Chapter 30 Dylan

Chapter 30 Dylan

I held Cherry close, my heart thumping frantically as if it meant to punch through my chest.

My voice shook as I demanded, “We need the doctor.”

All eyes darted around the pack, and my own looked through the familiar faces, hoping to find Paul, our pack’s doctor.

“He’s here,” someone called, and my eyes zeroed in on the grey-haired man who was tending to someone who sat on the ground. People around him parted, and the man on the ground urged Paul away from him too. Everyone understood that the pack’s Luna took priority.

Bert and Mike, Cherry’s dad, as well as my own parents, had clustered around Cherry and me, their faces strained and anxious.Quibbles about having anyone look at my mate’s beautiful naked body fell away as the doctor’s eyes and fingers ran over Cherry. He checked her pulse, which I already knew raced too quickly. I knew, too, from my shifter senses as I listened that her heart was racing even more wildly than mine.

Paul pulled back one of her eyelids, only to show that her pupils were too large. They were dilated as if she’d been drugged. The doctor’s fingers settled on her hip, or more specifically, on the gash torn into her flesh there. He pushed a finger into the wound, and I had to fight the urge to defend my mate even as she didn’t stir at all at the movement that should have caused her pain.Paul brought the finger slick with Cherry’s blood up to his nose, then gingerly tasted it. He spat it out immediately, “Wolfsbane,” he growled. “Someone’s poisoned our Luna.”

My face blanched, and I clutched Cherry closer to me. Anger and fear whipped through me. The Bloodmoon Pack had poisoned my mate. I looked up to see the same rage marking my Beta’s face.

“What do we do?” I demanded, looking at the doctor.

Paul’s face was serious. “We need to get the toxins out of her blood.” His gaze swept my mate in my arms gravely. “This will take some time. Get her to your house. Make sure she’s kept warm and comfortable, and I’ll get my kit from home.”

I clenched my jaw and ordered. “Be there as soon as possible.” I rushed to follow the doctor’s orders, too, concerning Cherry’s welfare. I carried her swiftly back to my house and, once there, bundled her into the warmth of the bed. I turned on the heating and then threw on some clothes myself. I paced at the foot of her bed, anxious to do something but unsure that there was anything that I could do.

Bert, my parents, and Cherry’s dad, now dressed, soon returned to be with us too. When the doctor arrived, he administered a drip to Cherry’s arm, which he hung from a hanger by the bed. “This will help keep her hydrated and hopefully clear out some of the toxins,” Paul said. I noticed that his hands shook as he hung the drip up.

“Hopefully?” I growled. “What else can be done?”

Alarm marked the doctor’s face as he admitted, “Without knowing what exactly the poison was or what quantity was given, I can’t do anything more at the moment. I’d need the poison to engineer an antidote. Until I have that, this is the best I can do.”

I clenched my fists, reeling at this news. I whipped around to my Beta. “I want you and Jason and a team to go and capture the Bloodmoon wolves who fled into the woods. Bring them back to the pack prison.” I locked eyes with Bert. “Find out who did this and what they used. Your Luna’s life depends on this.”

Bert gritted his jaw, his eyes blazing with fury, and he nodded as he charged off to find my Gamma and the team of wolves.

I paced the room, and my fists clenched as I strode up and down my bedroom. Who had dared do this to my mate? My gaze roved over Cherry’s damp face, and I smoothed away her blond hair from her burning skin.

Cherry’s dad sat on the edge of the bed. He tugged at his beard as his worried gaze tracked over his daughter.

My mom pulled me away from my mate and hugged me.

My dad clapped a shoulder on my back. “She’s going to be okay, son.”

Fear blared through me. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe as dread twisted my insides. Everything felt tight as my muscles refused to relax, screaming at not being able to do anything for my mate. I needed to do more.

My gaze fell on Cherry’s dad. “Mike? Fern should be here, would you–”

“I’m on it,” he said, jumping up and hurrying out of the room. Perhaps, like me, he wanted to do something for Cherry.

As soon as Fern arrived, she rushed to my side, her tearful gaze telling me that her grandfather had told her that her mom wasn’t well. I took my daughter’s small hand in mine and brought her over to sit on my knee as we both silently guarded Cherry.

It was hours later when my Beta finally stalked into the room. Fern had long since fallen asleep, and I’d put her to sleep the spare bedroom. Cherry’s dad was resting on the couch, and my mom and dad had returned to their house with the order to call them if anything changed.

When Bert appeared looking grim, I looked at Cherry’s dad. “Mike, I need to speak to Bert. Would you watch over Cherry?”

Mike nodded, stalking back to the bedroom to guard my mate.

As soon as I was outside, Bert said, “We caught the last of the Bloomoon wolves.” His eyebrows drew together, and his ordinarily kind mouth was hard. “The only female we found among them was Lucy.”

I instantly understood his look of contempt. Unlike Cherry, who had inspired so many of the women to fight alongside the males of our pack, Lucy hadn’t joined her pack’s fight out of loyalty. Instead, there was only one reason she’d fought. Vengeance.

Instantly, I strode alongside Bert toward the pack prison as he said, “She won’t tell me where the poison is.”

“She’ll damn well tell me,” I rumbled, stalking into the barn that housed our prison. Inside, Jason, my Gamma, awaited us. And we all took the staircase down into the bowels of the earth.

Rushing down the steps two at a time, I strode to the center of the room, where a naked woman with wavy brown hair and pointed features was tied up. Further back, I noticed ten or so males, their wrists and ankles similarly bound.

Lucy’s throaty chuckle rang off the earthen walls. “I told you, you’d pay, Dylan.”

I grabbed her hair, pulling it back to make her stare up at me. “Tell me what you gave my mate and how much.”

Lucy smiled tauntingly. “You can’t make me talk, Dylan.”

My Alpha will flooded my stare, and I used all of my power as I said, “I am the Alpha of Starsmoon. And since I crushed your pack. You belong to me. You are mine to command. Now, tell me what you gave my mate and where the poison is.” Wrath beat through me as I jerked her hair further back, making me stare into my eyes.

Each of my words fell like rocks into a lake, and I could see Lucy straining against them, but she soon ground out, “It was wolfsbane. I put it on my claws. The vial is in my clothes. In the upper field.”

My heart leaped. With the vial, the doctor would be able to treat my mate.

My gaze snapped to my Gamma. “Jason, go find it quickly.” He rushed out to retrieve the poison.

As my gaze wound over Lucy’s seething face, I felt hatred flare. I paced up and down, every moment both hoping and fearing to hear Jason’s footsteps return. Eventually, his heavy steps sounded on the stairs, and with eagerness, he set the vial in my hand.

Relief crashed through me. I’d get this to the doctor, and my mate would be healed.

But first…

My gaze fell on Bert, “scratch her.”

Lucy cried out as Bert’s wolfish form morphed into existence and slashed Lucy’s tanned arm, a deep wound bleeding.

Bert shifted into his human form without the need for any command. Clearly, he knew where I was going with this. He held out his hand for the vial of wolfsbane. I set it in his hand, turning my seething stare on Lucy. “Just a few drops. We need the rest for Cherry’s antidote,” I reminded Bert.

Lucy’s eyes widened, and she started to struggle against her bonds. “No. You wouldn’t. Dylan. No!”

I clamped my jaw, then bellowed. “You poisoned my Luna, the mother of my child!”

As I mastered my temper, I reminded her. “As the victorious Alpha of the war, the spoils, including the wolves of the Bloodmoon Pack, are mine. To do with, or to do away with,” I added darkly, “as I see fit.”

I nodded at Bert.

He tipped a few drops of the poison into Lucy’s open wound.

She screamed out, her eyes flashing with fury and fear as she was powerless to do anything against the poison that would now be entering her bloodstream. I checked any remorse I had as I remembered that she had used this poison on my mate. Lucy had tried to kill my Luna. She deserved no mercy.

Once again, vengeance fired through me as I commanded Lucy, “Henceforth, you are expelled from the pack. Go. I never want to lay eyes on you again.” I slashed through her bonds with my pocket knife, and the woman fled upstairs and out into the night, compelled to obey my command. I hoped that as a rogue wolf, she’d be alone and succumb to the poison within days, thus reaping her just reward.

Then, losing no time, Bert and I ran toward the doctor’s house. Clutching the vial of poison that my Beta had given back to me, I hoped and prayed that the pack doctor would soon be able to rid Cherry’s blood of the toxins as easily as I’d rid myself of Lucy.