Chapter 185

Aiden’s POV

“Katrina is in the dungeon,” Oliver told me as he walked into the waiting room of the pack hospital. “She still won’t answer any questions, but I think we already know everything. Shouldn’t we just kill her?”

“We need a proper trial,” I said, running my fingers through my hair. “We could get into trouble if we just kill her.”

“We have cause,” Oliver murmured. “Do you really think the Alpha King wouldn’t kill her on the spot?”

I shrugged and buried my face in my hands. I had been sitting in this waiting room for several hours while Carol was being treated by the pack’s best doctors. She was extremely malnourished and dehydrated, as was the baby. She had a ton of wolfsbane in her system as well and they needed to flush her out and give her body proper nutrients. They aren’t exactly sure when she’s going to wake up.

“Any word on Allen?” I asked, hating the taste of his name on my tongue. I wanted to rip his throat out myself, but my main priority was and always will be Carol.

“He didn’t last long after you left,” Oliver said with a smirk. “The warriors tore him apart limb from limb. They sent a video of it too. I have to say, you did a lot of damage yourself. He couldn’t even get away.”

A smile tipped the corner of my lips.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” I murmured. “Send me the video.”

“Already sent it to your phone,” he said, nudging my shoulder.

“Where’s Fiona? I thought she’d be here by now,” I said, glancing around the fairly empty waiting room.

“She’s still coping with everything that happened. She’s not exactly ready to come here. But once Carol wakes up, she’ll come. She’s furious and wants to kill Katrina right away. We have to keep her away from the dungeon.”

I let out a bark of laughter; the first time I laughed in days.

“You have a feisty mate,” I teased.

Oliver beamed at my words, and he nodded.

“That she is,” he said. We both fell into silence for a moment; my thoughts went back to Carol and how she was lying helplessly in the hospital bed, fighting for her life and there was nothing I could do about it. My chest ached at the thought of it, and I had to brush the imagery out of my mind. “Carol is going to be okay,” Oliver said after a beat of silence. “You have to know that.”

I nodded, hating how helpless I felt.

“Yeah, I know.”

He nodded and patted me on the back.

“By the way, there’s something you should probably know,” Oliver said, sitting up straight and looking a bit nervous to tell me whatever it was he had to tell me.

I raised my brows and looked at him.

“Do tell,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the door of the waiting room swung open, and in came a ton of warriors. Their uniforms didn’t resemble the ones my warriors wore though; these were the uniforms of the King’s empire.

My eyes grew large as the King walked in the middle of the warriors. They split apart, allowing him to walk ahead of them once the coast was clear. He looked furious as he gazed around the room; his eyes red with the vengeance I knew he was feeling at that moment.

It mustn’t have been easy to learn that his daughter was missing from the news outlet. I knew I should have called him, but I was more preoccupied with bringing Carol home safely.

His eyes finally found mine and he snarled as he marched towards me.

“What to explain to me why I wasn’t alerted that my daughter went missing?” He asked through his teeth. I knew he was trying hard to control his anger, not wanting to explode in front of the hospital staff.

“I was focused on bringing her home,” I told him honestly. “We just arrived a few hours ago.”

“I should have been alerted immediately. Who are the people who took her and what did they want?” He asked.

I was quiet for a moment, which seemed to fuel his anger.

“Answer me!” His voice boomed across the hospital, making the entire building shake.

“I think they wanted my fortune, and Carol was in the way of that. One of them wanted the title of Luna and promised the other one the title of Alpha along with the Cruz family money and businesses.”

“Who are these people?” the King asked, his eyes narrowed.

“A childhood friend of mine,” I answered. “Her name is Katrina. She’s currently in the dungeon, waiting for her punishment.”

“She’s alive?” He asked.

I nodded.

“I know it’s against the werewolf law to kill on parklands without a proper trial,” I answered. “She was part of our pack and as her Alpha, I could have been in trouble. So, we are waiting for her trial.”

“And the other one? Or the others?”

“So far there was only one other,” I answered. “His name was Allen; he was Carol’s friend. Or so we thought. He was only using her. He was working with Katrina. Apparently, they’ve been involved for a while. He was the one who actually took Carol and kept her hostage. He’s been drugging her with wolfbane to lock away her powers and I think he must have hit her over the head because she had a gash on her head when we found her.”

A low growl emerged from the King’s throat, and he looked lethal.

“Is he alive?”

“No, sir,” I answered, much to his obvious surprise. “It turns out he never actually swore his allegiance to me, and he wasn’t registered in our system because his file was pretty much empty. We barely had any of his information. He was only here because he was on the hockey team. As far as we know, he wasn’t a part of any pack. His house was in rogue territory a day's drive from here. He was killed by my warriors on rogue territory. We didn’t break any laws.”

The king thought about that for a moment and I could see his wolf starting to simmer. He sighed and eventually sat in the seat beside me. His men dispersed and spread out around the hospital to cover every ground and protect the King from any potential threat.

“I never imagined her to be in so much danger,” he murmured, staring down at his hands. “Does stuff like that happen often around here? I know she was kidnapped once before by that handmaiden.”

“I will do whatever I can to protect, Carol. I should have seen the signs before and kept her safe from Allen, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt because she asked me to. I won’t make that mistake again.”

The king nodded for a moment, and it looked as if he got lost in thought. We remained silent for a long while, none of us knowing what to say.

“You did good by finding her and keeping her safe,” the king finally said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry if I came in here kind of rough. But you have to understand, I lost her once… I can’t lose her again.”

I nodded.

“I get it, Your Majesty,” I told him honestly.

The door of the emergency room opened and the doctor who updated us a couple of hours ago walked into the waiting room. He looked exhausted but when he saw the King, he perked right up and gave the King a bow.

“Alpha,” he said to me, as he fixed his attention back on me. “Your wife is awake, and she’d like to see you.”

…..

Carol’s POV

The light beeping sound woke me up and when my eyes fluttered open, I winced at the strange and new lighting. I definitely wasn’t in the basement anymore. The beeping sound made me think that I was in a hospital and then my heart fell deep into my stomach.

I knew that Allen wanted to take me to a new pack, and he told me once we were there, he would take me to see the pack doctor. My heart hammered in my chest as I got a look at my surroundings; I was in a hospital room. Which meant, he successfully took me even further away from Aiden.

Tears fell out of my eyes, and I had to bite my lower lip to keep from sobbing. My hands trembled as I reached up and touched my belly, hoping and praying that at least my baby was okay. I didn’t feel as dehydrated anymore, but my head still hurt badly, and I felt groggy from being asleep for so long. It was probably from whatever drugs he filled me with.

The door opened and an older gentleman with a white trench coat walked into the room, holding a clipboard. He had a big smile on his face when he saw me staring back at him.

“Oh, good,” he said thoughtfully. “You’re awake. You gave us quite a scare.”

“Where am I?” I asked him, my voice coming out hoarse.

“You are in the hospital,” he told me. “You were extremely dehydrated and malnourished. Not to mention filled with wolfbane.”

I grimaced; so, that’s what Allen was giving me.

“I want my husband…” I said, my lip quivering. “I want Aiden.”

I was expecting the doctor to ask who Aiden was and then get Allen. But he didn’t. He nodded thoughtfully as he finished checking my vitals and then he told me he would be right back. My heart hammered in my chest; I knew the next person who walked through the doors would be Allen. I was waiting for him when the door opened and I braced myself, only to find Aiden standing in front of me.

I gasped at the sight of him, my eyes wide.

“She still needs plenty of rest,” the doctor said. “So don’t overdo it.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Aiden said, nodding at him.

The doctor left and I nearly crumbled in on myself. I couldn’t believe that he was actually standing in front of me.

“Aiden?” I whispered, still in disbelief, that this was real.

“You have no idea how worried I was about you,” he whispered as he rushed to my bedside, cupping my face in his warm hands and pressing his lips to my forehead. A rush of heat ran through me.

“H...how?” I asked. “W…what happened?”

I needed to know where Allen and Katrina were.

The door of the room opened, and a new voice sounded.

“I need to speak with my daughter,” the King said, drawing our attention to him.