Chapter 221

Julian’s POV

At once, Amber and I went separate directions. She took Alice with her to the hospital, while I headed to the Alpha Headquarters building to confront the pack council.

I contacted Keegan on the way, preparing him for what I had planned. When I arrived at the building, he was there, ready to show me the way.

I had arrived in time for a meeting, and most of the council members were already gathered in the meeting room. Going there, I pushed open the double doors with both hands. They swung open dramatically, bouncing against the interior walls with a loud bang.

The bang gained the attention of everyone in the room as they all turned to look at me.

“Alpha?” asked the head of the council sitting at the far end of the table.

“My mother is in critical condition, and I need you to allow my mate Healer Amber in to treat her,” I said. There was no time for games here. I was direct and pointed, explaining exactly what I wanted and why.

“Sir,” said the head of the council. “While the political discourse is ongoing, you know why we must ban –”

“You would risk my mother’s life for this farce?”

“It’s no farce, sir—”

“This is my mother’s life!” I shouted. I came in angry, but I was furious now. If Amber had been allowed into the hospital from the start, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe together we could be talking to my mom and everything would be find.

Instead, Tony and the council were taking things way too far, and my mom’s life was now hanging in the balance.

I’d been patient this far, but not anymore. “So far, I have been playing by your rules and doing as you request and the requests you set. But if my family’s lives are at stake, I will not let you or anyone stop me. I do not want to hurt innocents, so I’m telling you to call off those guards and let us through.”

“Alpha, if you –”

“This isn’t a negotiation, councilor,” I said. “I’m telling you what’s going to happen. It’s up to you whether you wish to save the lives of those guards, if they are fool enough to stand against me.”

The council members paled as they glanced at each other. Though they all looked at each other, eventually, they turned their gaze to the head of the council, as if deferring their judgement entirely to him.

I focused the full extent of my glare on him as well. Whatever happened would be on his shoulders. Those guards’ lives were in his hands.

I hoped he would make the right decision both for my family and the pack.

After a moment, he cleared his throat and looked down. “Very well.” He motioned to one of the other council members who immediately pulled out his cell phone and made a call. “We will direct the guards to allow you and Amber to pass.”

I didn’t thank him, as this never should have happened to begin with, but it was a relief to be given the permission now.

The minute I heard the council member direct the guards to allow us passage, I had my own phone out, calling Amber to tell her the news.

Amber’s POV

The moment I heard from Julian that the council I had given their permission, I started walking toward the hospital.

Alice was with me, and I was holding her hand. She seemed nervous, likely because I was nervous too. But she was also brave, staying at my side as we moved to the doorway.

The guards watched us, but stayed stoic as we walked by them.

I held my breath the entire time, until we had safely moved past them and into the lobby of the hospital.

“Are we okay, Mommy?” Alice asked.

“I think so,” I told her.

Together, we rushed to the second floor, where we were reunited with Julian’s family. Aunt Kathy and Penny were the first to greet us, hugging us while also apologizing for Tony’s actions, even though they had nothing to do with it. Others were less kind, glaring at us from a distance.

“Can you please watch Alice?” I asked Aunt Kathy. “I need to check on Gloria.”

“Of course,” Aunt Kathy said.

“Be a good girl for Aunt Kathy, Alice,” I said.

“Save Grandma please, Mommy,” Alice said.

“I will,” I promised and then raced to find where they moved her. She wasn’t in her room anymore, having been rushed to emergency. I found the supervisor first, who looked relieved to see me. “What’s going on?” I asked him at once.

“I suspect she’s been overdosed with wolfsbane,” the supervisor said. “We are doing our best to treat the symptoms, but since there’s no anti-venom, we are at our wits’ end here.”

“I’m here now,” I told him. “I’ll do all I can to help.”

“We’re trying to stabilize her now,” the supervisor said.

“Have you administered the activated charcoal?” I asked.

“We have, but we believe the wolfsbane was administered more than an hour ago,” the supervisor said.

“What about the cameras? Did they show anything?”

A dark look crossed the supervisor’s face. “I wish I could tell you differently, but the cameras had been forcibly removed from Gloria’s room by the guards, at Tony’s orders. I had no choice but to comply, or I risked being arrested.”

Once again, Tony had directly interfered in this, indicating that he was most likely the poisoner – as if I had any doubt, after what he did to me, and what I remembered from his having poisoned me.

I remembered now, what it felt like to have the wolfbanes injected into my system, how my wolf had worked hard to try to stop it, even if that was a futile effort.

Thinking this through now, I had a sudden idea.

With Alice, I had worked to repress her wolf. What if, instead, I worked to stimulate the wolf? If Gloria’s wolf could fight back the poison, then maybe she could fight off the wolfsbane herself without an antidote.

There were already potions that could boost a wolf’s stamina. Perhaps if we…

Yes.

“I have an idea, but you have to trust me,” I said.

“All of the healers here trust you,” the supervisor assured me and led me to Gloria’s new room.

I worked quickly, grabbing the correct assortment of potions that would give Gloria’s wolf a boost without overwhelming her.

As her life was on the line, I perhaps took more chances than I normally would. Typically, I would have liked to test these things, to ensure their safety with the patients. Individually I knew the potions were safe, but I was planning a mixture that hadn’t been done before.

Even so, the other healers seemed to indeed trust me, and allowed me space to do my work.

Several long, tense moments later, the potion I had concocted was administered, and Gloria, thankfully, had stabilized.

In the hallway, as I was wiping the sweat from my brow with a towel, the supervisor praised me, “Thank the gods you are in our pack.”

“I wish you would tell the council that,” I said. “They’ve been working very hard to get Julian and me to leave.”

The supervisor pulled his brow together. “I will talk to them.”

I blinked at him, surprised. “You will?”