(Amara's POV)
I needed distance.
That was the only coherent thought in my head.
I slid off the edge of the bed, muttered something about needing water, and forced my legs to carry me toward the window. They barely cooperated. My knees felt like they'd been replaced with something soft and unreliable, and every step felt like a small negotiation with gravity.
There was a small table near the window. A pitcher of water sat on it. I grabbed the nearest glass with both hands - both, because one wasn't steady enough - and poured.
I drank the whole thing in one long pull.
It didn't help.
My skin still felt like it was running a fever. I could still feel his eyes on my back even though I'd turned away from him. The cedar and mint scent of him had followed me across the room and settled around me like it belonged there.
I set the glass down harder than I meant to.
Think, I told myself. Think clearly. You're a healer. You solve problems. This is a problem. Solve it.
I started pacing.
The floorboards were cool under my bare feet. I focused on that - the texture, the temperature - and tried to organize my thoughts into something useful.
It didn't work.
Because the more I thought, the worse it got.
Last week, in the medical center, I'd been restocking supplies when Nurse Sarah had come in with her usual armload of gossip. She hadn't even bothered lowering her voice.
The Western Pack's Alpha was planning to mate his daughter to Alexis. Negotiations had been running for months. Several smaller packs in the Eastern Territory were also maneuvering for alliance through marriage. And Northern Pack - my home pack - was apparently trying to quietly position itself in his favor too.
I had barely registered any of it at the time.
Now every word came back to me with crushing clarity.
And where did I fit into that picture?
I was the adopted daughter of William Summers, a Gamma in Thorn Pack. No political weight. No bloodline leverage. No standing that would matter in any alliance negotiation. I ran a small medical practice and I barely kept the lights on.
And I had gotten drunk and bitten the Alpha King of the Eastern Territory.
If Alexis lost even one potential alliance because of what happened last night - if any pack interpreted my mark as a challenge to his authority, or worse, as something that destabilized his position - the consequences wouldn't stop with me.
They would ripple outward. To Northern Pack. To Thorn Pack. To William.
The thought pressed down on my chest like a stone.
I thought about going to William. He was a Gamma. He understood pack politics in a way I never had. He would know what to do.
But I hadn't seen him in almost a year. He and Margaret had been bad for a long time, and somewhere in the middle of their falling apart, I had quietly stopped being a priority for either of them. Margaret had never really treated me like a daughter anyway. She'd been civil, occasionally, but never warm.