Rising Moon: Scavenge | Teen Wolf ( 4 )

Status Asthmaticus Part One

Silence immediately fell over the examination room the moment the word left Scott's lips, an almost deafening quiet that wrapped around me like a python trying to suffocate the life out of me. Tears stung the backs of my eyes as my arms subconsciously tightened around Hayden's lithe body and I kept my gaze locked on my brother, my Alpha, silently pleading for this to be a hallucination caused by an emotional breakdown.

"What do you mean, 'No'?" Liam demanded in a low voice as he took a threatening step forward, his eyes narrowed suspiciously like he couldn't believe the word that he had heard coming out of my Scott's mouth.

"Liam, look at her. She's too weak. It will kill her. We don't even know what the mercury's doing to her. We don't even know if it is actually mercury. This can't be the only way to save her life." Scott defended himself in a firm voice as he meet the Beta's glare evenly, an apologetic glint in his eyes and I gritted my teeth angrily as I tore my gaze away from him, unable to look at him without seething.

"It saved mine."

"You know, that was different. You were hanging off a ledge."

"You promised." Liam reminded him in a saddened whisper as he risked a glance in our direction and I tried to offer him a strained smile but I knew it came off more like a grimace as he turned his attention back to my brother pleadingly. "You said you'd do everything you could."

"Which is why I'm not going to do something I think is going to kill her. There has to be...There has to..." Scott trailed off weakly with a wheeze in his voice, reminding me of a time back before he was a werewolf when he suffered from severe asthma attacks and I looked over at him in concern as he began gasping for air while struggling for a breath.

A slight twinge of guilt shot through me because I didn't know he was still experiencing them, I thought the one a week ago was a symptom of the memory resurfacing and it pained me that I hadn't noticed my brother going through something so traumatic.

"Scott." Theo called out sharply to gain the Alpha's attention, waiting a moment for Scott to lift his head and then throwing an inhaler the length of the exam room. Guilt crept into me when I realised that Theo had obviously been carrying around the inhaler in case of a situation exactly like this one and then hurt started to overlap the guilt when I realised that Theo had obviously knew about the attacks if he had an inhaler on standby.

I looked away from my brother as he used the device to take a breath, wheezing slightly when he inhaled deeply and I grazed the back of my fingers down Hayden's cheek as I carefully watched the rise and fall of her chest.

"There's another way to save her." Scott muttered under his breath, panting slightly from the effort but I ignored the uncomfortable clenching sensation in my chest as I avoided looking in his direction. I focused on Hayden's uneven heartbeat in an effort to distract myself, to remind myself of what was important and I counted each faint patter of her heart like I wanted to memorise the sound in case it was her last.

I snapped my head around defensively when I felt someone crouch down next to me, the sudden warmth of their presence and I found Theo regarding both of us in concern with his eyebrows furrowed together. He ran the back of his fingers down next arm momentarily before reaching over to check Hayden's pulse at her throat and a frown formed on his lips as he bowed his head solemnly. Tears stung the back of my eyes as someone else came to the same conclusion and Theo slowly looked up at me with sympathy in his hazel eyes as he pulled his hand back.

"Guys, I don't know what the statistics are for surviving a werewolf bite, but she's definitely not surviving this. We need to do something." Theo called over his shoulder without taking his eyes off of mine and I swallowed harshly as I turned my gaze back down to look at the girl in my arms with a few tears falling from the corner of my eye.