too many hours here with Maggie; it was pretty easy sneaking my way to our family wing.

Only the sound of my heartbeat pounded in my ears as my feet skidded to a stop outside Maggie’s room. 

Lucas was telling the truth. Maggie was indeed in the hospital. She lay now on her bed with a nurse beside her. Her wedding dress was long gone and her curls were taken out of its hairdo.

Why was she spending her wedding night at the hospital? Something was horribly wrong.

I looked around, my eyes searching for Mother. I couldn’t see her but I knew she couldn’t be far away. 

“And that’ll be all, ma’am.”

I swore under my breath as her nurse turned from her and began to make her way out the door.

Maybe she hadn’t heard Father’s pack mindlink?

But then she saw me. Maybe it was the blood-soaked, half-ripped dress I wore. Or the crazy man-hunt my own father had issued. But the nurse’s eyes widened and her mouth parted in a scream.

Faster than I’d have thought possible, Vera drove me forward. My palm slapped over the nurse’s mouth, muffling her screams. She barely had enough time to resist before I hit her neck.

The move disabled her immediately and she crumpled, unconscious, in my arms.

Slowly, I dropped the nurse, raising my head to face Maggie for the first time.

She looked pale, blood drawn from her face. But she made no attempt to scream or call for backup.

She slowly sat up, her face calm as she eyed me warily. “You didn’t do it, did you?”

She scoffed and shook her head, replying to her own question. “You’d never kill Mina,”

“Maggie, what the fuck is going on?” I demanded, ignoring her question as I stepped over the unconscious nurse. 

Her face twisted in contemplation, like she was wondering if she should say the truth or not.

“I’m serious! My best friend is dead!” I hissed, my voice cracking with hurt. I moved towards her bed. “So you better start talking!

“Fine,” She sighed. “Look, I don’t know what dad told you but my sickness has gotten worse,”

“I know—”

“Like, really worse,” She cut me short. “I’ll die, Amber. My organs are shutting down; just your blood won’t be enough anymore.”

None of it made sense to me. I was trying to process and shaking my head in confusion. “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”

Maggie sighed and lay back in her bed, turning her face away from me. “Mother can’t allow me to just die like this. I need… they’ll transfer all your organs to me,”

The news slammed into me like a brick wall. My feet stumbled back a few steps as I stared at the girl on the bed. In that moment, she seemed so far removed from the sister I had nursed for years. 

She was as foreign to me as my parents. What the hell was going on?

Maggie was joking, right? She had to be joking. Even if they hated me, it still made no sense.

Vera started to growl angrily while I just shook my head. “I… I still don’t understand. It makes no sense. Why the hell would they sacrifice one daughter for another?

“Because you’re not my daughter,”

Air left my lungs, leaving me shell-shocked as the loud clacking of Mother’s heels filled the hospital room.

She walked slowly, coming up behind me until we stood side by side, facing Maggie’s bed.

“You don’t mean that,” The words left my lips with a humorless laugh.

Even as my memories began to play a trick on me. Memories long suppressed, bubbling like an overboiled pot.

A hot slap when I was six. “Why are you eating that! No candy for you! Haven’t I told you MY daughter’s blood must always be pure!”

They had never really kept it a secret. I’d just refused to see it. Even now, it felt like a cruel lie.

“You raised me. I… You’re my mother!”

“Only because I had to be.” Her cold voice sent chills down my spine. “Who else would have raised you? Certainly not your prostitute mother!”

“No, You’re lying.” I didn’t want to hear it anymore. The walls of the hospital room began to close in on me as I stumbled backwards. 

“You still don’t get it, do you?” She hissed, sparing me an irritated glance. “Your stupid mother lured my mate. You should never have existed. You’re a sin. An Abomination,”

“No, no. no,” I was shaking my head rapidly. My hands slapped over my ears as I tried to drown her words out. I had father’s hair. I had…. Nothing from the woman in front of me.

The truth felt worse than her words. It felt… like nothing. All my emotions vanished. I was an empty shell wheezing for breath. My skin was too cold. Too foreign.

She turned her head back to Maggie… to her daughter as her words continued to haunt me.

“You’re a bastard of betrayal. A sin against the goddess herself. Your only value is to devote your blood and flesh to Maggie. 

My limbs felt like butter. My wolf was wounded. Vera vanished inside my mind as strong hands told hold of my arms. I didn’t fight them. Didn’t resist. All my anger from Mina’s death… just numb.

Maybe this was better. This way, I’d see my friend again. Tell her how sorry I was.

I should have listened to her. Should have gone with her to Silver Moon when we had the chance. She’d have found her own mate. She’d have lived a full life. She’d have…

My mind was a never-ending instrument. Playing all the things Mina would never get because of me. She stayed back for me and ended up dead. This way, I’d get to apologize.

The cool metal of the surgical table bit into my back as they strapped me down. A humorless laugh left my lips. 

They didn’t even need the restraints. I’d have lain there on my own. My mind was numb but my flesh felt everything.

They didn’t numb me, instead pumping that familiar poison in.

Its earthy, choking smell enveloped me, making me heady as the fire rushed through my veins. 

I held my breath, hoping and praying. Maybe it’d go straight to my heart. But no. Not enough to kill. Just enough to weaken my wolf.

The pain rose like bile up my throat. They stood there. My real father and his Luna. watching as the doctors cut through my dress. Then my skin.

When the darkness came, I didn’t resist. My eyes closed with a silent prayer to the moon goddess.

A second chance. Not for me but for my friend.