Free Web NovelChapter 108: Blood Donor
My voice echoed through the forest. At this point, I didn’t even care if the owner of the foreign scent heard me. If they were near enough for me to smell them, then they would’ve found me sooner or later.
However, if the Alphas came just in time, it wouldn’t matter. It didn’t seem like the hidden stranger came in a large group― I only caught one scent. In that case, three alphas were more than enough to handle one of them.
On the other hand, Willow didn’t answer me. She couldn’t, not with her strength weakening by the second. I just couldn’t believe it― from the stories I’ve heard in the past when I was missing, Willow was a pretty powerful wolf in her own right.
For the longest time, she was the most suitable Luna candidate. As long as the Alphas did not find their fated mate, they were almost guaranteed to pick Willow as their Luna. She was the one most suitable to take up the role.
Two months on the run shouldn’t have caused her to end up like this. Even if she was injured, her wolf should have healed her. She could have gotten food, or she could have returned. So why was she wandering around the wilderness, nearly starving and bleeding to death?!
If anyone would’ve suffered this fate, it would’ve been me! But even then, at the time of my return, I wasn’t as injured back then as she was right now.
However, those were the questions I got no answers to, and I would never get an answer if Willow died.
A new scent entered the clearing, and I whirled my head around to be greeted with Cassian’s sneering face. He most likely heard me and had come running immediately. Either that, or he had tracked me down from nothing but blinding rage.
"There you are, you little―" Cassian stopped when he caught sight of the wolf lying at my feet. His eyes widened, and he stumbled back slightly in shock. "That’s―"
"Help her!" I screamed out. I had never been so relieved to hear Cassian’s infernal yapping before. At the current moment, he almost had an angelic glow around him.
Cassian scrambled forward without another word, almost pushing me out of the way to get to Willow. He dropped to his knees immediately, quickly assessing the best way to lift Willow out of the shrubbery.
Behind him, Rowan and Soren appeared, followed by Violet, who came tottering behind them. When Rowan and Soren’s eyes landed on Willow, their faces morphed into expressions of shock. Soren’s eyes went wide, and Rowan’s eyebrows shot high up his forehead.
"This..." Soren said, his voice quivering with disbelief. "How is this possible..."
"Fuck," Cassian swore.
I quickly turned back, glancing at him in panic. His face had turned pale, and he pressed his ear against the wolf’s chest.
"What?" I asked, scurrying over. "What is it?"
"She’s not breathing," Cassian hissed, gritting his teeth. "What did you do to her?"
"Me?" I balked, shooting Cassian a look of utter disbelief at his accusation. "I found her! She was breathing just now― what did you do?"
"Nothing! And she isn’t breathing right now, so clearly something has gone wrong―" Cassian spat out venomously, and never had I wanted so badly to punch someone in the face. If he hadn’t been so insistent that I was mistaken about Willow, we wouldn’t have wasted so much precious time fighting each other.
But I forced myself to calm down, shoving him aside so that I could take a closer look at Willow, who was the most important priority at the moment, and not Cassian and his tendency to blame everyone but himself.
"Willow? Willow, it’s me, Briar," I pleaded again.
This time, I held my hand gently over where her heart would be safely ensconced in her ribcage. My touch was as light as a feather, and when I focused, it seemed like I could hear the faintest sound of a heartbeat. It could have been my imagination, but I chose to believe that Willow had heard me, and she was fighting with every bit of strength she had to keep living on.
I blinked back tears, softly brushing her matted fur with my other hand.
"You got this, Willow, you’re going to recover," I whispered into her ears, before raising my head to glare at Cassian.
"Willow’s heart is still beating," I told Cassian fiercely. "She’s still hanging on, so get your damn warriors to come over with medical support!"
"I already did!" Cassian spluttered.
Message delivered, I turned my attention back to Willow, willing myself to transfer some of my strength to her. I knew there was no such thing, but I only had hope. I sent out a desperate prayer to the Moon Goddess, hoping that she would grant me this little mercy.
"I have some medicine," Soren’s voice entered my ears. "We can bandage her wounds first― Oh goddess... What happened to her?"
I turned around to see that Soren and Rowan had come forward. They stared at Willow with unabashed shock, their mouths falling open when they caught sight of how bad Willow’s state truly was. From where they stood just now, they wouldn’t be able to see the true state Willow was in, especially with Cassian and me blocking her from proper view.
Now, they were finally able to have a clear view of her actual state.
"She’s so malnourished," Soren exclaimed, his voice wracked with pain and shock.
He also went on his knees to take a closer look at her. The tiny first aid box he brought with him clattered to the ground, and I eagerly opened it to reveal rolls of bandages, several regular medications for wounds, and several syringes.
"Does anyone know how to treat her?" I asked, my voice growing more panicked, my hands rummaging through the box as though I would find a miracle cure for Willow’s situation. The first aid box seemed to contain supplies to help a human who got injured, and not a wolf on the verge of death. "Why is there nothing here?!"
"Because this first aid kit is meant for you, you dumbass," Cassian retorted. "Do you think any of us here actually needs a bandage? Soren prepared it for you, the useless wolfless human!"
At another time, I would feel the slightest bit touched by his care. But now, after Soren’s actions last night and with Willow’s life hanging on a thread, I could only curse under my breath at Soren’s short-sightedness while I continued to dig.
Of course, this only made Cassian bristle further, and he was ready to argue.
"Shut up," Rowan ordered, glaring at his youngest brother. "Cassian, this is not the time for this!"
Cassian reluctantly shut his mouth.
"Briar, we can transfuse some blood into her first using the syringes. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we can do for the moment," Soren said, keeping his voice calm. "That will give her enough strength to hold on while we dress her wounds and bring her back to the pack doctor. Our pack is more well-equipped for such an emergency."
Soren hadn’t even finished his first sentence when I immediately held out my arm. "I’ll do it. I’m her sister."
When I first returned, the healers made sure that I wasn’t an imposter. Back then, they had tested my blood again and again to make sure I was their missing daughter and not a random woman sent to spy on the pack. I could still recall the pain of the needles jabbing into my skin when they drew my blood for tests.
However, one good thing did come out of it― I knew for sure that my blood type was a match for Willow.
"How can you be so sure?" Violet suddenly said. The three men turned to look at her with varying levels of displeasure. It seemed as though they had completely forgotten she was just standing right there. "You’re the reason why Willow turned so weak in the first place. How do we know that you’re not just going to end up poisoning her even further?"
"She’s going to die either way," I said through gritted teeth.
"The blood that flows through your veins is sullied," Violet insisted, the rims of her eyes red. "Her body will surely reject it."
Her fists were tightly clenched by her sides. She seemed determined not to use my blood, as though not using my blood would magically make Willow better.
"If Willow was going to die either way, it’s worth trying," I said through gritted teeth. It was a waste of time and saliva to argue with this imbecile. It was almost as though she wanted Willow to die right here, right now. "We are compatible―"
"But you’re human," Soren said, exchanging a hesitant look with Rowan.
I let out a cold laugh. "So you agree with Violet? That my blood will simply poison Willow’s body even further?"
"That’s not what I meant," Soren said with a shake of his head. "You didn’t eat much, and your body is currently not in a much better state than Willow’s is right now. Losing so much blood―"
"Do it," I demanded, cutting him off. "We have no time, and I’ll be fine. I’m stronger than I look."
Soren met my eyes for a moment, and he reluctantly nodded. He grabbed my arm and rolled up my shirt sleeve before wiping a patch of skin with an antiseptic wipe. Then, he jabbed the needle into my arm and withdrew a syringeful of my blood before injecting it into Willow.
"Do another," I ordered. "She needs more than this."
