Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Chapter 49 Wolfsbane
“What’s going on, doctor?” Alpha Ulric said.
“It’s the wolfsbane,” Dr. Boman said. “I don’t know if a pregnancy would have taken hold, but the wolfsbane reacted to the werewolf semen inside her. It made her body identify it as poison, and now it has to expel it. This is a bad time to be losing more blood. We don’t have any more to give her.”
“Would the blood of unshifted wolves work?”
“Maybe,” Dr. Boman said, thinking. “I can test it before we transfuse it into the future Luna.”
“I’ll send out a call for any unshifted wolves, see if anyone is a match, and will donate,” Alpha Ulric said. His eyes glazed over as he mind linked the entire pack. He informed them their future Luna needed blood from an unshifted wolf. He told them the blood type, and if anyone could donate, come to the pack doctor immediately.
“Was I pregnant?” Thea said. Her voice was weak and raspy, but they had no trouble hearing her with their werewolf senses. All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.
“Luna,” Dr. Boman said. He and the Alpha walked over to her. The triplets were sitting beside her, holding onto her, eyes red from crying. She was on a new bed. “If I’m right, you were a virgin before the mating ceremony?” “Yes,” Thea said.
“Then it had only been thirty-six hours. It can take up to ten days before you become pregnant. It takes time for the sperm to travel to the egg and fertilize it. Then it takes time for the fertilized egg to implant, and that’s only if you recently ovulated. It’s unlikely that happened before the wolfsbane reacted. Right now, your system is trying to flush out what it sees as poison.”
“Would I have been pregnant if this didn’t happen?”
“There’s no way to know for sure if you were or would have been,” Dr. Boman said. “It was too early.”
“Did this cause permanent damage? Can I still have pups in the future?” It took all her energy to speak, but she had to know. The triplets looked at Dr. Boman for his answer.
“I don’t know. Something like this, we’ll have to wait and see.” The triplets felt Thea’s heartache immediately. “You’ll have to wait until your body heals before you can try. Did you hear that, future Alphas? You cannot put your werewolf semen inside her until she’s healed, and we know the wolfsbane is completely out of her system.”
“Yes, doctor,” they said in unison.
“Luna, the more immediate danger is that you’re losing blood, and you don’t have a lot to lose,” Dr. Boman said. Just then, a group of parents and their children knocked on the door.
“I’ll be back as quickly as I can,” Dr. Boman said. He hurried away.
“We want to help,” the group said.
“Follow me,” Dr. Boman said.
He called in his nurses to start taking blood from the children. “Only a quarter pint each,” he said to the nurses.
He took the first donation and put a bit on the sheet with Thea’s blood. He looked at it under a microscope.
He focused and refocused the lens. Waited. Focused the lens again.
“I don’t see a reaction. I think it’s safe,” Dr. Boman said. He took the tiny bags of blood into Thea’s room. He hooked the first one into her IV and squeezed it to push it in as fast as possible. He put the
next bag on and repeated the process. A nurse brought in several more. Lizzy burst into the room with Misty in tow. They took in the room—red-eyed triplets, worried Alpha, doctor and nurses working urgently, Thea pale, sickly, and hooked up to machines. Her eyes were closed. She looked dead.
“I’m unshifted,” Misty said. “Take my blood. You can take more of it than from the kids.”
“Does your father know you’re here?” Alpha Ulric said. “Yes,” Misty said. “I called him on the way. He’s okay with me giving blood. He may come to pick me up.”
“Okay. I’m going to call him but go ahead. Thank you, Misty,” Alpha Ulric said. He pulled his phone out and stepped out into the hall.
A nurse told Misty to follow her, and they walked out of the room. Dr. Boman continued squeezing little blood bags into Thea’s IV. The nurse and Misty came back a few minutes later. The nurse handed Dr. Boman a big bag of blood. He hung it.
“Let’s see how this does before we take any more. How are you feeling, Luna?” Dr. Boman said.
“Better, I think,” she said. Her voice sounded a little stronger.
“Not as tired.” She looked over to the triplets and spoke to their minds. “Will you tell him my stomach still hurts? In mind link?”
Kai’s eyes glazed over for a second.
“It’s going to take a while for the wolfsbane to work its way out of your system,” Dr. Boman said out loud.
Thea nodded.
Alpha Ulric walked back into the room. “Your father is coming,” he said to Misty. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Of course, Alpha Valko,” Misty said, being formal and using his surname since she wasn’t a part of the pack.
“Misty,” Thea said. Her voice was still raspy.
Misty approached the foot of her bed. “Hey,” she said.
“Thank you.” Thea smiled weakly.
“Of course. Are you going to be okay?” Misty said.
Thea looked at Dr. Boman. He squeezed the blood bag then checked her vital signs.
“I think so. With this blood, I think so,” Dr. Boman said.
“Can I ask what happened?” Misty said.
“A rogue,” she said, then started coughing. Thea asked the triplets in her mind to speak for her.
“A rogue injected her with wolfsbane and cut her throat. Her carotid artery,” Kai said. “He strangled her too. That’s why her voice is rough. She’s having a hard time talking.”
Misty nodded. “Did you catch the rogue?”
They shook their heads.
“That’s not comforting,” Misty said.
“No, it isn’t. I told your father to take extra care,” Alpha Ulric said.
“Will you go thank the kids and their parents who gave blood? Write down their names. I want to thank them later,” Thea thought to the triplets.
The triplets nodded and walked out of the room. Thea lifted one hand toward Misty and the other toward Lizzy, who was standing off to the side by Thea’s Delta team guards, out of the way of the medical staff, tears Tunning down her face. They both walked over to Thea and took a hand in theirs.
“Thank you,” Thea said hoarsely.
“Lizzy burst into my class, yelling my name and looking crazed,” Misty said. “She practically dragged me out of there.”
“I heard Alpha Ulric’s call to the pack, and! remembered Misty was a universal donor,” Lizzy said, voice shaky.
“She was frantic. It took a minute to figure out what she was talking about, but once I realized you were in trouble, we raced here,” Misty said.
“Are you okay?” Lizzy said, sniffling.
Thea shrugged. She motioned for something to write with. Lizzy handed her her phone.
“It was scary. I felt helpless. Not a good feeling,” Thea typed. She turned the phone toward them to read.
“Worst part. I may have been pregnant. He injected me with wolfsbane. It reacted to the werewolf semen inside me and made my body identify it as poison. My body is flushing it out right now, but we don’t know if I’ll be able to get pregnant in the future,” Thea typed and showed it to them. Tears spilled out her eyes.
Misty and Lizzy gasped and looked at each other. They both bent down to hug Thea.
“I’m so sorry, Thea,” Misty said, emotion in her voice.
“No way I’m letting that happen,” Lizzy said. “I will hunt down that rogue and kill him myself. Then we’ll find a way.”
They let go of Thea so she could type again. “Don’t tell anyone. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
The girls nodded.
Conri stuck his head in. “Are you up for visitors? The kids want to see if you’re okay.”
“Do I look too scary?” Thea typed.
“You have more color in your cheeks,” Misty said. “But you’re attached to a lot of things. I think it’s fine, though. It’ll probably be good for them to see that you needed help, and they were able to help.”
“Yeah, what she said,” Lizzy said, wiping her tears.
“Yeah, let them come,” Thea thought to Conri.
A moment later, a dozen kids and their parents walked into the room.
Dr. Boman explained to them that the future Luna lost a lot of blood from a rogue attack and needed to put more blood into her body to live.
“Thank you,” Thea said in her hoarse and raspy voice. The parents were all scared for their future Luna. They prayed she would pull through.
The kids didn’t quite know what was going on, but they were proud that they had helped their future Luna. They could see she was injured. They knew they had done something important.
“Will you hug them each for me since I can’t?” Thea thought to the triplets. “And Misty and Lizzy too.”
“The future Luna wants to hug you all, but right now she can’t, so we’re going to do it for her,” Conri said. They hugged and thanked every kid on their way out of the room and shook each parent’s hand. Then they came over to the bed.
“Thank you, Misty,” Alaric said. “We owe you a debt we can’t repay.” He hugged her, and after a moment of surprise, she hugged him back.
“She’s your mate, but let’s be realistic,” Misty said. “ Everyone loves her. I couldn’t let her die. Everyone would hate me forever.”
Alaric laughed and released her. Conri and Kai both hugged and thanked her as well.
“Not every kid who came knew their blood type,” Kai said. “They typed them. A few weren’t a match and couldn’t donate. They wanted so badly to help their future Luna. We’re going to do something for all of them.”
Alpha Ulric’s eyes glazed over. “Alpha Sharpe is at the gates. I’m going to go greet him,” he said.