Rebirth of the Alpha's Slave Mate (Samantha and Kade) novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53

“How long has he been like this?” I asked, carefully moving aside the blankets to get a better look at him.

“About a month now. The fever won’t go away. He hasn’t eaten in a week now.”

My chest ached for the poor little boy. He looked frail and thin as I moved aside the blankets, and he cried out at the sensation of the air hitting his feverish body. But the moment I peered at his chest, I felt it-the warmth.

The same warmth I’d felt with Lana, only in a different location this time. His lungs.

I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew, as I had known with the two patients before, exactly what was ailing this boy.

“Pneumonia,” I said, quickly covering him again. “He’s got severe pneumonia. It’s treatable with the right herbs.”

The old woman blinked at me. “Do you know where to find the herbs?” she asked.

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I looked around, biting my lip. I didn’t know too much about medicine, just whatever I had learned from various books I had snuck out of the library when I was a slave, but I recalled a certain tincture that could be used for illnesses like this. The herbs weren’t rare and could be found in just about any climate.

“Yes,” I finally said. “I can collect them and make a tincture.”

“She’ll run off!” one of the males barked.

The old woman sighed and gestured to Sara. “Go with her.”

Sara nodded and followed me away from the clearing. I picked my way through the forest, foraging the various herbs I needed. She watched me the whole time, silent and vigilant with a knife carved from some kind of bone clutched in her hand.

I didn’t want to know where she got the bone.

Finally, I collected everything I would need and we returned to the camp. I dropped everything into a small pot of water over the fire and stirred it, letting it simmer until the water turned dark and thick with sap.

Once the tincture was finished and cool enough to consume, I handed the pot to the old woman. She eyed me suspiciously, but dropped a small spoonful of it into the boy’s mouth. He resisted at first, complaining about the taste, but eventually swallowed it.

At first, nothing happened. “She’s a liar,” one of the males snarled “We should just eat her now-”

“Wait.” The old woman leaned forward, pressing her hand to the boy’s forehead. Her eyes widened. “His fever is already going down!”

A gaggle of females crowded around him then, checking him over and tending to him. Their shouts of surprise and relief rang through the night. The old woman looked at me with watery eyes.

“He and his mother got caught in the river during a storm a month ago,” she said. “His mother didn’t make it— we didn’t think he would, either.”

My heart ached a little. I’d always had a certain opinion of rogues-everyone said they were murderers and rapists, the type of people who were incapable of the empathy required to be part of a pack—but now that was changing.

Maybe they were just… desperate.

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Chapter 53

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“I’m sorry that happened,” I whispered.

The old woman shook her head. “But you saved him. Thank you, Silver girl. But we don’t have any money. Is there anything we can do to repay you?”

I would have been more than happy to just walk away with my life, but I hesitated. I didn’t know where I was, and the wilds were dangerous. Even if Natasha had been telling the truth, no one would find me now.

But perhaps there was still a way to get to Crescent Hollow. To my baby.

“Actually,” I said, “there is one thing.”

“Anything,” she replied.

I looked around at the group. “I need to be escorted to Crescent Hollow pack.’

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