Page 30 of Rejected By My Shadow Alpha
I hadn't opened my laptop in days.
The world had shrunk to the shallow rise and fall of Liora's breath, to the fever-induced tremors that wracked her small body, and to the quiet prayers I whispered against her damp skin. My daughter, my light, my purpose lay in the next room, curled beneath layers of herbal-soaked cloth, her skin pale, her lips dry, her little hands twitching in fever dreams.
I kept the compresses cool, whispered lullabies into the soft curls at her temple, and prayed to the Moon Goddess to heal her. Nothing worked. The fever only worsened.
None of the tinctures worked, not the cooling poultices, not the warded runes, not even Nia's most potent incantations. The fever only grew stronger, feeding on her. She was everything to me. The only thing that ever made sense. When she was born, I didn't just become a mother. I became someone with a purpose. Loving her wasn't a choice; it was instinct, carved into my bones. I would burn the world for her.
Beside me, Nia stirred the embers in the incense pot, the scent of burning mugwort curling in the air. She looked drawn and pale, the same exhaustion I carried carved into her face. I could feel her tension, the quiet desperation behind every movement.
"We've tried everything," she said softly, like saying it too loudly would seal it as truth. "This isn't something we can heal. Her life force is being drained deliberately. We've done all we can. This is beyond herbs and beyond energy work. Her healing lies beyond our hands."
I didn't look up. I couldn't, not when I feared what she would say. My heart clenched. "What are you saying?"
Nia hesitated, then looked me in the eye. "Only an alpha from her paternal bloodline can break the tether. It's the blood shadow curse, an ancient magic. Her connection to that line, what's left of it, is the only way to sever it."
I stood there in silence, her words carving a hole in my chest. "That's not possible," I said with a sigh. "The Lunaris Pack is gone. They were wiped out."
"Are you sure?" Nia asked quietly.
No. I wasn't. I swallowed hard, closing my eyes for a moment. The day Liora collapsed, I'd felt a malevolent presence in the room. A part of me feared whoever did this certainly wanted my child dead, and in a way that would make her suffer. I feared this attack may come from the Lunaris Pack, but the last I heard, the pack is non-existent since Drew, their alpha, was dead. Maybe they were not entirely wiped out, and if they are reunited, they must be vengeful and intent on causing me harm. If Drew were alive, maybe it would have been easy for me. The war between the Cornerstone and the Lunaris Packs was bigger than me and Liora. It took my mother and Drew. What could I do to save Liora from it?
I sat next to Liora and stared at her. My chest ached as I fought against the despair I seemed to be drowning in. I recalled the week I had stayed locked up at the Cornerstone mansion by my father. I couldn't let the questions go. Angry, heartbroken, and desperate to understand the past that had shaped me, I had gone digging, and what I found shattered everything.
Twenty-six years ago, my father, Alpha Alfred, had led the massacre against the Lunaris Pack, a bloodline of wealth, strength, and ancient power. It was a family bound by unity and pride. They hadn't stood a chance. He hadn't done it for politics or territory. He'd done it for their Luna. My mother.
I had grown up with fairy tales. My father painted their love as epic, tragic, and star-crossed. He said she had died shortly after birthing me. He said she chose him.
Lies.
In the back of my mother's closet, buried beneath old clothes and forgotten trinkets, I found the truth—her journal. Dust-covered and raw, the pages whispered things I will never forget. She had been taken. She had been broken. Alpha Alfred had used her power as Luna to try to unlock the chest containing the Lunaris fortune, a box only an alpha could open, but her powers weren't enough, and she had failed.
One entry in the journal was barely legible, written in a trembling scrawl. In it, my mother pleaded with me that if I ever found her journal, I must run. She warned me that Alpha Alfred was incapable of love, and what he called affection was just control wrapped in selfish affection. She warned that I was born into a cage, not a home.
I had read the journal the week I agreed to marry Mark, shortly after my father demanded I remove Drew's child. Reading that journal on the floor of her bedroom, clutching the pages to my chest as my world crumbled, I had wept andcemented my resolve to escape from him and all I had known. For my mother. For me. For every lie I'd believed.
And all these years later, my daughter's life hung in the balance, and Nia was telling me to seek help from the very bloodline my father tried to erase, the lineage he drowned in blood and fire.
"Ruby," Nia whispered, her hand resting gently on my shoulder. "There may still be someone left. Send an SOS to the healer network. Ask for help. If anyone knows of a surviving alpha from the pack, they'll answer."
I stared at her, numb. "To the network?"
"Yes. Someone may know. Someone has to know. You don't have to say who you are. Just say the girl is dying. Say you need the alpha from the bloodline. They'll listen."
I stood slowly, every movement stiff with exhaustion and grief. My laptop sat closed on the worktable, covered in a thin layer of dust. I hadn't touched it since Liora got sick. I was too afraid of the world beyond this house and how powerless I'd become.
I opened the lid. The screen blinked to life, and with it, a new message waited—from him.
Wolfsbane22: Are you alright? You've gone quiet. I've been thinking about you. Worried. Please tell me you're okay.
I stared at it for a long time. His messages always came when I least expected them. Quiet, sincere, and unassuming but never hollow. There was a weight to his words I didn't know how to explain, a warmth that slipped under my skin. My fingers hovered over the keys. This wasn't about me anymore. I glanced back toward the bedroom where Liora lay. A sound escaped me, half sob, half prayer. I would reply to his messages, but first, I needed to do this.
Then I opened a new message window and began to type.
Subject: URGENT: Requesting Urgent Assistance
Sender: Moonleaf
To: HealerNet SOS Circle
