Chapter 92

Atwood

I’m awoken in the morning by the sound of screaming.

“Lycan Atwood! Lycan Atwood!”

The young maid, Polly, bursts into my study. I fell asleep sometime in the early morning on the couch after a sleepless night caused by worrying about the situation with my mother and wondering where Alice is.

“Lycan Atwood!” Polly pants as I groggily sit up, rubbing my eyes. “I’m so sorry to wake you…”

“It’s alright, Polly,” I respond. The mousey brown-haired young maid looks completely frazzled as though she just saw a ghost. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

“It’s Miss Ruby,” she says breathlessly, pointing in the direction of Ruby’s room. “She’s fallen ill.”

My mind suddenly begins to race with a million things. Did Alice return in the night? What did she do to my Ruby?

I abruptly stand to go to Ruby, but am stopped by a sudden wave of nausea and dizziness. My brain feels foggy, as though I’m in a waking dream. Am I still asleep?

“Sir?” Polly’s voice fades in and out of reality, her usual sweet and chipper voice distorting in a million different ways in my mind. When I look at her, there are three of her standing there, waving back and forth and up and down like a serpent.

“Call the doctor,” I croak as I stumble forward and collapse onto the floor, knocking into the coffee table and toppling my unfinished glass of whiskey over. Polly runs off, shouting for help as I lay my head down on the carpet, watching the brown liquid drip over the edge of the table.

“She needs you…”

A woman’s breathy voice echoes in my ears. It’s Vivian.

“I can’t,” I respond out loud, gritting my teeth against the nausea. “I… I don’t…”

“Shh…” the voice says. “You can. Get up. Go.”

With a solemn nod, I push myself up to my knees, placing my palms on the couch and the coffee table as leverage to push myself to my feet. For a moment I sway in place as the room swims around me, but I know where I need to go.

Stumbling out of the study and down the hall, knocking into the walls all the while, there is only one thing on my mind: Ruby. I have to get to Ruby.

Her room feels so far away.

“Sir? Lycan Atwood?”

“Are you alright, sir?”

“My Lord, I think you should lie down!”

The voices of concerned servants waft through the air, but I ignore them.

Finally, I make it to Ruby’s room.

“Ruby… No, no, Ruby,” I groan, stumbling toward her. She shivers in the bed, her face more pale than a ghost. When I pull the blankets back, the sheets are soaked in a cold sweat.

“Come on…” I murmur, sliding my hands under her convulsing body and mustering up whatever strength I have to lift her into my arms.

“Atwood…” She weakly wraps a shaking arm around my neck. A bit of drool leaks out of her mouth and soaks my shirt.

“Sir?” Polly’s voice echoes through the room. She’s even more out of breath than before. “I spoke to the doctor… The blizzard…”

My heart sinks as I glance at the window to see a harsh blizzard swirling around outside. Whatever Polly says next is all a blur as I come to my resolution in my half-dead mind: I have to take Ruby to the doctor.

“Out of my way,” I growl as I approach the door. Polly jumps out of the way, wringing her hands nervously.

Confused servants stand about as I exit the room, but my eyes are fixed only on the stairs ahead of me. Behind me, Polly shouts something about finding Noah, followed by the sound of shoes slapping on the marble floors as the other servants take off in all directions to find my beta.

The stairs sway and gyrate in front of me as I attempt to descend them. I curse to myself as I slip halfway down, nearly dropping Ruby in the process, but manage to right myself and keep going.

As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I hear more screaming from the landing above me.

“Beta Noah is dead,” someone says. “There’s so much blood…”

I can’t stop. I have to get Ruby to the doctor.

Without a second look back, I shift Ruby’s weight onto one arm and swing the door open with the other, stumbling out into the blizzard. The wet and cold of the snow on my bare feet burns, but I don’t let it stop me as I trudge forward.

Even in my dazed mind, I know what’s happening. Ruby has been poisoned. My condition has returned full-force, and my beta is dead. There’s a blizzard raging all around me and my navigation skills are weakened. I can’t teleport… I can’t shift… And I can’t see or hear anything through the heavy snow and wind.

As I carry Ruby’s weak little body through the snow, cursing to myself and begging her to stay awake as I stumble in the direction that I hope is the doctor’s home, two figures suddenly appear ahead.

“Thank god… Help!” I call out, hoping that they’re from my pack.

The figures come closer, emerging from the snow like wraiths.

They’re not from my pack.

As they come closer, their scent becomes all too clear to me. The men are Bears.

“What do we have here?” one of the men says, striding up to me as the other circles around me menacingly. “The Lycan King, walking right into our hands.”

“Back off,” I growl, but the Bear only chuckles and draws a knife out of his belt. He strokes the blade with his finger cunningly, not caring for the beads of blood that appear on his flesh when he’s done.

“What should we do with ‘em?” the other Bear says.

“Bjorn asked specifically for us to bring the Lycan to him alive,” the first Bear responds, looking me up and down as I clutch Ruby tighter. The cold wind blows into my face, freezing my eyelashes. “But he didn’t say anything about the girl.”

“You stay away from her!” I shout, stepping backwards as I hold Ruby’s shivering body against my chest.

“Come out,” I urge my wolf inside of me. But he’s weak, too. He can hardly stand due to the return of our condition. I won’t be able to shift, no matter how hard I try.

As I step backwards, my foot slips in the snow, causing me to fall to the ground. My body acts as a shield as I hold Ruby, keeping her from hitting the ground, but now I know I won’t be able to fight back with the pain in my body as the two Bears stand over me menacingly.

One of the Bears stoops down, stroking Ruby’s hair. I don’t have the strength to pull her away. All I can do is bare my teeth at the Bear, which only causes him to laugh even harder.

“Look at him,” he says, gesturing to me with his knife. “The Lycan King. I thought you were stronger than this. You’re pathetic.”

He suddenly grabs Ruby, ripping her from my arms while the other Bear pulls me backwards by my shoulders.

“No!” I shout, scrambling in my weakened state to get out of his grasp. Ahead of me, the other Bear sets Ruby’s trembling body down in the cold snow.

Everything seems to slow down. My own screams feel distant in my ears. I’m helpless as I watch him raise his knife, the sharp blade pointing down at my mate’s heart.

He swings the blade down toward her chest.