Trap of the King Alpha Triplet

Emily.

Pain.

Searing, soul-deep pain is the first thing I'm aware of as I claw my way back to consciousness. It feels like my blood has turned to molten lava, scorching through my veins with every labored beat of my heart. A wounded keening fills my ears and it takes long moments to realize the alien sound is tearing from my own raw throat.

Hurts, it hurts, make it stop, please please please--

I thrash weakly against the sweat-soaked sheets, my muscles seizing in uncontrollable spasms. Somewhere deep in my body, Eartha howls like a thing possessed. I've never felt her so strongly, the wolf soul and the witch gene boiling together in a tempest that threatens to tear me apart at the seams.

Eartha's primal scream reverberates in my skull. I Need Our Mate!

Animal desperation clogs my throat. I want to claw the burning itch from my skin, to carve out the unnatural compulsion pulsing in my core. This isn't me, this snarling wild thing ready to beg and debase myself for any whisper of relief. I am more than base instinct, more than mating imperative, goddess damn it!

No, I moan soundlessly. Not like this. Never like this.

But Eartha is too far gone to hear me. She is too consumed by the twisted heat to care about anything but sating the ravenous emptiness between our legs. She slams against the boundaries of my mind, fighting to take control with rabid savagery. I feel my body bend and warp under the onslaught, bones shifting and muscles rippling as the change shudders through me in nauseating waves.

Eartha, Stop! I shriek, clutching at dissolving threads of self. I need you to stop! You are killing us.

Suddenly, blessedly cool hands grip my shoulders, pressing me back into the mattress. A commanding voice cuts through the maelstrom, edged in steel and ancient magic.

"Be still, child. You must not shift now."

I latch onto that voice, dragging myself out of the drowning depths of Eartha's madness. My eyes slit open, the dim firelight stabbing into my skull like needles.

A woman leans over me, her face etched with concern. She smells of sage and honey, the warm animal musk of wolf.

"W-who?" I croak, my tongue thick and heavy as lead.

"Emily, I am Joe, healer of the Windridge Pack." Her fingers are gentle as they brush damp hair from my face. "You have been very ill, Emily. That man may poison you with a mutated form of estrus serum. It has affected you strangely, given your dual nature."

I whimper, my head tossing against the pillow as a fresh wave of fire sweeps through me. "It hurts," I gasp. "I can't... Eartha, she's..."

Joe nods grimly. "Your wolf is reacting violently to the toxin. The two magics inside you are at war. Your body is not equipped to handle a heat this strong."

A sob hitches in my chest. "Am I... am I dying?"

"No." Joe's eyes blaze amber, a red ring bleeding into the edges of her irises. "I will not allow it. You are pack, Emily. And the Moon Mother protects her children."

She reaches for a leather satchel on the bedside table, bringing out a syringe filled with milky liquid. "This is a powerful sex hormone antagonist, designed to interrupt the signals of the estrus serum. It will feel strange, but it is necessary to halt the damage being done to your body."

I eye the needle with trepidation, "Okay," I whisper hoarsely.

Joe wastes no time, swabbing my hip with a sharp-smelling tincture before sliding the needle home. The sting is a spark compared to the inferno consuming me from within. I feel the chilled rush of the medicine spreading through my bloodstream, a temporary balm against the fever heat.

Then, the full might of the antidote hits like a sledgehammer.

I jackknife off the bed with a ragged scream, my nerves sizzling as if dipped in acid. Distantly, I'm aware of Eartha's howl rising to meet my own, a descant of pure animal anguish. It feels like we're being flayed alive, turned inside out, every molecule in revolt as the potion sinks its claws into us.

Joe's strong arms wrap around my convulsing frame, holding me steady as she rocks me like a pup. I cling to her, tears leaking from beneath my clenched lids, fingernails gouging bloody crescents into my palms.

"Shh, nearly through now," Joe croons, her other hand returning with a second syringe. "One more, and then sleep, child. Sleep now."

I barely feel the pinch of the tranquilizer over the cataclysm ripping me asunder. But slowly, blessedly, it steals through my ravaged system like an absolution. The pain ebbs to a dull roar, my limbs going slack and heavy in Joelle's embrace. Emily! Eartha's mental shriek is a lightning bolt through the descending fog. Don't stop. We need our mate! We need our ALPHA!

I can only muster a thready moan in response, too exhausted and broken to conjure words. Joelle eases me down onto the sweat-dampened sheets, her palm a benediction on my brow.

"Rest now," she commands softly. "Let the herbs do their work. Your wolf will keep until moonrise."

The lunar magic in her voice wraps around me like a cool silver blanket, inexorable as the tide. I feel myself sinking down, down, away from the wailing supernova of Eartha's fury and the throbbing ache in my hollow womb.

As I spiral into the black arms of oblivion, one final thought crystallizes in my fracturing mind.

Leo. I need Leo.

But then the darkness takes me, and I know nothing more.

***

I drift on a sea of pain and need. My body is alternately freezing and burning. I hear Joe arguing with someone, their voices low and tense.

"Too much...it could kill her."

"We have to do something!"

"...won't risk it....needs time..."

I try to focus, to make sense of the words, but they slip away like wisps of smoke. The fever drags me back under, into a world of twisted shadows and phantom touches.

I can feel a large, warm hand wrapped around mine. I struggle to open my eyes, to see who it is, but my lids are weighted with lead.

"Emily," a deep voice murmurs, rough with emotion. "I'm here. I'm right here. Just hold on, baby. Please."

The voice rumbles, low and fervent. One of the triplets, I realize muzzily. But which one? They sound so alike, especially with my faculties still dulled by the ordeal. I try to let him know I hear him, but my muscles refuse to obey. A pitiful whimper is all I can muster.

"Shh," he soothes, his other hand coming up to brush the hair from my fevered brow. "Don't try to talk. Just rest. Let Joe do her work."

Time blurs, minutes bleeding into hours bleeding into eternity. I have no idea how long I linger in that twilight place, caught between waking and oblivion. But eventually, blessedly, the fever begins to recede. Eartha's fury quiets to a low, sullen growl, no longer threatening to consume me whole.

I wake in stages, my senses returning one by one. The crackle of the fire, the rasp of the sheets against my sensitive skin. The pungent scent of herbs and something richer, muskier. Awareness prickles along my nerves and I groan, my head lolling on the sweat-soaked pillow.

"...think she's coming around," Joe's voice filters through the cottony haze, taut with exhaustion and relief.

"Thank the Goddess." The low voice said.

I try to crack my eyes open, wincing as even the dim light of the cabin pierces my skull. Two blurry figures loom over me, their features slowly resolving into focus.

I surface slowly, clawing my way up from the smothering depths of unconsciousness. It feels like wading through thick black tar, heavy and clinging. Muted light blooms behind my closed eyelids and I groan, pain sparking dully in my temples. "Emily? Can you hear me?"