Chapter twelve

Brian stared at Dr. Shelby blankly.

What did he mean by poison? He looked from the doctor to his mate, who was no more looking blank now.

She looked guilty, and a little ashamed.

"What do you mean by poison?" Brian asked the doctor.

For a moment, it looked like the doctor regretted mentioning it. The struggle on whether to reveal the whole information or withhold some of it was evident on his face. At last, he sighed.

"I found some poison in her body. Lethal poison. It's preventing her from healing. That's why it would take a very long time for her to heal. I'm still looking for an antidote to the poison." Dr. Shelby finally said.

Brian's face hardened.

"And how did this poison get into her body?" He asked.

The doctor shrugged. The expression of shame on his mate's face deepened. He turned on his mate, an expression of disbelief on his face.

"How did…don't tell me…" Brian felt a lump rise in his throat, stopping him from asking the question he so badly wanted to ask.

But Estella understood what he wanted to ask. She nodded her head. Her eyes filled with tears of anger and shame.

"I couldn't endure it any longer. I wanted to die and end it all…"

Brian felt his heart break into a million and one pieces. His mate had tried to kill herself.

He closed the short distance to the bed and took Estella in his arms. She collapsed into them, and broke into sobs. Brian held her tightly, rubbing her back and whispering soothing words into her ears.

"It's alright now. It's alright baby. I thank the goddess you didn't succeed. It's alright." Brian continued whispering.

Gradually, the sobs lessened. Then, quite suddenly, Estella went limp in his arms. Alarmed, Brian leaned back to look at her face. Her eyes were closed. And her breathing was exceptionally heavy.

"What's wrong?" Brian asked the doctor in panic.

"Toxins from the poison. They're invading her nervous system. Her body will go back to vegetative state if I don't do something fast."

"Then do something fast!" Brian screamed at Dr. Shelby.

The doctor sprang to work. He immediately picked out a new bag of drip from a drawer and set it up rapidly.

"I will need you to leave the room, sir." The doctors voice was curt.

Brian glared at him. "You better be right. And she had better not die."

He left the room. His heart beat with both fear and rage.

___

Just outside the pack clinic, Ethan was waiting for Brian. But Brian was so blinded by rage that he walked right past where Ethan was leaning without even seeing him.

Ethan hesitated, considering whether to just leave the message till another time. But he had a feeling it might be important.

He ran up to Brian and tapped him on the shoulder. Brian whirled round, his whole body was tensed. It barely relaxed when he saw it was his beta.

"What's it?" He gritted out.

Silently, Ethan held out the brown package. Brian collected it wordlessly. He shook it. An ominous feeling descended on him.

The package was suspiciously similar to the one that had goaded him into storming Blood Depth pack against the advice of his beta.

He almost could not wait to get to his room. When he did, he discovered he was right. Inside the package was another CD.

Brian stared at the CD, trying to decide if he wanted to see what was in it. Gritting his teeth, he slotted it in.

It showed Estella chained to the wall. It seemed it was immediately after the scene the first one depicted. She was weeping. The her face hardened in determination. It seemed she had reached a decision.

Then a guard entered to bring her food. She stopped the guard when he was about leaving.

"Didn't you say I could sell myself to you that day Alpha Loki condemned me?" Estella told the guard.

The guard almost could not believe his ears. He stared at Estella, wondering what she was up to.

"I thought about it. I will sell myself to you, for a small price." Estella said.

"But Dexter…"

"...won't care." Estella told him. "He only cares about causing me pains. So be as brutal as you can when I give myself to you, would you? Only pay me my price."

The guard's face showed excitement. "What's your price?"

"Get me the most lethal poison you can find in the damned place." Estella said.

The guard looked at her in shock. But he didn't really care for her, only for her body. She could die for all he cared, as far as he had his way with her.

The lust was evident on his face.

He left. Brian skipped to the part where he returned. He had a filled cup in his hands.

"Hey, you haven't paid me, have you?" The guard snapped, stopping Estella from snatching the cup from him.

He kept it out of her reach. Then he started peeling he clothes, taking his time.

Brian felt red hot rage explode in him at the sight of another touching his mate with such groping hands. The leer on the guard's face enraged him even more, till he felt he would burst.

When the guard started pounding Estella, Brian decided he could not take it anymore.

He was about to switch off the video when the scene suddenly cut. Loki's face came on the screen.

He was leering.

"I can't see you right now, but I can almost imagine your rage." Loki said. He laughed.

"You know why I sent you this? The first one I sent you goaded you into coming to my pack. I hadn't known it will, but it did. We were not prepared. You saved Estella…"

Loki paused. "...and almost killed my son." He completed savagely.

"I don't know why, but it seems you care much for this weak girl. Get enraged enough to come find vengeance. And the antidote to her poison. We only gave her just enough to keep her alive. I will be waiting."

Loki paused again to make sure Brian got his next words.

"Then I will find out why you're would risk war with us for this girl. Tell me, does she know where Eve is? Perhaps, her parents told her? I want to find out."

The screen went blank. In contrast, Brian's face had gone from hardened to livid. Throughout the video, his face had gone various shades of red and white. Now, it was a deep scarlet.

He punched the video player into little pieces.

"Just you wait for me, Loki. I will come find vengeance alright. And that antidote!" Brian growled.

"No one touches my mate, and lives. Who cares for Eve?"