Chapter 42 Standing Her Ground
Aria
I tried to look busy with the plates while Martha stood by the tray, but Grayson didn't just walk past us like I hoped he would, and instead he stopped right in the center of the kitchen and started sniffing the air with his nose wrinkled.
He looked at the stove where the empty pot was still hot and then his eyes landed on the brown stains on the counter, so he walked over to the prep table and ripped the white cloth off the tray to reveal the four jars of herbal tea. His face turned a deep shade of red and he looked at me with so much anger that I thought he might actually start shouting loud enough to shake the ceiling, so I took a step back but I didn't drop the plates I was holding.
"What is this, Aria, and why does my kitchen smell like a swamp when I specifically told you to stay out of the way?" he demanded, his voice sounding like a low growl that made my skin prickle with heat. He reached out to grab one of the jars and held it up to the light, looking at the dark and murky liquid inside like it was a bottle of poison he had just found in his house.
"I have six children in the infirmary who are fighting for their lives, and here you are playing chemist with some weeds you found in your suitcase, so tell me right now why I shouldn't just throw this whole tray in the trash."
"It's not weeds, Grayson, it's a remedy that Nana has used for years to help with blood poisoning, and it's the only thing that's going to work because your expensive doctor is failing," I told him, stepping forward to try and take the jar back from his hand.
"You can yell at me all you want for breaking your rules, but while you're standing here being angry, those kids are getting worse and their hearts aren't going to hold out much longer if that fever doesn't break soon."
"My doctor is a trained professional who knows shifter biology better than anyone, while you're just a girl who thinks she can fix a Syndicate bio-weapon with some dried peppermint and honey," Grayson snapped, and he slammed the jar back onto the tray with so much force that the glass rattled against the metal.
"This isn't a game, Aria, and I won't let you experiment on my people because you're bored or because you want to feel useful while we're stuck in this building."
"This isn't about me wanting to feel useful, and you know it, so stop acting like I'm doing this for fun," I yelled back, ignoring the way Martha was looking at us with wide eyes from the corner of the room.
"Your corporate doctor knows how to fix a broken bone or a gunshot wound, but he doesn't know anything about the dirty tricks the Syndicate uses in the gutters, and I do because I've lived in the places where they test this garbage on people who don't have anyone to protect them."
Grayson stepped into my space until I was backed up against the heavy wooden table, and I could feel the heat radiating off him while his eyes flickered with a strange light.
"You have no idea what you're asking me to do, because if I let you give them that tea and something goes wrong, the pack will call for your head and there won't be anything I can do to stop them."
"Then let them call for it, because I'd rather take that risk than sit in my room and listen to those parents crying while their kids fade away," I said, looking him straight in the eyes without blinking even though I was terrified.
"You're the Alpha, so you’re supposed to make the hard calls, but right now you're just being a coward because you're afraid of losing control of the situation. You can either keep watching them get worse and wait for a miracle that isn't coming, or you can let me try this right now and see if I'm right."
We stood there for a long time just breathing at each other, and I could tell his wolf was fighting with his human side because he kept clenching and unclenching his fists like he was trying to hold back an explosion. He looked over at the doorway where Jax was standing and watching us, and then he looked back at the jars on the tray with a look of pure desperation that made my heart ache for him.
"Two hours," he finally said, his voice coming out strained and quiet as he pointed a finger at me. "I am giving you exactly two hours to show me that this works, and if that little boy doesn't show signs of improvement by then, I'm taking you and your Nana out of this clubhouse and you're on your own. Do you understand me, Aria?"
"I understand, and I won't let you down," I replied, feeling a huge weight lift off my shoulders even though the real work was just starting.
Grayson turned and walked out of the kitchen without another word, and Jax gave me a small nod before following him, so I turned back to Martha and started grabbing the rest of the supplies we needed. I told her we had to make a bigger batch because four jars weren't going to be enough for all the children, so she started pulling more pots from the cupboards while I showed her the right way to grind the roots.
"You've got a lot of nerve talking to him like that, honey, but I think he needed to hear it because he’s been spinning in circles since the first pup got sick," Martha said, and she started helping me measure out the water.
"I don't care about his feelings right now, I just care about those kids," I told her, using a heavy stone mortar and pestle to crush the mountain grape root into a fine powder.
"We need to make sure the water stays at a low simmer, because if it gets too hot, it will ruin the properties of the herbs and we'll just be giving them flavored water."
We spent the next forty-five minutes working together in a focused silence, and I showed Martha how to watch for the color change in the liquid so she would know when it was ready to be strained. My hands were covered in dust and my hair was sticking to my forehead from the steam, but I didn't stop until we had enough for every child in the infirmary and a little bit extra just in case.
Once the tea was ready, we poured it into clean glass bottles and packed them into a crate, and I felt a surge of nervous energy as we prepared to walk across the clubhouse to face the pack doctor and the angry parents.
I knew that the next two hours would decide everything, and as I picked up the crate, I whispered a small prayer that Nana’s old recipe was as strong as she said it was.