Chapter 109: Suspect 2 FIA I pushed through the infirmary doors. The hinges gave a soft groan that seemed too loud in the quiet hallway behind me. The room opened up before me. Bright lights. The steady beep of monitors. The mechanical hiss of the ventilator breathing for someone who couldn’t do it themselves. Cian sat beside his mother’s bed. His shoulders hunched forward. His elbows rested on his knees and his hands hung loose between them. He looked up when I entered. His eyes found mine and something flickered there. Surprise maybe. Or exhaustion so deep it had worn grooves into his features. Thorne stood on the other side of the bed. He adjusted an IV line with careful fingers. Two medic omegas moved quietly near the far wall. They checked equipment and made notes on clipboards. Their movements were precise. Practiced. No sign of Aldric. I moved closer to the bed. My feet felt heavy. Each step took effort I didn’t think I had left in me. Grand Luna Morrigan lay still beneath the thin hospital blanket. Her chest rose and fell with the ventilator’s rhythm. The lesions on her skin had spread further than I remembered. They crawled up her neck now. Dark patches that looked like bark trying to swallow her whole. I scanned her body. Looked for anything that seemed out of place. Any sign of what had gone wrong after I left. Nothing stood out. Nothing screamed tampering or foul play. Just a woman dying by inches while her son watched helplessly. But my gut wouldn’t settle. It twisted and churned with the certainty that something wasn’t right. "What are you doing here?" Cian’s voice cut through my thoughts. Flat. Empty of everything except bone-deep weariness. "You should be asleep." I turned to face him. "I’m worried about her too." He studied me for a moment. His gaze moved across my face like he was searching for something. Truth maybe. Or lies. I couldn’t tell which he expected to find. I walked to Thorne. Reached out and touched his arm. "Can we talk?" His eyes widened slightly. He glanced at Cian, then back to me. "Luna Fia, I—" "Please." I kept my voice low. Gentle. He nodded after a moment and let me guide him away from the bed. We moved to the corner of the room. Far enough that the others wouldn’t easily hear but close enough that Cian could watch us. Which he did. His stare felt like a physical weight on my back. "You’re being suspicious," Thorne whispered. His shoulders curved inward. Protective. "I’m sorry you had to do that for me." The words tumbled out. "I promise. I will tell Cian about this but I need you to—" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 "No." He cut me off. But his tone stayed kind. Almost gentle. "Don’t do that." I blinked. "But—" "It was my choice to lie." He met my eyes. Held them steady. "And lying is a grave offense in matters like this. To disprove what I said would just put me in a more uncomfortable situation." My throat tightened. "Thorne." "I did what I did because I wanted to." He straightened slightly. "Because I owe you my life." "No, you don’t." "Well, I also did it because I knew you did it without malice in your heart." His expression softened. "No matter how rash it had been, to have you suffer for one ill-made choice didn’t seem right." Guilt pressed down on my chest. Made it hard to breathe. "I’m sorry regardless." "You don’t have to be." A small smile touched his lips. Sad but genuine. "Alpha Cian somehow forgave me." I swallowed hard and nodded. "I dragged you here for something else as well." His eyebrows rose. "Oh?" "Can you take a blood sample of Luna Morrigan and test it for anything strange?" The smile faded. His expression turned cautious. "Is there a reason why?" "Yes." I glanced back at the bed. At Morrigan lying there with machines keeping her alive. "I believe it wasn’t the cure that caused her to have such a violent reaction." Thorne’s jaw tightened. "Luna Fia—" "I know it sounds off." The words came faster now. Desperate. "But I beg you to trust me." He was quiet for a long moment. His gaze moved from me to Morrigan and back again. "Okay." He finally said. "But it might take some time. Because Alpha Cian will definitely still be wary of me. Perhaps getting Maren would be better." Maren’s face flashed in my mind. The anger. The disappointment. The way she’d looked at me like I was something she needed to scrape off her shoe. "No." I shook my head. "It has to be you." "Luna Fia—" "I’ll convince Cian if I have to." I squared my shoulders. "By any means." Thorne studied me for another beat. Then he sighed. "Okay." We walked back to the bed. Cian tracked our movement the whole way. His eyes never left us. "Are you two done plotting?" His voice held an edge. Sharp and cutting. I opened my mouth. Closed it. What could I say? How could I explain this without revealing too much? Without making things worse? The mate bond hummed between us. I could feel his fear. His exhaustion. His wariness that sat just beneath the surface like something waiting to strike. And he could feel me too. I hadn’t been shielding. He’d felt every bit of my guilt. My anxiety. My desperate need to fix what I’d broken. I decided to just come clean. Or at least mostly clean. "I want Thorne to take a blood sample from the Grand Luna." "I think not." Cian’s response came immediately. Cold and final. "The cure we made was put in her system." I pushed forward despite the warning in his tone. "We could see what went wrong if we do a few tests with her blood." "In case you didn’t know." Cian leaned back in his chair. His posture deceptively relaxed. "Thorne is currently walking on thin ice. The last thing that needs to be done is give him new ideas on what ’went wrong’ and how to make it ’better.’" "I’ll do it then." That made his eyes widen. Just a fraction. Just enough that I knew I’d surprised him. "You’re shielding now." He tilted his head and studied me like I was a puzzle he couldn’t quite solve. "I wonder why." Because I didn’t want him to feel the real reason. I didn’t want him to sense my suspicion about his uncle. I didn’t want to deal with that explosion on top of everything else. "Being open is still a little uncomfortable." The lie came easier than it should have. "And I could tell you were reading me." He didn’t respond. He just watched me with those dark eyes. "You’re just going to have to learn to trust me." I lifted my chin. "Mate bond or no mate bond." Cian sighed. The sound came from somewhere deep in his chest. "What really do I have to lose." I turned to Thorne. "Can I get a needle?" "Thorne can do it." Cian’s words stopped me cold. Both Thorne and I turned to stare at him. "Alpha Cian?" Thorne’s voice came out uncertain. "You heard me. Or do you still plan on killing my mother?" "Goddess no." Thorne moved quickly after that. Like he was afraid Cian might change his mind. He gathered supplies. Prepared the syringe. His hands stayed steady despite the tension radiating through the room. I fidgeted with my thumbs. Twisted them together and pulled them apart. Over and over while Thorne worked. Cian’s gaze was burned into the side of my face. I could feel it even without looking at him. "How was your shopping?" He finally spoke. The question caught me off guard. I glanced over at him. "You’re still on about that?" "I’m distracting myself. Help me." Something in my chest loosened. Just a fraction. "It was good. I guess." One eyebrow rose. "You guess?" "Shopping isn’t really my thing." I shrugged. "But it was nice to have Maren around. She really pushed me and I did get some nice clothes." "That’s why I coupled you with her." "Thanks." The word came out softer than I meant it to. "But if you’re still talking about shopping." I turned to face him fully now. "Surely you have no plans to go to the wedding." "Oh I do." His lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. "Julius and I have been at each other’s necks for a while now. And since he was the first to offer a white flag, I intend to take it." I waited. There was more coming. I could hear it in his voice. "If it’s for other nefarious purposes like..." He paused. Let the silence stretch. "The existence of you in my life as well... I also intend to take it." A scoff escaped me. "You intend to parade me about to prove a point?" "Yes?" "I guess I had to pay for the shopping somehow." That pulled a real smile from him. Small but genuine. He even laughed. A quiet sound that barely made it past his lips but still counted as something resembling lightness. "Well..." His eyes held mine. "That’s certainly an outlook on life." We both looked at Thorne. He’d positioned the needle against Morrigan’s arm. Found a vein with practiced ease and he slowly drew blood with steady hands that didn’t shake despite everything. "But surely you could send a subordinate." I said. "Your Beta." "I know I can." Cian shifted in his chair. "But I don’t want to." I waited for him to explain. He would. He always did eventually. "My mother’s situation has been hidden from most of the public." His voice dropped lower. "When it was the rot. And even now that it’s poison, I try not to let a lot of people know that much." He ran a hand through his hair. The strands fell back into place around his face. "That witch’s death does not seem to be helping matters." Bitterness crept into his tone. "As most magic practitioners think I killed her. The good thing about that whole mess is that story will never be told straight." I nodded. Stayed quiet and let him talk. "Me not showing up there after our peculiar marriage and the rumor that I killed a witch in a fit of rage will definitely breathe life to new rumors." He looked at his mother. "Unfavorable ones for me and yourself." "That does make sense." "I’ve gotten it." Thorne held up the vial. Blood swirled inside the glass. Dark and thick. "Do a test." I turned to him. "On any and everything." "I got it." He moved toward the deeper part of the infirmary. His footsteps faded into the background noise of machines and monitors. I turned back to Cian. "I don’t mind a party or helping your agenda. As long as I don’t have to dance." "It’s a wedding." He said it like I should have known better. "There will be dancing. I will be dancing. Do you have a thing against dancing or what..." His eyebrows rose slowly. Realization dawned across his features. "Goddess..." A note of disbelief entered his voice. "You can’t dance..."