Chapter 219

Ethan

Every emotion Fiona feels- the devastation, the pain, the hope, the happiness- it all slides down our bond, washing over me. Shock doesn’t begin to cover how either of us feels, especially while I watch my mate hug my friend.

Nothing could have prepared me to find out that Aaron and Fiona are long lost siblings or for the fact that she’s of noble blood.

The tears dripping down Fiona’s face, and her thoughts about missing out on what her life could have been, makes my chest tighten.

“Jason, could you pull up her mother’s medical records?”

“Sure, give me a second.”

“There’s something strange here,” I announce, making both my mate and my friend look at me. They pull away, and Fiona immediately leans into me. I wrap an arm around her, letting her take any comfort she needs.

“Because she never came back,” Aaron says, nodding and looking to Fiona again. “Did she ever talk about us? How did you not know, and how had you never shifted before?”

Fiona shakes her head, anxiety running down our bond at the questions. I curl my hand around her, intertwining our finger and squeezing to let her know I’m here for her. I’m not going anywhere.

Zev rumbles in my mind, agreeing. He’s ecstatic that our mate is so amazing, but he doesn’t like that she’s in pain. Neither of us do.

“I don’t know. She never mentioned anything about Lycans. The first time I heard about it was with Ethan,” Fiona says softly, her pained eyes turning up at me. And that wasn’t an ideal situation in itself.

“I think I know,” Jason says, interrupting all of us. He moves to the bed and sets his laptop down, pointing at the document, “This is Elizabeth’s medical records from twenty-four years ago. It details a head injury that she came in with as well as multiple injuries from attack.”

We all lean in, reading the report about how she’d been found on the side of the road by the docks. He brought her to the hospital because he thought she’d been attacked by someone. It tells that the man also found a baby with her, which we know was Fiona.

“She had amnesia?” Aaron asks, baffled. “Lycan’s, especially in our family line, are strong healers. There’s no reason she should have taken so long to heal or had amnesia.”

The angry tone in his voice makes Fiona whimper, so I growl lowly to get his attention. She doesn’t need to feel any more fear.

“There’s more,” Jason says, scrolling to another document. “This is from several years ago when she was hospitalized. It says she had a rare blood disease in the official report, but there are notes from her doctors that they believed it was some unknown poison they had no way to cure.”

Aaron stiffens then jerks the computer his way, reading over the records. His eyes scan the screen before he slumps back and stares blankly at it.

“Aaron? What is it?” I ask. Knowing Aaron for over ten years, I can tell there’s something seriously bothering him. It could be the fact he just figured out how his mother died, but I feel that it’s more than that.

“When they found my aunt,” he murmurs, “They found a syringe on the ground. At first, they thought she was poisoned, but they never found traces of anything during the autopsy.”

He scrubs a hand viciously over his face, his red eyes straining and his jaw ticking as he grinds his teeth.

Worry filters into me from Fiona, so I release her and watch as she crawls across the bed to her brother. I let my fingers brush over her ankle gently, still offering my support how I can.

“Sorry, Aaron. It seems that your mother was the one poisoned. The compound the doctors recorded is a mixture of Wolfsbane and Thrash,” Jason says, not bothering to show him the computer again.

“Shit,” I growl. Whoever did this made sure Fiona and Aaron’s mom would die no matter what. It’s probably why they didn’t go after her and why her wolf never surfaced while she was in the East. Though, it still doesn’t answer why Fiona’s wolf never came out.

Aaron stands suddenly, his fist flying out and slamming into the nearest wall. I jump up too, nudging Fiona back so she doesn’t go to him. He would never hurt her, but I don’t want her scared.

“Those bastards,” Aaron growls, his eyes glowing a golden orange when he lifts his head. “Thrash is the deadliest, slowest toxin known to Lycans. Mix it with Wolfsbane, and it acts as a fatal disease that would take years to fully kill someone.”

“Does that mean it wouldn’t show up or make her sick for a long time?” Fiona asks, looking between the two of us. I nod, and a sense of realization falls over her face as her bottom lip trembles. “She didn’t get sick until a few years ago, and even then, nothing the doctors did ever helped.”

“I need to contact our family. They need to know what’s going on,” Aaron says before storming out of the room.

“Wait!”

He steps back into the doorway, and I note that I’ve never seen my friend look so worn and tired.

“Don’t worry,” he says, smiling softly at my mate. “Nothing bad will happen. Our family has missed you for years.”

Then, he’s gone again.

It all makes sense now. The reason Aaron’s grandmother and the former King kept staring at her when they saw her, the way she now smells like forest and flowers, and the reason why she’s so naturally good with Lycan herbalism; it’s all connected to her noble blood.

“It’ll be okay,” I tell her, sitting back and pulling her into my lap. She doesn’t say anything, just nods and curls into me, laying her hand over her belly and closing her eyes. Anyone would be tired after all the new and old information and from the overwhelming emotions she’s been feeling since she woke up.

Losing your family is devastating, especially when you’ve lost them in one of the worst possible ways, but finding out that family is still alive is a miracle. One that none of the royal family will wait to see.

Taking a breath, I rest my chin on top of Fiona’s head and breathe in her new scent. It’s right, somehow, and I close my eyes to soak in it. The little sigh that falls from her lips and the heavy breathing tells me she’s fallen asleep.

So, I let her rest for now because she won’t have much time to sleep.

And she doesn’t.

Not even twenty minutes later, the doors to the room burst open and several people tumble in. Arthur, his mother and father, Aaron, and his father all focus immediately on Fiona, stopping in their tracks.

Fiona jolts at the loud noise, finally noticing the guests. Before she can say anything, she sinks back into my chest, her emotions flaring again.

Her emotions are all over the place, but the one that pushes past all the others as she studies the small group in front of us is a sense of hope.