My hands were still shaking. The knife was still hot against my flesh. His blood clung to me like it had a mind of its own, desiring to stay, to claim me.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. Our Alpha, my Alpha was powerless on the ground. His body lying on the ground like some injured beast stripped of its power. Witnessing him broke something in me.
I had done this.
The din surrounding me became meaningless with the charges and the scuffling of bodies. My blood ran cold, the coldness so profound that it was as if a bowl of ice had been filled in my veins.
"Hera!" someone shouted, but the voice was far away and muffled, as if I were underwater.
The entire pack came towards him. Some dropped to the ground beside him, putting hands on the wound to stop the bleeding.
Others came after me with glaring razor-sharp eyes, their faces full of rage.
"You wicked girl, you stabbed him!" one growled, his face twisted with rage.
"She's a traitor!" another spat, finger pointing at me as though already guilty of death.
"She should be made to bleed for this."
I backed away, my chest crashing into something. My legs got tangled in the roots as I backed away, their snarls closing in on me.
"No! I didn't… I didn't mean to…" My voice was cracking, useless against their rage.
The pack trailed after him, trusted him, dwelled at his command. And me? I knifed him, pushed him onto the ground in front of them all.
Their glances sliced me deeper than the blade ever would. I could feel their judgment slicing directly into my heart.
Then Seraphina stepped between us.
"Enough of all these!" Her voice cracked like a whip, fierce and authoritative. She planted her feet solidly in front of me, eyes blazing. "Can't you see? It was a mistake. And besides, he needs help, not your goddamn blame games!"
Her words were kept for a minute by the pack. Not silenced, not convinced, but restrained. Long enough for them to tear their eyes from the Alpha, who was being lifted, his blood spreading across the ground like ink.
"Hospital," one of them growled. "There isn't time to waste."
The pack carried him, their faces pinched in terror and panic. Even in his weakened state, he was still their center. Without him, they were confused and desperate.
And me?
I was just the girl who almost murdered him.
I could feel their eyes on me, even when they were walking. My legs were screaming to buckle. I wrapped myself up, shuddering and wanting to peel my skin so I would not have to bear this blood with it.
Seraphina's fingers clamped around my arm. Her fingernails dug into me, pinching hard enough to anchor me in the here and now. "It's okay sis," she snarled, yanking me forward before the pack could shift once more. "Don't let them rip you apart."
Her voice was steady as if she were filled with no fear at all, but her grip shook. She was safeguarding me, yes, but she was scared too.
At the hospital, everything turned white walls.
The Alpha's body was rushed through swinging doors, devoured by doctors and machines. I sat in the waiting area, folded into myself with my hands crossed tightly enough they ached.
The pack infected the wards with restless, pacing, whispering ghosts. Their voices buzzed around me as stinging accusations that I couldn't escape. I wasn't one of them. Not anymore. Not after what I'd done.
Seraphina stayed by my side, like a barrier, but I could see her jaw clenched tightly enough to shatter.
Sis, I whispered, gazing at my bloodstained hands. "I swear it an was accident. They ambushed us. I…he was in the way…"
She ruffled her head, shutting me up. "Save it. They don't care about anything else at this moment. They only see him bleeding and you holding the knife."
Her words stung, but they were accurate.
Years passed like hours. No sound. Only the tension of a pack unravelling, their own fear feeding itself. And beneath it all, something more.
That silence. That suffocating silence that had come down when he had fallen. It wasn't gone. I could feel it seeping at the edges of the air, gripping tight around my lungs. My senses screamed at me, though I do not know why. The world felt wrong, like something unseen had shifted.
When the doors finally opened, a doctor stepped out. His expression was serious. I had been hoping it would be good news.
"He's alive," he declared factually. Relief caused the room to shake, shoulders sag, breath let out. But then his tone plummeted.
"But something strange… something we can't account for is happening. His vitals, his blood… None of it makes sense. The wound isn't even healing the way that it's supposed to."
The pack glared at one another with tense faces. Whispers spread like fire, unnatural and strange.
They couldn't help but pin all the things happening now on me. "I knew even before today, that you were a wicked person," one of the pack hurled out.
I stood still, my heart pounding. My breath fogged the air as if the hospital had dropped to subzero temperatures. The guilt that I felt was becoming overwhelming.
And then… I saw it.
A shadow. No, not a shadow. A massive, gigantic wolf, with blazing red eyes burning with anger and unnaturally long fangs. It was leaning behind the glass of the ICU room door, snarling ferociously and waiting.
When I blinked once more, it vanished, but I could still feel its presence crawling around us.
I tugged Seraphina's sleeve. "Did you see that sis?" I whispered, shivering.
She scrunched her forehead. "See what?
The eyes, I breathed in fear, "There was a big scary wolf here."
Seraphina's lips thinned to a hard line. She did not speak, only that frozen composure that cried out in its silence louder than words. I should have demanded more, but I did not. I allowed silence to drag on and I allowed it to go unremarked.
The waiting room went quiet in an instant. No buzzing, no whispering, no sounds of living human beings. Only the heavy weight of that other being, and the knowledge we might all be stuck totally and totally.
And then the lights went out.