(Dialogue Prompt here. Continuation of this.)
*Note: {H} and {h} are used in place of names as I haven't come up with any yet.
“Alpha.”
{H} looked up from reading the latest financial reports to the woman standing in the office doorway. He set the papers down and stood. “Anna.”
The healer shuffled in, leaning heavily on her cane. He held his breath, hoping for good news but one look at her face and he knew it wasn’t. He breathed out slowly and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“How long?”
She sighed and sat on one of chairs on the other side of his desk. She brought the cane in front of her and settled her hands on top. “Not very.”
Pain unlike any he’d experienced ripped through him. Tears filled his eyes as helpless anguish gripped his heart in a deathlike grip and squeezed, leaving him gasping for breath. His wolf howled in his head, its bay long and sorrowful.
“Little Anthony told me she couldn’t shift for their walk yesterday,” Anna said softly. “He said he couldn’t sense her wolf either.”
He grabbed the edge of the desk to keep from falling and closed his eyes. Why didn’t she say anything? He let his head fall forward. He knew why, and couldn’t blame her.
“If you insist on keeping your mate at arm’s length, I suggest you put her down now.” Disapproval rang heavy in Anna’s voice. “She’s too weak as it is to fight the madness that’s coming. It would be unfair to her to let her suffer even a minute of it.”
He jerked upright at her suggestion and glared at the woman who’d known him since birth. She held his gaze, disappointment and anger making her aging wolf bleed into her eyes. He growled, his own wolf answering hers but she refused to retreat. She slammed the tip of the cane into the carpet and stood.
“You may be Alpha but you’re an idiot to deny her the one thing that would bring her peace. She suffered enough under her father’s thumb and yet she’d rather return there than stay here.” She jabbed the cane into his chest. “Ask yourself why that it is. Why on God’s green earth would your own mate want to return to that hellhole instead of remain here.”
He grabbed the cane and hissed, “You speak too freely.”
She laughed harshly and yanked the cane from his grasp with surprising strength. “And you don’t speak enough.” She backed away. “Nor do you listen enough. Your mate is dying. Her wolf is silent. It won’t be long before it comes back, this time foaming at the mouth with madness eating at its brain and driving it crazy.”
He clenched his hands at his sides and ground his teeth in frustration. “You think I don’t know that?” He finally demanded. “You think I haven’t considered this possibility?”
She snorted. “Your problem, Alpha-“ she spat the title out “-is you went against your nature and your mate will pay that price. She is nothing more than a whore in the eyes of some of the women in this pack because you’ve refused to listen to your wolf. Now hers is dying and she is too.” She hobbled away and yanked the door open then turned and pointed an accusing finger at him. “Fix this or put her down before someone gets hurt because of your stupidity."
