Chapter 66 Calhoun
Calhoun's POV
The entire place looks disarrayed, and everyone is staring back at me with wide eyes and jaws touching the floor. More like they are in shock.
Bruce and Natalie, and then Kristen.
"Oh my god, he's awake!" Natalie exclaims before jumping over me on the bed.
And Kristen, she blinks unsteadily with quivering pale-brown lips. Her eyes are still wide in their sockets and I can even spot booger dripping from her nose.
Perhaps I was on the brink of death, or I already died and woke up because they have tears across their faces.
Natalie has her whole body over me, her hands are going through my hair, and shoulders as she sobs.
"I'm so glad you didn't die, Calhoun," she sniffs as she pulls her head back to examine my face. She keeps pulling my face away so I don't look to see my mate.
"Get off me," my voice comes out rough.
"What?" Natalie pauses halfway through her sobs.
Without a word, I gently push her away from me and leave the bed.
Natalie stumbles when I do this but I just ignore her as I put my shirt on.
My hand catches Kristen's wrist and I take her right out of the hospital ward without turning to cast a backward glance at anyone. Not even my beta, Bruce.
"I thought you died," Kristen's voice is so low that it's almost a miracle I can hear it.
Letting out a heavy breath, I pull her into a tight bone-crushing hug because I can't even come up with words to say at this point. What I went through was worse than hell. It felt like I was being thrown into this dark, endless.
We stay in this position for a long time, just hugging Kristen while she's sniffing non-stop.
I don't even know how they did it but the last thing I could remember was falling and giving into death, right in the arms of my mate.
I went to meet her at school because I thought I'd die and her face was the last thing I wanted to see right before death. Thankfully I did not die. Maybe I was given a second chance by the moon goddess to live. And revenge on my enemies.
Alpha Ezra, whom I took as a brother, connived with his men to poison me. He poured out his mind while I was at his feet, fighting the poison.
It still feels surreal that so much happened in one day.
I wonder how Kristen felt when she thought I finally died. Her small shoulders are still shaking along with her as she sniffs and hugs me tightly as if she let go, I'll disappear right out of her sight.
I took her away from the room because I couldn't stay and let Natalie weep and throw herself on me again. Kristen is all that matters to me and no one else can even come close.
To think I'd have died, left her and Nana Joyce.
When we disengage from the hug, Kristen covers my hand with hers and tips her head to stare into my face. Her eyes quickly fill up with tears once more.
"Don't you ever accept edibles from people within and outside your pack, you were fucking poisoned with black bane," she's hiccuping while she's at this.
Everyone thought you were dead. All the pack doctors who gathered to treat you. My mom and even Bruce," Kristen wiped the tears off her face with the back of her palm, before using that same palm to cup my cheek.
"But I refused to accept it...I tried all I could to help. They refused to give you the poison killer because they claimed you were dead already..you weren't breathing..but still I couldn't give up. I have you the last drop of poison killer."
Hearing this electrifies my whole being.
I can't believe she saved my life when everyone else assumed I was already as good as dead.
I stumble backward when Kristen clashes her body with mine and hugs me again.
Fighting against the urge to be emotional at this point is useless. If my mate wasn't there, then perhaps I could have fully died. Kristen fucking saved me.
Kristen's POV
It feels surreal that Calhoun is actually here, hugging me. Calhoun, who was on the bed and had been pronounced dead by the doctors and everyone.
The poison killer worked, even though it was just a single drop.
The goosebumps in my pores are stagnant, refusing to subside because it doesn't feel real that Calhoun is alive. I had already lost hope before he woke up.
It's clear the moon goddess doesn't want him gone. Alphas rarely get poisoned. They're always killed with a wood struck to their hearts, their bodies getting burnt, or being decapitated. Yet someone went as far as getting black bane poison to use on Calhoun.
They were obviously envious of him. Wanted him gone. Wanted me to lose him, when in fact he matters to me more than anything.
I won't say no to him anymore or regret that he's giving his all to me.
I could have lost him if I had listened to everyone. My heart has been thudding non-stoppingly in my chest.
Calhoun is still holding onto me, burying his head in the croak of my neck.
He wouldn't even let Mom touch him. He pushed her away from him when she threw herself over him. It's a relief, but still, I feel bad for Mom upon knowing he did that because of me.
"I love you," Calhoun says loud enough for me to hear.
He repeats it for the second and third time until I disengage myself away from his body and cup his cheeks with my palms.
"Oh, Calhoun," Tears cloud my vision for a split second as I look at him with so much affection, "I love you, too," I confess at last without any form of regret.