I Left Before He Learned My Worth novel Chapter 48

**TITLE: I Left Before He Learned My Worth**
**Chapter 48**

**ARIA**

As we stepped into the clinic, a whirlwind of chaos engulfed us.

Healers darted between rooms, their voices rising in urgency as they called for supplies and assistance. The pungent smell of blood mingled with antiseptic hung heavily in the air, causing my stomach to twist in discomfort. I glanced at Nina, who had gone ashen, her usual calm demeanor shattered as she frantically sought information about her cousin’s condition.

“Where is she?” Nina’s voice was sharp, demanding as she grasped the arm of the nearest healer—a young man named Thomas, who looked utterly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of patients. “Where’s Ivory? How bad is it?”

“Room three,” Thomas replied, gesturing down the corridor with a shaky hand. “But you can’t—Healer Eliza said no visitors yet. She’s still assessing the damage.”

“She’s my cousin,” Nina shot back, determination fueling her steps as she began moving toward the room. “I’m going in.”

Kael and I followed closely behind, with me still supporting most of his weight as he limped along. The cuts from his confrontation with Damon were oozing sluggishly, and I could feel the pain radiating through our bond—a sensation he was desperately trying to shield from me. Yet, his resolve to see Ivory was unwavering; nothing would deter him from that mission.

We arrived at room three just as Eliza stepped out, her expression a mask of grave concern. Blood stained her hands—Ivory’s blood, I realized with a sickening lurch in my stomach—and the weariness in her eyes hinted at a situation far worse than I had dared to hope.

“How is she?” Nina asked immediately, her voice tinged with desperation. “Can I see her?”

Eliza’s gaze flickered between us, her eyes momentarily lingering on the fresh mating marks on Kael’s and my throats before settling on Nina. “She’s alive. But Nina, it’s bad. The blow to her head when she hit the table has caused swelling we can’t control yet. There’s internal bleeding that we’re trying to manage, and at least three of her ribs are broken—one of them punctured her lung. She’s breathing, but just barely.”

The clinical description made it sound almost manageable, but the tremor in Eliza’s voice told a different story entirely.

“Can I see her?” Nina repeated, her voice cracking slightly under the weight of her worry.

“Five minutes,” Eliza said, her tone firm yet sympathetic. “But she’s unconscious. She won’t know you’re there.”

Without another word, Nina disappeared into the room, her heart clearly racing. Kael attempted to follow, but Eliza placed a hand on his chest, halting him.

“Alpha, you need treatment yourself. Those cuts are deep, and you’ve lost a lot of blood—”

“After,” Kael insisted, his voice resolute, echoing the very words he had used with Nina earlier. “I need to see her first. I need to thank her for what she did.”

Eliza hesitated, clearly torn, but something in Kael’s expression—a potent mix of desperation and guilt—made her relent. “Five minutes. Then you’re letting me treat you, even if I have to sedate you to do it.”

But I could hear the doubt beneath her brave words, the fear that this time, perhaps, Ivory’s luck had finally run out.

I stood back near the door, feeling like an intruder in this intimate moment of grief. These were people who had known Ivory for years, who loved her like family. What right did I have to be here, when my presence—my very existence in Shadowmere—was the reason she had been hurt?

Through the bond, I felt Kael’s anguish, his guilt, his desperate wish that he could trade places with Ivory, that it was him lying broken on that table instead of her.

*This isn’t your fault,* I tried to project through our connection. *Or mine. This is Damon’s fault. He’s the one who attacked her.*

But even as I spoke those words, they felt hollow, devoid of the reassurance I longed for. Because if I had never come to Shadowmere, if I had stayed in Blackwood and accepted my role as Damon’s convenient assistant, none of this would have happened. Ivory would be safe. Kael wouldn’t be standing here, drowning in guilt.

The pack would be whole instead of fractured by my arrival.

“I’ll find a way to make this right,” Kael said softly, speaking to Ivory even though she couldn’t hear him. “Whatever you need, whatever it takes for you to heal—you’ll have it. I swear it.”

A sudden knock on the door broke the heavy silence, making us all turn. Two junior healers stood in the doorway, their arms laden with supplies. They were young—probably not even twenty yet—and their eyes widened in shock when they saw who was in the room.

“Healer Eliza sent us,” one of them said—a girl named Sarah, I thought. “She needs these for the treatment. Fresh bandages, blood-clotting potions, pain suppressants.”