My Former Mate Begged Me to Heal Him

The Summit opens at nine in the morning, under a sky so blue it almost hurts.

I watch from the second-floor gallery of the Pack House. Below me, the arrival courtyard fills with wolves. Black SUVs roll through the iron gates one after another. Alphas step out in dark suits, their Lunas beside them, their Betas a half-step behind. Thirty-one packs. I count the banners as they go up.

Ashvale comes last.

I know it before I see the green and gold. The courtyard goes quiet in a ripple, starting at the gate and moving inward. Conversations stop mid-word. Heads turn.

Four Ashvale wolves walk through the gate carrying a stretcher.

Cole lies on it under a gray blanket. His hair is cut short now. His face is thin, the cheekbones sharp enough to cast shadows. Seven years ago he could walk into a room and make every wolf in it lower their eyes. Now I have to reach for his aura to find it at all. It's a flicker. A match in the wind.

The whispers start.

*Is that Thomas?*

*Under four seconds, I heard. He can't even hold the shift.*

*Silvercrest's boy. The one with the serum.*

Luke walks at the right side of the stretcher. Chin high. Jaw tight. He stares straight ahead like he can't hear a thing, but his ears are red to the tips. Behind him, Margaret moves in a cream coat and pearls, her steps slow and even. Her face is calm. Her hands are not. She keeps twisting the strap of her purse.

I wait to feel something. Pity. Satisfaction. Anything.

My wolf yawns.

A warm weight settles in the back of my mind.

*You okay up there?* Logan asks.

*I'm fine.*

*Ellis put them in the east hall of the private wing. Long walk from your office.* A pause. *Unless you want it shorter.*

I almost smile. *I'm not hiding from a stretcher, Logan.*

*Didn't think you were.*

---

At eleven, I'm carrying a case of fever-bind samples back from the infirmary. The private wing is quiet. Soft carpet, tall windows, the smell of polished wood.

I hear the shuffle of feet before I turn the corner. Then a sharp, ragged gasp.

I step around the corner and stop.

The Ashvale wolves are halfway down the corridor. And the stretcher is shaking.

Cole's back arches off it. His fingers claw at the blanket. His eyes are wide open, and they flash gold, bright and wild, the way they used to when his wolf was strong. A sound tears out of his throat. Not a word. Half a howl, broken in the middle.

The man at the front corner stumbles. The stretcher tips. Luke grabs the rail and shoves it level.

"Cole!" Margaret's voice cracks. "Cole, what is it?"

But I know what it is.

It's me. My scent. Wildflower and moonstone, the scent his wolf was made to find. And twisted all through it, so deep it can't be pulled apart, cedar and winter storm.

His wolf smelled me. For one second, it woke up and remembered.

And then it understood.

The gold in his eyes fades. His body drops flat. His chest heaves. Slowly, his head turns on the thin pillow, and he finds me.

"Ivy." It comes out like gravel.

The corridor freezes. Luke's mouth opens. Margaret goes white.

I set my case down against the wall. I walk toward them. My heels are quiet on the carpet. Nobody stops me. Luke shifts his weight like he wants to, then doesn't.

Up close, Cole looks worse. There's a gray tint under his skin. The veins at his wrists are dark. And under his sweat, faint but there, I smell bleach.

The same smell from seven years ago. It never left him.

I look at him the way I look at every patient. Pupils. Breathing. The tremor in his left hand. The patch of half-shed fur at his neck that never folded back. Forty pages, all of it, right in front of me.

Then I kneel beside the stretcher. Not close. Just low enough to meet his eyes.

He makes a small sound. Hope. I watch it rise in his face.

"Your wolf isn't sick," I say quietly. "It's being eaten. The serum fakes strength by burning the wolf spirit for fuel. Slowly at first. Then all at once."

His lips part.

"The last vial had a counter-agent in it. It would have stopped the damage. For good. It would have made your wolf immune to anything Victoria ever gave you."

I let that sit. One breath.

"The formula was in the vial you smashed."

His eyes go wide. His throat works.

"I can't make it again," I say. "It had to be calibrated to your wolf through the bond. That bond is gone." I tilt my head, so he can see the pale scar on my neck. "You remember."

His mouth moves. *Ivy. Ivy.* No sound comes out at all.

Behind me, Margaret makes a choked noise. Luke stares at the floor.

I stand up and brush off my knees.

In the back of my mind, warm and sudden, an image blooms. Buster, asleep on our bed, belly up, all four paws in the air.

I breathe out.

Then I pick up my case and walk away. I don't look back.

Behind me, Cole finally finds his voice. It's just one sound. Thin and broken.

Like glass on stone.