The scent of drugs and blood filled the air around the infirmary.
Ruby walked through the large building with slow and calculating steps, her eyes looking at each bed, each monitor, each person, that were curled up inside their sheets, struggling to survive.
Soft groans, the uneven wheezing, and the beeping monitors, were the only sound she had been hearing.
She had seen many things during her years in studying and working in her clinic. All the people that held onto life when they were almost dead, all the bodies she had seen slowly fading, painful ways.
But this…this was worse.
This was more aggressive and it was spreading fast.
She turned to the only healer in the building close to her, a young wolf named Maren. "How many have died this week?"
Maren's mouth felt dry, she couldn't say the words, but she had to. "Twelve. Three just last night."
Ruby's hands gripped the clipboard in her possession tighter. "the symptoms?"
"Fever, internal bleeding, sudden seizures by day three. Most of them don't make it past the fourth seizure."
"And still no leads on the origin of it?"
Maren shook her head, her eyes tired and hopeless. "Nothing at all. It doesn't behave like a natural virus."
Ruby's stomach felt twisted. She had already seen enough. This didn't feel like a sickness. It was more of a weapon.
She stopped at one of the beds as she was still walking near the end of a row. A young girl lay there, she was in her early teens. Her skin had gone too pale, and her breaths were shallow and slow.
Ruby looked at her file.
She was on day three.
Her jaw tightened.
"This is worse than I was told over the phone." She muttered to herself.
She didn't wait for any permission. She removed her coat and put on a sanitized apron, and began checking the girl. Listening to her heart beats. Taking her blood samples.
Every result surprised her.
Maren stood beside her. "What do we do?"
"Get the labs system running again. I'll need enough space, new equipment, and samples from the other healer."
Maren didn't move instantly, surprised at Ruby's words.
"Now!" Ruby yelled and Maren snapped back.
"But the Alpha said…"
"I don't care what the Alpha said," Ruby snapped again, standing firm. "This isn't a political meeting. This is a medical crisis and anything that needs to be done, should be done quickly."
The young healer nodded and left her.
Ruby turned back to the patient in front of her and moved a damp towel on the girl's forehead.
A sudden presence came through the door.
Ruby didn't need to turn to know who it was.
"Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?" she asked sharply without turning, still focused on her patient.
Han's voice sounded from behind her. "Because I didn't know how."
She then turned, slowly, with disbelief in her eyes. "You didn't know how? People are dying, Han. Even Children."
"I didn't want to scare anyone before we had more information..."
"This isn't about fear!" she snapped at him, stepping toward him almost immediately.
"You called me here to help, then you tell me half the problems? How am I supposed to treat this if I don't even know the full extent of it?"
"I wasn't trying to mislead you."
"No, you were trying to protect your pride. Your image as Alpha."
Han's jaw clenched a bit. "You don't know what it's like having an entire pack rely on you for answers. You don't!"
"And you don't know what it's like to be dragged back to the place that broke you, all just to cover up their mess." She snapped back
Hans' eyes softened upon hearing her words. "Ruby…."
She diverted her gaze from his, her voice became lower but still sharp. "I'm not here for you or any of that, I'm here for them. The ones that are dying. Don't confuse that."
Han looked at her for a moment. Then nodded. "You'll get everything you need."
"Good," she muttered and then turned her back to him. "Now let me work."
But before he could respond to that, another voice entered the room.
"Well, isn't this convenient?."
Ruby turned again to find Evelyn standing at the exit of the infirmary entrance, her arms crossed in front of her and her lips formed into a forced smile.
Han turned toward her. "Evelyn..."
She stepped closer to them. "I came to check on the patients. I didn't know I would be walking into something more tensed than people dying"
Ruby's eye brow came together in slight confusion. "This isn't what you think."
"Oh, I think it is," Evelyn replied almost immediately, her voice sounding sweet. "You may be here for the virus, but it's obvious you're still here for something else too."
"Enough," Han said, his voice sharp but quiet.
"No, Han," Evelyn said, turning and facing him. "We talked about this, about her. You said you wouldn't let her distract you."
"I'm not distracted."
"You were just arguing with her like you were married to her."
Ruby stepped forward from the patient in her, her gaze piercing at the woman in her front.
"If you're worried about me taking him back, don't be. I'm not interested in him."
Evelyn laughed out loud…clearly a fake one, though her eyes still remained sharp.
"Oh please. You walk in here with your big doctor coat and big words, pretending you're above everything and everyone else, but deep down, you're still the little servant girl who was once in love with the Alpha."
Ruby's jaw tightened in anger. "That little servant girl died years ago."
"Then prove it," Evelyn whispered, stepping in front of Ruby, too close to be warm. "Stay away from my husband."
Han stepped between them, before anything would happen. "That's enough!"
The room went silent again.
"I have patients to save," she said quietly. "You two can finish whatever this is….. outside."
Without another look at them, she walked far from them to the other end of the infirmary, and picked up her notes, and began writing down her observations of another patient.