Chapter 245
Silence hangs heavy in the expansive hospital ward. The cardiac monitor emits a rhythmic beep, echoing in the room alongside the strained inhales and exhales of everyone present, and the rapid thumps echoing in their chests.
Hendrix’s pulse races the quickest, slamming against his ribs with fierce intensity. His skin pales to a ghostly white, and beads of icy perspiration trickle down his temples and cheeks, soaking into his collar. Each lingering moment drives the weight of the revelation deeper into his thoughts, stirring a rising tide of dread that clutches at his insides.
His thoughts drift back to a tale from long ago about an ordinary she-wolf blessed with extraordinary talent. He was just nine years old when he first heard the story—the she-wolf who, upon discovering her mate, unlocked a rare power to mend any injury. As long as life still exist in the victim, she could repair even the gravest damage, knitting flesh and bone back together seamlessly.
She had been paired with a beta, and her ability came to light only after she pulled his sister back from the brink of death. From that instant, her world flipped into chaos. Countless others coveted her skill, scheming to claim her, even the alpha of her mate’s own pack. Threats loomed over her every day, forcing her and her mate into a desperate flight for two gruelling years.
Hendrix recalls his father conferring with the elders about mounting a rescue. The best friend of the she-wolf had bonded with one of the elder’s sons, and in a heartfelt appeal, she implored Alpha Clay—Hendrix’s father—to intervene and safeguard her dearest friend. Clay consented, and the elder council followed suit, yet before they could try, captors seized her. In the brutal clash, her mate and young son died. Devastated, the she-wolf ended her own life mere days later, marking the tragic close of her story.
A sudden wave of searing warmth engulfs Hendrix, as if sunlight blazes directly onto his skin despite the enclosed room. He grabs at his shirt, tearing it apart with a sharp, ragged rip that echoes off the walls, then yanks the tattered pieces away from his body, flinging them as though they carry some invisible disease. The abrupt noise jolts the others from their dazed states, and they turn their gazes towards their alpha, eyes filled with concern and shared anguish.
Hendrix discards the mangled shirt onto the tiles, then rakes his fingers through his hair in rough, urgent strokes. He clings to the hope that his position as alpha of Lúa Infinita will shield her, but deep down, he recognises the folly in that. His father had braced for any assault to defend that long-ago she-wolf, yet even he harboured doubts about the choice. If pursuers hounded her relentlessly for a gift that fell short of reviving the dead, then every covetous supernatural being and mortal alike will swarm after Sapphire the moment her secret spreads.
Can his pack endure an unending barrage of assaults? Those onslaughts will persist without mercy until she is taken or killed.
Hendrix rises from the chair, the plastic creaking under his shifting weight. He presses the pad of his thumb hard against the centre of his forehead, rubbing in tight, restless circles as though he might force clarity through the skin. Protection feels possible in theory—his rank, his pack, his will—but the question gnaws deeper: will she endure it? Living with perpetual vigilance, every shadow a potential threat, every stranger a risk, wears a person down in ways no amount of strength can shield against. Can she bear that steady erosion of peace? And what happens if the pack itself fractures under the strain? After all greed lives in every creature; it only needs the right temptation to uncoil.
A cascade of grim possibilities floods his mind—imagined betrayals, ambushes in the dark, faces he has trusted turning cold with calculation. Each fresh horror tightens the muscles along his jaw until his teeth ache. Alaric surges forward then, seizing the mind-link with sharp authority while Hendrix remains trapped in spiralling panic.
“This is an order from your alpha. No one speaks of what occurred in this hospital to any outsider. Brie Gardenfield did not survive because of my mate. She survived because Alessandro is an exceptional healer. Anyone who leaks the pack’s secret and places my mate in danger will be torn apart by my own hands.”
A quiet voice interrupts from the doorway. “That’s going to be difficult.”
Hendrix whips his head round. Niall steps into the ward, one arm wrapped firmly around Khloe, who leans heavily against him. Her knees buckle with every step; only his hold keeps her upright. Sweat glistens along her hairline, and her breaths come in shallow, uneven pulls.
“What do you mean, difficult?” Hendrix’s voice cracks with Alaric’s deeper timbre layered beneath it. His left eye flares bright yellow, the wolf pressing close to the surface.
Niall meets his gaze without flinching. “What happened was five days ago. Do you honestly believe no one has talked in all that time? I received a call barely ten minutes back from an old acquaintance. He wanted to know if it was true—what he’d heard through a chain of gossips. Someone told a friend, who told her cousin, whose boyfriend’s sister knows someone in Lúa Infinita. The story now claims our luna is a blood wolf who can heal any wound, no matter how lethal, and even bring back the dead. The rumour’s already spreading, and it grows more absurd with each retelling. It’s too late to contain.”
Merrielle lingers just behind them, exhaling a long, weary breath. She lifts her phone, screen still glowing. “That’s not the worst of it. Uncle Grey’s son, Anthony, rang me earlier. His friend—a bounty hunter and assassin—was hired to look into the rumours. If they check out, the client is prepared to pay him to take the luna. Anthony’s friend—his brother-in-law, actually—killed the messenger instead and told Anthony to pass on the warning. Things are about to turn ugly.”
Hendrix drops back into the chair. The frame jolts against the floor tiles. His stomach plummets, leaving a hollow ache behind his sternum. This moment slides past nightmare into night terror. He never pictured this trajectory—from a cursed mate fated to destroy him, to a woman hunted for the sole purpose of being kept alive as a living life insurance. The absurdity of it presses against the back of his throat.
“I can buy us time,” Kira says suddenly.