Chapter 161: I Have To Go

Winnie jerked her head toward the door as it flew open. Theo walked in, blood staining his lips and his chest, spreading all the way to his back.

Streaks of dirt splattered his face and hands, and some got on his hair. There were scratches on his arms and a bright red spot on his right shoulder.

He wore only a pair of black pants. He had worn them backwards. He didn’t seem to notice, but if he did, he didn’t seem to care as he burst into the room barefoot.

"Is my brother okay?" He yelled as soon as he saw Asher on the bed.

"Shh!" Richard scolded as he pried Asher’s lips open, pouring down a green liquid.

The physician had just finished wrapping the wounds. It had taken some time. There were four deep, long scratches. He had needed to stitch them individually.

Asher wasn’t bleeding as badly, but it was hard to know if his healing had caught up with the amount of blood he was losing, or if he had just lost too much blood.

Winnie’s only consolation was that his heart was still beating albeit slowly, and she listened to it closely as she held his hand.

However, he was too pale as he lay on her bed. His lips were blue, and his gray eyes didn’t react to the bright lamp when the physician tried to see.

After stitching, Master Richard had placed herbs over his wounds before wrapping his chest with a white bandage.

Now, he was trying to make him drink a concoction. He said it was good for replenishing blood, but the physician didn’t look like they were out of the woods yet.

Theo walked toward where she stood next to Asher. Her new dress was soaked in blood again. Blood stained her hands and even her golden hair.

"Theo," she mumbled and rested her head on his shoulder when he got close enough.

If she hadn’t cried enough to make herself throw up, she would be crying again, but her tear ducts were dry. She had no more tears to shed.

"Is he going to be alright?" Theo sniffed as he spoke; he sounded on the verge of tears.

"I don’t know," she mumbled. Winnie was both physically and emotionally tired.

"What do you mean, you don’t know?" Theo asked. He was raising his voice again, and she could feel him shake under her head.

"He lost too much blood, and we have no way to replenish that. We can just hope he heals quickly with all Master Richard has done."

"If my brother dies, I will kill her." He crushed his palms together. "I don’t care what the Alpha says."

"Her?!" Winnie pulled her head away from his shoulder as she turned to look at him. "Who?"

"Maya," he replied and turned to look at her with disgust. "You connived with a traitor. My brother wouldn’t have been attacked—"

"Wait a minute. What are you talking about?"

"The attack. Maya is the reason. Or you don’t believe this?" He looked at her with dark eyes.

"Why do you sound convinced?" She whispered, a choking feeling of terror was climbing up her chest.

She hadn’t thought about Maya throughout. She had left her at the beach, and the incident had happened away from the beach. She didn’t think it had anything to do with her.

"I saw her running away when I chased after the High Alpha’s men that attacked Asher."

"On foot?" Winnie asked with a frown.

Something about the way he phrased the sentence didn’t sit well with her. Besides, Maya didn’t have a wolf. She would have been on someone’s back.

Not that she believed Maya had anything to do with this attack, but she didn’t know what was going on and had to get the facts right before she could disagree with Theo.

She had seen the look in his eyes. He was blaming her for siding with a traitor. He was blaming her for what was happening to Asher.

"Yes?" He replied.

"On foot?" She repeated, raising her voice. "Why would she be running on foot? And did she look like she was running toward you?"

His face paled, but he immediately recovered. "No, she was running with them, and there was a letter—one where she wrote all her plans with her father. Alpha Keenan read it. This was all their plan."

"Convenient!" She yelled. "Where is she now? Did you leave her?"

"I wouldn’t let a traitor get away. I brought her back, bleeding," his voice quivered lightly as he said the last word.

"She is hurt!" She cried and rushed past him.

"Where are you going?" He asked and grabbed her wrist. "My brother is dying. Are you picking some stranger over him? Over us?"

"Shut up!" She yelled. "You easily picked Alaina over everything else simply because you are fated mates. Asher is my fated mate, yet it doesn’t mean I’ll close my eyes to what’s important. I can’t do anything for him right now, but I sure as hell can’t let you all blame and accuse a fucking innocent woman. So I’ll say it only once—fucking let me go!"

Theo dropped her hand as if she had burnt him. There was a look of confusion on his face as he looked from her to Asher and then back to her again.

"You’re fated mates?"

"Master Richard," she said, ignoring him. There was no point in trying to converse with him. He wouldn’t see it, and if he was this blind, something told her Alaina was involved.

"Yes, child," he said softly as he sat next to Asher.

"Will you stay?"

"Yes," he replied.

"I have to go."

"I know," he replied.

"I-I..." She rushed closer to the bed, touched his arm, and quickly turned away before she changed her mind.

It wasn’t as easy as she was saying it. Her heart was ripping in two as she walked away, but unlike Asher, who had his brother and everyone else in Verlassen, Maya had absolutely no one.

She had to find her. If she was blamed for this, she couldn’t imagine the consequences. It was easy to see that this was plotted to get her away from Verlassen. How could nobody else see it?