Page 25 of Rejected By My Stepbrother Alpha
“Get the crash cart, now!” Healer Emery ordered.
The assistant wheeled a white machine with two orange paddles attached to it, which he handed to Healer Emery.
“Charge to two hundred. There’s no pulse,” Healer Emery said as he rubbed the two paddles together.
The assistant quickly tapped the machine.
I sent a quick prayer up to the Moon Goddess, pleading with her to spare my father.
Healer Emery put the paddles on my dad’s chest and shocked him. His body flailed up and then crashed back down. Healer Emery looked up at the monitor, which was showing my dad’s vitals.
“No change,” he said. “Charge to two-fifty.”
My dad’s body moved automatically because of the nextelectrical shock, but I knew even as they charged to three hundred, that he was gone.
My sixth sense knew that my dad’s soul had already left his body, and that they were trying to save an empty shell that used to be him.
The two healers stared at the monitor, but all that was on the screen was a flat green line representing the end of my father’s life.
“Time of death, 0400,” Healer Emery said after a moment.
The assistant gently shut my dad’s glazed eyes.
I slowly walked to my father’s bedside, my hands shaking, my throat closing. He might have been sleeping if his chest were rising and falling, but instead, it was as still as a pond during the early morning.
I stood and stared down at my dad in silence. My gaze was as unseeing as his had been.
“I’m so sorry, Asher.” Healer Emery said, his voice cracking. A single tear ran down his cheek, and he quickly wiped it away. “He was an amazing man and Alpha.”
“He was an even better father.” My tone was devoid of any emotion. A numb sensation spread over me. “Can I have some time to say goodbye before you…” I trailed off.
Healer Emery bowed his head. “Of course, Alpha Asher.” He and his assistant left the room.
I couldn't even process that I was now Alpha of the BloodMoon Pack. All I could do was stare at my father, trying to accept that he was gone from this world too soon. My rational mind knew that he was dead.
But it wasn't something I understood.
I reached a shaking hand out and pressed it against the cooling skin of his chest and tightly shut my eyes as they burned with the sharp sting of tears. I wasn't sure how long I stared down at my father. I couldn't make myself move. Because when I did, Healer Emery was going to take his body, and all that would be left for me to gaze at would be an empty bed.
“Is Ivy not coming?” our pack’s lawyer, Lyle, asked Evelyn, who was pretending to cry in the chair across from me.
Her dress was ridiculous—a long, black gown complete with frilly ruffles and an ugly hat with a black lace veil on the back. She wiped her non-existent tears away from her eyes with one of my father's monogrammed handkerchiefs.
My hands clenched into fists. I wanted to rip the white square away from that greedy gold digger. She didn’t deserve to have anything that once belonged to my dad.
“I don't think she will be able to make it,” Evelyn answered in a pitiful voice. “I haven’t seen her since,” she glanced at me, “last night.”
My stomach jolted with worry, followed by a pang of guilt.
Ivy hadn’t been back to the house yet? Where was she?
Lyle cleared his throat and organized the sheaf of papers on his desk.
It was the afternoon of my father's death, and per pack tradition, his will was to be read in front of his surviving family. Evelyn, Lyle, and I were gathered in one of our pack's meeting rooms in our large town hall. Lyle was at the head of the table, his reading glasses balanced precariously on the tip of his nose.
After finding my father dead this morning, all I wanted to do was sit in my bedroom with all the lights off and process that my father was really gone. But I had to attend the reading of my father's will. I had to know that if on the same day I was going to lose my father, I would lose his legacy, too.
Evelyn continued to wail into the handkerchief like she was starring in a cheesy soap opera.
