Alpha's Private Plaything (Elsa and Drake Stone) novel Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Elsa

C

“The patient who received the medication was in critical condition,”

Dr. Green explained, his voice steady despite the knife pointed at

him. “Your aunt’s current treatment protocol can sustain her for at

least another two to three years. The other patient wouldn’t have

survived a month without it.”

“That was my aunt’s medication!” Oliver shouted, his hand shaking.

“You stole it from her! Give it back!”

I burst through the ward doors, nearly knocking over an elderly patient, my lungs burning as I gasped for air. Security arrived from the other entrance at the same time. Oliver whirled around, the knife still clutched in his hand, and I caught the scent of his fear–sweat

from across the room.

“Oliver,” I said, keeping my voice soft and even, despite the terror coursing through me and making my knees weak. “Oliver, look at me.

Please.”

His eyes, so like my mother’s, found mine. They were wild with fear

and anger, pupils dilated to black pools.

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“They took aunt’s medicine, Elsa,” he said, his voice breaking. “They’re

letting her die. These fucking people don’t care about us!”

I took a careful step forward, aware of the security guards tensing

behind me, their hands hovering near their tasers. My wolf senses

picked up their readiness to pounce.

“I know you’re scared. I am too. Shit, I’m terrified,” I admitted, my voice cracking. “But this isn’t the way to help her. You know that,

deep down.”

“What else can I do?” Tears streamed down his face, his scent souring with despair. “We’ve done everything right. We paid for the treatn We filled out all the fucking paperwork. We waited our turn. And they still gave her medicine to someone else!”

I kept moving slowly toward him, my hands visible and open, trying to ignore how badly they were trembling. “Oliver, please put the knife down. Mom needs us right now. She needs us to be strong. Not in

fucking handcuffs.”

For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t listen. His fingers tightened around the knife handle, knuckles white. Then his shoulders sagged, a sob escaping his throat, and the knife clattered to the floor. The security guards moved immediately, pinning Oliver against the wall and cuffing his hands behind his back.

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“Don’t hurt him!” I cried, lunging forward, but was distracted by a

commotion behind me.

“Someone help! A woman collapsed!” A nurse’s voice called from

down the hallway.

My blood turned to ice. I knew before I turned, before I ran down that

sterile corridor, before I saw the small crowd gathering around a

fallen figure. My stomach dropped to my feet, and I tasted bile in the

back of my throat.

Mom.

Her silver–streaked hair was spread around her pale face like a halo.

The silver veins on her neck seemed to pulse against her ashen skin,

more prominent than I’d ever seen them.

“Get Dr. Green!” someone shouted, and within moments, the doctor

who’d just been threatened at knifepoint was kneeling beside my

mother, checking her vitals.

“Get a gurney! She needs to go to emergency treatment now!” he

ordered, and nurses sprang into action.

I stood frozen, watching as they lifted my mother’s frail body onto the

gurney. Her hand hung limply over the side, and I couldn’t stop

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staring at it, at the silver lines tracing up her wrist. Dr. Green noticed

me and hesitated only briefly before saying, “You can follow us, Ms.

Hale.”

The next hour passed in a blur of beeping machines and hushed

medical terminology. I paced the waiting area like a caged animal,

chewing my thumbnail until it bled, the metallic taste mixing with

my tears. Police officers arrived, asking questions about Oliver that I

could barely focus on, their words washing over me like white noise.

One officer, noticing my state, spoke gently.

“Ms. Hale, we need to take your cousin to the station for questioning

and processing. Would you like to accompany us, or do you nee

stay with your mother?”

I looked toward the treatment room where they were still working on Mom, my hands clenching and unclenching at my sides. “I need to

stay here. Please… he’s not violent. He was just scared for his aunt.

He’s all she has besides me, for fuck’s sake.”

The officer nodded, seemingly unfazed by my language. “We’ll have

one officer stay with you until we know more about the situation. The

rest will escort your cousin to the station.”

I thanked him numbly, then sank into a chair outside the treatment

room, my body feeling impossibly heavy. I pulled my knees to my chest, making myself small, fighting the urge to howl with grief like

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the wolf part of me wanted to do.

Dr. Green emerged an hour later, looking exhausted, the stains on his coat now dried to stiff patches. “Ms. Hale, your mother is stable for

now.”

“What happened?” I asked, my voice raw from unshed tears.

“She overheard the confrontation with your cousin. The stress triggered an acute episode.” He hesitated, then sat in the chair beside me, the scent of antiseptic and exhaustion rolling off him. “I need to be honest with you. Your mother’s condition has progressed further than we initially thought. The silver toxicity has spread to her lymphatic system.”

My throat tightened, a choked sound escaping before I could stop it. “What does that mean?” I managed to ask, though I already knew.

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