The Alpha forbidden cure

"Do you know what my only goal is tonight, Ava?" my cousin Maya asked, catching my eye in the mirror as she carefully dragged a glossy red lipstick across her bottom lip. "The second I step through those doors, I'm locking eyes with a rich, decent Alpha driving a gold SUV. Honestly, it's the only way to survive this pack's endless, caveman bullshit."

I yanked on the laces of my dress, silently cursing whoever invented this torturous, suffocating corset.

"Don't be dramatic," Maya snapped, rolling her eyes in the reflection. "Tonight is Ethan's leadership ball. He's the pack's new Alpha. You're supposed to stand beside him looking like a proper, dignified female. The entire pack is going to be watching you."

I sighed and stayed quiet. The annual Mating Ball... Ethan... He was the new leader now. Even though he was arrogant, stubborn, and rough around the edges, everyone had been whispering since we were kids that we were destined to mate. Tradition dictated it, it felt like an inescapable fate, and I had basically grown up accepting it.

But a hidden corner of my mind couldn't stop wandering back to the envelope tucked under my bed: my acceptance letter to medical school in New York. God, I thought, smoothing down the skirts of my dress. If only I had a chance to leave. If only I could swap this whole furry pack drama for a white lab coat. But being an Alpha's destined mate meant burying that dream for good. So I had long stopped holding out hope and pretended to accept my fate.

"Alright, if you're ready, let's go," Maya said, grabbing her clutch. "My parents are already downstairs."

When we stepped into the grand hall, the place was a total circus. Bright lights, flowing champagne, high-ranking wolves walking around like peacocks... My parents stood right beside me, taking in the scene with smug pride. My mother leaned closer and gently straightened the collar of my dress.

"Stand a little taller," she whispered. "By tomorrow, everyone in this pack will be calling you Luna."

My father adjusted the cufflinks on his suit with obvious satisfaction.

"Richard finally gets the council seat," one of the elders nearby said with a grin.

"It's well deserved," another replied. "Once Ethan announces the bond, their family will become one of the most influential in the pack."

My mother couldn't hide her smile.

"I've waited years for this day."

None of them asked if I was happy.

None of them asked whether I wanted this life.

I swallowed the bitter feeling rising in my throat and forced myself to smile.

Just a few more minutes...

Music swelled through the ballroom as couples drifted onto the dance floor. Around me, wolves whispered excitedly about the announcement that was only minutes away.

"They're perfect together.The Moon Goddess couldn't have chosen a stronger pair."

I caught fragments of every conversation as they floated past me. Each word tightened the invisible rope already wrapped around my chest. I smiled politely whenever someone congratulated me, all while silently counting down the minutes until this ceremony was over.

Then Ethan walked toward me with slow, deliberate steps, his eyes locked onto mine. Something in his dark gaze tonight felt wrong distant, almost calculating.

"You look beautiful, Ava."

"Thank you, that's sweet," I managed, forcing a smile, though a sudden chill crept down my spine.

Suddenly, the chatter in the room cut out completely. Ethan took the stage. Wrapped in his heavy Alpha cloak, he stood rigid, arrogant, and unreachable as always. He leaned into the microphone, let his gaze sweep over the crowd, and spoke in that command-heavy tone of his.

"Valued members of my pack," he began, his voice echoing off the high stone walls. "As you know, tonight marks my official first night as your leader, and I am meant to announce my mate's bond. However... for the future of our pack, the continuation of our bloodlines, and the security of our borders... I reject my mate's bond with Ava. I declare Chloe, daughter of the North Clan's head warrior, as my Luna and the new Alpha female of this pack."

A dead silence fell over the room, so thick that seconds dragged like hours. As Chloe walked up to the stage with a triumphant smirk to join Ethan, hundreds of shocked, pitying eyes swung toward a single target: me.

"Oh my God..." I whispered, clapping my hands over my mouth.

My eyes went wide, and I forgot to breathe for a second. Wait. Did that actually just happen? Is this mating really off?

Ethan had just rejected me in front of the entire pack. Honestly, the betrayal from a guy I'd trusted since childhood stung, but he'd also just handed me my lifelong dream of freedom on a silver platter. I forced a crushed, heartbroken expression onto my face, making sure my bruised pride was on full display. But in the back of my mind, a door that had been locked for years was suddenly swinging wide open.

Ethan walked right past me. He paused for a fraction of a second, not even looking at my shoulder, and muttered low... For one impossible second, I thought he was going to apologize.

Or at least look me in the eyes.

Instead, he walked past me as if I were already part of his past.

"Don't take it personally. The pack's future mattered more than you."

I feigned a lump in my throat and hung my head. Anyone watching would think my trembling lips were from devastation, but I was actually struggling not to crack a smile. Ethan walked off thinking he'd made a ruthless power play, completely oblivious to the fact that he'd just handed me the greatest gift of my life.

"Move, Ava," my dad barked quietly, his voice barely a whisper but freezing cold. He didn't hug me, didn't ask if I was okay nothing. He just kept his face turned away from the surrounding tables. "Everyone is staring. We're walking out quietly."

My mother didn't say a word either. She just gripped her purse until her knuckles turned white and stared at the floor. The precious social standing they'd craved so badly in this pack was instantly destroyed.

As we got up and headed toward the exit, Maya and a few other pack girls immediately blocked our path. I could practically smell the fake, performative sympathy oozing off them.

"Ava.Oh my god, we can't believe it. Are you okay, sweetie?" Maya asked, laying a hand on my shoulder. "What are you going to do now? I mean, staying in the pack as a rejected female..."

"I'm just... in shock," I lied, letting my voice quiver pitifully. "There's nothing I can do... I was rejected. Since I clearly don't have a future in the pack anymore, I guess I'll just go finish my education. At least med school is still an option for me."

I played it off like retreating to med school was my pathetic consolation prize. Under the heavy, pitying stares of Maya and the girls, I played the humiliated victim all the way out the doors.

Neither of my parents said a single word on the walk back home. The moment we stepped through the front door, my father stopped, exhaled sharply without even turning around, and spat out, "Go to your room, Ava."

"So I'm the problem here, is that it?" I asked, putting on a broken, hurt voice as I looked back and forth between them. "Ethan publicly humiliated me in front of the entire pack, and all you care about is your damn status. If being a rejected female brings you so much shame, then fine I won't stay here another day. I won't be a burden to this pack anymore. I'm leaving tomorrow for New York to finish my medical degree. I'm going up to pack my bags."

As I turned and headed up the stairs, my heart was practically racing with excitement. Playing the victim was the ultimate cover story it gave me a clean break from the pack without anyone asking questions.

Sure, I can't say Ethan's rejection didn't sting at all; in the werewolf world, public rejection is about the biggest humiliation you can suffer. But what hurt the most wasn't Ethan. It was my parents leaving me out to dry without a second thought.

Pulling my large suitcase out from under the bed, I glanced over at the letter sitting on my desk: my acceptance letter to medical school in New York. Ethan might have broken my heart a little, but in doing so, he shattered the heavy chains this pack had wrapped around me. My white lab coat was waiting for me.

Two days later, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, I grabbed my suitcase. My hand was right on the doorknob when my mother's voice called out from behind me: "Leave the keys on the table."

I dropped the keys onto the wood, shut the door quietly behind me, and walked toward the massive iron gates at the pack border. The border guards took one look at me pitying the poor, pathetic rejected girl and pulled the gate open.

The second my feet hit the cold asphalt past the boundary, it felt like a whisper of a completely new life. I turned around and took one last look at that dark, gloomy forest.

Nobody knew it yet maybe I didn't even fully realize it myself back then but that rejection wasn't the end of my life.

It was the moment it actually began.

Three years later

"Scalpel," I said, my eyes locked on the open chest cavity.

"Here, pulse is dropping," Sarah said, slapping the cold metal into my palm.

"Got it... bleed stopped. He's stable," I exhaled, ripping off my surgical gloves and tossing them into the trash.

"Three straight years of all nighters finally paying off," Sarah groaned, stripping off her lab coat. "Dive bar. Ice cold beer, giant plate of fries. Now."

Half an hour later, I was tucked into a corner booth, an ice cold mug of beer in hand. As the alcohol hit my throat, I felt my inner wolf finally unwind. My clinic with Sarah was up and running, my life in New York was exactly what I wanted, and the endless pack drama was three years behind me. I took a bite of a fry, finally feeling at peace.

Suddenly, the screech of tires tore through the air, followed immediately by a hail of gunshots.

"Get down!" I yelled, shoving Sarah under the table.

"Ava, what's going on?!" Sarah screamed.

"Stay here!" I shouted back and bolted out the door.

Over by the dumpsters in the alley, two massive guys were dragging another man across the asphalt. The guy on the ground was rasping in agonizing pain, and then a sour, metallic scent hit my nose, making me freeze in my tracks. Werewolf and silver.

"Leave him alone." I yelled, sprinting toward them. "I'm a doctor"

"Stay back, lady." one of the men growled, baring his claws. "Mind your own business!"

"Shut up." I barked, stepping right up to his face. "Do you not see the black blood pooling from his chest? He's been shot with silver.He won't make it back to pack territory he's dead in two minutes."

The other guy swallowed hard. "She's right... He's dying. What do we do?"

"My clinic is right around the corner. Get him onto an operating table! Move."

The men burst through the clinic's back door carrying the giant man. By the time we got him onto the surgical table, his veins were bulging black like a spiderweb under his skin. I knew from their scent immediately these guys were Midnight

Pack. The most ruthless clan in the city.

"Get out," I commanded, grabbing a scalpel.

"If anything happens to him, we'll tear this clinic to the ground, Doc." the huge guy threatened.

"Listen here, pal," I said, stepping right up into his space. "If you don't shut your fucking mouth and step outside, your buddy is leaving here in a body bag in two minutes flat. Make a choice: keep threatening me, or let him live."

"Fine..." the guy muttered, taking a step

back. "We'll be outside."

"Sarah, get me the silver binding serum and two milligrams of epinephrine right now!" I shouted.

For the next three hours, I painstakingly extracted every single grain of silver poison from his body. As the first light of dawn broke, I stepped into the waiting room. The men jumped to their feet instantly.

"How is he? Is he alive?"

"He's alive," I said, pulling a cigarette out of my pocket and lighting up. "I flushed the silver. But he needs rest, asap."

"We can't leave him here, hunters might track him," the big guy said, slinging his buddy's arm over his shoulder to haul him off the bed. "We have to get him back to the pack."

"So you're not even gonna ask me?" I said, rolling my eyes. "Fine, do whatever you want. At least he didn't die on my table."

The next afternoon, after wrapping up at the clinic, Sarah, the interns, and I went out for a quick grocery run. Walking down the avenue with a large brown paper bag tucked under my arm, my steps gradually slowed down.

"Ava, look at that dress," Sarah said, pointing at a boutique window. "Isn't that so your style?"

"Sarah," I said, my eyes locked on a sleek black luxury SUV with fully blacked-out windows across the street. "You see that car?"

Sarah glanced away from the storefront. "Which car? That SUV? So what? It's New York, Ava, those are on every block."

"No, that's not it," I said, shifting the heavy paper bag to my other arm. "I saw that exact same car outside the clinic yesterday morning. And when I left my apartment last night, it was parked at the end of the street. I keep telling myself it's a coincidence, but... my gut says otherwise."

One of the interns laughed. "Maybe it's a rich secret admirer, Dr. Ava. Stalking you from afar."

"I hope I'm just being paranoid," I muttered, casting one last glance over my shoulder at the SUV as we kept walking. "Because I am not liking the scent coming off it."

By the time I locked up the clinic that evening, a storm was brewing outside. As I took off my lab coat and draped it over the back of a chair, a soft tap on the glass startled me. The front door chime chimed softly.

The moment I saw who walked in, the air in the room turned ice cold, instantly draining the oxygen from my lungs. He wore a tailored black suit that fit him like a glove. Pitch-black hair, tanned skin, and cold, razor-sharp gray eyes. But it was the faint, jagged scar cutting through his left eyebrow that caught my attention a brutal imperfection on an otherwise flawless face. A sharp, woodsy scent of pine and an oncoming storm filled the small space. The crushing, dominant aura radiating off him felt heavy enough to crack the surrounding walls.

This wasn't just any leader. This was Cole the legendary Head Alpha of the Midnight Pack.

"Doctor Ava?" Cole said. His voice was as cold and smooth as a sheet of ice.

"That's me," I said, shoving my hands into my pants pockets and taking a confident step toward him. "And you are? Are you the guy who's been creeping around in that SUV following me for days?"

The bodyguard behind Cole stepped forward aggressively. "Doctor.Do you have any idea who you're speaking to."

"Stand down," Cole said, holding up a hand to silence his man. His gray eyes locked straight onto my hazel ones. "I'm Cole. Head Alpha of the Midnight Pack. My men told me what happened the other night. They said there's a healer who neutralized silver poisoning without magic just science."

"It's called medicine, Head Alpha," I replied with a sarcastic smirk. "And if your guy is breathing right now, it's thanks to that science you look down on. If you came to say thank you, you can drop the payment off with my receptionist on your way out."

Cole took two heavy steps toward me. As the distance closed, waves of his suffocating wolf energy rolled over me, but I didn't budge an inch. He stared into the depths of my eyes, and for a split second, something flickered across his expression.

"I didn't come to thank you, Doctor. I came to offer you a job," Cole said, his voice dropping into a raspy, deep rumble.

"I don't want to hear or see anything about packs, clans, or status, Alpha," I said firmly. "I have zero intention of going back to your primitive world. Keep your money and your pack."

He stared at me for a few seconds, completely unreadable. "You'll change your mind," he said.

"Where is all this confidence coming from?"

"Because everyone has a weak spot."

"I don't!"

"You're wrong... Children are dying in my pack."

Cole kept his voice completely steady. "We have plenty of traditional healers and shamans on pack land. But we need a doctor who understands werewolf anatomy and has modern medical training."

"Why?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "Are all your pack's healers not enough?"

"It's not about that," Cole said, keeping his eyes locked on mine. "There's an epidemic in our pack, Doctor. A mysterious biological toxin left behind by hunters is making the kids in our territory fall sick one by one. I won't force you if you refuse..."

Cole was silent for a long moment.

"When the first child got sick, everyone believed it was just a fever."

His voice remained calm, but the exhaustion behind it was impossible to miss.

"Then another child collapsed... and another."

He held my gaze.

"My healers tried every ritual they knew. Every herb. Every antidote."

"They failed."

A bitter silence settled between us.

"I've already buried two children."

The words hit me harder than I expected.

Cole's jaw tightened.

"I won't bury a third."

For the first time since he'd walked into my clinic, I wasn't looking at an untouchable Head Alpha.

I was looking at a leader who hadn't slept in days.

"If modern medicine can save even one child..."

His gray eyes never left mine.

"...I'll put my pride aside."

Right then, the clinic door burst open violently.

"Head Alpha"

A guard rushed inside, gasping for air, his face pale as a sheet.

Cole turned his head slowly. "What happened?"

"Daniel..." the man stammered, his voice trembling. "His fever spiked past 105 again. The healers say his heart rate is dropping."

The room plunged into dead silence.

The stoic mask on Cole's face cracked for the very first time. His jaw clenched hard.

"How much time does he have?"

The guard lowered his gaze to the floor.

"...They don't think he'll last until dawn, Head Alpha."

A sharp ache squeezed my chest. They were talking about an eight-year-old kid.

Cole didn't speak for a few agonizing seconds. Then he turned those piercing gray eyes back onto me.

"Now do you see why I need you, Doctor Ava?"

I dropped my gaze, staring at the floor. I hated wolves, packs, and their never-ending power struggles. But I couldn't just stand by and let an innocent child pay for adult battles with his life.

I let out a heavy breath.

"I only treat patients," I said, keeping my voice as cold as possible. "I stay out of your pack politics. And the second those kids are healed, I'm coming back to New York."

Cole uttered a single word.

"Deal."

There was no victory in his voice. Just a heavy, exhausted sense of relief, as if tons of weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Also, do you really have to be so intense all the time? Furrow your brows any harder and you're gonna give yourself wrinkles," I added, trying to cut through the heavy tension.

Without so much as cracking a smile, he said, "Be ready at seven."

He turned to leave, and that's when the puzzle pieces finally clicked together in my head.

"It was you," I blurted out. "The black SUV. You weren't just creeping around... you were vetting me."

Cole paused at the door, glancing back over his shoulder.

"I don't trust the lives of my pack to just anyone, Doctor."

Then he walked out.

It was pushing four in the morning by the time I handed the final doses of the antidote serum over to the lab assistants. I hadn't slept in days, but it was worth it; the suffocating sounds of coughing coming from the rooms down the hall had completely stopped, and a peaceful silence had finally settled over the pack hospital. I threw myself onto the old leather sofa in the hospital break room and closed my eyes.

A few minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door. "Dr. Ava? Can I come in?"

I cracked my eyes open. Nina, one of the pack's young nurses, walked in carrying a tray. "Come on in, Nina. I was just about to pass out."

"I know we've worked you to the bone," Nina said, a huge, grateful smile spreading across her face as she set the tray on the table. "But it was worth it. I brought you some cluster tea, it'll help with the exhaustion."

I took the hot mug in my hands and breathed in deeply. "God, even the smell is enough. How are the kids doing right now?"

"They're doing so much better," Nina said, perching on the chair across from me. "Their fevers have completely broken. Even Daniel ate by himself today for the first time. The elderly healers are whispering in the lab, praising your methods."

I smiled and took a sip of my tea. "Right diagnosis, right treatment, Nina."

"They grumble about everything anyway," Nina said, dropping her voice and leaning in closer to the table. "But you didn't just save lives, Doc. You got on our Head Alpha Cole's good side. He doesn't just hand his lab over to any doctor."

"He's a little too distant and harsh," I said, swirling my mug. "His aura literally sucks the oxygen out of the room."

Nina shot a quick glance at the door before turning back to me. "Cole wasn't always a block of ice, Ava."

I raised my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Let's just say a female wolf taught him that trusting the wrong person can cost a lot of lives," Nina murmured, standing up quickly as if she'd already said too much. "Anyway, I should get back to my shift. Try to get some sleep, you've got rounds in the morning."

Half an hour after Nina left the room, a huge crash echoed down the hallway. The sound of a metal cart tipping over was followed by a sharp groan of pain. I bolted up from the sofa and threw myself out the door. At the end of the hall, the heavy supply cart used for meds was overturned, its wheels spinning in the air. One of the assistants must have panicked and crashed it into the wall; glass bottles of chemical solutions were shattered all over the floor.

"Stay back.Watch out." a voice yelled from down the hall.

I realized the acidic chemical solution on the floor was flowing rapidly right toward me, so I took a huge step back. But my exhaustion had messed with my coordination; my foot caught on a chunk of broken glass.

I completely lost my balance. My feet went out from under me.

I shut my eyes on reflex, bracing for the hard tile.

But I didn't hit the ground.

With terrifying speed, a pair of strong hands gripped my waist, catching me mid-air. My back slammed into a solid wall of muscle.

A sharp gasp escaped my lips.

That intense, woodsy scent of pine and oncoming storm swallowed me whole.

Cole.

My eyes flew open. He was staring down at me, his face mere inches from mine. I could feel the heat radiating off his chest, burning through the thin fabric of my scrubs.

For a second, neither of us moved. My heart hammered against my ribs.

His breath hitched. The muscles in his jaw ticked.

As he held me suspended, his right hand slid just a fraction lower on my waist. His rough thumb brushed the sliver of bare skin where my shirt had ridden up.

A jolt of pure, crackling electricity shot straight up my spine.

He felt it, too. I saw his pupils dilate, the stark gray in his eyes darkening into a chaotic storm cloud.

"Doctor," he rasped. His voice was rough. Barely a whisper. "Be careful."

For a heartbeat, his grip tightened. As if his inner wolf was screaming at him to pull me closer. Then, exactly as fast, he ripped his hands away. As if the contact had literally burned his skin.

He stepped back. The air rushed back into

the space between us.

The impenetrable ice wall slammed back down over his features.

"Thanks," I managed, my voice coming out thin and breathless.

Cole stared at me. The vulnerability from a second ago was completely gone, replaced by a rigid, chilling distance.

"This will never happen again," he said. His tone was absolute.

He turned and walked away down the hall, leaving me shivering in the cold air he left behind.

The next afternoon, I was sitting at my desk in the hospital room organizing files when my phone buzzed.

"Sarah? You finally managed to call."

"Ava! Oh my god, it's so good to hear your voice," Sarah said, talking over the familiar, chaotic background noise of our New York clinic. "I haven't really heard from you in days. How is it over there, when are you coming back?"

"Calm down," I said with a laugh, leaning back in my chair. "Everything is fine. We've completely stopped the outbreak. The kids' fevers are gone."

"You really are a genius," Sarah sighed in relief. "So, are you heading back tonight?"

I turned my gaze out the window to the endless, lush green territory of the Midnight Pack. "Not right away, Sarah. I'm going to be here a little while longer. I have to monitor their dosages."

"Alright, whatever you say, boss," Sarah said with a grin. "But watch out for that iceman, Cole. You can practically smell the guy all the way from New York."

"I'm hanging up now, Sarah," I said with fake annoyance and ended the call.

Once the kids were better, the pack organized a little celebration. Before heading out to the yard, I swung by the infirmary. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Cole quietly tucking a blanket around one of the kids. A guy who punched walls, stroking a child's hair with those exact same hands... it was the last thing I ever expected.

By the time I made it out to the courtyard, the tables were surrounded by laughter.

"So, Dr. Ava," Lily, one of the pack's young females, said as she held her drink out toward me. "Did you manage to get used to our big, crazy pack?"

I laughed, clinking my glass against hers. "Let's just say your healers bowed down to science once they saw the lab results."

"Nobody in the pack cares that you're a beta right now," Nina chimed in, sitting next to us. "If you do your job well here, you're valued."

As I watched the other wolves in the yard, I had this weird moment of clarity. This place really isn't so bad. The Midnight Pack was so much fairer than the Crescent Pack. It was a place where people were treated as equals based on their skills. For the first time ever, I didn't feel like an outcast on pack lands.

Around midnight, as the celebration wound down, I started walking down the quiet, shaded path next to the hospital. The air was cool, the full moon illuminating the forest.

"It's late," said that raspy voice coming from behind me.

I turned and saw Cole stepping out of the shadows. He was jacketless, the top two buttons of his shirt undone. That overwhelming aura was still there, but it wasn't suffocating me; it felt like it was wrapping around me.

"I just wanted some fresh air," I said, leaning against the wooden fence.

"You earned it," Cole said, stopping right next to me. There were only a few inches between us, the faint memory of that electricity in the hallway still lingering in the air. "You saved my pack's children, Ava. I'm grateful to you."

"I just did my job, Head Alpha," I said. "But honestly... your pack surprised me. It's very different from my old pack. People here are more equal. In my old pack, if you were a weak beta, you were just a pawn."

Cole's features softened. "Everyone has value here, Doctor. I don't let anyone throw anyone away. Especially someone like you."

"Goodnight," I said, and started walking toward my room.

Just as I was about to open the door, Cole's voice called out. "Doctor."

I turned around. Cole was standing a few steps away, the harshness back in his eyes.

"Did something happen?" I asked.

He stared at me. "Don't go letting your guard down just because the outbreak is over."

I frowned. "What do you mean? The serum worked."

Cole let out a deep breath. "My instincts are telling me this wasn't natural."

My heart pounded against my ribs. "What do you mean, not natural..."

"I can't prove it," his voice was low. "Yet. But someone might have started this outbreak on purpose."

Right at that moment, a long, ominous howl rose from the northern border. Followed by a second howl.

Cole turned his head sharply toward the sound. His jaw clenched tight.

Footsteps crunched heavily on the gravel path. A border guard emerged from the shadows, panting.

"Head Alpha," the guard said, bowing quickly. "A delegation just arrived at the northern border. They're demanding entry."

Cole's eyes narrowed, a deadly calm washing over his face. "Who is it?"

"The Crescent Pack, sir. Alpha Ethan and his men."

A heavy silence fell over the path. The Crescent Pack. My old pack. Ethan.

Cole slowly turned his gaze back to me. A dark realization flickered in his gray eyes. The mysterious, unnatural outbreak... and the sudden, unannounced arrival of a delegation from the exact pack that had cast me out.

"And for some reason," Cole muttered, his voice freezing over, "I don't think their timing is a coincidence."

I couldn't say a single word.

Because looking at the sharp calculation behind Cole's eyes, I had the exact same feeling. Whatever Ethan claimed he'd come for, it wasn't trade.

It was an excuse.