Chapter 16 Treat People Based on Their Status
Rue’s POV
The sickness had spread like wildfire across the pack. News was everywhere on wolves collapsing mid-shift, strange fevers, random bouts of heavy migraines, and in some, the inability to shift.
My mother wasn’t spared in the outbreak. Her face was pale, having lost all of its color. Her hands were cold and shivering, yet her forehead burned in the boiling degrees.
Normal pain and fever meds did nothing to alleviate the situation. On the contrary, they only made the fevers
worse.
I learned that the outbreak did not choose. It did not care if the bloodline was royal or not, if you were a ranking leader or the mutt in the pack, young or old. When it got to you, it would put you down indefinitely. Its purpose was piling up bodies.
I tried herbal concoctions on my mom. Every kind I knew and learned from the shaman, but nothing seemed to work. With every trial, I grew more hopeless. But one thing still stood, I remained adamant that my mother wouldn’t join the statistics of fallen wolves.
Until evening, I boiled and grinded, striving to recall every bit of knowledge I had learned from the shaman. In some moments, the herbs seemed to work, but then they failed after a short while. Again and again.
My hope was close to dying when I thought of Vicky.
She was one of the kindest faces I ever found in my previous pack, Half Moon. When I was pregnant with Iris, she had taken care of me like I was her blood. Always minding if I was well fed and well cared for. She had no reason to care for me, but she saw me as one of her own.
As soon as I could, I went back to Half Moon Pack to look for her. I traced her house just some distance from the main pack house.
Her door was half open, I took that to be a strange sign. My lungs tightened.
“Is anyone in? Vicky?” I announced my presence at her door
The answer came in the form of a heavy cough, one that prompted me to welcome myself in. In her room, her face was heavy with sweat. She tried to sit up but her body was too weak to support her frame.
“Rue?” her voice strained “What are you doing here?”
I took another step closer but she stretched her hand out ” Its infectious, you have to stay way over there”
“No” I snapped as I sat beside her and took her hand. Just like my mom, her hands were strangely cold but her face seemed feverish. The outbreak had gotten to her too.
“I thought I’d never see you around here again” she slightly smiled
“Come now, do you think I forget easily?” I answered, “You were the closest to family I had here.”
“The outbreak – ” she started but bouts of cough stopped her from continuing
“Has spread widely.” I added ” I thought maybe I’d find new ideas and help from you.”
“I’m afraid I won’t be of much help in this condition.” She answered with a struggling chuckle
With no choice left, I set back to work. The thought of my mother, Vicky and hundreds of other wolves
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succumbing to the outbreak sharpening my determination. Sometimes I managed to relieve a symptom, but over the next hours, another new symptom bloomed.
Endless hours of working made my body reel with exhaustion, I didn’t even have the strength to proceed. I needed
rest.
News had already reached me that the outbreak had grown more prevalent and some casualties were reported. In the infirmary at Half Moon Pack, healers were stretched thin, caring for numerous infected that they couldn’t admit any more patients.
That fact left Vicky and many others stranded without care.
I remembered a name. Lauren. She was an experienced healer who had an unrivaled knowledge in herbs. In those days in Half Moon, we’d been close, before I divorced Aiden and left. I knew her to be experienced like a shaman, yet she chose to practice her skill as a hobby.
In addition to that, she had access to rare herbs. If anyone had any lead, it would be her.
I hastily contacted Cole and asked him if he’d escort me. He almost instantly agreed.
In the late afternoon, we travelled a few miles from Half Moon pack house. Lauren lived in a nice mini-mansion, secluded from most of the pack houses. She always preferred not being interrupted by people or noise.
When she opened the door to receive us, her eyes lit up when she saw me.
“Rue?” her voice was slightly high pitched as she sized me ” you look different.”
Hey Lauren,” I smiled back” this is Cole”
Her eyes flickered to Cole, “a pleasure to meet you”
She ushered us to her living room as we spoke of small things. The scent of rain on dry earth was unmistakable.
After a short while of pleasantries, I popped my main reason for visiting her.
She didn’t answer my question. Instead, she did something that stopped me in mid-breath.
“Why did you disappear from me, Rue?” she asked, not cruelly but with all the honesty of old friends.
I sat upright. I wanted to avoid this line of questioning. “That’s actually a long story, we can discuss it later.”
“Okay. But I would really love to meet that husband of yours someday” Lauren said ” Aiden.”
“Huh!” for a moment I thought I heard wrong
“We could maybe have dinner, just the three of us.” She continued
“I don’t know about that.” I smiled bitterly
“What can I do to convince you?”
Lauren stood up and disappeared to one of the rooms. A while later, she came out with a lovely embroidered pouch, a fancy item I had once admired from my Half Moon days. She pushed it towards me.
“You owe me that at least, we were friends.” She said softly
“We had some trouble here and there, and you know how that goes” I shrugged
Lauren’s expression shifted from a warm one to a curious one ” Aiden, is he alright?”
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“We divorced.” I said calmly
For a moment, she laughed as if she didn’t believe it.” Divorced? You divorced alpha Aiden? Impossible.”
She turned to look at Cole for confirmation if I was joking. He nodded, and that seemed to disperse the disbelief in her head.
“You should go and apologize to him immediately,” she said suddenly “whatever trouble you people had, go and beg for his forgiveness.”
“His forgiveness? He cheated on me and treated me like I was worth nothing.” I said
She waved away my words ” it’s quite normal for alphas to have multiple partners. Don’t be stubborn. If he can provide you safety then you shouldn’t mind.”
Cole grunted in disagreement. “That is a flawed way to speak to a fellow woman…a friend, who got cheated on.”
“You threw away being a luna because he cheated? That’s petty.” Lauren scoffed
“That doesn’t excuse his arrogance.” Cole replied
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Lauren rolled her eyes, her tone taking a condescending tune “Rue,men will always have appetites. Alphas will always be alphas. With your stupidity, you threw away a chance to be the luna of Half Moon Pack. You should have just made peace with it.”
The heat rose in my face as I stood up “Think what you want but my divorce should be none of your business.’
She stood up and raised her hands up in mock surrender. ” Chill out, what did you come here for again?”
Taking a deep sigh, I bottled my emotions and described the symptoms of the new outbreak, to every remedy I had tried.
Lauren listened in silence, her eyes scanning me as if she wasn’t paying attention to whatever I was saying.
“I have one herb that might work.” She said “It’s rare, but I have a few holed up somewhere around here.”
Cole stood up slightly beside me ” Name your price. We will compensate you fairly”
“I don’t want your money” she snorted
“What do you want?” I asked
Lauren’s lips curved into a bitter smile ” I’m really sorry Rue but I cant help you. It’s too…risky for me.” She paused then continued
“Actually, you’d be better off finding work at a pizza shop or some tavern. After all, after you are divorced from Aiden, there isn’t much you can do for me. Do you even have a few dollars to your name?”
My lungs tightened.
As if her words weren’t blade enough, she went on ” No offense Rue, but take this advice from a friend, you should stop wasting your time trying to play healer, you don’t have the gift for it, that’s why you keep failing.”
“You are wrong about her.” Cole came to my defense
Lauren waved her hands dismissively, “You messed everything up when you divorced Aiden, now you want to maintain some sort of validity by playing healer.”
I was actually starting to tremble in disappointment and anger. I had come seeking help from an old friend but all
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Chapter 16 Treat People Based on Their Status
I got was ridicule.
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