PlotlumeI stood in as a bride for Rhett, the Alpha heir of the wolf Mafia, and three years later he still keeps the black card's backup card in his first love's hands.
My sister was born with fragile wolf bones. Every week she needs the cold spring on his estate to stay alive.
The day her old illness flared up and she coughed blood, Rhett had the whole cold spring drained and rebuilt into a playground for Delphine's son.
I knelt in the pouring rain and begged him for mercy. He just sneered and held his first love close.
"Sophie, that boy has no father. He's so pitiful. Your sister only gets a few more painkiller shots. Don't be so selfish."
Last time my sister had an asthma attack, he took away her only ventilator too, so Delphine's pet wolf could breathe oxygen.
Back then he swore that if I signed a contract giving up any claim to the family fortune, he would keep my sister safe forever.
For her sake, I swallowed my anger and signed.
But tonight my sister is burning with fever and unconscious, and she urgently needs a match with the Alpha King's marrow. The hospital called to say the one custom marrow made for her has been destroyed on Rhett's orders.
All because Delphine's son said he hates the smell of other people in the hospital.
My sister lay on the bed, barely breathing, holding my hand. "Sis, is my brother-in-law hoping I die?"
I touched her burning forehead and looked down the hall at the family's head, sitting in his wheelchair.
Maybe it's time to find my sister a new brother-in-law.
1
The man in the wheelchair at the end of the hall received my call for help. He turned the corner and vanished at the elevator.
I had only just let go of her when I heard an iron bed slam against the wall behind me.
My sister Nina was convulsing on an extra bed in the hallway, bloody foam pouring from her mouth.
I pressed down on Nina's shoulders and dialed Rhett.
The line went dead. He had hung up.
I called again. He rejected it in a second.
Over a dozen tries, and every single one was ignored.
"Sis, my bones hurt so much. Is the marrow gone?"
Nina gripped my sleeve. Her nails dug into the cloth.
"It's not gone. I'll go beg him. He signed that contract promising to keep you safe!"
I wiped the blood from Nina's chin with my sleeve, and my tears dropped onto the back of her hand.
"Brother-in-law... he's over there..."
Nina raised her hand and pointed at the VIP payment window down the hall.
I looked where she pointed. Rhett was standing in the middle of the lobby.
A spark of hope lit up in me. I let go of Nina and ran toward him.
"Rhett! Nina is dying. Make the hospital bring out the Alpha King's marrow now!"
I rushed up to him and grabbed for his suit cuff.
Rhett stepped back to avoid my hand. He was holding Toby, Delphine's son, the first love he never got over.
"Get away from me! Don't get your blood stink on Toby!"
"Rhett, that marrow was going to save her life! The nurse said you ordered it destroyed. Why?"
"Toby can't stand the stink of other wolves in the hospital. It makes him dizzy. Of course I had the whole floor cleared, and I had that disgusting marrow tube poured down the drain!"
Toby lay on Rhett's shoulder and stuck his tongue out at me. In his hand he played with an empty marrow thermos tube.
I was shaking. I pointed at the empty tube and screamed, "That was a custom marrow I paid for with my whole family's dowry! Nina will die without it!"
Rhett handed Toby to Delphine beside him and stepped over to Nina's hospital bed.
"Sophie, did you really need this cheap sob-story trick to win favor? Leaving your own sister in the hall in the cold. Isn't it embarrassing enough?"
"She's not faking! Look at this. It's the critical condition notice the doctor just signed!"
I pulled a bloodstained paper from my pocket and held it out to him.
Rhett didn't even look at it. He knocked it away with a wave and felt Nina's forehead.
"Huh, her forehead is cold as ice. Her fever broke long ago! Sophie, are you trying to fool me with the temperature of a dead girl whose fever is gone?"
"That's because she lost too much blood and went into shock! Rhett, feel the blood on her!"
I grabbed his hand and pressed it onto Nina's bloodstained sheet, but he jerked it free.
"Enough! Toby just heard her gasping and got scared. He needs rest now. Stop making a scene here!"
Rhett pulled a plastic-wrapped painkiller out of his suit pocket and tossed it onto the floor.
The vial hit the tiles, cracked, and medicine spilled everywhere.
"Take that and get lost in the basement. Don't get in my way on this floor, or I'll throw you out with it!"
I stared at the liquid spreading across the floor, then lunged and grabbed Rhett by his tie, screaming, "Rhett! Do you have no heart? Every cent you've spent came from my family's dowry. How dare you spend my money raising some other man's bastard while you let my sister die!"
"You dare call Toby a bastard?!"
Rhett swung his arm and slapped me across the left cheek.
I fell to the floor. My head hit the corner of the wall, and my mouth filled with the taste of rust.
Rhett wasn't done. He lifted his leather shoe and kicked the IV stand beside Nina's bed.
The stand crashed over. The needle was torn from the vein on Nina's hand, and a line of blood beads welled up.
"Ah!" Nina cried out, rolling off the bed and landing on the broken glass of the medicine vial.
"Rhett, don't be angry. Sophie just cares too much about her sister. The smell of blood in this hallway makes me want to throw up, but let's just go."
Delphine walked over holding Toby's hand and pressed a silk handkerchief to her nose and mouth.
"Fine. Let's not waste time on these filthy things. I'll take you two to the top floor for Kobe steak flown in from Japan."
Rhett immediately pulled his foot back, bent down to cover Toby's nose, and led the mother and son toward the private elevator.