The Alpha I Saved With Eighty Million, Now Uses It to Cage Me

Chapter 3

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the pack hospital.

The sharp, sterile scent of disinfectant clawed at my nose, achingly familiar. I frowned, pushing myself upright with effort. My temples throbbed as I tried to piece together the night before.

I’d barely stepped out of the bar when a white-hot pain tore through me. My vision went black, and then—nothing.

Someone must have found me and called an ambulance.

“You’re awake.”

The voice belonged to Aaron.

I blinked at him. Aaron—my friend from the Black Lands. A pack doctor.

“Was it you who brought me here last night?” I asked.

He nodded, setting a bowl of soup down on the bedside table.

“Do you… know what’s happening with your body?”

A humorless smile tugged at my lips.

How could I not know?

No one knew how I’d survived these six years.

The pack called me greedy.

They cursed me for leaving my mate for eighty million.

But none of them knew what that money had truly cost.

I had signed a secrecy contract with a laboratory in the Black Lands.

For six years, I’d been their living donor, a walking blood bank, my veins bled daily for their extraction of wolf-blood factors.

I had endured every torment.

Now I had blood atrophy.

Call its karma.

Karma for walking away from Evan without a word.

“Still the same.” Aaron’s voice was bitter. “Still throwing your body away like it means nothing.”

He gave a hollow laugh, standing at the foot of my bed.

“You bled yourself dry for him. You shredded the very foundation of your wolf bloodline. If you die, do you think he’ll suddenly come back to you? Look at him now. Does he look like a man who still loves you?”

A sigh escaped me, soft and tired.

Did he think I didn’t know that?

Of course I knew.

Aaron must have mistaken my sigh for heartbreak.

“Fiona, can’t you stop punishing yourself? No matter what you do, he’s never going to care!”

I lifted my gaze to him.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, guilt flickering across his face. “I’ve been in a bad mood ever since I found out you had blood atrophy.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

“Fiona, please. Let’s just accept the treatment, okay? Maybe… maybe—”

“You see?” I cut him off softly, a faint smile playing on my lips. “You can’t even convince yourself.”