46|Unacceptable

46|Unacceptable
~Serena~

Four men lay unconscious on the cold ground. Jared and I ran to where Declan was, hissing as we reached for the rope binding him to the chair, which burned our hands.

“It’s laced with aconitum,” Jared said. It could be laced with cyanide for all I care, but that wouldn’t stop me from removing Declan from this chair and from this place.

I slipped my fingers between the rope and Declan’s skin, my skin sizzling as it burned. Pushing aside the pain, I grunt as I pull on the rope and successfully remove the ones binding his ankles. Jared did the same to Declan’s hands, bound to the back of the chair. Declan fell towards me. He was a dead weight and had me stumbling back on my ass. I wrapped my arms around his body, steadying us, but his skin was burning up, and the blood from his wounds soaked my dress.

“We need to get him out of here,” Jared stated, but both of us knew we can’t take Declan the way we entered this place. In Declan’s current state, we would attract too much attention, or worse, we could encounter these men’s companions along the way.

My mind was still conjuring a strategy to get Declan safely out of this hotel when the radio static filled the dead silence in the room. “Barns, how is the package? Is he awake now?”

The sound came from the back pocket of one of the unconscious men. Jared and I locked eyes as the static permeated the line. “Barns, update.” Panic set in on the guy at the other end of the line. He was getting the idea that something had happened with his men. “Barns!”

“Let’s go,” I said and dragged Declan out of the room. I scanned the cars parked in the basement, locking eyes with a Vios idle two cars away from us. “That car,” I told Jared, who briskly heeded my instructions.

“Hold him.” I handed Declan’s entire weight to Jared as I used my elbow to break the window of the car. Glass splinters fell into the driver’s seat, but no alarms rang. Thank fuck. Once I opened the door, I unlocked the back seat and helped Jared get Declan in.

“I’ll drive,” Jared murmured.

“No. You stay with Declan on the back. Security won’t be suspicious if a woman is behind the wheels.” 

Jared didn’t put up much of a fight and slid into the back seat. Sitting behind the steering wheel, I ducked and hot-wired the car, the engine purring obediently.

“Stay low, and call Alpha Seth. Tell him we’re in this car,” I told Jared, and he followed, informing Alpha Seth about what happened as I drove out of the basement parking lot. I smiled sweetly at the guard station at the hotel parking, blowing out a breath when he let me pass with a nod. Once we were on the road, two cars followed us, Cora’s Yaris and Alpha Seth’s RAV4.

As we entered the highway, Jared pulled Declan beside him, worry growing on his face when he noticed Declan’s wounds weren’t healing. “He’s not healing, Serena,” Jared mumbled, his eyes sliding up to meet mine in the rear-view mirror.

“They could’ve injected him with Aconitum,” I said, but that didn’t ease Jared’s worry or mine.

~~

We took Declan to the Hawkins mansion. Alpha Oren and Cora were inside the infirmary, overseeing Declan’s state with the pack doctor and nurse Kerri. Jared, Alpha Seth, Clint, and I were anxiously waiting for an update outside the infirmary. The tension on the back of our necks was tighter than a bowstring.

Cora was the first to step out of the room, followed by Alpha Oren, Nurse Kerri, and the pack doctor, Doc Austin.

“How is he?” I asked, while the three hulking men stood behind me, mirroring my worried expression.

Cora looked up at Alpha Oren, at Doc Austin before sliding her gaze back to me. My heart had been galloping in its cage since the hotel, and it would leap out of my chest if Cora maintained the suspense. “We saw nothing wrong with him, Serena.”

“So he’s okay?” I had to verify since all four of them looked as if someone had died.

Cora sighed, shaking her head, and I clenched my hand in exasperation. “His wounds won’t heal by itself. Doc Austin gave him medicine, but as you know, our body temperature burns.”

“Why were his wounds not healing?” I reiterated, pinning an accusing glare at Cora and Alpha Oren. “You saw him. His wounds should have healed by now.”

“I checked his blood,” Doctor Austin butted in. He was the same age as Alpha Oren, with gray hair, prominent laugh lines on his face, and warm blue eyes. “It’s clean, not even a trace of aconitum.”

“Then what’s wrong with him!?” I demanded, panic bubbling inside me like acid as I gazed at the closed door of the infirmary, imagining the state Declan was in. He had cuts on his chest like a messy artwork of a toddler playing with red paint for the first time. His wrist and ankle had deep burn marks from the rope. My hands and Jared’s hands were already healed, while Declan was still wearing the burn marks. Something was definitely wrong with him, and they’re telling me they saw nothing wrong with Declan? This is unacceptable!

“Could it be a work of a witch?” Jared suggested, “A spell?”

Nurse Kerri shook her head. “I already checked,” she looked up at Alpha Seth, asking for permission. “Also… I used my powers to heal him, but his body is refusing it.”

“You two must be a con,” I murmured, sarcasm dripping in my tone. Nurse Kerri and Doc Austin didn’t even look a bit offended by my tone. Instead, they looked at me with pity, which I returned with a glare.

“Serena,” Cora’s motherly voice was balm soothing my growing exasperation at these two fraud healers of this pack. “I can assure you that they did what’s necessary.”

“Apparently not enough!” I hissed, storming out of the mansion. I needed to clear my head, so I ran in my human form. The wind whispered in my hair as I sped up towards the vast property of the Fallenmist pack. I focused my attention on the cool breeze brushing my skin, on the dirt slipping between my feet and my borrowed sandals, on the fabric of my dress that hugged my skin as I continued scaling the forest floor with my human feet.

I could feel Declan slipping away when they were inside the infirmary. His heartbeat was there, but it was slowing down, as if his heart was the only part of his body that was left fighting. I hate that I was affected by what was happening to him. This wasn’t me. I hate Declan, and I was hellbent on making him suffer for what he and his family had done to mine.

Why? Why do I feel my heart fading away with his? This stupid mate bond! It’s messing with my head and with my emotions. Maybe this was for the better. If Declan is dead, I wouldn’t worry about the mate bond anymore. But why did that thought make bile rise from my stomach to my mouth?

In my muddled thought, I was so stunned when a shadow moved on my side. It was fast, and it hit me before I could even make a move to save myself.