Ninety one
*Freya*
I stared at Rafe, his muscular frame lying still and unconscious on the bed I had just woken from moments ago. I studied his still form. He looked so peaceful. Like he was in a deep deep slumber. But he was unconscious. And I was the reason for it. Tears streaked my cheeks as the events of the past night came rushing back to me. Someone had tried to kill me, to end my life with poison. And Rafe… brave, selfless Rafe… had saved me.
He had burst into my room, finding me collapsed on the floor, the poison already ravaging my body. When they realized I had poison inside of me, Without hesitation, he had sealed his mouth over my poisoned wrist, sucking the venom out, taking it into himself. He had sacrificed his own wellbeing for mine.
A sob wracked my body as I reached out a shaking hand to brush a lock of dark hair from his feverish brow. His skin was pale, sheened with sweat, his breaths shallow and labored. I had never seen him look so vulnerable, my strong, fearless Alpha.
“Why, Rafe? Why did you do it?” I whimpered, knowing he couldn’t hear me, couldn’t respond. But I had to say the words aloud. “It should be me lying there, not you. This is all my fault.”
Guilt bit at my insides, a black void opening up within me, threatening to swallow me whole. He had to live. He just had to. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him, especially not like this, not because of me.
I seized his limp hand between both of mine, bringing it to my tear-stained face. “Fight it, Rafe. Please. You have to fight it. Come back to me,” I begged him in a choked whisper. “I need you. Your pack needs you. Please don’t leave us… don’t leave me…”
My voice cracked and I dissolved into tears again, clinging to his hand, my body shaking with the force of my despair. I would stay by his side, praying to the Moon Goddess for his life. I would not leave him. No matter what happened, we would face it together.
Even as Connor walked in, I didn’t turn to look at him. I continued to stare down at Rafe’s unconscious form on the bed, my heart clenching with worry and fear. He was looking paler by the minute, his chiseled features slack. I remembered waking in the middle of the night, then from nowhere, I had felt it. I had choked and gasped as the poison attacked my body. I’d blacked out from the searing pain. And when I came to, Rafe had been there. I was about to kiss him when he had collapsed right in front of me, his strong body crumpling to the floor.
“He sucked the poison out to save your life,” Connor explained grimly from beside me as if reading my mind. “You were dying, Freya. Rafe had no choice but to ask Sersia for her help, even though witches and werewolves are mortal enemies.”
I shuddered, imagining proud, powerful Rafe begging for help from the shadow witch. He must have been truly desperate to save me. Tears pricked my eyes as I reached for his limp hand, bringing it to my lips. I kissed his knuckles gently.
“Please be alright,” I whispered. “You have to wake up, Rafe. I can’t lose you, not like this.” I bit my lip as I watched his chest slowly rise and fall with each shallow breath. Two hours had passed since he lost consciousness, and still he showed no signs of stirring.
I glanced over at Connor, his brow creased with concern for his alpha and best friend. “Why did Rafe suck out the poison himself? Why take such a risk?”
Connor sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw. “He couldn’t let you die, Freya. Not when there was even a chance of saving you. Rafe… he cares for you, deeply.”
I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat. Rafe had put his own life on the line for mine. Because he loved me, There was a time I used to doubt if he truly loved me. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if he didn’t survive this, if his noble, selfless act cost him everything.
I tightened my grip on his hand, silently willing him to keep fighting, to come back to me. “Don’t you dare leave me, Rafe,” I ordered fiercely. “You’re the great alpha king – you’re strong enough to beat this. I know you are.”
I had to believe he would pull through. The alternative was too devastating to contemplate. I couldn’t picture my life without him in it anymore. Rafe had to live. He just had to.
Gently, I lifted Rafe’s limp hand and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles, a silent prayer on my lips. As I looked over his unconscious form, a strange mottled pattern on his forearms caught my eye. The skin there looked almost… burnt, blackened like it had been burned by flames.
Frowning, I turned to Connor. “What happened to Rafe’s arms? It looks like he was burned.”
Connor’s gaze slid away from mine, his expression pained and reluctant. “When Rafe first tried to draw the poison from you… your magic lashed out at him. It was like bolts of lightning struck his arms where he touched you.”
It felt like all the air had been punched from my lungs. My weird, uncontrollable powers had done that? They had attacked the man I loved, the one risking everything to save me?
“Are you sure, Connor?” I whispered, shocked. “I did that to him?”
He nodded solemnly. “I saw it myself. And the shadow witch, Sersia… she told us the truth.” Connor took a deep breath, as if bracing himself. “Freya, there’s witch blood running through your veins. And a witch’s blood, their magic… it’s toxic to our kind. Poisonous to werewolves.”
The world seemed to tilt and spin around me at his revelation. Witch blood? Toxic to werewolves? How could this be?
I stared down at my hands in disbelief, as if I expected to see them transform before my eyes. All this time, I’d thought myself defective, a wolfless misfit. But if what Connor said was true…
Did this mean I wasn’t just a failed werewolf, but part witch as well? A being whose very essence was poison to the people I called family and the man I adored?
My head swam with the thought of it all. I had so many desperate questions and no idea where to even begin. But one thing I knew for certain – I would never forgive myself if my tainted blood, my weird magic, destroyed Rafe when all he’d tried to do was save me.
Please let him live, I prayed. Please don’t let my curse take him from me.
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