Chapter 25: Alexis

Chapter 25: Alexis

“Hurry!” I called out to the search party behind me.

“Slow down, Lexi. You’re bleeding,” Vincent brought my attention to the obvious. My mate had just transformed into a wild version and had now escaped. God knew where. He had slashed at me, but I had brought up my arms in front of me just in time to save my face and my torso. As a result, my arms bore scratch marks that were bleeding, not profusely enough to warrant a stop to this search.

When he had shifted and attacked, destroying half his belongings as he raced out, some part of me knew what had happened. Those damn chemicals that Edward had injected in him were making him lose control. This was the only explanation. There was no other reason why he would go berserk in the middle of the night.

“Lexi, hold on!” Vincent yelled. I stopped dead in my tracks and wheeled around to face him.

“Every second we waste squabbling, he goes away further,” I said, feeling helpless about the plight that had suddenly befallen my mate. “He could be anywhere.”

“Let me patch you up first,” Vincent said.

“And as for finding him,” Morgan, one of the pack members who were still celebrating in the night when Will shifted and ran for the woods, said in a calm voice. He had accompanied Vince and me, along with a couple of other men who were still awake to search for Will. “You can always use your bond with him. Sense where your mate is. Even maddened, he still remains your mate. The connection that you two share will guide you. Calm down. Breathe a little. Let Vincent bandage you up.”

“Thanks, Morgan,” I said, taking a deep breath as instructed, and allowed Vince to patch up my forearms with gauze and bandages.

“You take the North with Vincent, and we’ll search in the East and West. He could not have gone South,” Sutherland, another pack member who had been all too eager to accompany us on the search, said. Others present in the company, including Simon, Thomas, and Ronald, agreed with him and went off in their assigned directions.

“Tap into the bond, Alexis,” Vincent said. “He might be in an altered state, but you can still sense him.”

I tried. By God, I did. I closed my eyes and focused really hard on finding Will. All I could pick up was the noise of loud rage. It was like a black screen of deafening din that made it impossible for me to sense Will. His thoughts were there; I could feel them underneath the cacophony of madness.

Will! I called out. I know you’re in there. You must not lose control.

Instead of a reply, an earsplitting roar resounded from that telepathic darkness. Wherever Will was, he was not himself at all. Before I could give in to despair, I heard a faint sound.

Lexie!

This mere murmur was just vocal enough in my head for me to recognize it as Will’s voice. The darkness began giving way to a singular beam of light shining through the forest. Whereas a few minutes ago, I was clueless, now I had a direction in which to head. It was North.

I ran through the forest, crashing through the branches and brambles, scuffing against the twigs that jutted out from the trees, stampeding across the wide gaps where small streams flowed, and veering on the verge of chasms to avoid falling into them. Vince was not far behind.

When I came into the clearing, my body was exhausted, and the various places where the forestry had grazed me during my sprint were sore. But at least the bond had guided me to where I needed to go.

Will was there, in his wolf form, recoiling across the clearing. He gnarled and snarled, unfurling his teeth. As I approached him, he howled loudly.

“Will, please. I know you’re in there,” I said, realizing that this was one of those clichés that I had laughed at in my real life when watching a movie where the hero suddenly turned into some uncontrollable monster. But this was not a moment for me to cringe at this realization. It struck me that the characters in those movies were telling the truth. That the real hero was underneath this façade of monstrosity. Will was in there. I knew it, and I needed him to know this too.

Will roared in response and slashed at the air. He stomped his feet on the ground, making the dirt fly in the air, and then prepared to pounce.

As an alpha wolf, his stature was taller than the rest of the wolves, his form broader, his visage more fearful. I stood no chance in a battle with him. But this was not supposed to be a battle of strength. This was a battle of wits. And right now, Will does not have any. He was consumed by the madness that had been haunting him since the moment he found freedom.

It hurt me deep in my heart to see my mate like this. This was the first time I was seeing the physical manifestation of the rage, madness, and the effect of the experimentation upon him. His eyes were bloodshot. His fangs were jutting out aggressively. Will looked less like a majestic werewolf and more like an abomination out of some horror novelist’s fevered dream. Even as I stood there, far away from him, I became petrified at his frenzied form. Will’s fur stood out haggardly, and his entire body seemed to be jittering and seizing in the wake of his frenzy.

I held my hand up and approached him just a little.

Will grunted and stepped back.

“Please let me help you,” I said softly and came closer. As feral as he was, I hoped that some part of him would recognize me as his mate. I was counting on it. My heart raced rapidly as I approached him, hoping my trance-like hand gesture would hold long enough.

From the side, I could see Vincent trailing around the clearing and coming up behind Will. As he neared Will from behind, I closed in the distance between me and the feral wolf form my mate had taken, allowing myself to be vulnerable in front of him. If he wanted to hurt me now, he could. I stood in the shadow of death as I closed the distance between us.

“It’s me. Alexis. I am sorry it took me this long to realize the severity of the horrors you were dealing with,” I said, lowering my hands.

Will growled hostilely and bared his teeth once again.

“It’s too much for one person to deal with. All this rage, all this madness. The experiments that they conducted upon you, the chemicals in your system…Will, I finally understand. It was wrong of me to take your behavior personally. I should have realized back then that you were fending off this frenzy. I am sorry.”

The growling subsided. I could see the color coming back to his eyes, and his fur seemed less jagged.

“This is not you, Will. This is the poison that’s running through your body. You can fight it. I know you can. You’re strong. Stronger than all your enemies put together. Stronger than the bars of the prison that held you. You are more powerful than you imagine,” I said. “Please don’t hurt me. You promised you won’t hurt me.”

Will recoiled a little. A small whine escaped his mouth as he closed it.

“I’m going to help you,” I said. Then, looking behind him to see if Vince was in position, I yelled, “Now!”

The feral wolf was back, his eyes redder than ever, his claws out with the intent to kill. He opened his entire maw in my face and bellowed an unearthly howl. Vince leaped in the air with the tranquilizer in his hand and fell on top of Will. It all happened in a split second. Will slashed through the air. I rolled on my back to avoid his attack. Vince emptied the tranquilizer syringe into Will’s neck, causing him to collapse on the floor.

I was breathing heavily when I got back to my feet. Will’s body was rapidly shifting back to his human form.

“That was some quick thinking,” Vince said, panting loudly.

By now, the other members of the pack had found us. Morgan, Simon, Ronald, and the others hurriedly came into the clearing. Upon seeing Will’s unconscious body, Morgan took off his jacket and threw it on top of Will. Simon lifted him in his arms.

“You could have died,” Morgan said, looking at me with worry.

“A death for my mate would be a worthy death,” I said. I did not show it, but I was mortified about his health. What did this mean? Would he turn like this again? How severe was the effect of the experimentation on him? How long had he been holding this back? More importantly, would he be able to completely overcome these symptoms in the future? Questions came to my mind, but they were questions without answers.

We silently headed back to the commune, the men taking turns holding Will while Vince led the way. I was in the back, keeping an eye out for anyone who might wish to harm us. This forest was deep within vampire territory. I hoped there were no more surprises waiting for me for the rest of the night.

“What do you think caused him to lose control?” Morgan asked after a long pause of silence.

“Do you realize, Morgan, what hell Will has been through? Do you really think that he would have come out of it unscathed? Things like this take a toll on a person. Even the bravest of people are affected by the harshest of atrocities. What Will had to bear was no small cruelty. Imprisoned for more than seventy years! Poisoned, injected, experimented upon!” I was barely able to hold myself back. It wasn’t anger that was making me say these things. It was a deep sense of worry that had made me feel this susceptible.

“I’m sorry, Alexis,” Morgan said. “I just meant…”

“I know what you meant,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be rude. Will is an alpha. He is stronger than all of us put together. As the Grimms, it is our responsibility to be there for him, come hell or high water. All of us are only here because he decided to save his family and move them from Germany. If he hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t have been born. We owe our existence to him. We owe him our allegiance.”

“Even the best need help sometimes,” Vince said, coming to my side. “And we’re here to help, aren’t we?”

“We are,” the men agreed in unison.

“Then help me take him to the commune healer,” I said.

***

While Dr. Morris took care of Will in the clinic, I sat outside with Vincent. The suspense of not knowing what was happening in the clinic was killing me. I turned to Vince to distract myself.

“So you just happen to be walking around with bandages and tranquilizers?” I asked.

“Uh, in case you didn’t realize, I was in charge of managing an entire party. I had emergency supplies on hand.” Vince said, revealing his belt satchel filled with medical supplies. “It’s kind of the first step in organizing a party.”

“But tranquilizers?” I asked. “Why were they in your satchel?”

“Fine,” Vince sighed. “This happened before you came back to the commune. Before Will even started to take control of his anger and all those negative emotions. One of the first things he said to me was, ‘I don’t know if I will do something out of my control. May I trust you to be my contingency?’ If I think about that, that’s when Will and I became friends. He took the first step to trusting me. He confided in me early on that he was struggling with something terrible. I prayed that I’d never have to use those tranquilizers. But today, just as Will had foreseen, we needed them.”

“None of us truly understand how much he’s been dealing with,” I said, feeling remorseful for giving Will a hard time in the beginning.

“Alpha wolves tend to play things close to the chest. Don’t take it personally. Be glad, instead. Be happy that he’s okay and that you two are now bonded officially. You may not know this, but you’ve had a lot of effect on him,” Vince said. He patted my shoulder affectionately.

We stayed seated for another half hour, watching the empty commune. The party had died down after our arrival. The men who had accompanied me into the forest broke the news to the rest of the pack. They solemnly wound up the party and went back to their homes. Morgan and the rest of the men stayed at the clinic with me for a while, but after Dr. Morris said that it would take some time before he’d find something substantial, I excused the men to go back to their homes.

Now, gripped with anticipation, I waited.

Finally, after what seemed like another hour, Dr. Morris opened the door of his clinic and signaled us both to come inside.

Will lay there on the bed, dressed in clinical robes. He was sleeping soundly. There were some scratches on his body, but none of them were deep enough to leave scars. I cautiously walked up to him and took hold of his hand. Even though he was asleep, he wrapped his fingers around my hand.

“He muttered your name a few times while he was still under,” Dr. Morris said. “For the record, Vince, next time you decide to steal military-grade tranquilizers from my personal supply, be so courteous as to inform me beforehand. If you had injected him with another dose, it would have been lethal.”

“I’m sorry,” Vince said, shifting his feet embarrassingly. “I was only following orders.”

“Geez, where have we heard that before?” Dr. Morris said, rolling his eyes. He then brought up the chart he was holding and addressed me. “Upon conducting emergency bloodwork, I have some bad news. Will is stable for now. He’s going to wake up in a few hours when the tranquilizer’s effect wears off. I doubt he’s going to remember what happened to him. You must be very careful with him, Alexis. There’s no telling what’s going to happen next.”

My breath suddenly turned cold upon hearing the doctor’s remarks. All my extremities seemed to go numb. “What does this mean?”

“Will came to me a couple of times, wanting some reports on his bloodwork. I didn’t consider it right to share the findings with him right away until I had something concrete to tell him. However, this emergency bloodwork has confirmed my worst suspicion. The chemicals that are coursing through his body have poisoned him, leaving only two options for him. Either his body will succumb to the adverse effects of the experiments, or he’s going to morph into his feral form permanently. Given his latest results, I only see his condition worsening from here,” Dr. Morris said grimly. He put the chart down and looked at me with a mixture of kindness, pity, and sadness. “There’s nothing that I, as a doctor, can do to simply cleanse him of the poisons that are affecting him. There’s no such method of detox that exists in the medical science.”

“That can’t be it,” Vince said in a fierce voice. “Will is strong. He’s going to get through this. You can’t seriously expect me to buy your brand of pessimistic bullshit, doctor! You’re more than a doctor; you’re a werewolf of the Grimm pack. A healer, first and foremost. Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“I am afraid not. Traditional medicine has no solutions for him,” Dr. Morris said.

“What about alternative medicine? Native American herbalism? Old Nordic medicine from our ancestors?” I asked. “Will’s always going on about the magical ways of the Vikings, the old Norse people, and so on. Isn’t there some arcane knowledge in our books that we can use to our benefit?”

“There is a limit to my knowledge and methods, Ms. Richards, and this is where it ends,” Dr. Morris said. “Any further experimentation with alternative medicine will yield results that I cannot guarantee the safety of.”

“You’re dooming him to a fate of death or madness,” Vince said.

“Why don’t you understand? The fact that he’s alive so far is miraculous in itself,” Dr. Morris said, shaking his head fervently. “He’s a medical anomaly. By no means should he be alive, given how many alterations have been made to his body as a result of decades of torture, experiments, mutations, and so forth!”

“You’re giving up, doctor. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to!” Vincent snapped and stormed out of the clinic, leaving me alone in there with Will’s unconscious body and a very perplexed Dr. Morris.

I looked at Will and placed my hand on his heart. His heartbeat was feeble but stable.

“He’s not going to die,” I said. “We are bonded. I will lend him all my strength. Will shall live a long and happy life.”

“As much as I appreciate your sentiment, none of that is medically applicable,” Dr. Morris said. “My advice would be to spend the rest of your days with him while he’s still sane and alive. Cherish the time that you do have with him rather than mourn the time when he’s not going to be there. I’m sorry.”

“A man as valiant as Will does not brave the horrors of war, sail through the chaotic oceans, and survive years of torture and experiments just to die idly on his deathbed. Death will have him when it has earned him. Not a second sooner,” I said, glaring into Dr. Morris’s spectacle-covered eyes.

“He’s going to be very weak when he wakes up. The feral shifting and the loss of control over his mental faculties have taken a lot out of him. Be there for him. I’m prescribing you some medication for him. Make sure he takes them. In the meantime, hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Dr. Morris said while scribbling a prescription on his pad.

As I heard Dr. Morris’s remarks, I wondered if all doctors were disaffected by the disasters their patients went through or if it was just Dr. Morris who was this unfeeling.

“You may think me a bit indifferent, Miss Richards. I understand. But in the interest of medical integrity, I must be honest. I know a lost cause when I see one. It’s better for you that you do, too,” he said.

***

That night which would have been a night of celebration, I did not sleep a wink. Vince had absconded in the night. I did not know where he was. I waited for him to show up, but in the end, Morgan and Simon had to take the stretcher with Will lying on it to his home. There, they helped me get him on his bed, then assisted just a bit with the mess he had made when he had gone berserk.

I spent the entire night by his side, watching him sleep, keeping an eye out for the slightest movement.

The most painful and difficult night in my life was when I was home alone for the first time after my parents’ death.

This night was a close second.