The Alpha’s Shattered Mate: Her Secret Triplets

Chapter 17: The Judas at the Bedside

The human world felt like a gray, muted film after the vivid colors of the Silver Moon. The city air was thick with exhaust and the dull hum of millions of people who had no idea that kings and monsters walked among them.

I stood in front of Crestwood Memorial Hospital, dressed in a simple trench coat and dark glasses. My scent was buried under a layer of industrial strength blockers, making me feel as invisible as a shadow. Killian had wanted to send a battalion with me, but I had refused. A group of Lycan warriors in a human trauma center would have been about as subtle as a forest fire.

"I am in position," I whispered, tapping the small comms device in my ear.

"I do not like this, Elara," Killian’s voice crackled, sounding miles away yet intimately close. "If your blockers fail, or if a member of the Coven is waiting inside, you are alone."

"I am never alone, Killian," I said, thinking of the white wolf pacing just beneath my skin. "I will find who sold us out. Stay on the line."

The sliding glass doors hissed open, welcoming me with the sterile scent of rubbing alcohol and floor wax. For five years, this had been my sanctuary. I had saved lives here and felt more at home in these hallways than I ever had in the pack lands. Now, every face I passed felt like a potential threat.

I moved toward the administrative wing, my old keycard still heavy in my pocket. I knew the digital footprint of the betrayal would be buried in the personnel files or the patient logs from the week Toby fell ill. Someone had accessed my private file and passed my home address to Silas.

"Dr. Vance?"

I froze. A nurse I had worked with for three years, a kind woman named Sarah, was staring at me from the nursing station.

"Elara? We all thought... HR said you had a family emergency and had to move home. You just disappeared."

I forced a tight smile. "It was a difficult time, Sarah. I just came back to pick up some personal items I left in my locker."

"We missed you," she said, her eyes softening. "Especially Dr. Aris. He was devastated when you left. He has been in your old office almost every day."

Dr. Marcus Aris. My mentor. The man who had hired me when I was a fleeing, pregnant omega with nothing but a forged transcript. He had been like a father to me. My stomach did a slow, sickening roll.

"Is he in now?" I asked.

"He is in a consultation. You know him, always working."

I nodded and walked away, my heart hammering. I didn't go to the lockers. I went straight to the secure records room. I slipped inside, the room dark and cool. I logged into the system using my administrator password, which was thankfully still active. I searched the access logs for my own name, filtering for the forty eight hours before I fled the city.

My name appeared twice. Once by me, searching for Toby’s symptoms. And once by Dr. Marcus Aris.

"No," I whispered, the word caught in my throat.

"Elara?"

The voice came from the doorway. I snapped the laptop shut and turned. Marcus stood there, his white coat pristine. He looked exactly the same, yet the sight of him now made my blood run cold.

"I heard a rumor you were in the building," Marcus said, stepping into the room. He closed the door behind him. "I was worried about you. You left so suddenly."

"I had to save my son, Marcus," I said, moving toward the edge of the desk. My wolf was growling now, a low vibration in my chest. "But you already knew that, didn't you? You knew he was sick before I even told you."

Marcus sighed, a heavy, weary sound. He leaned against the doorframe. "The human world is expensive, Elara. And I have debts that a surgeon’s salary could never cover. When a man approached me asking for information on a 'special' woman in my department, I didn't think it would lead to this."

"A man?" I asked. "Was it Silas? Or was it the Northern Coven?"

"He didn't give a name. He just gave me a check and a promise that you would not be harmed," Marcus said, his voice devoid of emotion. "He said you belonged to them. That you were a runaway."

"You sold me to a monster for a check," I said, the gold in my eyes beginning to flare. "You knew Toby was a child. You knew he was dying."

"I didn't think they would actually find you," he whispered. "I thought it was just corporate espionage. I didn't know what you really were until I saw the files you were looking at."

"Elara, I have a lock on your location," Killian’s voice barked in my ear. "Hospital security is moving. Someone called in a silent alarm. Get out of there!"

Marcus looked at the comms device in my ear, then at my eyes. His face went pale. "Your eyes... they are changing."

"You have no idea what I am, Marcus," I said, stepping toward him. I used the speed of the white wolf to pin him against the door before he could blink. "Who did you give the information to? Give me a name."

"I don't have a name!" he choked out. "But I have a number. A contact in the city. A woman. She is at the old cathedral on 5th Street."

"The Coven," I muttered.

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway. Security. I didn't have time to process the betrayal. I pulled my medical badge from my pocket and pressed it into Marcus’s hand, hard enough to bruise. "If you ever come near me or my children again, Marcus, the King will be the one coming for you. And he is not as merciful as I am."

I shoved him aside and bolted for the service exit. I burst out into the cool evening air, my lungs burning.

"Killian, I have a lead," I said into the comms as I ran toward the parked car. "The Coven has a base here, in the city. An old cathedral."

"Elara, wait," Killian’s voice was strained. "The palace... the alarms are going off. Someone is in the sub-basement. They didn't come for the throne. They came for the triplets."

The world stopped. The human city, the betrayal, the cathedral: it all vanished.

"I am coming back," I screamed, tearing the scent blockers from my skin. I didn't care who saw me. I shifted mid run, a white blur against the gray pavement of the human world, a mother’s howl echoing through the skyscrapers as I raced toward the border. The hunter was becoming the hunted once again, and the price of failure was everything.