My Fated Alpha's Cruel Game (Elena and Marcus) novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Chapter 7 Broken Mate Bond

Elena’s POV

The hospital smelled like bleach and old coffee.

My sneakers squeaked against the polished floor as I tore down the corridor. I didn’t slow down. I couldn’t.

“Emergency — I’m looking for my mother — she was brought in—”

The nurse at the desk pointed without looking up. “That bay.”

I shoved the curtain aside.

And I stopped breathing.

My mother lay on the narrow bed with a thin blue blanket pulled to her chest. Her skin looked almost translucent under the fluorescent lights. You could see the fine bones of her cheeks pushing through, the hollows beneath her eyes gone deep and purple. Her hair, still damp from whatever sweat had taken her down in the diner, clung to her temples.

Her chest rose. Fell. Rose again. Barely.

“Mom?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t open her eyes.

“Are you her daughter?”

I turned. A middle-aged man in a white coat stood behind me. His face was careful. Neutral. The kind of face a doctor wears when he is about to break you.

“Yes. I’m her daughter. What happened. What’s wrong with her.”

He gestured for me to step out of the bay.

I didn’t want to leave her. But I went.

He folded his hands in front of him. “I’m going to be direct with you. I think you’d rather I was.”

“Yes.”

“Your mother’s body is shutting down.”

The words landed somewhere outside of me. Like he was saying them to another girl.

“She collapsed from exhaustion, yes. But the exhaustion is not the cause. It’s a symptom.” He paused. His eyes searched mine. “How long ago did she lose her mate?”

My throat closed.

“Years,” I managed. “A long time ago.”

He nodded slowly. “Some of us survive it. Most of us don’t. She has been holding on for you, I’d guess. Fighting hard. But the body can only do that for so long. The organs begin to fail. The wolf fades first, and then the human follows.”

“How long.”

“Weeks. Months, if she’s lucky.” His voice was gentle but it did not soften anything. “I’m sorry.”

I set my jaw. I looked him straight in the eye.

“She’s not giving up.”

“I didn’t say she was.”

“She’s not. She wouldn’t. She has me.”

“I know.”

I pushed past him and went back through the curtain. I took her hand. Her fingers were cold and thin as sticks.

“Mom,” I whispered. “You hear me? You stay.”

A porter arrived. Then an orderly. Papers were signed somewhere out of my sight. They wheeled her bed into the elevator and I followed, clutching the rail.

Third floor.

The doors opened onto a hallway that did not belong in this hospital. Carpet. Soft lighting. A nurse in a crisp uniform who actually smiled.

They rolled her into a private room. IV lines. A monitor that beeped in a slow, steady rhythm. A real window. A chair that did not look like it had been donated from a waiting room in another century.

I stood in the doorway and stared.

We could not pay for this. Our insurance would not cover the doorknob of this room.

I walked out.

Beta Hugo was standing by the elevator. Hands folded in front of him. Calm as stone.

“Beta Hugo.”

“Elena.”

I walked right up to him. I did not look away.

“Did you arrange this room. Or did he.”

“I follow Alpha Marcus’s orders.”

“That is not an answer.”

“It’s the only one I have.”

I laughed. It wasn’t a real laugh. “You know what’s funny about that arrogant Alpha?” I pulled a half-crushed cigarette from my pocket and tucked it behind my ear. “One minute he says I’m not worth being called his. The next he’s paying for a private room. Such twisted mood swings. Which is it?”

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