Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

Vaelor's POVMorning light leaked into my bedroom. It did not come with warmth but rather warning. Slumber was something that often evaded me; I just laid on the bed for formalities and wrestled with it for most of the night until I had to sit upright in the morning.This day began just like any other. My head was throbbing so hard I was worried it would split open. Most of last night was spent at the office, looking through our contacts to see packs that would still do business with us. Our territories were mostly on lockdown, but we still allowed food to come in, of course. This meant that when the people delivering it were leaving, they had to be monitored and quarantined by their own pack before they were able to return home.And while I made sure that the financial incentive to do the job was not lacking, I was not surprised that many people were extremely reluctant. My pack was slowly turning into a death trap; all you needed was skin contact with an infected, and if your sympto

Kimberly’s POVFor a moment—just one—as I sat across from the man who seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, I vaguely remembered the person I had fallen for: charismatic, dependable, and strong. Then, that image fiercely contrasted the one before me. He still had all of that regal aura that made it seem like I wasn’t good enough to breathe the same air as him, but I didn’t miss the paleness of his skin. Reaching up to those dark circles under his eyes, he looked like he was barely holding on.In the past, seeing him broken like this would have satisfied me vicariously, but I just felt this gaping hole in my chest instead, watching those lines of exhaustion move as he spoke.After I signed the contract, he did the same on his own and then handed it over to his aide. I wanted him to dismiss me so that I wouldn’t be here, suffocating on his scent that was still as overwhelming as it had always been."Kimberly," he breathed out. The way he broke the silence, his voice

Kimberley’s POVSome things never change.I think that saying goes for people, too.Clara, the same Clara Vaelor had told me had such a short time to live, stood in front of me well and alive.It was as though she had been frozen in a time machine because everything was the same: that sly, condescending look hidden behind a sugary expression and the clothes she wore.She was dripping with luxury, a sharp and troubling contrast to what I had just seen at the hospital.Pack members were dying; I saw bodies being taken away and people fighting for their lives, yet she had the audacity to dress in designer clothes from head to toe.She saw what I was looking at, flicked her eyes up and down over herself, and smiled in satisfaction. Knowing her, she probably thought I was jealous.Despicable. I was more disgusted than anything else.She reminded me of when I first met her. Way before I married Vaelor, when my father was still the beta of this pack. She had come with her parents to a simple

Kimberley's POVI think I'm dying or maybe I'm just exhausted anyways. It feels like the same thing.I don't think I've had a moment to sit ever since I started working.I mean that's what I was already used to as a doctor but this was different.There was this constant haste, the knowing that the few seconds you stole away to yourself even if it was to eat a meal that's tasted like nothing because it had gone through far too many safety procedures to have kept its flavor was too much of a selfish move because I feel like the lives of my patients are being drift away like candle being snuffed out.It was too much. Back in Lincolnton we couldn't save everyone, of course, but we saved most people.Watching everyone die like that was far too much."How did this even start?" I asked the doctor velvet while I added medication to a patient's distant IV drip.She shook her head with an expression of how pitiful everything was."It started with just a few. We don't really know the roots cause

Vaelor's POV"Dr. Dove..."When I called out to her this morning, I did not expect that she would run into my arms or anything of the sort, but at the same time, I did not expect that she would shrink away and barely hide a look of disgust behind all the face coverage she already had on. But I couldn't even be properly angry at her because I knew I deserved that look. I had betrayed her trust in the worst way possible.Here I was trying to—what was I even trying to do with her? I just knew that when she was around in the room, I didn't want this awkwardness to hang between us. I wanted her to talk to me, to tell her that I did think Clara was going to die, but somehow she had survived.I had planted myself at the observation desk getting filled in by Dr. Fang when she showed up. She saw me and any possible trace of joy in her almost immediately disappeared, though it wasn't like she was jumping off the roof. I was surprised that she came in so early, but maybe that was just part of he