……

“What…?” I almost couldn’t believe my eyes at that moment, as I saw Hannah emptying the contents of the small bottle she had in her hand. I wasn’t sure what it was, but then, I could tell that it was something harmful.

She suddenly looked around but was unable to spot me from where I had been watching her from behind a door. I watched in fear and surprise as she made for Nate’s room. It was clear what she had wanted to do from then on, but I still couldn’t tell why she wanted to feed it to him.

The jealous part of me wanted to sit and watch everything unfold, as Nate had simply abandoned me to myself without giving a definite reason for his change of behavior. He deserved it after all.

‘But we can’t just let her do anything to him…’ Ava, my wolf kept spurring me to act, even though the jealous part of me had taken quite a strong hold of me. ‘He could be in danger.’

‘He could be in danger for all I care,’ I snapped back at her even though I was mainly speaking from the hurt that had taken me hostage. ‘He doesn’t care about us and it’s only fair that we return the favor.’

With that, I ended that debate between Ava and I. But I was soon at war with myself, specifically with the part of me that had fallen hopelessly in love with Nate. I kept trying to suppress him and trying to keep that part of me from speaking up ever again.

Soon enough, I realized that I couldn’t pretend not to care no matter how hard I tried to do that. It hurt even more that I was having that struggle for someone who humiliated me in front of the woman that he claimed to love.

As though on impulse, I found myself hurrying to Nate’s room. The urgency that had suddenly surged into me was far from explainable, as I ran to his room. I was hoping that he hadn’t had any of it before I would come.

I put my hand on the doorknob and the door suddenly came open right when Nate was about to take the first spoon of the food. “Stop!” I yelled, causing both of them to stop in shock.

A part of me was relieved that they both weren’t naked like I had been suspecting them to be. I would have contemplated shoving the poison down Nate’s throat myself if they had been in the act when I walked in.

“What the heck are you doing here?” Hannah snarled her question at me.

“The more important question is, what did you put in Nate’s food?” I asked, not knowing where the boldness had suddenly come from. But for the time being, I enjoyed the shocked look that came on Hannah’s face and the suspicious look that came on Nate’s face.

“I see you’re beginning to get delusional from the fact that Nate chose me over you,” Hannah mustered a strange confidence as she tried to put up a convincing denial. “Nate, don’t believe anything she has to say, she’s just…”

Without warning, I reached for the part of her dress where I had seen her hide the small potion after putting some of it in Nate’s food. I dragged it out without any second thought, for Nate to see it.

“What’s that?” Nate asked with his brows furrowed, as he took a look at the bottle and another at Hannah who was already getting nervous.

“I don’t know what it is. But the best way we can find out is by having her taste it.” I said, taking advantage of Hannah’s silence. “Let her taste the food and we can know what exactly she had planned to do with it.”

“Are you seriously listening to what she’s saying to you? What more would you expect from someone who isn’t wanted by her mate?” Hannah still denied it, even though all the clues were pointing against her.

Nate was stuck between two tough decisions, and I could sense that from where I was standing. I was just hoping that somehow his sense of reasoning hadn’t been blinded by Hannah’s deceit.

“Taste it…” Nate said to her, suddenly breaking the silence, and filling my heart with the warmth of relief. “Go ahead and prove to me that she’s lying, Hannah.”

“What?” Hannah was surprised by Nate’s compliance with my words. I was sure that she was feeling the same feeling of betrayal I had felt earlier. “Nate… you’re kidding, right?”

“Well, yeah. I’m kidding, and that’s why I want us to prove her wrong. Go ahead…” Nate’s words depicted his dilemma perfectly. “I’m waiting…”

The tension at the moment was very palpable. Uncomfortable even. But I was silently enjoying every moment of it.

“Fine...” Hannah finally agreed as she took up the spoon. That had me wondering what exactly she was trying to prove. I was slowly beginning to get scared that I had just made a fool of myself.

She was hesitantly bringing up the spoon to her mouth, and that was more than enough to give her away. Suddenly, she slipped it into her mouth and emptied its contents without a second thought.

The deafening silence that followed had Nate looking at me like one that had come intentionally to cause trouble, as she was looking normal up until that point.

“You see...” Things seemed normal until Hannah opened her mouth to speak. “I'm alright...” she began to sound intoxicated, as she was trying to stay on her feet.

Nate looked in shock, as he saw clearly that I hadn't been bluffing one bit.

“You see...” she was now laughing uncontrollably at that point. “The plan was simple… get Nate to eat the hallucinogens and make love passionate love to me while I get him to do away with you… but now you've ruined it all…”

At that point, Nate had heard enough.

‘She saved us from making the biggest mistake of your life. What more could one ask for in a mate?’ Rex, my wolf had been trying to get me to make things right with Layla.

But I kept putting my pride in the way. It would be quite an absurdity that I would go back to Layla for her forgiveness after everything. It just didn't sit right with me as I wasn't sure of my emotions for her.

We were mates, but then, I never felt like I had lived her, as the whole union had been forced on me. I hadn't been given the chance to choose the love of my life.

But then, the love of my life seemed like she had been through a lot of changes since the last time we had been together. Going as far as trying to poison me was just too much to take.

I was in a tough moment of decision, and the right choice seemed to be hidden right in plain sight. I hadn't seen Hannah in a while after the embarrassing incident which had happened in my room. Perhaps, she knew that I wasn't interested in her anymore after pulling off such a stunt.

“Are you still thinking about what happened?” Nayla, my cousin and close companion, suddenly walked into my room where I was sitting by my window and staring blankly at the exhilarating view of my territory.

She was the only company I had besides Freddie, even though I had never really openly admitted to that.

“What else do you think?” I replied with a question to vent my frustrated dilemma. I felt stuck— pitifully stuck. Why had my life been directed by my father's bidding?

“You should let go and learn the lesson from it,” Nayla said as she stood beside me. “Perhaps that was why all of this could have happened in the first place.”

“And what lesson is that?” I asked looking up at her with my eyebrows raised and almost knowing what exactly she was about to say to me as the reason.

“That Layla is the right one for you. It's as clear as day, and it would be unwise for you to miss it from such close range…” she said with assertion.

I was silent, as delayed my response. It seemed like everything was just pointing towards her and that made me quite uncomfortable with my constant delay to make things right with her.

“There were quite a few people that would look out for you like she did, even after you had treated her at first.”

I let out a sigh. She was probably right, though I struggled to accept it.

As I was about to get up out of my seat, I got a mind link from Freddie, and it felt pretty urgent. “What is it?”

“It's your Luna... Layla...” he sounded pretty troubled, and that made me overlook the fact that he was calling her by the title I disliked the most.

“What's going on?” I asked, hoping that it wasn't anything too serious.

“She suddenly passed out while at the banquet room…”

“What? I'm coming right away…” I hurried to the door without looking back for a moment.

“What's going on?” Nayla asked as she followed.

“It's Layla…”

***

I slowly walked into the room where the pack doctors had made her lie down as they tried to find out what exactly was going on with her.

“What happened to her?” I asked, as my eyes moved to where she lay, almost looking pale and lifeless on the bed. except that her eyes were open and perfectly displaying the pain that she was in.

“She was poisoned…” Richard, the head of the pack's doctors declared as he walked towards me while I was still a safe distance from where she lay.

“How?” I snapped suddenly at the sound of that. “How's that even possible? I think I would have to punish all the maids and find out who was responsible for this mistake—”

“You can do that later…” Richard interrupted, as he had a neutral look on his face. “Right now, we should be focused on how to restore her health. She was poisoned with wolfsbane and it's eating her up by the minute.”

“What do we do about it?” I asked as I felt my heart sink at the sound of that.

All of a sudden. I forgot about all the resentment I had harbored against her. I realized just how much her presence meant in my life at the moment.

“I will do anything...” I said to Richard, as my heart burnt with an urgent passion to keep her alive at all costs. I didn't care what the conditions were.

“You'll have to get a couple of rare herbs in the woods, which would most likely cure her…” his choice of words didn't communicate much hope at all. “You would have to go to the borders infested with rogues… do you think you can go through all of that just to—”

“I'll go…” I said, not thinking twice about it. That was the much I could do to make up for all the I'll treatment I had dealt to her all the time we had been married. “Just tell me what herbs to find and I'll do the rest.”

“Alright then…” Richard took out a picture that had the image of four plants in it. It was quite a moment, as all eyes were on me like I had instantly given myself a death sentence.

I walked out of the room without thinking about the consequences of my actions for a second.

“Do you want to do this?” Freddie asked through the mind link, as I was soon walking away from the pack.

“Yeah... I'm sure I about it,” I said. “Just in case I don't come back alive, you'll now be in charge of everything.”

Freddie was silent for a while before he replied. “So be it…”

With that, we disconnected, as I was left to my whatever my fate would be. But then, I kept wondering, would I make it out alive?

Life really is never fair.

  To think I have treated her so unfairly, yet she was on her sick bed suffering because of me. I brought this upon her, and I should be the one there right now, not her.

  Why have I treated her that way? There might have been other reasons, but the fact that I had no choice always made me so angry whenever I remembered.

  Before my dad died, he made it a law that if I don’t get married to her, especially if we find out we are mates, then I should not be allowed to rule the pack.

  All my life, I have trained to succeed my father, so there was no other choice for me than to marry her but that day, I vowed that I would make her wish that she hadn’t come into my life.

  Yes, I had been shortsighted. She did not give the order, it was my father and if I wanted to be mad at anyone, it should be him.

  As I left the pack behind me, I was determined to find the tear of the moon flower. It was usually found in the deep mountains, very far from the pack and the possibility that I would even get that far all alone was very low.

  I would have left with my Beta, but I needed someone to be in charge of the pack while I was gone, and Freddie needs to be with his wife too. I should not drag more people into this mess.

  I have been walking for almost two days now and I was starting to get tired. I was not even close to where I was going, and the thought that my mate has only five more days left made me want to keep walking but now, my legs won't be nice, so I decided to take a little nap at the foot of a tree.

  A few minutes later, I felt something poke at me, and I jerked to my feet only to see that I was surrounded.

  “Well, well , well, who do we have here?”

  “Looks like some spooky rich bastard.” Another replied as they all laughed.

  “Who are you?” the first one, who appeared to be their leader, asked again. I looked around and did a head count if the men and I saw that they were around nine.

  I should be able to take them if I have to.

  “I am a traveler on a journey to find a cure for my sick mate.”

  “I asked for your name, boy and what pack you are from.”

  This is fast going south because not only me but my father have made so many enemies that our names have gone I to so many of the wrong places, but I do not have a reason to be low to these men.

  “It depends on who’s asking.”

  They exchange looks and suddenly nursery into laughter at the same time.

  “He’s got some guts, I give him that.”

  He walked towards me and I could hear one of his men call from behind him.

  “Kill him, Douglas.”

  I remembered who I was doing all this for and how I cannot give up or let them get the best of me.

  Douglas moved close to me and grabbed my hair in a handful, and pulled my head backwards. I groaned without flinching.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  If he wants to know, then I’ll tell him.

  “Alpha Nate if the Free Moon pack.”

  His hands flew away from my hair immediately as he took a step back and so did his men who seemed to become at odds at once.

  “My dad must have done a number on them or maybe it was me. I saw their leader look around suspiciously, as if expecting something to happen. I also looked around with him, and then I realized he must be thinking my men were around and would attack any time soon.

  “So, it was you, the one who killed all my men for a woman?”

  I don’t  follow. The only woman I have ever had to kill someone for was Layla, except for the one they were talking about. Was it Layla they met or me or what part did I miss?”

  “I only remember killing some weak vermin rogues who did not know their place to lay their hands on my woman, tell me, were the spineless fools your men?”

  I saw the look of anger cross his face and swing as he did not reply, I decided to taunt him further.

  “I am sure they cannot be your men if they are so weak. It took just me to kill so many of them that I wondered if they were wolves at all. I would behave as if you were hopeless if they were your men.”

  “You know, that is the problem with you pack wolves. You are all alone here, yet you are so confident that you have been running your mouth as if you are so confident, so it is either you have backup somewhere or you are just plain dumb, which is contrary to what I have heard about you.”

  “Why don’t  you see for yourself? You and I, a duel, if I win, you and your men will let me go.”

  He seemed to think about it but I knew he wasn’t  going to refuse, it was an open challenge after all and werewolves, rogues or pack wolves are egotistical. They will not turn down a private challenge for anything, not to mention a public one.

  His men were quiet as they awaited his actions. He must be worried because my reputation precedes mine, but then, he must also be worried about losing face before his men.

  “What if I win?”

  “You have to kill me to win, but I would need a favor from you?”

  “You ask for too much, for someone who is about to die.”

  “You did not even ask what the favor is.” I tainted.

  “You talk too much.”. With that, he rushed at me as his men moved back and gave us a large clearing.” As he approached me with full speed and shifted mid-air into his wolf form, I sucked just in time to get out of the way.

  He was really big and the impact of his fall on me would have been very bad.

  I should get serious with this. Looks like he wasn’t  going when he said he would kill me.

  If I win, there is no way they would let me go and that is one reason never to trust rogues, so the only way out of this is to either kill them all or make a run for it. Both of which would prove very difficult.

  His fist came close to my face, and I grabbed it and twisted it to the back then I threw him on his back. I heard the crushing sound of bones as he gave a loud cry but he threw a fistful of sand in my face and I took a step back as I cursed loudly.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  He laughed as he wiped the blood from his chin and then charged at me. I could not open my eye nor see where he was coming from. His movements were as light as a feather because I could feel him charge at me. He must have been shocked when , even with my eyes closed, I grabbed his neck as he reached me and snapped it.

  I heard the sound of his body dropping. He must have been too shocked that I managed to react that fast without my sight.

  I opened my eyes gradually to see his men. They were looking at me just before they rushed towards me, and I ran.

  I had plans, though. I cannot escape them for sure, but running would put the necessary distance between us to allow me take them one after the other.

  After what seemed like an hour, I dropped the last body, and as I took note of my surroundings, I noticed where I was. The deep mountains. I looked up and my eyes widened in surprise, The tear of the moon.