The Alpha's Doomed Mate

Chapter 9: The Wolf Knows

POV: Asha

What if Cole had never been my mate at all?

The more the thought kept ringing in my head, the more outrageous it sounded.

A knock on the door drew me back to reality, and before I could respond, the door was pushed open.

Hera stepped into the room and stopped when she saw me sitting upright on the bed.

She is just like Zade.

A familiar, yet unfamiliar feeling settled in my chest at the thought.

“I’ve been knocking for the past minute,” she said, one brow rising. “I was starting to think that you had barricaded another door.”

Heat crept up my neck as the memory of the previous room flashed through my mind. The locked door, the shattered window, and then Zade breaking through the wood as though it had been made of paper.

“I didn’t hear you knock,” I muttered. “Sorry.”

Her brow lifted even higher, almost like the apology surprised her.

“Well, you’re awake. That’s good enough.”

She stepped aside, and an older woman entered the room.

The first thing I noticed was her long white locs, most of them pulled away from her face. Her cloudy grey-white eyes settled on me almost immediately, sharp enough to make me straighten without meaning to.

“This is Hestia,” Hera said. “Our healer.”

Hestia gave me a small nod.

“We’ve technically met already,” she said.

I frowned.

She moved toward the bed with a leather case in one hand.

“Both times you’ve been unconscious,” she clarified.

“Oh.”

That explained it.

Hera walked farther into the room and leaned against the wall while Hestia sat on the free side of the bed.

“Give me your hand.”

I hesitated before stretching it toward her. She wrapped two fingers around my wrist.

Almost immediately, my mind went back to another pair of hands holding the same place earlier.

Zade’s. And those sparks got Rylie uttering the words, mate.

I swallowed.

“You need to eat to keep your health up.” Hestia gestured to the tray of food I had long forgotten.

Hera folded her arms. “It’s already time for lunch, and your breakfast is still sitting there, untouched.”

I blinked. Lunch?

“Wait—”

I looked toward the window, and only then did I notice how high the light had climbed, how differently the shadows fell than they had before. Morning had come and gone without me. I had been so lost replaying Zade's touch, the word mate looping over and over in my skull, that hours had slipped past me.

“You've been sitting there since the sun came up,” Hera said, quieter now; some of the edge had disappeared from her voice. “You didn't even notice, did you?”

It sounded like a statement rather than a question.

I nodded slowly and reached for the tray.

It was agonizing as both of their eyes never left me. It, however, motivated me to finish the food in no time.

As Hestia took my wrist again, I looked out the window.

The thought of Rylie being absolutely sure that Zade was my mate opened another question I had no answer to.

What had Cole been?

Hestia moved from my pulse to my eyes, then pressed her fingers along the side of my neck.

“Any dizziness?”

“A little, when I sat up.”

“Nausea?”

I blinked and shook my head.

“Pain?”

“My hip. My wrists.”

She gently turned one of my arms over, revealing the bruising that had darkened overnight. Her lips pressed into a thin line.

“You were lucky.”

I almost laughed as lucky wasn’t exactly the word I would have used for anything that had happened to me recently.

“Luck can be ugly and still be luck,” she added, like she could read my mind.

Hera snorted quietly from the wall.

Hestia moved her hand toward my stomach. “May I?”

I nodded.

She pressed carefully against different areas, asking if anything hurt before finally sitting back.

“The pup is doing well.”

My shoulders loosened from the tension I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“And me?”

“You are recovering.”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing.”

“It wasn’t meant to.” She began packing a few instruments back into her case. “The Wolfsbane Mist is still in your system. Not enough to kill you, but enough to leave you weak for some time.”

My eyes widened slightly. “Wolfsbane mist?”

“Yes.”

My stomach twisted. I knew Wolfsbane came in different forms, but the mist was one of the strongest. It worked faster, sank deeper, and affected the wolf far more than most ordinary mixtures.

“My father—” The words died in my mouth. My parents hadn’t known I was pregnant when they drugged me. I hadn’t told them. I had wanted Cole to be the first to know.

That thought stung much less than it would have yesterday.

Maybe that should have bothered me too.

“The amount you were given should not have harmed the pup permanently,” Hestia went on. “The bigger concern is your wolf.”

“My wolf? I couldn’t feel her before, but she came back this morning.”

“What?” Hestia stopped moving and looked at me.

“I heard her.”

The surprise on her face was unmistakable. “When?”

“A few minutes ago.”

“Clearly?”

“At first. Then she sounded… far away. Like she’s trapped somewhere deep inside me.”

Hestia stared for a moment. “I expected it to take several more days before you sensed her at all.”

My fingers tightened around the fur covering my legs. “Why does that sound like her returning now is a bad thing?”