Chapter 68

Chris

I paced back and forth across the floor of my apartment, my heart thundering in my chest. The soft sound of murmurs came from my bedroom, but I barely heard it over the sound of the blood rushing through my ears.

Goddess, how had this happened?

Ava lay unmoving on my bed in the other room, her face sickly pale and beaded with sweat. Just minutes earlier, I had found her crumpled on the floor of the parlor like a broken doll, not a soul in sight. The image of her lifeless form kept flashing through my mind, making my stomach twist violently.

I clenched my fists, nails biting into my palms. If someone had dared to lay a hand on her, there would be hell to pay. No one threatened a member of my pack—especially not the woman I…

“Alpha?”

Suddenly, the sound of a soft voice behind me pulled me out of my reverie. I spun around to see the nurse standing behind me, her hands clasped in front of herself. I had recognized her as one of the Omegas that Ava and I had saved from Olivia all those weeks ago, but given the circumstances, I didn’t exactly have the chance to congratulate her on her new job.

“Yes?” I asked, taking a nervous step forward.

The nurse bowed her head and stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter the bedroom. I drew in a shuddering breath before stepping into the room—Ava was still passed out on the bed with the other nurse bent over her, administering some sort of strange, glowing blue medicine through a syringe in Ava’s mouth.

“What’s this?” I asked. “What are you giving her?”

“You don’t recognize it, Alpha?” the nurse asked. I shook my head. “It’s moongrass juice,” she explained. “Made from fresh moongrass.”

Moongrass juice. It had been many years, but I remembered it now—not only was moongrass used to make our pack’s tattoos, which gave them that ethereal glow, but it was also known for its medicinal properties.

Particularly, its antidotal properties.

The realization hit me then, leaving me breathless. There was only one reason someone would need a moongrass antidote.

Poison.

Ava had been poisoned.

“How…” I swallowed, clutching my hair with both hands. “How did this happen…?”

The nurse who was still administering the antidote to Ava shook her head, pulling the syringe out of Ava’s mouth and dropping it into an antiseptic-filled container on the bedside table. “We found traces of what appears to be cyanide on her tongue,” she explained, turning to face me.

I felt all of the color drain from my face. “Cyanide?”

The nurse nodded. “It’s only found in the human world,” she explained, although I already knew that. “Was she drinking or eating anything recently? We’ll need to do some more tests. It would have happened sometime in the past twelve hours or so.”

I furrowed my brow, thinking for a few moments before the realization struck me. “We were all having coffee and pastries this morning, in the council chambers,” I said. “Perhaps…”

My voice trailed off, but it didn’t matter. The nurse nodded and snapped her fingers, and the Omega behind me scurried off to the council chambers—no doubt to retrieve the cups and cutlery Ava had used in order to run more tests.

The nurse stood, placing her hand on Ava’s forehead. Already, Ava’s skin looked a little less pale.

“Will she be okay?” I murmured.

The nurse nodded. “She’s stable. We’ll need to administer another dose of the antidote in a few hours, but she should be awake by then. She can drink it.” She pulled a small vial of the glowing blueish-green liquid out of the pocket on her apron and held it out to me. “Here.”

I took it with trembling hands, just grateful that Ava was alive. But as the nurse left and I turned back to face Ava’s sleeping body, my mind began to race. A human poison… Who the hell could do such a thing? And so recently, too?

I continued pacing my room, thinking back on every moment I had spent with Ava in the past twelve hours. Everything seemed to trace back to this morning—back to that coffee.

And then it hit me.

Olivia’s anger. Her hatred for Ava. Her repeated attempts to harm Ava in some way or another. Olivia had already been in the council chambers that morning when I had arrived, and she had a… strange look in her eyes. Ava’s back had been turned.

I may have been occupied with the selection trials, but I had noticed how Olivia kept glancing at Ava, and then at the clock. I had noticed her abrupt departure, and how she had been nowhere to be found by the time Ava was found laying on the parlor floor.

My own sister, conspiring against me. Against the pack. She must have been the one to slip the poison into Ava’s drink.

“Leonard!” I roared, my voice ripping through the Packhouse like a howl. Almost immediately, Leonard, who had been waiting in the hallway, burst into the room with his chest heaving.

“Alpha,” he said. “What’s—”

“Bring my sister to me,” I growled through gritted teeth. “Under heavy guard. I want her secured and brought to my study at once.”

Leonard nodded sharply and spun on his heel without a word. A moment later, I heard the sound of his voice shouting in the hallway, and then saw through the window as he and several guards stormed out of the Packhouse in search of Olivia.

I watched them go, jaw clenched so tightly I could feel the tendons straining against my skin.

…

It felt like hours, but had really only been twenty, maybe thirty minutes. I stood behind my desk, my fingers pressed into the wood as though that would somehow keep me from going into a rage.

“Enter.”

The door opened, and there she was.

Olivia.

She was flanked by four of my biggest, brawniest guards. Her wrists were bound in front of her, and there was a look of pure, unbridled fury etched across her beautiful features.

But I didn't care about any of that. She had tried to take the woman I loved away from me. Not only that, but she had undermined the pack, betrayed her people once again.

There would be no mercy. I was sick of mercy.

“You lying bitch,” I spat without preamble. “Did you really think you could get away with it? With poisoning one of my pack?”

For a moment, Olivia didn’t speak. Her eyes merely flicked over to the guards, who remained stoic by the door. Leonard stood beside them, his arms folded across his chest with a look of fury equal to mine on his face.

Olivia was no idiot; she knew that neither the guards nor Leonard would offer her any help here. Then, almost lazily, she turned her gaze back to me.

“Don’t try and act all high and mighty with me, brother,” she sneered. “We both know this was a long time coming. That old hag of yours has been in the way from the start, trying time and time again to manipulate you.”

“You tried to kill her,” I snarled through gritted teeth. “How can you justify that?”

“Oh, please.” Olivia rolled her eyes, somehow managing to look unbothered despite being bound and surrounded by guards. “It wouldn’t have killed her. I didn’t give her enough to kill her. Just enough to make her shut up.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“At least I care about the good of the pack, and I’m not just trying to run it into the ground over some… some used-up old whore.”

Her words made my blood boil. I pressed my fingers harder into the desk, so hard that my claws involuntarily extended ever so slightly and dug gouges into the wood. I felt my fangs drop a bit, slightly piercing my tongue so that the hot, metallic tang of blood filled my mouth.

“You’re weak, Chris,” she spat before I could say anything. “You were never meant to be this pack’s Alpha. But I can lead this pack as its Luna. All I need is a viable Alpha. Someone to usurp you.”

“Dedrick,” I murmured, the realization hitting me like a punch to the gut. Her stoic demeanor, her eyes always fixed on him since he had gotten here… Ava had been right, as usual. There was something off about him.

Olivia merely smirked.

“You planned this from the start,” I said through numb lips. “You brought him here, conspired with him…”

A cruel smile twisted Olivia’s lips. “Got it in one, brother,” she purred. “I have to hand it to you—you’re not quite as stupid as I thought. Although…” Her gaze slid down to my hands, to my claws that were still digging into the wood. “I never expected you to have gotten so... attached to Ava. How disappointing.”

I opened my mouth to retort, to spit back the vile curses bubbling up inside of me, but then shut it again. No. I would not give her the satisfaction.

Retracting my claws and my fangs, I straightened, smoothing down the front of my white button-down. I snapped my fingers at the guards, and shot Leonard an approving look.

“Take her to the clinic to have her tattoo removed,” I said. “And find Dedrick. I want him in custody.”

The guards nodded and mutely strode forward, grabbing Olivia by both arms again. For a moment, just a moment, her eyes grew wild with fear and uncertainty.

“Don’t be afraid, sister,” I said calmly, pushing up my sleeves. “No harm will come to you. First thing tomorrow morning, once your tattoo has been removed, you’ll get to join Ethan on the human continent.”