The sterile white walls of the hospital seemed to close in on me as I stood between the beds of McKenna and McKayla. Both were pale, their chests rising and falling in shallow rhythm, their faces locked in the same exhausted stillness. For the first time in my life, I—the Alpha who had led warriors into battle, who had crushed rivals beneath my heel—felt utterly powerless.
The faint beeping of monitors taunted me, reminding me that each second could be their last. I had ordered the doctors to keep them together, to connect them hand to hand, hoping the bond would do what medicine could not. And for a moment, it had worked. McKayla had stabilized. McKenna’s breathing grew stronger. But then the burning pain ripped through me as I joined them. My veins lit with fire, my chest constricting a
