Chapter 81

Agnes

I winced, looking away as the doctor carefully dabbed the deep puncture wounds on my arm with antiseptic.

“This feels overboard,” I muttered under my breath as I stared at the floor. There was an IV in my other arm, pumping antibiotics through my bloodstream, and they had even tested me for rabies.

Both Elijah and the doctor shot me matching reproachful looks.

“With no wolf of your own—” Elijah began, to which I cut him off with a shake of my head.

“I know, I know. Trust me, I know. With no wolf of my own, my rate of healing is going to be far slower, and I’m at a higher risk for infection,” I finished for him.

Elijah folded his arms across his chest and pressed his lips into a flat line, but his eyes were soft and full of worry. I wasn’t mad at him for making that statement, of course; I was just mad at the whole situation in general.

“I felt her,” I said after a moment, wincing again as the doctor began to apply ointment to my arm and wrap it up tightly. “I felt my wolf when I fought those rogues in the woods.”

The doctor glanced up at me from beneath his brows. “It is possible that your wolf emerged temporarily to keep you alive,” he said matter-of-factly.

I frowned and looked at Elijah again, who just seemed to be at a loss for words. I had already told him everything: the way that I had suddenly sprang into action, fighting off four—four—rogues all on my own, the speed at which I had run, the way I had hardly even felt one of the rogues bite me.

But my wolf was gone now. It was as if she hadn’t ever been there.

“Where is she now, then?” I ground out through clenched teeth, trying to ignore the pain searing through me as the doctor tended to my wound.

“I’m not sure. We’ll run some more tests,” the doctor said with a sigh. He finished binding my arm and sat back, peeling off his latex gloves. “But I can’t promise that the results will be much different this time.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could say a word, Elijah cut in, “Run the tests anyway. As comprehensive as possible.”

With a nod, the doctor took the vials containing my blood samples and left the room. Once we were alone, I turned to Elijah.

“I swear on everything important to me that I did feel her,” I insisted. “I’m not crazy, Elijah.”

He frowned. Deeply. “I never said you were.”

My shoulders straightened at that, and I looked away. “I guess I’m just so used to everyone constantly assuming—”

“Well, I’m not ‘everyone’.” Elijah moved forward and touched my hand. The small contact sent a jolt through me, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep the shock from showing on my face. “I promised months ago that I would help you get to the bottom of this,” he continued softly. “And I plan on keeping that promise.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, because frankly, Elijah was right. He had never given me a reason to doubt the promises he had made. He was as true and certain with his convictions as the moon pulled the ocean toward it every night.

Only one thing about our relationship was uncertain.

Us.

But even if romance was forever out of the question, Elijah never faltered when he said that he was my partner in all other ways. And right now, that was all that mattered.

Within a few minutes, the doctor returned with a solemn expression on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a sigh, “but the results were the same this time. Your wolf is still held back by a powerful magic, one that we can’t seem to figure out how to unravel. I believe you when you say she emerged to help you survive that rogue attack, but there is nothing we can do to draw her out again.”

I expected him to say that, of course, but it still hurt. I clenched my jaw and stared down at my feet, willing the tears not to come.

“There must be something we can do,” Elijah urged. “Some way to unbind the spell—”

“We don’t even know what the spell is or who put it there to begin with,” the doctor cut him off. “Until we can figure that much out, we can’t even begin to figure out how to break it.”

With that, the doctor removed my IV and left again, promising to research the matter as much as he could. I felt stiff as Elijah led me out to the car, and his posture seemed just as rigid beside me. Neither of us spoke much on the way to the pharmacy to pick up my antibiotic prescription, and we were still silent on the way home after that.

By the time we got back to the house, Beta James and the warriors had located the four rogues and taken them into custody. I was taken aback when we entered the foyer and found the rogues kneeling on the floor in a line, their hands bound behind their backs and their heads bowed.

“Go to Thea,” Elijah said darkly, his face blackening. “I’ll handle these bastards.”

I pursed my lips and folded my arms across my chest. “No. I want to be here.”

Elijah’s eyebrows shot up at that, as if he didn’t expect me to want to stay, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he turned to face the rogues. With slow, deliberate steps, he walked up to the first rogue in the line and crouched.

“Ahem.” Elijah cleared his throat. “What’s your name?”

The rogue, of course, didn’t answer. When he didn’t answer for some time, Elijah let a low growl rumble in his throat. I watched in rapt fascination—and maybe just a touch of horror—as Elijah roughly grabbed a fistful of the rogue’s tawny blond hair and wrenched his head up, revealing a weathered face with a scar running across his stubbled cheek.

“Name,” Elijah barked.

The rogue shuddered a little. “John.”

“Very good.” Elijah released his grip on the rogue’s hair and stood, wiping his hand on his trousers as if he might catch the plague from that brief contact. “Tell me why you attacked my Luna. Now,” he added harshly when the rogue didn’t answer right away.

“W-We were paid,” the rogue stammered out quickly, his eyes darting over to me for a moment before shame seemed to come over him and he stared at the floor again. “W-We didn’t know she was your Luna. We were just told to—”

“Who paid you?” Elijah cut him off. His voice was low, deep, and gravelly, like iron pokers being raked over hot coals. He was angry. Very angry. Maybe even angrier than I had ever seen him. For some reason, something about it made my legs weak with desire, but I quickly shoved that feeling deep, deep down where it couldn’t get to me.

The rogue shuddered again. This time, another rogue lifted his head.

“We weren’t supposed to kill her or nothin’,” he blurted out. “Just rough her up a little bit.”

Elijah narrowed his eyes. Although his anger wasn’t directed at me, the cold fury in his gaze was enough to make even me shrink a little. I gripped my bandaged arm, fighting the urge to take a step back.

“I said, who paid you?” he repeated coldly.

The first rogue cleared his throat. “We don’t know her name.”

Her.

That word hit me like a freight train, and somehow, I had a feeling I knew who it was. It could only be one of two women, as far as I knew. Olivia or Ava.

“Describe her,” I said, taking a step forward. The cold rage in my voice was almost akin to Elijah’s, and all eyes snapped toward me.

“Blonde hair, blue eyes, real pretty,” the first rogue said quickly. “Sh-She sort of looks like you, actually, ma’am. Just different hair. And your eyes are more gray.”

So it was her.

I should have known.

I turned to Elijah, and his face was pale.

“Bring Ava Blake here,” he commanded, snapping his fingers toward his Beta. “And I want that bitch in handcuffs.”