Chapter 88

Rowena

It felt like time had slowed once those doors slid open. My father and I stood frozen in that doorway for a moment that seemed like an eternity, neither of us prepared to step in and find out what had become of Eric.

But when the guards both gestured for us to enter and shot us impatient looks, we finally exchanged glances and stepped over the threshold.

The first thing I was met with was the smell: antiseptic mixed with perspiration, the kind of musk that only came about when someone had a high fever. I knew that smell well; I had learned to recognize it during my time as a combat management intern.

The second thing I noticed was the dark form lying on the bed. Eric’s form.

He was strapped down, leather restraints tightly binding his wrists and ankles to the hospital cot. A thin sheet must have been draped over him at some point, but it had fallen and was now laying in a heap on the floor.

The more I slowly approached, the more I could see it: the sweat caked to his forehead, the way his eyes were glazed over as they stared up at the ceiling. He wasn’t struggling against his restraints much, but every few moments he would tug at a wrist or an ankle and mutter something.

It took another few trembling paces forward to finally make out what he was mumbling.

“Rowena… Rowena… Ro… Rowena…”

I felt my heart clench, my hand instinctively fluttering up over my chest as though that could somehow protect me from the heartache. Glancing up at my father, his face was stony, his eyes fixed on his son. His biological son.

“I… I have to inject him,” I said softly, holding up the vial.

My father’s eyes flicked over to the vial, and he drew in a sharp breath before nodding at a nearby nurse. Not willing to go against the Alpha’s orders, the nurse scurried over to the supply station and retrieved a fresh sharp still in the package.

“What’s in the vial?” he asked, holding his hand out. “I’ll inject it for you.”

On instinct, I pulled the vial back a bit out of his reach and glanced over at Eric’s delirious form on the bed. “I want to do it myself,” I replied. “I think it’s better if I do it.”

The nurse pursed his lips into a thin line. “You’re not a trained—”

“My daughter knows what she’s doing.”

My father was gripping the edge of Eric’s bed now with white knuckles, his eyes unwavering on Eric’s form. He didn’t bother looking up, not even when he uttered those words. His gaze was too fixed on Eric, and his tone brooked no argument.

The nurse hesitated for a moment, clearly weighing the importance between protocol and obeying the Alpha, before he finally handed me the needle and a pair of latex gloves.

After putting on the gloves, I took the needle with surprisingly steady hands and injected the dark blue blood serum into it, flicking it and pushing the plunger ever so slightly to get the air out. Then, walking up to Eric, I placed my hand on his sweat-covered arm.

“Eric,” I said, even though I knew he likely had no idea where he was let alone who was around him. “Eric, it’s Rowena. It’s… It’s Ro. I’m here. I’m going to make you better.”

Eric didn’t react; nothing more than another tug at his restraint and a weak, “Ro…” A nickname that I hadn’t heard him utter since we were kids.

Drawing in a deep breath, I carefully wiped at the vein on his arm with an antiseptic wipe. And then I injected him with the serum. Even then, he barely reacted to the needle in his arm—a simple jolt at the sudden pricking sensation and a soft growl in the back of his throat, but nothing more.

Once all of the serum had been injected, I carefully pulled the needle out and took a step back, watching. Waiting.

For the longest time, nothing happened—if anything, Eric’s condition only seemed to worsen. I could see it in his eyes, in his movements, hear it in his voice. His glazed eyes began roving the ceiling faster and faster, his limbs jerking at the restraints.

“Rowena… Rowena… Ro… Rowena…” he kept muttering, faster this time.

I felt my father’s hand on my shoulder, gently pulling me back. The nurse wrung his hands beside us, his eyes darting over to the two guards with panic. The guards raised their tranquilizer guns, prepared to shoot.

“Don’t!” I cried out, holding my hand out to stop them. “Give it a moment.”

The guards glanced at me. My father’s hand tightened on my shoulder, and then I felt both of his arms snake around me and pull me closer, flush against his chest. Shielding me from the truth—from the ugly fact that my serum had only made things worse, that Eric’s condition was far too gone, that the guards were going to have to tranquilize him again.

“Dad…”

“Don’t worry, Rowena,” my father muttered into my hair. “We’ll… We’ll find another way. Nothing will happen to Eric. I won’t let it.”

Sucking in a breath through my teeth, I looked up at my father. For the first time ever, I saw fear in his eyes. Fear, real fear, that he would lose his son; the son that he may not have always appreciated, but the son who he had always loved. His last remaining biological child.

“Dad, I—”

“Ro… Rowena?”

Suddenly, it felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. I whirled around to see Eric still on the bed, his eyes wandering back and forth and with sweat still coating his brow—but he was blinking now, a confused expression dawning on him as he tugged gently at his restraints.

“Hello? Where am I?”

My throat worked uselessly. Before I knew it, I was lunging forward, my hands gripping his arm.

“Eric, I’m here,” I murmured, tears blurring my vision. “I’m here. I’m here. It worked.”

Those blue eyes snapped to mine. “Rowena…”

“Untie him!” I heard my father shout somewhere in the distance. “Untie my son!” People began to scurry around me, removing his restraints, but I barely noticed. All I saw were those eyes, those lips, that sweat-covered forehead caking that blond hair to his skin.

The man I knew I loved.

With a freshly trembling hand, I reached up to cup his cheek in my palm. He leaned into the touch, a confused but happy smile stretching across his lips.

But then reality returned. Someone in a white lab coat was shoving me out of the way, shining a flashlight in Eric’s eyes and taking his temperature. A few moments later, the physician was whipping around to look at me with wild eyes. “How…”

“Administer this to all of the patients,” I said simply, thrusting the other vials of my serum into the physician’s hands. “Immediately.”

The physician hardly questioned it—not with Alpha Griffith glaring daggers at her. She simply nodded and ran off, the sounds of her shouted orders instantly fading into the distance.

I closed the distance between myself and Eric again, who was now sitting up on the bed and rubbing his eyes dazedly. Before I could even manage to utter a word, however, my father stepped in the way and placed his hand on Eric’s shoulder.

Neither of them spoke—although, I don’t think they needed to. The look between the two of them spoke a thousand words, years of tension seeping out of their shoulders. I knew, in that moment, that things had changed. Permanently. Between all of us.

Then, with a nod, my father stepped back and glanced over at me.

“I’ll give you two a few minutes,” he said, then slipped out of the room.

The doors had barely slid shut when Eric’s strong arms were suddenly around me. I dug my fingers into the thin cotton of his hospital gown, burying my face in his chest.

“Eric, I found a cure,” I murmured into his chest. “I told you I would. And I did.”

Eric let out a soft laugh, his lips brushing against the top of my head. “I told you I always believed in you above everyone else.”

Tears prickled my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them spill. I clutched his shirt even tighter, burying my face deeper into him. I have to tell him, I thought. I have to tell him that I know I’m not his sister, and that I love him.

“Eric, I…”

Suddenly, the doors slid open. Eric and I pulled apart to see the physician and more nurses streaming in, clipboards and medical instruments in hand.

“We’re sorry for interrupting,” the physician said, “but we need to run some tests…”

I nodded, hastily swiping at the tears that had escaped as I pulled away. A moment later, Eric was lost amongst a sea of nurses and doctors, so much so that I could barely see him. The same physician from before turned to me, a look of pure shock and awe on her face.

“Thank you… for whatever that was,” she murmured. “You just made history.”

I quickly shook my head. “No. It…” I paused, glancing over at my father, who was in the doorway. He subtly shook his own head, and I realized that if I said anything else, I would give away my true lineage.

Instead, I simply shot the physician a smile. “I just did what I had to do to save my brother.”