Word Count: 2411

~Evoni

I freeze, attention darting between the pair.

I wait for Maric to explode, to get angry that a subordinate is speaking to him so plainly. Instead, he looks resigned, in a way he hasn't done since we arrived here.

"I had to. She saw me."

The female shakes her head in quiet bewilderment. Slowly, she edges closer to me, looking over my sweat soaked clothing, my pallid skin and uneven breath.

"She looks close to death. Why not just leave her out there?" She nudges my leg with her foot, and I hiss in pain, scowling at her.

Maric gives her a long look. "Come on, Billie. Do you know me at all?"

Her mouth tightens as she continues to stare at me. I look right back, noting the darkness of her eyes and the brightness of the silver ring. She is pretty, whoever she is, in a severe, intense sort of way.

"She picked Luna's Bloom. Apparently she knows how to turn it into a fertility potion—"

"—powder," I amend.

"I believe her. She wasn't lying," he insists. "Look."

He turns rifling through his own pack to produce the flower. It's crumpled now, which he had reservations about, but I insisted it would be fine. Once dried, it will be ground to dust anyway.

"She claims she knows a recipe. One she can replicate." He sets the flower down on a hand-carved table to his left. It's probably why it smells like pine in here, underneath the stench of my blood.

I don't bring up that I don't know the recipe off by heart. I know of the recipe, which is in my textbook back home.

I figure I better wait until they've healed me before I drop that bomb.

"All she has to do is believe she can make the potion successfully. That won't make her a liar," Billie states, folding her arms over her chest. "I've been working on this my entire life, Maric. My mother before that, and her father before. None of us have been successful."

"If you're so unsuccessful in making the fertility powder, how are you not extinct by now? How do you still have a large enough population to sustain yourselves?" I ask. It's been a question on the tip of my tongue for days now.

Maric glances at Billie, then back to me. "When you work so intensely at something, you're bound to have the odd success."

I almost choke on whatever saliva I have left. "Intensely?"

He only stares at me. "What is wrong with what I said?"

"Nothing," I say quickly.

"Your surprise is implying that you believe the males of our kind are insufficient in some way." His eyes narrow. "It is the case that we prioritise such acts due to our waning fertility. Some do not have any at all."

Yikes, I must have struck I nerve. I glance at Billie for help, who sighs, eyes rolling.

"Anyway," she mutters. "Male pride aside, why have you not healed this girl if her life means so damn much to you?"

"She doesn't want my mouth between her legs," Maric responds simply, pinning me with a look that I match right back. He's not going to make me feel crazy for having this boundary."

Billie shrugs. "Then it is what it is."

"I know you have medicine that Archie brought." He raises a brow at her. It's a dare to challenge his authority.

Her jaw works as she contemplates denying him. Clearly their relationship is less formal than with his other pack members, but ultimately, it's his word she must abide when he demands it.

"Fine, I'll stitch her up." Her gaze sweeps to me. "But it will hurt."

I swallow my words as she turns and leaves the tent.

Maric sighs, running a hand over his jaw. He's troubled, knowing the risk of bringing me here, and is feeling burdened by it.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"Billie." He settles into a chair, bowing his head back. "She's a healer, although doesn't often work on humans, as you can imagine."

A shrug with one shoulder. True enough.

"She also is the sole person working on the fertility elixir," he explains.

I don't bring up how foolish it is to dedicate only one mind to such an important task, but clearly is has something to do with her bloodline, which matters to them.

I'm too concerned about how me, a human, has just entered her world, to tell her exactly how to do her job...I wouldn't be surprised if she just leaves me to bleed out.

He rises again from his seat, only allowing himself the briefest moment to relax.

"I will send for some broth for you. Billie will return soon," he says, and then he is gone.

Sighing, I settle deeper into the furs. I'm sure he's gone to debrief his Beta and explain himself to his pack members.

A few minutes later, Billie returns with an armful of supplies. She sets them down, next to me, sorting them quietly for a moment.

Her gaze brushes on my pant leg, which has been shredded open.

"I'm not even going to ask," she mutters, shaking her head.

She cleans the blood from the wound, ignoring my shrill cries of pain. She works with a steady hand, not hesitating when she disinfects it — too late for that — and I almost bat her hand away as I struggle to bear it.

She pauses with a thread and needle in hand.

"If you come out of this alive, and return to your human scum village, and tell a single word about us, I will kill you and everyone you have ever loved," she vows lethally.

I stiffen, my vision swimming. There are two of her, weaving in and out, both equally terrifying.

"Yeah, yeah. Get on with it."

She reaches out, grabbing my wrist before squeezing to the point of pain. I can't jerk away as she leans over me.

"I can't imagine why Maric would risk bringing you here. I would have left you to die." Her head cocks to the side. "But his orders stand, for now. If you act against us, you will die, but only after those you love have suffered."

"Then I suppose it's lucky I don't have many people I love," I grit out, exhaling in relief when she lets me go, leaning back.

I only worry about Rowan and Cherry. I don't have parents, that I speak to at least, or many friends back home. I'm pretty reclusive.

"I just want you to know, I'm going to enjoy this." Billie brings the needle to my wound, piercing my skin...

Only for me to pass out a moment later.

When I next wake, the world is oozing colour in my vision, a solid figure swaying before me. It takes a few blinks for my vision to clear, to realise Billie looms over me, cleaning her hands off on a rag.

"You good, human?"

I cough, tasting blood on the back of my tongue. The pain in my thigh is stuck at a persistent, throbbing ache.

"I'm...fine," I grit out, leaning up far enough to examine my wound.

It's been stitched and treated, a bandage wound around it. I collapse back onto the furs in relief, letting out a shuddering breath.

"Will I be okay?"

Billie tilts her head from side to side contemplatively. "Probably not. You have an infection. You need a stronger and longer antibiotic course than what Archie has ever been able to bring us."

He must have taught her all about this, because how else does she know about human medicine and treatment? Why has she ever cared to learn?

"So what, all this just for me to die anyway?" I take the water skin she offers me, sipping the tepid water slowly.

She glances back at the tent exit. "You'll be fine, if you drink some of the Alpha's blood, it will—"

"Yuck, no way! What am I, a vampire?"

Her face twists in confusion. "What is a vampire?"

I huff out a breath, shaking my head. I see tales of folklore and mythology haven't reached them.

"A vampire is supposed to be your biggest enemy...you know, they drink blood, they have...never mind," I mutter drowsily. "I'm not drinking blood. That's disgusting."

"It's either that or die." She dusts off her hands, standing from her crouch next to me. "Fine by me either way, although I do have a preference."

I scowl at her back as she approaches the tent flap. Pulling it back, she speaks to someone outside. A moment later, Maric steps back into the space.

From the lack of light cutting through the gap in the tent, and the lanterns and torches lit about, it's turned nighttime.

Billie stands with her hands on her hips, glaring down at me. "She won't drink your blood. I recommend forcing it down her gullet or watch her die, probably overnight."

Human doctors could really teach this healer a thing or two about bedside manner.

I give Maric a desperate look. "Come on. It's blood!"

He bows his head back, firelight drenching the underside of his defined jawline. He mumbles something under his breath that I miss, before he approaches where I lay.

"If you die, who is going to care for Cherry?" He asks with a raised brow, stooping down to one knee next to me.

My eyes narrow. I could say Rowan, but there's a fat chance he'll be any good at being responsible. He'd probably send Cherry straight to a shelter after one month.

"Fine." I sit up. "But if I grow fangs, shove a wooden stake in my chest."

Both Billie and Maric stare at me with such confusion I almost giggle. They have no idea about anything.

In an instant, Maric sprouts a claw from his index finger, slicing into his wrist. It's gone immediately, making me think for a moment, that I might have just hallucinated.

He lets his blood drip, thick and red into a shallow dish Billie produces for him. We watch it pool, my stomach turning.

"How does your blood heal humans?" I ask distractedly.

"My bloodline has always carried this ability, but it only goes as far as to help humans," he explains softly, taking a clean rag from Billie to press against his cut.

I suppress a shiver. "How did you find that out?"

He hesitates, looking at Billie who shakes her head.

"It's a long story."

They really don't trust me, and why would they? I surmise them finding about this blood quirk has everything to do with their human friend, Archie.

He places the bowl of his blood into my palms. "Drink."

"All of it," Billie adds.

Grimacing, I raise the lip of the bowl to my mouth. It immediately crosses my mind that this could be some demented prank, but the solemnity of which they gaze upon me has me deciding otherwise.

At the first mouthful of his blood, I gag. Some of it spills past my lips and down my chin.

"Get it down, girl," Billie snaps, standing far enough back that if I retch up the blood, it won't land squarely on her beige clothing.

I force down another mouthful. The blood is warm and dense, moving down my throat lethargically. It takes all my effort not to throw it back up immediately, the coppery taste not unlike what I was coughing up earlier.

Billie takes the bowl when I'm done, replacing it with a rag that I wipe over my face, cleaning away the last remnants of the blood.

"Well done," Maric murmurs, studying me closely as I lay back, forcing in a breath.

"You should prepare," Billie says, her voice distant. I can't concentrate on much beyond the uneasy churn of my stomach contents. "Last time someone consumed it, they—"

I don't hear what she says next. I'm drowning in an absence of reality, as a crashing wave of euphoria overcomes me. It's so intense, I almost pass out again.

I'm relishing in it, in the utter perfection that has overcome my body, that I don't see Billie approach until she's tossing water onto my face, shocking me back.

I yelp, spitting water from my mouth.

"Hey," Maric admonishes softly, frowning at Billie. "Let her enjoy it."

I feel too good to bother snapping at Billie, even as water soaks through my hair, dribbling down the sides of my neck.

Vaguely, I hear Billie and Maric arguing back and forth. I hardly care. I stretch languorously, the furs butter soft, the world spinning with brightness and colour.

I've never felt so good in my life.

"You should put some distance between yourself and her," Billie advises her Alpha. "In case she jumps your bones."

I giggle, wanting to tell her that it's not like that. It's more than just simple pleasure, it's euphoria.

Although, I wouldn't complain it...

My head turns limply toward Maric, my smile growing. Panic flashes in his eyes and he forces himself up and away from my bedside. Billie claps her hands together in amusement.

"It will be over soon, Alpha. Don't fret," she tells him over peals of laughter.

No, it will never end. I cannot allow it. It feels too good, too...

Never mind.

Leaning over to the side, I throw up on the floor. The red of Maric's blood spills out across the woven mat, sinking into its fibres.

Maric curses, but Billie doesn't seem surprised. "The blood has done the trick. The wound will take time to heal, but the stitches will help."

I groan, the euphoria vanishing as quickly as it was there. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Billie cleans up around me while I assess a wary looking Alpha. "Can I go home yet?"

He exhales slowly, clearly relieved. "For now, just get some rest."

I don't want to oblige him, but I don't have any other choice. Exhaustion chases me all the way into sleep, and into the nightmares beyond it.

🖤••🖤

If you want more, this story is available 10 chapters ahead on Inkit at all times! Just search for Midika Crane (Sophie) and you'll find this work under the stories tab.

I appreciate everyone who supports my work and continues to read my stories. I'm so grateful for you! Enjoy!

~Midika 💜🐈‍⬛