The Villainess's Wolf Begged Me Not to Save Her Alpha

Isabella's POV

Ruth saw the shirt with me. She wrote the time down twice, once on her apron's inventory slip and once on the back of a flour receipt, and that was all we could do before another night passed.

By noon the next day, I was carrying a silver tray into the great hall.

The visiting Alpha had arrived with six guards and a healer, and the whole house smelled like polish and nerves. Noah sat at the head of the table with Evelyn at his right hand. The seat at his left, my seat, held a stranger.

Alpha Roman of Redwater was broader than Noah and quieter, with gray eyes and a short beard. He watched me come in the way a man watches weather, without any hurry.

"My wife is learning the rules of this house," Noah said, as easily as he might comment on the wine. "Isabella. Pour for our guest."

The tray was heavy. The mulled wine was hot enough that steam curled off the decanter, and the silver on my wrist had chafed raw again overnight. I set the tray down at Roman's elbow and lifted the decanter.

The chain caught on the tray's raised edge.

The decanter tipped. Hot wine poured over the back of my hand, and pain shot all the way to my elbow. I didn't drop it. I set it down hard, and red liquid ran across the tablecloth toward Evelyn's plate.

Noah was out of his chair at once.

He turned to Evelyn. "Did it get you?"

"No, I'm fine." She held up her sleeve, spotless. "Poor Isabella."

My hand was already turning pink, then angry red, blisters rising where the silver had rubbed it open. I pressed it against my apron and said nothing.

Roman set his glass down. It wasn't loud, but every conversation at the table stopped.

"Noah," he said. "Stop serving your guests with an injured woman."

Noah's jaw shifted. "This is a household matter."

"You made it my matter when you put her at my elbow." Roman didn't raise his voice. He looked at my wrist, then back at Noah. "Take the chain off before you pour another drink."

*He's angry,* Ceci whispered. *Noah's so angry.*

"I know," I told her. "Let him be."

---

Everyone was waiting for me to cry, or to slip behind the stranger and let him fight for me. I'd read a hundred scenes like that. Isabella never asked for anything. She just hoped somebody would guess.

I turned to Noah.

"I need two things," I said. "I need my hand and wrist looked at by someone who doesn't answer to your infirmary. And I need Ruth with me while it happens."

Noah stared at me like I'd spoken another language. "Our infirmary is perfectly capable."

"Then you lose nothing by letting someone else confirm it."

Roman leaned back. "My healer travels with me. Mae can look at her now."

I watched Noah weigh it. Refusing in front of an allied Alpha would sound like hiding something, and Noah would rather hand me over for an hour than admit there was anything to hide.

"Fine," he said. "Mae can examine her. In the side room. With my guard."

Mae, a short woman with silver-streaked braids and ink stains on her fingers, was already writing on a notepad. She tore the page off, folded it once, and handed it across to Noah's steward. "Medical request. For the record."

I walked toward the side door. Halfway there, I stopped beside Ruth.

She was standing by the serving cart, her apron dusted with flour up to the pockets. Her face gave away nothing.

"Bring the vial," I said quietly. "The one with your label on it."

Noah's voice cut across the room. "Ruth stays here. The kitchen needs her."

I didn't move from her side.

"She comes with me," I said. "I won't leave her here to answer for helping me."

Ruth's mouth pressed flat, and something in her eyes softened, just for a second. Then she untied her apron, folded it over the cart, and followed me out.

---

The medical room next door was small and cold, with a cot, a basin, and a high window. Noah's guard took the corner, rifle slung across his chest. Noah himself stood in the doorway with his arms crossed.

Mae unwound the gauze I'd wrapped that morning and sucked air through her teeth.

"Silver burn on top of a scald," she said. "This has been reopened every day for weeks." She glanced at Noah. "I need the lock opened. Temporarily."

Noah let the silence stretch. Then he tossed a small key onto the cot. "Ten minutes."

"The links are heavy against the wound," Mae said. "Roman, the linen. Hold the chain off her skin while I work the lock."

Roman picked up a folded square of soft linen from the tray. He came around the cot and crouched so he was below my eye level, not above it.

He didn't reach for me. He held the cloth between us and waited.

"Here?" he asked, nodding at the chain where it hung from my wrist. "Tell me if you want me to stop."

Nobody had asked me anything in this body. Not once.

I nodded.

He slid the linen under the links and lifted them, gently, taking their weight. Mae turned the key. The lock clicked, the chain fell open into the cloth, and Roman drew it away.

Cool air touched the raw skin. Then warmth came flooding back into my fingers, slow and stinging, like blood returning after a long winter.

His hand was still near mine, close enough that I could feel heat from it. My whole body went rigid. My shoulders locked. I stopped breathing.

Roman released the cloth and sat back on his heels at once, giving me the space without a word.

I waited for Ceci to surge toward him, or to shove him away. I waited for the pull I felt every time Noah walked into a room.

There was nothing like that. No new tug, no hunger.

But for the first time since I'd woken up on that stone floor, she didn't shrink back into the dark either. She stayed right where she was, quiet and present.

*He asked,* she said, sounding puzzled. *He asked us.*

---

Mae cleaned the wound and wrapped it in fresh gauze. When she finished, I held my good hand out to Ruth.

Ruth took the corked vial from her pocket and laid it in my palm. The label read in her cramped writing: *Infirmary tea. Brought by Miss Evelyn. 7:40 a.m.* I passed it to Mae.

"My wolf goes heavy whenever I drink that," I said. "I'd like it tested somewhere outside this territory. And I'm requesting a medical transfer to Redwater until this wrist heals."

"No," Noah said from the doorway.

Just that. No argument, no explanation.

"Noah..."

"She's my wife. She stays." He turned to the guard. "Chain her when they're done." His eyes moved to Roman. "My hospitality has limits."

He left. The guard stepped forward, picked up the chain, and closed it around my wrist again, over the clean gauze this time. The cold bit straight through.

Mae didn't even glance at him. "I need to do a private examination now. Ribs and back. Out you go."

The guard hesitated, gripping his rifle.

"Unless you'd like to explain to your Alpha why you watched his wife undress," Mae said.

He went. The door shut.

Roman spoke low and fast. "There's a medical supply truck leaving your territory tomorrow morning. Six-fifteen. My guards will be holding the vehicle yard."

"Why not now?"

"Because that chain answers to Noah, not to you." He glanced at my wrist. "If I force it today, he can drop you to your knees before we reach the gate. You'd be the first one hurt."

I swallowed. "Ruth comes too."

Ruth made a small sound. "Girl, I'm sixty-one years old..."

"You come," I said.

Roman nodded. "Both of you. Mae stays here tonight as your attending healer. Nobody can bar her from you without an open insult to Redwater."

Mae tore another page from her notepad and wrote on it. *6:15 a.m. East yard.* She folded it into my bandaged palm.

"I'll send word before I leave the territory tonight," Roman said, standing. "A clear answer, so you know it's still on."

At the door he stopped and looked back at me.

"I can get you out," he said. "You decide whether you come."

The door closed behind him.

I unfolded the paper and read the time again. Six-fifteen.

Deep in my chest, Ceci stirred.

*If we go,* she whispered, *he'll be alone on the full moon.*