Chapter 114

Aiden’s POV

Everything happened so quickly.

One minute the elevator was going up, and the next it was slamming back down to the ground at a speed so fast that I blacked out for a slight second. Carol had hit the ceiling and as she fell back to the ground, I grabbed her and buried her underneath me to cushion her from the fall.

Once everything stopped, I felt my body aching as I lay on the cold ground of the elevator. Carol is still buried beneath me. My arms wrapped around her body to keep her close to my chest and attempt to cushion her from the fall, but I fear the weight of my body made things worse for her.

I could feel my wolf working overspeed to fix what was broken and bruised on my own body.

Carol wasn’t moving and panic set in within me.

“Carol?” I croaked, giving her limp body a little shake.

She was bruised and her head was bleeding from when she hit it. Her arm looked broken, and I couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not. My body shook as I cradled her in my arms, trying to get her to open her eyes.

I quickly stood and pried the elevator doors open. There was a small crowd outside the doors, panic clear on their faces as each of them wondered what had just happened.

“We need some medical attention,” I ordered fiercely. “She doesn’t have a wolf; she can’t heal as quickly. Please, send some help.”

Just as I said those words, King Bennet shoved through the shocked crowd, the look of panic clear on his face.

“What happened?” He asked and then he froze when he saw Carol on the ground. “Oh, Goddess. Bring her to the clinic. I’ll contact our healers.”

Beta Luca hurried over to grab Carol, but I let out a low growl of warning. Nobody was allowed to touch her besides me. He paused before he reached for her and lifted his hands up in surrender. I turned toward my mate and scooped her into my arms; she was practically weightless and so weak-looking. My heart nearly shattered at the sight of her.

How could something like this even happen? If the elevator was broken, why would they let us use it?

She didn’t deserve this.

I couldn’t lose her; I just couldn’t.

My wolf whimpered inside of me at the thought of losing our mate.

As we reached the palace clinic, which was on the other side of the palace, a different clinic than we went to when we first arrived here to do the DNA test, Carol stirred in my arms.

A small groan escaped her lips and my heart leaped into my chest.

“Carol, baby. Are you with me?” I asked, pressing my lips to her temp.

“What happened?” She whispered and then she attempted to move, only to wince in pain, realizing her arm was broken. “Ouch…”

“There was an accident in the elevator. But it’s going to be okay. You are going to be okay.”

“Set her down here,” a woman with bright pink hair and matching pink eyes said, motioning for the closest bed. I ran to the bed with the King hot on my trail and I carefully placed Carol on top of the bed, rubbing her damp strands of hair out of her face, uncovering her scratches and bruises.

She groaned miserably from the movement, but she soon settled as the healer adjusted the bed to make her more comfortable.

“I’m going to give her a healing elixir that should heal her broken bones. I have a cream that can heal her scratches and bruises,” the healer explained. “But it’s going to be a process and it might hurt as her bones heal themselves.”

“Just do what you have to do to fix my mate,” I said through my teeth.

She nodded and then looked at the king.

“Your Majesty, it would be better if we had some privacy with her. Would you and the others mind stepping outside?” She asked.

The King didn’t look as if he wanted to leave; in fact, he looked pissed at the suggestion.

“I just got my daughter back and I’m not losing her,” he said through his teeth. “Do everything you can to make sure she’s okay. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” the healer said, bowing her head, allowing her pink strands of hair to fall over her face.

“I’m not leaving my mate,” I said, making myself very clear. She looked uncertain for a moment, but then she nodded.

Another worker grabbed a chair for me to sit in and sat by Carol’s side. She had fallen asleep again, probably passed out from all the pain. I held onto her bruised hand and prayed to the Moon Goddess that she would pull through this; I couldn’t lose her.

The healer injected her with a strange thick substance.

“This will heal her bones and anything internal that could have been damaged during the fall,” she explained.

I kept my eyes fixed on Carol’s face, hating that I couldn’t protect her from this. Not that I could predict this was going to happen, but I should have been more wary. Something strange was going on around here and I don’t think this was an accident.

The healer returned with another cream in a small stone bowl. She seemed to be crushing some ingredients into it with a stone spoon. She added some type of liquid to turn the stuff into a cream.

The scent was oddly fluorescent and started to appear a light purple shade.

“This will heal her exterior damage,” she explained as she started to rub the cream on Carol’s scratches and bruises.

“When do you think she will be fully healed?” I asked.

She looked at the clock.

“In a few hours. She will be healed before sunrise,” the healer said. “I’m Candace by the way. The empire healer.”

“Aiden,” I introduced.

“You are from the Capital.” It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway.

“Yes, my father is the Alpha.”

“How is your father? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him,” she surprised me by saying.

I glanced up at her and she was watching me curiously.

“I wasn’t aware you knew my father,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her.

She nodded.

“Yes. I make it a point to know the Alphas around the world,” she explained. “Your father is the most powerful. Often attend the Alpha conferences as a healer in case anything happens. I’ve had to heal him quite a few times.”

I snorted.

“Sounds about right,” I muttered. “My father is… the same,” I muttered.

She nodded thoughtfully.

A thought occurred to me at that moment.

“Are you the only one who has access to your healing supplies?” I asked her.

She furrowed her brows at me.

“My team also has access,” she answered. “But other than that, nobody is allowed to touch my healing supplies. Why do you ask?”

“Has anything been stolen from you recently?”

She frowned deeply at me, and her eyes narrowed.

“Why would you ask such a question?” She asked skeptically.

I looked at her for a moment, wondering if I could trust her enough to tell her exactly what had happened.

I looked around and saw that we were alone.

“Because my father was poisoned,” I told her.

She gasped at my words and her face turned completely white as a ghost.

“He was what?” She croaked. “And you think I had something to do with it? Why would I poison your father?”

“No, I don’t think you had anything to do with it,” I told her honestly, and I truly meant that. “But the wolfbane given to him was mixed with something that could only be found here.”

Her eyes narrowed as a small crease formed between her brows.

“What exactly is happening to him?”

“It’s a slow-working poison. It’s not only killing his wolf, but it’s shutting his body down piece by piece. He’s had two surgeries so far. Our medics are doing what they can to save him, but they don’t think his wolf will make a recovery. I’m going to have to take over the pack soon,” I explained.

It looked as if she had stopped breathing as I said those words.

Once the words were processed in her mind, she shook her head, disbelief written all over her face as she turned and ran towards what looked like a giant locked cabinet. She pressed her finger against the screen beside the cabinet and it unlatched, unlocking the cabinet for her to open.

She scanned the materials inside of the cabinet until she came across the one she was looking for. She grabbed it and took out the cork. She examined it at first with her eyes, and then she lifted it to her nose, and she gasped.

“It was replaced,” she whispered.

I stood up quickly.

“What was replaced?”

She turned to look at me.

“Starlight,” she answered. “It’s extremely poisonous and does pretty much what you just explained. It slowly attacks the body, killing the organs one by one. The wolfbane was used to neutralize his wolf and keep it from healing your father. Starlight was banned and nobody else in the world has it. This was the only one to ever exist. It was banned by the council and made illegal. If they knew we had it in this palace, it could cause a war and the King could be dethroned.”

“Why would you have something like that if it’s illegal?”

She swallowed and she looked uneasy before answering.

“Because I was the one who created it.”