The Alpha Queen And Her Chosen Mate

Kylie

She has to be okay, right? Look at her, sitting on the ground playing with her dolls, her sweet little blond curls bouncing every time she turned her head. The moon gooddess wouldn’t dare allow her to get sick…right?

“You keep biting your nails like that, you wont have anything left.” Jocelyn said from across the room while she stirred whatever it was she was making over the stove.

“I can’t help it. We should have heard back by now.” I said, continuing to gnaw away.

“No news is good news.” She said, coming over next to me and rubbing my back gently.

“Kelsey got her pups test results back already. I got mine back already.” I sighed heavily. “We should have gotten Cece’s by now.”

Several months ago we learned that Kelly was sick with the same genetic disorder that our mother had. We grew up thinking our mom was just a fluke, werewolves didn’t get sick. Not normally anyway. So to find out Kelly had the same thing had us all on edge. Once things slowed down, after Kelsey and Thorin became mates and had their ceremony, we all went and got tested. Kelsey, myself, and our pups, that is. Everyone’s results came back earlier this week, all negative. Except Cece’s. We still hadn’t heard back yet, even though she got the tests done on the same day as everyone else.

“Maybe it just got lost?” Jocelyn said, trying to be optimistic.

“Who looses bloodwork from a member of the royal family?” I scoffed, not buying it.

“I’m sure Cece will be just fine, and we are worrying for noth-“

Ring Ring Ring

We both froze as soon as my phone began to ring, the hospital phone number on the caller ID. I quickly unfroze and picked up the phone with shaky hands, clicking the answer button.

“Hello?” I gulped.

“Goodafternoon, may I please speak with the parents or guardian of Cecelia Cook?”

“This is her mom, Kylie.” I said, tears already pricking at my eyes.

Jocelyn grabbed my free hand and held it tight as she sat close next to me and listened to the call.

“This is the clinic calling, Dr. Barbato wanted me to call and see if you were available to come into the office tomorrow morning at ten to review Cecelia’s test results.”

“Yes, we-we’ll be there.” I nodded to myself.

“Perfect, we will see you then! Have a nice evening!”

“It’s okay, we will get her treatment, and-and we’ll make sure she sees only the best specialists-” Jocelyn said as I set down the phone, her eyes glassy.

“Our baby is sick.” I began to cry. “I don’t want her to end up like my mom.” I said quietly as I scooped up our girl and held her close, much to her protest.

We never shared the gorey details of our mom’s death with Kelly. She didn’t need to know, she punished herself enough for not being there when she died as is. The last week was the hardest. She was in pure agony. You could hear her crying out in pain throughout the whole palace, begging for death. We gave her everything we could to keep her out of pain but it wasn’t enough. We contemplated helping her move on, but by the time that conversation came up, it was less than a few hours before she finally passed.

We didn’t want her to die, but we didn’t want her to suffer even more. Death was merciful in the end. I didn’t want that for our daughter, I wanted her to live a long, happy, healthy life. I wanted her to have the chance to find herself and to find love. If she had the same illness as our mother did, her quality and duration of life would be shot.

“We will figure something out.” Jocelyn said, wiping her eyes.

“We are going to have to.” I nodded.

– – – – – – – –

“For Cecelia?”

“That’s us.” I said, standing with Cece in my arms and Jocelyn by my side.

“Right this way.” The nurse smiled.

Of course she was smiling, she wasn’t about to be told her daughter had an illness that was going to slowly kill her. Or make her wolf go crazy, like Kellys once was. We sat in the tiny exam room, and waited. I loathed the decorations there. It was obviously a room meant for pups, evident from all the nature-themed cut-outs stuck to the wall, each having a smile plastered on its face.

“Good morning ladies.” Emmett said, letting himself into our room.

I still wondered what Kelly ever saw in him. Sure, he was good looking, but I felt like he was the angel of death, ready to deliver the bad news with a f*****g smile on his face.

“What are her results?” I blatantly asked.

“Straight to the point, I see.” He sighed, taking a seat across from us. “Cece did test positive for the same genetic disease as your mother and sister, but I don’t want you to worry-“

“You don’t want us to worry?!” I hissed. “I watched that disease slowly and painfully kill my mother! That disease made my sister’s wolf insane, which made her life hell and you are telling me not to worry?!”

“I understand your concerns-“

“No you obviously don’t! It’s not your pup’s life on the line!” I growled.

“Kylie-” Jocelyn cut in, resting her hand against my arm. “Let’s just hear what he has to say.”

“There is nothing he is going to say that will make this any better! Unless he has a cure hidden up his sleeve, I don’t want to hear it!”

Emmett cleared his throat and placed a small glass vile on the table. It was a beautiful iridescent purple color, unlike anything I had ever seen before.

“What is that?” Jocelyn asked, though I think I already knew.

“This,” he said, carefully picking up the tiny bottle. “Will cure your daughter. I just so happened to have a little bit left of all the ingredients for the Elixir of Vitality, which is why it took me a few days to get back to you. All she needs to do is drink it and she will be cured.” He smiled, handing me the bottle.

“Oh thank goddess!” Jocelyn exclaimed.

Okay, yeah, I can see why Kelly liked him now. My hands were shaking as I held the cure in my hand, afraid to even breathe wrong.

“Actually, why don’t I?” Emmett chuckled, taking the vile back and grabbing a pup-sized medicine syringe out of the drawer. He had me hold Cece while he carefully sucked the elixir out of the bottle and into the syringe, then made sure she drank every last drop. I was crying out of relief the entire time. “We will retest her in a few weeks, just to be sure, but otherwise you are free to go.” He smiled.

After I had pulled myself together, we went back home and spent the better part of the day doing whatever Cece wanted, until dinner time, when we decided to go out to a fancy restaurant and order half the menu to celebrate. I had hardly eaten all week, too sick to my stomach to even think about food, so there wasn’t much food to take home. We laughed and even cried again and then spent the rest of the time recanting our favorite memories of our little girl. Cece didn’t care much, until we ordered her a massive slice of chocolate cake anyway. She was covered in chocolate frosting by the end, earning herself a bath as soon as we got home.

“I’ll be right back.” I said, once Cece was tucked in and Jocelyn was getting ready for bed.

“Where are you going?” She asked, worry on her face as she made her way towards me.

“I, I just need to go talk to Kelly.” I said sheepishly.

“Oh. Alright.” She said before swatting my a*s playfully. “Hurry back.”

“I will.” I smiled and nodded.

I hoped to find Kelly in her office so we could talk more privately, but instead I found her in the kitchen, eating all sorts of weird foods off a plate she had balancing on her growing belly.

“Hey Kelly.” I said, surprising her.

“Oh! Hey.” She giggled, knowing she had just got caught red-handed. “What’s up?” She said, reluctantly setting the plate down on the counter.

“I wanted to thank you…and apologize.”

“Oh…well, your welcome…but for what? And why do you need to apologize?” She frowned.

“When you left to go get the ingredients to save mom…I put all my hope and faith in you. And when she died…I resented you for it for a while, and that wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry.” I gulped.

Kelly’s face dropped, her eyes instantly watery. “I tried to get everything as fast as we could-“

“I know, and you shouldn’t have had to be put in that situation, and I shouldn’t have put that pressure on you. But maybe it was for the better.” I shrugged.

“What?” She said, wiping her eyes.

“Cece tested positive.” I said quietly.

“Goddess no!!” Kelly gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.

“It’s okay, really. Let me explain,” I said.

I told her how Emmett was able to make just enough from the remains to heal Cece from her illness, and how thankful I was that she went on that journey. On some level, I was thankful she didn’t get home in time to save mom, because if she did, she would never have cured herself, which means we wouldn’t have known about Cece until she started having problems and by then it could be too late. Very few have ever been able to gather the ingredients for the elixir. Our great-something-grandfather failed, our father failed, and so many others. But not Kelly. She succeeded. She was one in a million and I am so grateful for her, especially now.

“So you see, even though you didn’t save mom, you saved your niece in the process.” I shrugged, wiping my eyes.

“Thank you for telling me this, I really needed to hear that.” She cried, pulling me in for a hug.

“Thank you for saving my daughter, and for being such an amazing sister.”