After My Alpha Refused to Save My Mother

My mother survived the night.

I sat beside her bed until dawn, counting every rattling breath. Ada pressed cold cloths to her forehead. Neither of us slept.

At first light, I gathered the herbalist's notes. Five days of fever, written in shaky ink. Then I walked back to the Alpha's chambers.

This time, Marcus didn't try to stop me.

Frank sat behind his desk, fully dressed, sealing letters with hot wax. He didn't glance up.

"If this is about last night—"

"It's about my mother."

I dropped the notes on top of his letters. The wax smeared.

Frank exhaled through his nose. "Zoe. I have three border reports to answer before noon."

"You always have something before noon."

That made him look up.

"You missed my birthday three years in a row," I said. "The first year, you were hunting rogues. The second year, you forgot. The third year, you sent a guard with a basket of pears. Pears, Frank. I hate pears."

"This is childish."

"Our anniversary. You spent it at the Riverbend Pack, drinking with their Alpha. I lit forty candles and ate dinner alone." My voice stayed level. That surprised me more than it surprised him. "When the eastern storehouse burned, I organized the whole rebuild. You took credit at the council meeting. When your warriors' widows needed food, I gave them my own allowance. You never even asked where it went."

He leaned back. His fingers drummed the desk.

"Are you finished?"

"Almost."

I reached up and lifted the moon-silver crown off my head. Thin, cold, shaped like a crescent. It had sat on me for years like a promise.

I set it down on his desk, right on top of my mother's fever charts.

The drumming stopped.

Frank stared at the crown. Then at me. All the color drained out of his face.

"What are you doing?"

"Giving it back."

"Put it on."

"No."

He shoved his chair back so hard it screeched across the stone. Three strides, and he was in front of me.

"Zoe. Put it back on."

"Why? Selena's already wearing my necklace. She might as well have the rest."

His jaw went tight. Then, slowly, it loosened. He pulled me against his chest. His arms closed around me, warm and heavy. He smelled like pine smoke and wax.

He smelled like her, too.

"I made a mistake," he murmured into my hair. "I know that. But you don't have to make this so ugly."

"Ugly?" I said into his shirt. "My mother is dying."

"I'll send the healer. Today. Right now." His hand moved up and down my back. "And Selena… it was one time. An accident. She means nothing."

I closed my eyes.

I should have pushed him away. I knew he was lying. I could feel it in the way his heartbeat jumped.

But my body remembered other things.

The blizzard, when I was nineteen. I'd fallen into a ravine and snapped my ankle. Frank found me after hours of searching. He carried me on his back through the whole forest, snow up to his knees, his breath freezing in his beard.

"Stay awake," he'd kept saying. "Talk to me, Zoe. I'm going to make you the happiest Luna in the world. You hear me? You have to live to see it."

I'd believed him.

Some stubborn part of me still wanted to.

I pulled back just far enough to see his face. My eyes were burning.

"If it were your mother in that bed," I whispered, "would you have made me wait three days?"

He didn't answer.

He just bent down and kissed the tears off my cheek. One side, then the other.

"Everything's going to be fine," he said. "I promise."

That wasn't an answer.

I let him hold me anyway.

The healer arrived after midday.

Old Tobias, the Alpha's own healer, with his leather bag and his crooked spectacles. When he ducked through my mother's low doorway, I had to grab the wall to stay upright.

"Thank the Moon," Ada breathed.

I laughed. It came out wet and cracked. "He came. Ada, he actually came."

Frank came too. He stood near the door, arms crossed, looking around the tiny cottage like it embarrassed him. But he was here. That counted for something.

Tobias set down his bag and pressed two fingers to my mother's wrist. His mouth pinched.

"How long has the fever held?"

"Five days," I said. "Six by tonight."

"Boil water. Quickly."

Ada rushed to the hearth. I knelt beside the bed and took my mother's hand. Her skin felt like paper left too close to a fire.

"Mama. The healer's here. You're going to be okay."

Her eyelids fluttered. She didn't wake.

Tobias had just unrolled his needles when the door banged open.

A young warrior stood there, panting. "Alpha! It's Miss Selena. She fell at the training grounds. She's hurt. She's asking for you."

Frank's arms dropped to his sides.

"How bad?"

"She's holding her stomach, Alpha. She won't stop crying."

Frank turned toward the door.

I stood up so fast the stool tipped over. "Frank."

He didn't stop.

"Tobias," he said instead. "Pack your things. Come with me."

The healer froze, a needle between his fingers. "Alpha, this woman's condition is—"

"Selena's injury could affect the pack's line of succession. That comes first."

The words didn't make sense. I heard them, but they slid right off me.

Then Tobias started rolling up his needles.

Something inside me snapped.

I lunged across the room and caught Frank's wrist with both hands. I dug my nails in.

"Frank, you promised me! This morning! You held me and you promised!"

He looked down at my hands like they were dirt on his sleeve.

Then he yanked his arm free. I stumbled back into the table. A cup rolled off and shattered.

"Selena may be carrying my child." His voice was flat and cold. "That's my bloodline, Zoe. Your mother's illness can wait a little longer."

My child.

I stared at him.

Six years of marriage. Not one pup. The elders had whispered about it at every feast. Frank had always squeezed my hand under the table and said, "We have time."

Apparently he hadn't been waiting on me at all.

"Tobias," Frank snapped. "Now."

The healer shot me one helpless look and followed him out.

The door swung shut behind them. Ada stood by the hearth, the kettle shaking in her grip.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry.

I just turned around and looked down at my mother.

Her face had gone gray. Her lips were cracked. Her chest rose. Fell. Paused too long. Rose again.

I sank onto the edge of the bed and smoothed the damp hair from her forehead.

"It's okay, Mama," I heard myself say. "He'll come back."

Even I didn't believe it.

Footsteps pounded outside. The door flew open again.

Tobias stood there, alone and breathless, his spectacles crooked on his nose.

"Luna." He glanced over his shoulder, then back at me. "I only have a moment. The Alpha thinks I stopped for my other bag."

I rose. "What is it?"

"I saw enough before I left." He swallowed hard. "This isn't an ordinary fever. It's moonblight. It's spreading through her blood."

The room went very quiet.

"What does that mean?"

Tobias's voice dropped to a whisper.

"It means if she doesn't get treatment soon, she won't last three more days."