The girl with the tattoos

Kiss of Death

Alex

"Somebody please tell me what the deal is with this tofu. Where's the meat?!" Jackson demands when his mate that he met last week tries to turn him vegan for the millionth time in a row.

"Babe, you need to think about your health. I want a healthy man that can grow old with me and play with our kids in the back yard." Kyle, Jackson's mate, tells him for the millionth time this week and Jackson sighs at his African American mate.

"Fine, I'll give it a go. But only for you." He gives in and tries the tofu and surprisingly, he doesn't spit it out.

"Not bad." He admits sheepishly and Kyle smirks at him. He whole exchange makes me miss my mate terribly. I stand up from the table and walk down to the holding cells where Anna sits glaring at the wall. Her eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep and there are deep circles underneath her eyes.

"Hello, Alex." She greets slowly while not looking from her spot on the wall. "Alpha, it's good to see you again. You are well?" Doctor Mackenzie walks up to me in her white lab coat, red hair in a tight low bun.

"Is she getting any better?" I ask her and she looks down at Anna's charts. Her face contorts in a deep frown and she looks at me solemnly.

"Unfortunately, Alpha, your mate is getting worse. Whatever they injected her with had a virus attached to it. It's incurable... It's what caused the memory loss, the anger, lack of sleep; she's not eating and her hair is falling out."

I run a shaky hand through my hair and refrain from breaking down right then and there. "How will we know when it's her time?... You know..."

Mack looks at me sympathetically and she places a comforting hand on my shoulder. "When she starts to remember. It will be her bodies last defense against the virus. After that she'll have at most two days until it takes her."

I nod numbly and thank her before leaving the cell block and walking up to the one person who could make me feel better besides my mate; my mom.

"Mom?" I greet when I open the door to her office. She helps me with the financials of the pack.

"Alex, honey, come in." She smiles at me, but that smile falters when she sees my face. "Oh, my sweet son." She walks over to me and wraps me in her warm arms. I clutch the back of her long sleeve shirt and cry into her shoulder.

"I love her, momma! I can't lose her... She's dieing." I sob like a wounded child and my mom just continues to rub my back.

My mom is my best friend and she's the only person I allow myself to be weak around, besides Anna. "How long does she have?"

She asks once I pull away and she sets next to me on the couch in her office. "Mack said that we'll know it's her time when she starts to remember her real memories and not the altered ones that Gregg out into her mind." I let out a shaky breath and my mom looks at me with her pale blue eyes.

"Then you need to be with her, son. You've had your moment of weakness and I'll be there for you whenever you need another one. Your dad and I will step in as temporary leaders until you're back on your feet. But for now, go be with your mate. You need to show her the love you gave her when you first met."

I smile at the memory of first seeing my beautiful mate, we were sixteen and it was my first week as Alpha. I hug my mom one last time before heading down to the living room.