DRAVEN’S POV;”Draven!” Ragner yelled, running after me through the hallway.
I did not stop—I could not.
“Draven!” Ragner caught up with me, pulling me into a room that hadn’t been used in forever.
“What is wrong with you?” he questioned, pressing against the door.
“She…she…” I struggled for breath.
“You’re having a panic attack,” Ragner said, “take a deep breath.” He said, supporting me with his hands on my back.
“That’s right. Deep breaths,” he said, as I slowly calmed my breathing.
“Ella called her mummy,” I said, feeling weak in my knees and every other joint in my body.
“Okay?” Ragner did not seem to get it.
“You already knew Ella was comfortable around her and kids say stuff. It’s not a big deal. Certainly not this deep.” He said,
I broke down, feeling quite ashamed of myself.
“I cuddled her all night, Ragner,” I felt a wave of shame wash over me as I admitted.
Ragner’s expression quickly shifted from confused to shocked, but I could see him trying so hard to hide it.
“It’s okay, you can say it.”
”I may have spooked her,” I expected Ragner to make fun of me, now that he had a free ticket to, but he sounded serious—disturbed.
“I suggested that you both get intimate, so your wolf can strengthen hers,” at that point, I wanted the ground to open and swallow me.
“She’s going to think I am desperate. How did I quickly lose all the reasons she had to fear me?” I paced around.
It felt like my world was literally crumbling beneath me.
I was losing it all in a blink of an eye.
“Alpha Draven! Alpha Draven!” The brainstorming session Ragner and I were having, came to a quick close as we heard Nicolle yelling and running down the hall.
She sounded tense, urgent.
Ragner quickly opened the door.
“Ella!” she said, pointing to the stairs, “It’s Ella!” my daughter’s name was all she had to say, before I dashed out of the room, through the hall, down the stairs and straight to Ella’s class.
I found Ella on the floor, struggling to breathe, with Aria over her, holding mouth, struggling to breathe into her pipes.
“Come on!” she said, urging her teacher to proceed with the compressions on her chest.
I watched the terrifying sight for a few seconds.
I immediately recognized it.
“Step away from her,” I said calmly.
I had seen this too often not to know the meaning.
Her teacher was about to pull away when Aria yelled…
”Don’t you dare!” you could tell her wrapped shoulder was the only thing stopping her from taking over compressions.
“Step away from her,” I said again and this time, her teacher did.
“Don’t! Don’t” Aria completely forgot her broken shoulder and began pounding on Ella’s chest.
“Why would you give up on her? Fight, Ella! Fight!” tears streamed down her cheeks as she continued, completely ignoring her own pain.
I could see the confusion she didn’t want to address—why Ragner and I stood there doing nothing.
I was about to walk away when the most unexpected thing happened.
“She’s breathing! She’s back!” Ella’s teacher’s voice came as a squeal.
When I turned around, Aria had her firmly wrapped in an embrace, crying.
Her shoulder was now injured and profusely bleeding, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“Get the physician to check her shoulder,” I ordered Ragner.
“You may leave,” the teacher said in the next sentence, “take two weeks off.” I added.
She bowed her head, packed her bags and hurried out.
In no time, the physician was back with Ragner, leading a team of four guards.
I stood at the door of the infirmary, while the physician controlled Aria’s bleeding and wrapped her arm so it could stay in place.
“Can I still do the wedding?” Aria asked, seeing that the physician was wrapping up the dressing.
“Don’t think about that right now,” I replied.
“An agreement is an agreement, Alpha,” I turned to the physician, who was now done with the treatment and dismissed him.
“You may go,” I instructed, “give Ella to Beta,” I handed her over.
Waking up to so much blood from Aria’s hand, Ella had cried herself to sleep.
The physician took her and I waited a few seconds after the door closed behind him to be sure the coast was clear.
“The agreement was you’ll be my Luna for a year,” I began,”Yes and unless a ceremony happens, I would not be Luna,” she quickly replied, “ask the physician if I can be ready in three days.
It’s not that bad,” she tried to sound casual, like her bones were not at the verge of poking through her skin or she couldn’t see her hand wrapped in more than ten layers of bandages.
“Don’t think about that right now.” I said firmly.
I turned around to leave.
I could not bear to see her that way.
“Aria, thank you for today,” I said.
She did not respond and I did not wait any longer.
I headed for the exit.
“Why?” Her voice froze my hand at the door knob, “you love Ella, so why could you stay and watch her die?” She probed, “why were you so quick to give up on her?”
I took a deep breath, with my hand on the door.
The incident played right before my eyes–Aria, fighting for Ella’s life at the expense of herself.
“Make sure you get some rest,” I tried to leave, but she immediately stopped me.
“I mean, the rumors of you being a monster are true, but rumor also has it that you would kill an entire pack for Ella, so why?”
I took a deep breath.
I didn’t know if she would understand and I wasn’t conscious when I blurted the words–”the curse”.
“What curse?”