The Discarded Luna

Get The Antidote

Rhydian sat behind his desk, half-listening to Corven read out numbers from the pack's latest revenue report. Trade with the neighboring pack had slowed. None of it mattered right now, not with his mind still circling back to the room upstairs where Elara lay in bed, her chest rising and falling far too weakly for his liking.

"Rhydian," Corven said, snapping his fingers once. "Are you even listening?"

"I heard you," Rhydian said, though the flat tone of his voice made it obvious he hadn't heard a single number.

Corven set the ledger down with a sigh. "Look, I understand you're distracted, but the eastern quarter isn't going to fix itself while you—"

The office door opened without a knock.

Both men turned. Doran stood in the doorway, his expression tighter than usual, his healer's satchel still slung over one shoulder.

Rhydian raised a hand before Corven could get another word out. "Stop. Doran, what do you have?"

"I ran more tests on Elara's blood," Doran said, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. "I have the results now."

Rhydian was already standing. "Tell me. All of it."

Doran didn't waste time softening it. "Her condition is critical. If nothing changes soon, she could die within days."

The words landed heavy in the room. Corven leaned forward in his chair, his brow furrowed.

"Wait," he said. "You told us earlier she was stable. Before the coughing started, you said her body was fighting the poison well. What changed?"

"I did say that," Doran admitted. "And at the time, it was true. But the poison isn't behaving the way I first thought. It's not simply wearing down her defenses anymore."

"Then what is it doing?" Rhydian asked, his voice low, controlled, though his hands had curled into fists at his sides.

"It's breaking her defenses apart," Doran said. "Not slowly weakening them like a wall wearing down over time. It's splitting them into smaller and smaller pieces, faster than her body can rebuild them. If this continues at the current pace, her wolf won't survive the week. Possibly not even for the next two days."

Rhydian's throat tightened. "How is that even possible? You said her wolf was strong. Stronger than most."

"It is," Doran said. "That strength bought her time, not immunity. Even the strongest wolf can only hold back so much poison for so long without help."

Corven rubbed a hand across his jaw. "So what do we do? There has to be something."

"There is," Doran said. "We need the antidote. And she'll need it administered regularly, not just once. A single dose won't be enough to reverse what's already happening inside her."

Rhydian moved around his desk immediately, already halfway to the door. "Then get it. I don't care what it costs, how far we need to send someone, or how many favors we owe by the end of the week. Get it and start giving it to her tonight."

Doran shook his head slowly, staying where he stood. "It's not that simple, Alpha Rhydian."

Rhydian stopped mid-step, turning back to face him. "Why not?"

"The antidote is rare," Doran said. "It isn't something we can send a rider to fetch from the nearest drug store. It has to be brewed with a specific ingredient, one that doesn't grow just anywhere."

"Then tell me where it does grow," Rhydian said, "and I'll send someone tonight."

Doran hesitated, his eyes flicking briefly to Corven before returning to Rhydian.

"Where," Rhydian repeated, sharper this time.

"The antidote is tied to the same source as the poison itself," Doran finally said. "The plant used to brew Duskbane and the plant used to counter it grow from the same root system. To get the antidote in time, and enough of it to keep administering to her, we would need to go back to where she was originally poisoned."

The room went still.

Corven's eyes shifted slowly to Rhydian, something unspoken passing between the two of them before Corven finally said what they were both already thinking.

"We need to go back to Kade's pack."

The name hung in the air like something bitter. Rhydian's hands curled tighter, his jaw working as he stared at a fixed point on the wall, clearly forcing himself to think past the anger rising in his chest.

"You're certain," Rhydian said quietly, "that there's no other source."

"I've spent the last hour going through every healer's record I have access to," Doran said. "This is the only confirmed source within reach. There may be others further out, across the mountains perhaps, but we don't have the kind of time that kind of journey would take."

Rhydian exhaled slowly through his nose. "Fine. We will go to Kade's territory."

"Tonight?" Corven asked.

"No," Rhydian said, already thinking it through out loud. "Not tonight. If we ride out now, Uncle Killian gammas will notice and word will spread before we even reach the border. We move tomorrow. At sunset."

"Sunset gives us the cover of dusk," Corven said, nodding slowly, following the logic. "Fewer eyes on the road, easier to slip past without drawing attention."

"Exactly," Rhydian said. He paused, his gaze sweeping briefly toward the closed office door, as though checking, out of pure instinct, that no one else stood on the other side of it.

"Killian and the council must not know about this," he said, his voice dropping lower. "Not a word of it. If Killian catches even a whisper that she's this close to dying, he'll take it straight to the council. He'll argue the mate bond is incomplete, unstable, and use it as grounds to challenge the throne before the full moon even arrives."

Corven nodded firmly. "Understood. I'll handle the gammas personally. Only the ones I trust most will know where we're actually going."

"Good," Rhydian said.

Corven crossed his arms, still working through the plan out loud. "What do we tell the rest of the pack when they notice you're gone? You can't just vanish for an entire evening without someone asking questions. The elders track your schedule more closely than you think."

Rhydian considered this for a moment. "Tell them I've gone to inspect the northern border. There have been reports of rogue wolves crossing near the tree line last week. It's believable, and it keeps most of the council too disinterested to follow."

"That could work," Corven said slowly. "I'll have someone plant the rumor early tomorrow morning, before we even leave, so it has time to settle before anyone starts asking."

"And if Killian asks directly?" Doran said.

"Then he asks me directly," Rhydian said, "and I tell him the same story everyone else hears. I don't owe him more than that."

Corven exhaled. "This whole thing rests on nobody following us."

"Then make sure nobody does," Rhydian said. "I mean it, Corven. If this gets back to Killian before we return with the antidote, everything we're doing right now is pointless."

"I'll choose the gammas myself," Corven said. "Two, maybe three at most. Anyone who's shown Killian even a hint of loyalty stays behind."

"Good," Rhydian said again, quieter this time, some of the tension in his shoulders easing slightly now that the pieces of the plan were finally falling into place.

Doran adjusted the strap of his satchel over his shoulder. "May I check on her once more before I leave? I'd like to see her condition with my own eyes before tomorrow, in case anything shifts overnight."

"Of course," Rhydian said immediately, already moving toward the door himself. "Go now. I'll walk with you."

The three of them left the office together, Doran leading, Corven close behind him, Rhydian trailing last, his mind clearly still turning over every piece of the plan, searching for cracks before Killian could find them first.

The door shut behind them with a firm, final click, and the hallway beyond fell quiet, empty except for the soft echo of their footsteps fading toward the staircase.

For a long moment, nothing in the office moved.

Then, from the tall bookshelf pressed against the far wall, a single book slipped loose from its place and dropped to the floor with a soft, hollow thud.

The shelf shifted, just slightly, revealing a narrow gap hidden behind it, dark enough that no one glancing at the wall would ever have noticed it was there.

Nadia stepped out from that gap, smoothing down the sleeves of her dress as she moved into the dim light of the office, her steps slow.

She glanced toward the closed door, listening until the last of their footsteps faded completely down the staircase. Only then did she let herself relax, rolling her shoulders after standing so still for so long behind the narrow gap in the wall.

Tomorrow at sunset. Kade's territory. A handful of trusted guards, and no one else.

She turned the details over in her mind, memorizing every piece of it exac

tly as she had heard it, already knowing exactly who would want to hear this information and what she'll do with this.