“But it didn’t.” I press my fingers to his lips before he can spiral any further. “It didn’t because you were here. Because you refused to let me face this alone.”
Connor takes a shaky breath, and some of the guilt drains from his face. Not all of it—I don’t think all of it will fade for a long time—but enough that he looks less like he’s about to shatter.
And then the nausea hits.
It crashes over me without warning, a wave of dizziness and sickness so strong that I have to close my eyes against it. The room spins even behind my eyelids, and I feel myself swaying in Connor’s arms.
“Hey.” His voice cuts through the fog, sharp with concern. “Hey, stay with me. Fern? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel good.” The words come out slurred, distant. “Dizzy. Nauseous.”
“Fern—”
“I think I’m going to—”
But I never finish the sentence. A wave of darkness crashes over me, dragging me under, and the last thing I hear before everything goes black is Connor screaming my name.
Chapter 24 - Connor
Back and forth. Back and forth. Twenty steps one way, twenty steps the other.
The medical center hallway stretches out on either side of me, sterile and white and far too quiet. Behind the closed door of examination room three, Fern is being looked over by one of the pack doctors. I have no idea what’s wrong with her. I have no idea why she collapsed. All I know is that one moment she was talking to me, smiling at me, telling me she was okay, and the next her eyes rolled back, and she went limp in my arms.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Luna observes as she approaches.
“I can’t just stand still. Not while she’s in there.”
“I can see that.” She takes up a position against the wall, watching me pace. “Any news yet?”
“No. They’ve been in there for twenty minutes. Nobody’s told me anything. Every time I try to go in, one of the nurses tells me I have to wait out here.”
“Skylar is thorough. She won’t come out until she knows exactly what she’s dealing with.”
I know that. Skylar has been the pack’s lead healer for years, and I’ve never known her to miss a diagnosis. But knowing doesn’t make the waiting any easier. Every second that ticks by feels like an hour. Every muffled sound from behind that door makes my heart slam against my ribs.
“I wanted to thank you,” I tell Luna as I pass her for the hundredth time. “For what you did back there. If you hadn’t stepped in when you did, Fern would be—”
I can’t finish the sentence. The words get stuck somewhere in my throat and refuse to come out. The image of that knife against Fern’s skin, the thin line of blood already forming, plays on a loop in my head every time I close my eyes.
“It’s my job,” Luna replies simply. “As the Alpha’s mate, protecting pack members is part of what I do. I’m just glad I got there in time.”
“How did you know? That something was wrong, I mean. Did someone call you?”
Luna shakes her head. “Nic and I sensed the corruption moving through town earlier today. We’ve been tracking it, trying to pinpoint its location. The Cheslem magic leaves a signature, like a trail of rot wherever it goes. When I felt it spike at the medical center, I knew something had gone wrong. By the time I arrived, you’d already broken through the door.”
“The golden light. That was your magic.”
She nods. “Cheslem corruption has a specific frequency. Once I identified it, I was able to use my power to temporarily freeze the host and force the darkness to recede. It gave Fern the opening she needed to get free.”
I stop pacing long enough to face her properly. “I’ve never seen anything like it. One second Robbie was ranting at the air, and the next he just… stopped. Like someone had hit a pause button.”
“The corruption was fighting me for control of him. It didn’t want to let Fern go. But the thing about Cheslem magic is that it’s parasitic. It needs a willing host to survive. Once I introduced enough of my own power into the equation, the darkness had to choose between holding onto Fern and protecting itself.” Luna’s mouth curves into a grim smile. “Self-preservation won.”
“And Robbie? Where is he now?”
“Contained in one of the cells beneath pack headquarters. Nic has guards posted around the clock until we figure out how to purge the corruption from his system.” Luna pauses, and something moves across her face. “It won’t be simple. The darkness had time to sink deep roots, and he was already troubled before it found him. There might not be much of the original man left to save.”
“How does someone even get corrupted like that? He’s human. I didn’t think Cheslem magic could affect humans.”
