Chapter 477: Something is wrong!

Adrein.

The heavy wooden door clicked shut as Aidan and Davian hurried down the corridor to investigate the commotion in the courtyard, leaving me alone in the suffocating quiet of Damein’s bedroom.

I slumped back against the stone wall, clutching my chest as another sharp, white-hot spasm tore through my ribs. My breathing was fast and shallow, my sweat-soaked shirt clinging cold against my skin.

Ever since I had tried to sever my bond thread to protect Maria from my own dark, chaotic wolf, my inside felt like a war zone. The bond wasn’t broken—it was frayed, bleeding, and raw, pulsing with an agonizing friction every time Maria’s faint, shallow heartbeats echoed through our link.

I dragged myself up from the wall, using the edge of the heavy mahogany wardrobe for balance. My legs felt like lead, heavy and unresponsive from the lingering spiritual feedback.

I looked over at the bed.

Maria lay there so still she barely looked alive. Her face was hollow, her pale skin almost translucent under the faint amber glow of the bedside candles. Damien sat on the edge of the mattress, his head buried in his hands, his broad shoulders shaking with silent, ragged sobs. He looked completely shattered, his Alpha pride stripped away until there was nothing left but a grieving boy holding onto a thread.

"Damien..." my voice came out as a raspy, painful whisper. "Help me get her ready. Aidan said we leave as soon as the sun drops."

Damien slowly lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot and swollen, skin pale beneath his dark stubble. He looked at me with a hollow, lost expression. "Get her ready? Look at her, Adrein. Look at her. She can barely keep air in her lungs. How are we supposed to carry her across pack territory in the middle of the night?"

"Because we do not have a choice," I growled softly, dragging myself across the floor until I reached the opposite side of the bed. I gripped the heavy wooden bedpost to steady my shaking frame. "Davian and Aidan agreed to Daniel’s plan. We’re going to the border. We’re handing ourselves over to the Lycan prince under a fake surrender so Daniel can get us access to their ancient medicines."

Damien let out a dry, bitter laugh, shaking his head as he stared down at Maria’s hand in his. "A fake surrender... We are Alphas, Adrein. We are the leaders of the strongest pack in the region, and here we are, playing dress-up as defeated dogs because we couldn’t even keep our own mate safe."

"You think I like this?" I snapped, a sudden flash of heat flaring in my chest before dying back down into a dull, throbbing ache. I pressed my palm flat against my chest, squeezing my eyes shut as my frayed thread gave a sharp, violent tug. "You think I want to bow my head to that bastard prince? I would rather tear his throat out with my bare teeth! But look at her, Damien! If we stay in this room, locked in this pack, doing nothing while our pack wall falls apart... she is going to die!"

Damien flinched at the word, his grip on Maria’s hand tightening slightly. He swallowed hard, looking down at her pale, motionless face before taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"Help me wrap her up," Damien whispered quietly, his voice cracking with emotion.

I reached for the heavy fur cloak draped over the back of the bedside chair, my hands trembling so badly I could barely hold the thick velvet fabric. I stepped closer to the edge of the mattress, leaning down to carefully tuck the fur around Maria’s frail shoulders.

As my bare fingers brushed against the exposed skin of her neck, right beside the dark, inflamed mark Damien had left behind, a sudden, unnatural sensation shot through me. It was so sharp and unexpected that my entire body stiffened before I could even understand what I was feeling.

The strange sensation seemed to zip straight up my spine, leaving a faint shiver in its wake. My fingers remained against her skin for a brief moment, completely still, as though my body had forgotten how to move.

I froze.

My wolf, suppressed and bruised as it was, stirred restlessly somewhere deep inside my subconscious. A low, uneasy growl rumbled through me, quiet but unmistakable, carrying a warning I couldn’t immediately decipher. It wasn’t loud, but I felt it clearly, vibrating beneath my thoughts and making my instincts tense.

I swallowed hard, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar reaction.

"What is it?" Damien asked, watching me closely. His eyes narrowed with concern as he studied my sudden stillness, clearly noticing the change in my expression.

I barely heard him at first, my attention still caught on the strange sensation lingering beneath my fingertips.

"Adrein?" he called again, his voice pulling me back toward him.

I didn’t answer right away. I kept my fingertips resting lightly against Maria’s skin, right over her pulse point. The air around her didn’t just smell like sick, weak wolf—it smelled wrong. Beneath the heavy, sweet scent of lavender and healing salves the pack doctor had applied, there was a faint, bitter trace hanging in the air. A cold, metallic undertone that made my skin crawl and my frayed bond thread recoil in disgust.

It felt like... wolfsbane, or a heavy, dark suppression charm.

"Adrein, you’re scaring me," Damien said, his voice rising in alarm as he stood up from the bed. "What do you feel?"

"She isn’t just failing under the weight of our bond, Damien," I breathed out, my eyes widening as the terrifying realization settled deep into my gut. My chest heaved as I stared down at her face. "There’s something else in her system. Something dark, and something... unnatural."

Damien frowned, confusion and fear twisting his features. "What are you talking about? The healer said her spirit was suffocating because of the emotional distress and your thread snapping!"

"I know what the healer said!" I rasped out, pressing my palm tighter against her neck as I tried to read the faint spiritual pulse beneath her skin. "But I know what our bond feels like, Damien! Even broken, I can feel her wolf! Her wolf isn’t just tired... it’s being smothered! It’s being suppressed from the inside!"

Damien stepped around the bed, reaching out to touch her forehead, his jaw clenching tight. "Are you saying... someone poisoned her?"

"I do not know," I whispered, panic rising like dark water in my throat. "I don’t know, but the moment I touched her skin, my bond flared up like it was touching acid... someone has been in this room, Damien. Someone has been messing with her remedies while we were out."

"That is impossible," Damien argued softly, though his voice lacked conviction, terror leaking into his eyes. "The guards have been posted outside this door since yesterday, and no one gets in or out without Aidan’s approval."

"Then explain to me why her wolf is reacting like it’s trapped in a cage!" I demanded, my voice cracking under the pressure. "Explain to me why her spirit is rejecting the bond so violently!"

Before Damien could answer, the heavy oak doors suddenly swung open with a loud, abrupt clatter that echoed through the room, cutting off whatever response he had been about to give. The sound made the silence around us feel even sharper for a brief moment.

Aidan and Davian stepped back into the room, their faces grim and set like stone, their expressions revealing nothing as they crossed the threshold. Their boots landed heavily against the wooden floorboards with each deliberate step, the dull thuds carrying clearly through the room.

A rush of cold night air followed them inside, slipping through the open doorway and brushing against the warmth of the room before slowly fading away.

Davian looked straight at us, his jaw tight, his bloodshot eyes cold and resolute. "It’s time," Davian said flatly, pulling his leather gloves tighter over his knuckles. "Daniel’s waiting downstairs, and the guards are clearing the main entrance. Wrap Maria up. We’re moving out to the border right now."

I looked up at Davian, my heart hammering against my ribs like a battering ram, my hand still resting against Maria’s cold, poisoned skin.

"Davian... wait," I choked out, stepping back from the bed, my voice trembling with a terrifying blend of pain and discovery. "We can’t go through with this. Something is wrong with Maria. Something is very wrong with this entire house."

Aidan stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing into sharp, dangerous slits as he looked between me and Maria. "What are you talking about, Adrien? We don’t have time for this. Daniel is setting up the transfer as we speak."

"Look at her, Aidan!" I yelled, taking a staggering step toward my brothers, clutching my bleeding chest as the truth burned inside me. "We are walking into a trap!"