Chapter Sixty-One

The doctor rushed in with a few nurses and started calling out directions. “Andrea, cut off his top. We need to see the wound. Sarah, get the stitches cart and roll it in here.”

“Doc, there is wolfsbane in his blood.” My dad was pushed against the wall, trying to get out of the way for the nurse and doctor to work. The doctor froze for a second, then nodded.

“Andrea, stop. I need you to start poison protocols.” We watched as they both stepped back and put on gloves and gowns. Something that is so normal with human doctors is so rare with ours. “Okay, let’s get back to it.” They both dove back to Ronnie. They finished cutting off his clothes and we could see the knife was hilt deep, and red lines radiated from the stab wound.

“How did this happen?” The doctor probed the wound; Ronnie screamed and passed out. The nurse came rolling back in with a cart. She rolled the cart to the doctor and was going to jump in, but he held up his hand. “Sarah, wait. I need you to go out and get a fifty-fifty mix of saline and lupine extract.”

“What is that?” I asked as Sarah gasped.

“It’s the only way we have to counteract wolfsbane in the system.” The doctor kept probing around the knife. “We need to get it started before we pull this out, so his wolf regains its strength.”

“Do whatever you have to do to save him.” I could tell my father was running on fumes. After the attack and then staying with me, this is putting him over the edge.

“Dad, I have Ronnie. Go sleep.” I rubbed his back, but he shook his head.

“This is on me. I’m the Alpha and he is my best friend. I’m not leaving him.” My dad turned to me and wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you, though, pup. I appreciate the thought.” He kissed my temple as we watched the doctor and nurse work on a plan of attack as the second nurse ran in, wheeling a pole in. She headed to the side of the bed by us and set up a bag of liquid. Once everything was ready, she grabbed his arm, found a vein, and pushed the needle in. She hissed as a drop of his blood came into contact with her thumb.

“Sarah!” The doctor rushed over. “There is a reason for the poison control we have in place.” Sarah shook her hand, but she finished setting his IV. Once she was finished, she ran to the sink and washed her hands before slipping on the gown and gloves and came back.

“Sorry, doctor, but I wasn’t going to wait.” He just nodded.

“The IV?”

“Is fully open and running quickly.” Sarah nodded.

“Good.” The doctor set up a sterile work area around the knife and had the nurse set up a tray for everything he might need. Once everything was ready and more than half the IV was gone, he looked at my dad. “We are ready.”

“Okay. Do it.” My father’s grip tightened around my shoulders.

The doctor wrapped his hand around the knife and pulled. Ronnie’s eyes flew open, and he sat up with a scream. Blood poured from his side, and the room filled with the scent of wolfsbane and blood. Ronnie looked at my father and his face crumpled. “Why?” Then he dropped back down to the bed, unconscious.

My father made a tiny whimper in his throat. I rubbed his back, trying to reassure him, but Ronnie’s question ran through my mind over and over. “He wouldn’t ask us why,” I whispered, more to myself, but my father turned to me.

“What?” He stared down at me and I turned to face him.

“He wouldn’t have asked us why. He would understand why we had to pull the knife. He isn’t dumb.” I waited for my dad to catch up to where my mind was.

“I’m not following you, pup. I’m…” He growled.

“You are exhausted.” I rubbed his arm again. “But Ronnie knew he was stabbed, and he probably knew he was poisoned. He isn’t stupid.”

“Right. Plus, I had him trained with me, which means he went through the same wolfsbane training I did.”

“Did Beck?”

“No. The Beta’s job is to die for the Alpha, the Gamma’s job is to die for the Luna. My father was very strict in the Alpha and Beta training, but he thought the Gamma was worthless.”

“Why?”

“Probably because he hated my mother by the time we came of age because I was an only child.”

“Did he know about the wolfsbane training?”

“Who?”

“Beck.” I think my brain was moving too quickly for my father to keep up with.

“No. Most of the training, my father swore us to secrecy.”

“So he wouldn’t know that Ronnie would have been able to survive this?”

My father turned back to Ronnie on the bed. “No, he wouldn’t.”