Chapter 104 INFECTION
GALLAHAN’S POV
Once I noticed that Willa had fled with the twins, I let rage and primal instinct to kill take the wheel. I no longer have any slim shred of care for what would be left of the rogue wolves and the creature hunters once I was through with them.
I became an artist of violence, creating a crimson masterpiece as blood painted the surroundings in splash and splotches.
My claws dug into the skin and sliced through the flesh of both humans and wolves, tearing out piercing cries and harrowing yowls of agony out of their mouths.
The pandemonium and the havoc I had brought upon was likely not that different from hell, where disturbed souls scream and beg for mercy.
But unfortunately for these insolent beings, I was no god.
I had no mercy to give any of them. Not even a sliver.
Especially not to the rogue wolf who had been leering at my Willa as if he had intended to take her from me.
I gouged both of its eyes and let the eyeballs roll away without bothering to spare them a glance at where they would end up. Then I tore off its tongue and broke off its maw for daring to fucking salivate over my mate.
But I was far from done, even though I was quite sure it was already dead.
My teeth sank into its neck so deeply before I pulled at it to rip its flesh apart. I did it over and over again until I had successfully beheaded the wolf.
Ah…
It was my magnum opus of the night.
I couldn’t help but think so as I basked in triumph and satisfaction at the scene around me.
Mangled bodies and carcasses lay all over, bathed in beautiful crimson. The distinct smell of human blood and wolf blood mixed and wafted around, cloying the air so thickly that it was almost addicting.
This was power.
This was what it meant to stand on top of the chain.
And this…
This was the proper and just retribution for daring to attack me and my family.
Slowly, the adrenaline tapered off of my system, and I felt the exhaustion fall on me like a soaked-up thick duvet. It sank on me heavily until it spread to every sinuous of my muscles and sipped into the very core of my bones.
I swayed a little on my spot, right at the center of my masterpiece.
It was a slap-like realization that I must’ve grown quite rusty in fighting. I couldn’t be this tired already after one fight.
But then again… I single-handedly just took on and killed three aggressive rogue wolves and a band of ten creature hunters.
It was a lot.
Still! Given my infamous identity, stained reputation and the astounding number of enemies, I should be built ready to accomplish more kills than this.
How could I…
My vision swam into a blur, and my legs felt as though they were no longer mine.
Fuck.
I still had to go and find Willa and the twins.
While I trusted Willa and her capabilities to protect Gillian and Calisto, I still couldn’t allow myself to rest.
I needed to see with my own two eyes that they were safe and sound. That they were completely unharmed.
But when I tried to move, a pained groan was ripped out of me.
‘I have to find them,’ I stubbornly thought to myself amidst the pain and exhaustion that plagued my body. ‘I have to!’
Suddenly, there was a pinprick kind of pain in my right hind leg. Then my exhaustion doubled in intensity.
‘What,’ I vaguely wondered as my consciousness quickly slipped out of my grasp like slippery water.
The last thing I registered was the cacophony of voices coming in closer around me and the muzzle slotted into place around my nuzzle.
And then it was just darkness.
For a long, long while.
When I came back to my senses, the strong scents of copious blood and torn flesh were no longer there. What assaulted my nose instead was the smell of fresh sheets, magical antiseptic and healing salves.
The lower half of my face, although I had been induced into shifting back to my human form, was still in a muzzle.
But that wasn’t the only thing they had put on me. They had also chained my wrist and ankles on the bed posts, leaving me unable to fucking move.
It didn’t even matter to them that my entire left leg was wrapped in thick bandages. They really had to make sure I was all bound up with thick chains enchanted to forbid a werewolf from shifting.
As a consolation, though, whoever did this to me had, at the very least, clothed me decently in a white long dress shirt that reached up until my knees.
“Oh, you’re awake,” William declared dryly from where he sat on the armchair on the left side of the bed.
I glared at him as hard as I could, although I knew the intended effect would just fall flat given my situation. I was probably as feisty as a kitty in his eyes right now.
“Glad you sound so thrilled about my awakening,” I said, hating the way my voice sounded raspy from unuse. It made the intended sarcasm less sharp and obvious.
But William picked up on it well enough anyway if the way he rolled his eyes so hard was any indicator.
“Willa,” I uttered, pushing through the gravel in my throat, because the bastard didn’t even offer me water. “Where is she? And the twins… Where…”
“They’re safe,” William answered vaguely.
I was about to demand more answers from him when he lifted a hand to silence me.
“They’re likely resting in Willa’s room as we speak. The twins were left in shock after that night, plagued by nightmares. So their sleeping pattern had been a wreck.”
I pressed my lips tighter, still feeling dissatisfied with the information he doled out.
But I also couldn’t help but think that it was his roundabout way of assuring me that Willa’s absence was not due to her unwillingness to stay by my side. Rather, it was because she couldn’t leave the twins alone, especially given their mental and emotional state.
Gillian and Calisto needed their mother more than I needed my mate at the moment.
“You’ve been out for five days,” William continued, looking down at his tightly clasped hands on his lap. “And I’m pretty sure you are aware why we have to… chain you up.”
My face twisted in a sneer. “No. So if you could do me the honor of enlightening me…”
William let out an irritated snarl, curling his lips in a way that bared his canines. His eyes were glowing viridian as they shot dagger-like glares at me, his patience clearly running thin.
I wasn’t fazed, though, despite my bound-up state and the upper hand it gave him.
“Because you are a fool!” William bellowed. “While you were in your fucking rampage, blinded by so much fury and controlled by the instinct of your wolf, you bit those rogue wolves and ultimately ingested their blood! Either you were simply out of your mind, or you were just stupidly confident of the strength and purity of your blood as a descendant of the Hancrofts and the Wicks.”
My mouth went drier than it already was as the realization of my actions earlier, which had been fueled by nothing other than rage and instinct and was further stoked by the intoxicating power that killing those wolves and creature hunters brought, came down on me like a tidal wave.
“So now you are under extreme surveillance for any signs of infection from the blood of the rogue wolves for at least ten more days. And due to your utter recklessness, you might just lose yourself and become a rogue wolf yourself.”