DAPHNE.
We reached the Northern territory borders just as the sun was starting to set behind the mountains.
My anxiety spiked hard the moment I saw the stone markers indicating we'd crossed into his land.
I had sworn to myself three years ago that I would never come back here. That I would never set foot in this territory again for as long as I lived.
And now here I was. Driving straight back into the place that had destroyed me completely.
Memories were flooding back without my permission.
The courtyard where he'd humiliated me in front of his entire court. The palace where I'd suffered through two years of hell. The tiny servants' quarters where I'd cried myself to sleep every single night while listening to him fuck other women through the floor.
My chest was getting tighter with each breath.
My breathing was coming faster than it should have been. My hands were starting to shake visibly in my lap.
A physical panic attack was starting to take hold of me.
Mira noticed immediately what was happening.
She leaned closer to me and dropped her voice to a whisper only I could hear. "We can still run if you want. It's not too late to get out of here."
But it was too late already.
We were completely surrounded by Northern soldiers on all sides of us now. Even if we somehow managed to escape from the vehicle, they would hunt us down within hours.
As we drove through the outer villages, people stopped whatever they were doing to stare at us passing by, looking into the car.
I could hear whispers following us like a wave rolling through the crowd.
"Is that the lost Luna?"
"The King's mate?"
"She actually came back?"
"I thought she was dead."
I wanted to disappear into nothing.
Goddess. I wanted to sink into the seat and become completely invisible.
And then I started seeing the plague's impact with my own eyes.
Bodies were being burned in massive pyres that sent thick black smoke rising into the sky. Quarantine tents were overflowing with sick people who were spilling out onto the ground outside.
It was so much... worse than I'd imagined from what Rovian had told me back at the rogue camp. Or the things I'd heard from rumors going around.
A woman suddenly ran up to our convoy with desperation written all over her face. She was wild-eyed and frantic, she was looking directly at Rovian through the window.
"Alpha! Please help us! My daughter is burning up with fever. The healers say there's nothing they can do for her anymore. Please!"
My healer instincts kicked in automatically without me thinking about it. I needed to help these people right now.
I opened the door and climbed out of the vehicle before anyone could stop me from moving.
Rovian was out seconds after me. "Daphne, we need to get you to the palace first so you can rest properly and settle in before you start working on anything medical related and—"
"This girl is dying NOW." I cut him off without bothering to look at his face. "The palace can wait until later."
I turned to face the desperate woman instead. "Take me to your daughter."
The woman's face flooded with immediate relief and hope. She grabbed my hand tightly and pulled me toward one of the larger quarantine tents set up nearby.
I followed her inside without hesitation.
There were dozens of wolves lying on cots or directly on the ground.
All of them were in various stages of the plague. Some were conscious and moaning in pain. Others were completely still and might have already been dead.
A woman wearing a cloth face mask approached me with a clipboard clutched in her hands. She looked absolutely exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes that spoke to days or possibly weeks without any proper sleep.
"Are you the healer they've all been praying for?" she asked me. Her voice was hoarse from overuse.
I was completely speechless for a long moment. I just stared at the horrific scene of suffering spread out in front of me.
The woman with the clipboard followed my gaze across the tent. "If you think this is bad, you should see what we have out back."
I looked at her directly. My heart rate was spiking again in my chest. "Take me there right now."
The woman hesitated for just a second. Then she nodded once and gestured for me to follow her.
She led me through the clinic past rows and rows of sick people lying on every available surface they could find. We went through another door at the back of the tent that led outside to a completely different area.
The smell hit me first before I even saw anything.
It was so potent and overwhelming that I immediately started coughing hard. My eyes were watering uncontrollably.
I had to cover my nose and mouth with my hand just to keep from gagging on the stench.
I looked around and finally saw what was causing the horrific smell.
There were piles and piles of tarps stacked together like short mountains. Dozens of them were scattered across the open area behind the tent.
From the smell alone, I already knew what they were.
But my heart still died slowly in my chest when the woman confirmed it out loud anyway.
"Those are our dead," she said quietly. "They pile up faster than we can stay on top of burning the bodies properly."
I stared at the massive piles in front of me.
There were so many of them... far too many to count quickly.
"How long have these people been dead?" My voice came out barely above a whisper.
The woman looked at me with an expression that was completely haunted by what she'd seen. "These are just the people who died within the last seven days."
The words hit me like someone had punched me in the stomach.
All this in just one week?
I turned back to look at the piles again., trying desperately to process the sheer scale of what I was actually seeing with my own eyes.
This wasn't just a plague spreading through the Rovian's pack.
This was a full... massacre happening in real time.