Chapter 16
Dahlia’s POV
“Where is that nurse p>
I had seen her with Gina before, they seemed pretty close. If anyone knew anything about the black lily or its antidote, it had to be her.
Two guards dragged the head nurse into the room. She was pale as a sheet and shaking. Something about my encounter with the dark entity gave me the ability to know things I wouldn’t normally know.
“The antidote,” I said, stepping right up to her face. “The stuff for the black lily poison. Give it to me right now, or I’ll let the Alpha handle you p>
“I…I don’t p>
“Don’t test me!” I snapped.
She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a small dark bottle. “It has to go slow,” she whispered. “If you go too fast, he won’t shift back p>
I snatched the bottle. “Get her out of here. Lock her up p>
I turned to Axel. Nate was standing at the end of the bed, his knuckles turned white as he gripped the metal rail. He looked smaller than I’d ever seen him.
“Dahlia,” he whispered. “Is he going to make it p>
I looked at the silver wolf on the table. My baby was trapped inside that body. “I didn’t survive six years on my own to lose him to a woman like Gina, Nate. I’m going to save him. But when this is over, we’re going to talk. Really talk p>
He nodded with a faint smile.
I put the needle into the IV line and watched the dark medicine mix with the clear fluid. Now, all we could do was wait and see if the wolf would let my little boy come back to me.
It had to, everyone believed the wolf was Nate’s grandfather. Surely he would set his descendant free.
Outside, I could hear the first howls of the hunt. The pack had found Gina’s scent in the trees. It was a cold, lonely sound.
Nate walked around the bed and stood behind me. He didn’t touch me, but I could feel his heat.
“I should have known,” he said. His voice was so quiet I almost didn’t hear it. “I felt the rot, Dahlia. I felt the pack getting weaker, but I thought it was me. I thought I was a bad Alpha p>
“She gaslit you, Nate,” I said, watching the monitor. Axel’s heart rate was starting to slow down, just a little. “She spent six years making sure you felt like a failure so you wouldn’t look at what she was doing. She’s a predator p>
“And the kids?” Nate asked. “Aidan and Ariana? Are they… are they like him p>
“Aidan is smart,” I said, a small smile finally breaking through my fear. “He’s got your brain for strategy. And Ariana… she’s the heart. But they’re all yours, Nate. Every bit of them p>
He let out a long breath, like he’d been holding it for years. “I have so much to make up for p>
“We’ll see,” I said. “Right now, I just need my son to wake up p>
We sat there in the quiet medical wing, the only sound being the beep of the machines and the distant howls from the woods.
The sun was starting to come up, hitting the silver fur of the wolf on the bed. Slowly, very slowly, the fur started to recede. The paws turned back into small, human hands.
Axel was coming back!
He looked so small under the heavy blankets, his pale face finally back to its normal color. The fever had broken, and his heart rate on the monitor was a steady, comforting rhythm.
I sat in a chair by his side, my eyes burned from lack of sleep. I still had Gina’s black blood on my dress, dried into dark crusty spots. I didn’t want to move. I felt like if I took my eyes off him for even a second, he might slip away again.
The door creaked open. I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. The air in the room changed, it got warmer and heavier with the scent of pine and rain.
Nate walked in, carrying two sleeping children. He had Aidan draped over his right shoulder and Ariana tucked into his left arm. Both kids were out cold, exhausted from the fear and the long night of waiting.
Nate moved with a softness I hadn’t seen since we were teenagers. He looked like he was holding the most fragile glass in the world.
“They wouldn’t stay in the other room,” Nate whispered. “Aidan kept trying to pick the lock, and Ariana wouldn’t stop crying for you. I thought it was better if we were all together p>
I stood up, my joints popped as I had been sitting for a while. I helped him settle the two of them onto the wide couch against the wall. We tucked a blanket around them, and they curled into each other instinctively.
Nate stood there for a long time, just looking at them. His shoulders were slumped, and the fierce Alpha I had seen in the hall was gone. He just looked like a man who had realized he’d missed a lifetime of moments.
“He looks so much like my father,” Nate said, nodding toward Axel. “The mark… it’s not just a birthmark, Dahlia. The Elders are calling it a miracle. They think he’s the one the prophecies talked about. The one who hands the pack back our salvation we didn’t know we needed p>
“He’s just a six-year-old boy, Nate,” I said, my voice sharp. “He likes grilled cheese sandwiches and drawing pictures of spaceships. Don’t put the weight of the world on him before he can even tie his own shoes p>
Nate looked at me, and for the first time, I saw tears in his eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be what they need p>
“You start by being there,” I said, softening a little. “You start by choosing them, every single time p>
He reached out, as his hand hovered near mine. He didn’t grab it, he just let his fingers brush against my knuckles. It was a question, a plea for a second chance.
“I spent six years hating you,” he whispered. “I thought you left because I wasn’t enough. Because you didn’t want to be an Alpha’s mate. I told myself you were the villain so I could get through the days p>
“You chose another. It was clear as day that you two were meant to be,” I countered.
“I wouldn’t have just moved on quickly to her. I needed to make you understand.” Nate said, as he held my hands.
“It didn’t look that way, Nate. I’m in no mood to argue about the past. Let’s leave things as they were, we can’t change it anyways.” I said
“Dahlia, please,” Nate sighed, as he looked at me with pleading eyes.
“I spent six years running because I thought you’d let Gina kill me,” I replied. “We both believed the lies she told us. We both lost time we can’t get back p>
He just remained quiet because there was nothing to say.
The room felt small, filled with the weight of everything we hadn’t said. The anger was still there, it was a dull ache in my chest, but the relief was bigger. For the first time since I fled, I didn’t feel like I was looking over my shoulder.
Axel stirred in the bed, letting out a soft groan. We both rushed to his side. His eyes fluttered open; it was bright, clear blue, and no longer glowing. He looked at me, then his gaze moved to Nate.
“Dad?” Axel whispered.
The word hit the room like a bomb. Nate froze, his breath hitched in his chest. He looked at me, panicked and hopeful all at once.
I realized then that while I had told the kids their father was a human hero, Axel had seen Nate’s wolf. He had felt the connection during the shift.
“Yeah, buddy,” Nate said, his voice breaking. He sat on the edge of the bed and took Axel’s small hand in his giant one. “I’m here. I’m right here p>
Axel gave a tiny, tired smile and closed his eyes again, falling back into a deep, healthy sleep. Nate didn’t let go of his hand. He sat there for a long time, just watching his son breathe.
“The pack is asking for a trial,” Nate said after a while. “They found Gina’s trail. She didn’t make it to the border. The women found her near the old creek p>
I felt a shiver go down my spine. “Is she p>
“She’s alive,” Nate said, his face hardening.
“But she’s in the cells. The Council wants to strip her of her title and her wolf. They want to make sure she never hurts another child. But there’s a problem p>
“What problem?” I asked, a bad feeling starting to grow in my gut.
“She’s talking,” Nate said. “She’s telling the Elders that she didn’t act alone. She’s claiming that someone from the outside gave her the black lily seeds. Someone who wanted the Silver-Crest line to end so they could take the territory p>
I thought about the man in the cell next to me. The red eyes. The way he knew about the harvest before I did.
“Nate, I saw someone in the dungeons,” I said, my heart starting to race. “Next to my cell. He told me the mountain was hungry. He knew about the kids p>
Nate frowned, his brows furrowing. “The mountain p>
“Yes, it is the very foundation of this pack.” I said.
“Uhm, that’s been a myth, maybe I heard my dad mention it a couple of times. It’s one of those diabolical things I prefer not to get myself involved with.” Nate said.
“The man in the dungeon told me all about it. I don’t think he was joking.” I said.
That’s impossible. Those cells have been empty for months. I checked the logs myself before I put you down there p>
“I’m telling you, he was there,” I insisted. “He had red eyes, and he smelled like the rot. Like stagnant water p>
Nate stood up, his face was turning pale. “Wait here. Don’t leave this room. I’m going to check the security feeds p>
He left the room in a hurry, leaving me alone with the sleeping children. I walked over to the window and looked out at the mountains. It should have been a beautiful morning. The sun was bright, the trees were green, and my kids were safe. But the air felt cold again.
I looked down at the bedside table where Axel’s clothes had been piled. Something caught my eye. A small, folded piece of paper was tucked into the pocket of his shirt, the one he had been wearing when he shifted.
I picked it up and unfolded it. It was a drawing.
It was a sketch of three children standing in a circle of fire. And at the bottom, written in a cramped, shaky hand that I didn’t recognize, were four words that made my blood turn to ice:
The harvest has just begun.