Chapter 43 The Turning Point
Aria's POV
Martha and I carried the heavy crate of glass bottles through the long hallway that led to the infirmary, and I could feel the eyes of every shifter we passed drilling into the back of my head because word had clearly gotten out about my argument with Grayson.
The infirmary was a wide room with white walls and several small cots, and it was currently filled with the sound of shallow breathing and the quiet sobbing of mothers who were sitting by their children.
When we entered, the pack doctor looked up from a clipboard with a scowl on his face, and he looked like he wanted to toss us out right then, but Grayson was standing by the window and he gave me a sharp nod that told the doctor to stay quiet.
"I'm here to give the first dose to Sarah's son," I said, my voice sounding much steadier than I actually felt as I walked over to the first cot where the boy was lying.
Sarah looked up at me with red, swollen eyes and she clutched her son’s hand even tighter, so I knelt down beside her and opened the bottle of dark liquid while Martha held the boy’s head up slightly.
"He needs to drink all of this, Sarah, and I know it smells bad and it’s going to taste even worse, but you have to make sure he swallows every drop or the fever won't let go of his blood."
"If this hurts him, Aria, I swear I will never let you leave this room," Sarah whispered, but she helped us tilt the bottle back while the boy let out a weak groan and swallowed the thick tea.
The room went completely silent as the other parents watched us, and I could see dozens of pack members standing outside the glass windows of the infirmary, looking in with angry and suspicious expressions.
I stayed by the cot and kept my hand on the boy’s chest so I could monitor his heart rate, but for the first five minutes nothing happened, and then suddenly the boy’s skin turned a bright, angry red. He started thrashing around on the bed and his fever seemed to skyrocket until he was sweating so much the sheets were soaked, which made the heart monitor on the wall start beeping with a loud, frantic rhythm.
"What did you do to him? He's burning up even more!" Sarah screamed, jumping to her feet and trying to push me away from the bed.
The men outside the window started shouting and banging on the glass, and the door to the infirmary burst open as two of the bigger bikers rushed in with their teeth bared and their eyes glowing a bright yellow. They looked like they were ready to tear me apart because they thought I had poisoned the child, and the pack doctor was yelling about how he knew a human shouldn't have been trusted with our medicine.
I felt a wave of pure terror as the men moved toward me, but Grayson moved faster than any of them and stepped right in the middle of the room to block their path.
"Get back! Every single one of you get back right now!" Grayson roared, and the sheer power in his voice made the bikers freeze in their tracks while the windows rattled in their frames.
"She’s killing him, Alpha! Look at him, he’s shaking and his heart is going to burst!" one of the men shouted, trying to push past Grayson’s shoulder.
"I told her she had two hours, and I am a man of my word, so if any of you touch her before that clock is up, you'll have to go through me first," Grayson replied, and he looked so terrifying that even the most aggressive wolves took a step back.
He stood there like a wall of solid muscle, keeping his own men at bay while I turned back to the boy and ignored the chaos happening behind me. I grabbed a cold rag and started wiping the boy’s face, because I knew from Nana’s stories that the spirit-poison always fought back before it left the body, and the fever spike was actually a sign that the herbs were working.
Sarah was crying and begging Grayson to let the doctor take over, but I just kept my eyes on that black vein on the boy’s neck and waited for the clock to tick.
Ten minutes felt like ten hours as we waited in that tense room, but then, just as the doctor reached for a syringe to sedate the boy, the beeping of the monitor started to slow down. The boy’s breathing went from a frantic wheeze to a deep, calm sigh, and the bright red flush on his skin faded away to a healthy pink color right before our eyes. I leaned in closer and felt his forehead, which was now cool and damp, and when I looked at his neck, the thick black vein was completely gone, leaving nothing behind but clear skin.
"His fever is gone," the doctor whispered, stepping forward to check the monitor while he looked at me with a mix of confusion and respect.
"I don't understand how that's possible, but his vitals are back to normal and the toxin seems to have been neutralized."
Sarah let out a sob of relief and collapsed back into her chair, pulling her son into her arms while the boy blinked his eyes open and looked around the room like he had just woken up from a long nap.
The people outside the window stopped shouting and started whispering to each other, and I could see the tension leaving Grayson’s shoulders as he turned to look at me with an expression I couldn't quite read.
I didn't give him time to say anything, because I stood up and pointed toward the crate of bottles that was still sitting on the table.
"Don't just stand there staring at me, because we have five more kids who need this right now, and the batch we made in the kitchen isn't going to be enough to treat the whole pack if this spreads."
I turned to two of the bikers who had just been trying to attack me, and I didn't care that they were twice my size or that they were wolves.
"You two, I need you to get on your bikes and go to the creek bed on the east side of the woods, because there's a specific type of mountain grape root that grows near the water and I need at least three pounds of it by sunset. And you," I said, pointing at another guy near the door, "go find Jax and tell him I need more clean jars and all the honey he can find in the storage locker."
The men looked at each other and then at Grayson, who just gave them a small nod, so they scrambled out of the room to do exactly what I told them to do. For the first time since I had arrived at the clubhouse, people weren't looking at me like I was a burden or a pet, they were looking at me like I was someone who knew how to lead. I started moving from cot to cot with Martha, helping the other mothers give the tea to their children, and even though I was exhausted and my hands were still shaking, I felt a strange sense of belonging that I hadn't felt in a long time.
Grayson stayed by the door and watched me work, and when our eyes met for a second, he didn't look away or scowl like he usually did. He just watched me bark orders at his men, and I realized that the "headache" he kept complaining about was finally starting to prove its worth.