I Refused to Save the Luna Who Tried to Kill Me

VIOLA'S POV

The breakfast tray came at seven. It left at seven-oh-two.

I'd barely pushed myself upright when a kitchen aide in a gray apron walked in, set it on the rolling table, and then lifted it right back off again as a guard leaned through the doorway and said something I didn't catch. Oatmeal, toast, a paper cup of orange juice. All of it disappeared down the hall.

"Hey," I called. "That was mine."

The guard didn't bother looking at me. "Orders. You're on standby for the next session. No food."

The door clicked shut. The rolling table sat there, empty, with a faint ring of condensation where the juice had been.

My stomach cramped. I hadn't eaten since I'd woken up in this body, and Viola's body hadn't been eating much before that.

Nell came in twenty minutes later with a blood pressure cuff and the bedside nursing log tucked under her arm. She took one look at the bare table and frowned.

"Did they already take it?"

"Someone said I'm supposed to fast. For the ritual."

She opened the log and ran her finger down the page, then flipped back two more. "There's no fasting order. Nothing from Silas, nothing from the Alpha. You're actually flagged for low blood sugar." She tapped a line. "I wrote that myself on Tuesday."

"Then write this down too." I nodded at the log. "Write down who ordered it."

Nell hesitated, pen hovering. "Viola, if I put a guard's name in here, it goes in front of Silas."

"Good. Put the time. Put the reason he gave. Put that I asked for food and didn't get any."

She looked at me for a second longer than she needed to. Then she wrote it, neat and small, and turned the book so I could read it.

*0702. Breakfast removed by order of guard on duty. Stated reason: standby for session. No fasting order on file. Patient requested meal. Denied.*

The door opened before she could close the log.

Derek came in fresh from a shower, hair still damp, a pressed shirt under his dark coat. He looked at the nursing log before he looked at me.

"What are you writing?" he asked.

Nell closed the book halfway. "Her breakfast was taken, Alpha. There isn't an order for her to fast."

"She's supposed to be ready when Silas calls."

"Then Silas can give me a written reason," I said. "So far nobody has."

Derek held out his hand for the log. Nell gave it to him. He read the entry, then looked at the bare rolling table.

"You could have asked me," he said.

"I did. Yesterday I asked for Chloe's diagnosis. You locked the door. This morning I asked for breakfast. Your guard took it away."

"I'm trying to keep Chloe alive."

"I know what you're trying to do. I'm telling you what it's costing me."

He set the book on the counter. For a moment I thought he might actually read the page about low blood sugar. Instead he turned it facedown.

"I'll have them bring you another tray," he said. "When you cooperate with Silas. One session, Viola. Then you can eat and rest all you want."

Nell's pencil stopped moving.

"You hear yourself, right?" I asked.

"I'm offering to help you."

"You're offering me my own breakfast in exchange for more blood."

He went very still. Then he stepped closer and reached for the strap at my wrist. I jerked before he touched it. My arm ached from the old punctures, and the leather was still buckled tight enough to leave a mark.

Derek's hand paused over the buckle.

"You used to trust me," he said.

I wanted to. That was the problem. Somewhere inside this body, a girl was still holding a caramel wrapper and remembering the boy who'd sat beside her when her mother died. Ceci stirred at the memory, weak and frightened.

"Then give me a reason to," I said. "Let Nell take the strap off. Let her give me food. Show me what Chloe actually has."

He looked at Nell.

"Leave it on," he said. "Silas will decide when she's fit to move."

The little hope I'd felt went cold.

"Write that down, too," I told Nell.

"Viola." Derek's voice sharpened.

"His name. His order. The time." I looked at him instead of the strap. "If you're sure it's right, you shouldn't mind having it on paper."

He walked to the door and opened it. A guard straightened in the hall.

"No one takes her out of this wing without my permission," he said. "And I want her at the pack breakfast tomorrow. She needs to remember she's still part of this family."

He left without waiting to hear what I thought of that.

---

Nell stayed until the sound of his boots had gone. Then she turned the log over and finished the entry.

"Did he mean it?" I asked. "About tomorrow?"

"He told the kitchen to set the family table before he came here." She glanced toward the door. "I don't know what he's planning."

"Neither do I."

I watched her take the blood pressure cuff off my arm. There was a fresh bruise where it had pressed against the older ones.

"Will the clinic get my transfer request?" I asked.

Nell hesitated. Then she lifted the corner of a small receipt tucked into her pocket, just enough for me to see the neutral clinic's stamp.

"The referral pouch was collected last night. I got a receipt when they took it. It's outside Silverpine's filing system now."

I let out a breath I'd been holding since the guard turned the lock.

"Keep that receipt," I said.

"I will."

She checked the door, then went to the counter and filled a paper cup with water. She held it where I could reach it without pulling against the strap.

"I can't get an unauthorized meal past that guard," she said quietly. "But I can record what happened. And the outside evaluation request is already on its way."

"That's more than anyone else has done."

Her mouth tightened. She didn't look pleased by it.

"It shouldn't be," she said.

I drank slowly. My stomach hurt, and my arm hurt, and none of it made me want to turn the gray stone on again. The monitor beside the table stayed dark.

Tomorrow he'd make me sit with the pack as though this was a family disagreement. Tonight his order still held the door shut.

I watched Nell put the nursing log under her arm. She took her receipt with her when she left.

At least one request he'd tried to block had made it outside his walls.