“Alpha Ethan! Control yourself!” Dr. Winters shouted, plunging the needle into my brother’s shoulder. Two security guards – both Betas grabbed his arms, pulling him back as the sedative began to take effect.
Selene collapsed to the floor, clutching her bruised throat, gasping for breath. As she recovered, something in her eyes changed innocence she’d worn for so long cracked completely, revealing the cold calculation beneath.
–
the mask of
“You’re insane! You’ve completely lost your mind!” she snarled, her voice raspy but gaining strength. She pushed away the nurse who tried to examine her. “How dare you blame me for what happened to your precious sister?”
She staggered to her feet, keeping the security guards between her and my brother.
“Weren’t you the one who decided she had hurt me without a shred of evidence? YOU sent her to that rehabilitation center without even letting her speak!” Her voice rose with each accusation. “And later, wasn’t it YOU who told her to go die? I heard you on the phone!”
She rubbed her chest, still catching her breath, her eyes never leaving my brother’s face. “What right do you have to blame me for anything? If she dies, you’re the one who killed her! Her blood is on YOUR hands, not mine!”
Now that my brother knew everything, Selene saw no point in continuing her charade. The sweet, vulnerable girl she’d pretended to be vanished in an instant. She dropped all pretense and showed her true colors – calculating, vicious, entirely self–interested.
My brother trembled under the grips of the security guards, the wolfsbane making his movements sluggish. But it wasn’t just the drug affecting him. Selene’s words had stabbed him straight through the heart because they contained the worst kind of poison – truth.
“Shut up!” he yelled, his voice breaking. “SHUT UP!”
He tried to lunge at her again, straining against the guards with what strength he had left, but they held firm. Selene stepped back warily, a cruel smile playing at the corners of her lips.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it, Alpha?” she taunted. “You destroyed your sister all on your own. I just helped you see what you wanted to see.”
At that precise moment, alarming sounds erupted from my hospital room – the shrill, continuous beep of a cardiac monitor flat–lining.
“Code Blue! Room 307!” A nurse shouted, running past them.
“Emergency! The patient has no heartbeat!” Another called out, pushing a crash cart.
My brother’s face drained of all color. He stopped fighting the guards instantly, his eyes widening with horror.
“Skye?” he whispered, then louder, “SKYE!”
With a surge of desperate strength, he broke free and rushed into my room, the wolfsbane forgotten in the flood of adrenaline.
The room was chaos
–
nurses positioning equipment, a doctor preparing defibrillator paddles, the continuous sound of the flat–line piercing
+25 Bonus
the air.
“Clear!” The doctor pressed the paddles to my chest. My body arched with the shock, then fell still. The monitor continued its unbroken tone.
“Skye, don’t do this! Skye, please, you can’t die!” my brother begged, pushing past the staff to clutch my limp hand desperately. His claws had retracted now, his fingers gentle despite their trembling. “Not like this. Not because of me.”
A nurse tried to move him. “Alpha, you need to let us
“It’s all my fault!” he cried, ignoring her completely, pressing his forehead to my hand. “I was wrong! I’m not human! I’m worse than the monsters I accused you of being! I deserve to die! I’ve failed you, failed our parents, failed everything a brother should be!”
His tears fell hot on my skin as he pleaded, “Skye, if you just wake up, I’ll do anything! I’ll give you everything I have. I’ll disappear from your life if that’s what you want. Just please, please live!”
The doctor prepared the paddles again. “Charging to 300. Clear!”
My brother reluctantly stepped back, his whole body shaking.
“Skye, please,” he whispered, his voice cracking with raw emotion. “Don’t leave me. You’re all I have left in this world. Wake up!” His voice rose to a howl of despair. “I should be the one to die! You should live!”
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