Drake’s POV
My heart almost leapt out of my throat when I saw my mate lying on the floor, naked and bleeding. At least she was breathing and that was a relief. What I didn’t understand was why Madam Audrey was lying dead beside her. For a moment, I thought that maybe someone had attacked them. But again it didn’t make much sense because no one could try to kill the both of them that night when the woodland was almost surrounded by my people- mostly werewolves.
I lifted Thelma and hung her on my shoulder. I ran toward the Emergency room of the packhouse. The emergency room wasn’t attached to the main house. We got there, Simon and some of the council members trailed behind us. I kicked open the door, and it swayed open, screeching in obedience. I placed her on a hospital bed kept close to the wall adjacent to the door.
“Thelma,” I shouted as I dropped her, but she didn’t respond. I looked back at Simon who was looking frightened as well. “Should we seek for Small Doctor?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “It would be a good idea but she’s already losing too much blood. She might as well be dead before we fetch him,” he said.
“What are we then going to do?” I cried out, holding my mate. He didn’t respond. From his eyes, he was surprised just as much as I was.
Cecily came and shoved herself against Simon, making him shift away from her path. She came with a piece of pure white cloth and then a bowl of water which was steaming. She looked into my eyes and then at Thelma. She then rubbed her palms on her dark dress, drying them. She picked the white towel-like cloth and dipped it inside the water and then placed it on Thelma’s stomach, exactly where she had been hurt. She brought out a flower from her pocket and soaked it in water for a few seconds. She brought it out from the water and pressed her finger hard on the flower. She opened up Thelma’s mouth and made the red-like liquid drop inside her mouth. Thelma was made to drink a good quantity of the drops from the flower before Cecily took the flower down to her wounded part. She made the liquid from the flower drop inside the open wound. She threw the flower on the floor. She ordered Simon to pour away the water and replace it with cold water. He did. When he returned, she dipped the cloth inside the cold water before she began to clean her blood with it.
“What happened to her?” she asked me, cleaning.
I swallowed. “I don’t really know. Just saw her like this lying on the ground.”
“Alone?”
“Audrey by her side.”
“Audrey?” she said, arching her brows.
“Yes.”
“What could Audrey be doing beside her?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Is she going to be okay?” I asked.
Cecily flashed Thelma a glance and nodded looking at her. “Yes, she would be fine,” she said and looked at me. “None of her vital organs was hit. She was lucky.”
I nodded, relieved. I had planned to wait as long as it takes for her to wake up. Even if it was going to take me the whole night.
Her condition was frightening and staying by her side without being able to do anything meaningful to help her was terribly terrifying. “Thank you,” I said.
She nodded. “She needs to be guarded until she is well awake to narrate exactly what happened to her and why she is lying beside Audrey. She’s got a lot of explanation to do.”
I looked into Cecily’s eyes, I knew she wasn’t happy. I knew she might be suspecting Thelma of murdering her friend. But no one needs to judge anything yet and I hope she would understand. “You don’t need to worry. She didn’t kill Audrey.”
“We may never know.”
“C’mon Cecily, Thelma wouldn’t be able to do that kind of thing to her. We need to wait until she wakes up to explain what really happened.”
Cecily flashed me a hard glare and extended it to Thelma. Simon remained where he was but didn’t say a word. “When she wakes up, please let me know,” she said. She stood up and nodded at Simon. He nodded back too and fetched the bowl and the white cloth for her. She took them and left. I was left alone with Simon who looked completely confused.
“Do you think she might have been the attacker?” I asked him.
“I don’t think so. She doesn’t look like she would attack Audrey for no good reason.”
“You think so?”
Simon looked at me wearily. He didn’t answer the question. I grabbed Thelma on her fingers and crossed them on mine. Her body was a little hotter than normal. I opened her eyelids, they seemed normal. The door opened, and Cynthia walked in almost silently. She stepped on the flower Cecily had dropped on the floor and even leaned closer to the bed where I was. She looked at Simon and they both nodded at each other, and she looked at Thelma.
“You were the last person that she interacted with?”
Cynthia narrowed a brow, looked at me through the other eye. “I guess so.”
“so what happened to her?”
“I don’t know.” She stared at Thelma for a while and she frowned. “But-”
“But what?” I said, adjusting myself comfortably to listen to what she wanted to say.
“She wasn’t looking herself when I saw her.”
“what? And who did you tell about it?”
Cynthia flicked a strand of her hair to the back. “Nobody,” she said, “She said that she was fine and I shouldn’t worry about her.”
“D-did she say anything about anyone to you?” Simon asked. “Did she complain about anyone?”
She shook her head. “No, she. . . wait.”
“What?” I asked.
“I think she asked me something about Madam Audrey when I saw her.”
“she did?”
“Hmm.” She nodded.
I glared at Simon but before I could, he was already looking at me. I guess I had an idea what that meant. It could be that Thelma had attacked Audrey. But the question was why? Even if Thelma had attacked, I didn’t see any reasonable reason that would justify her action. But, what if it had been the other round?
“Did she say anything that is incriminating about Audrey?” I asked.
“No,” she said. ” She only asked me who Audrey was to the pack but before then, I already saw her limping.”
“Limping?”
“Yes.”
“Why would she be limping?” Simon asked.
“She didn’t say,” Cynthia answered.
“So what do you think might have happened to her?” Simon asked.
Cynthia looked at him but only sneered, without answering. She took Thelma’s arm, raised it to get a view of her wounded left cage. She examined it for almost a minute. “I think she’s healing fast,” she said looking at the wound. “Her wound is almost closing up.” She looked back at us.
I came closer to examine it myself, it was true. Before, her rib had been pierced with heavy claws to an extent that her organs were showing. I checked the other wounded side and it was the same result. “Maybe we should give her time to enjoy her sleep. She may need it now more than ever.”
Simon looked at me. “I think she is right Alpha, she needs sleep. You don’t need to worry too much about her.”
“Who is going to stay here with her?” I asked.
“I will do that,” Cynthia said.
Simon placed a hand on Cynthia’s shoulder. “Go,” he said. “I will do it.”
Cynthia wanted to argue but I interrupted her. “Simon will do it.” At the moment, I trusted Simon more than anyone else in the packhouse until Thelma woke up and explains what happened
“Okay.” Cynthia nodded with a dainty smile on her face. She left. I grabbed her on the head and kissed her, her sweet to my taste. I stood up too, nodding at Simon. He smiled with only a corner of his lips. I was so tired that I couldn’t hold out any longer. My eyes had been hurting me, asking me to catch some sleep. It was two and half hours beyond midnight and if not because Thelma had been wounded, I wouldn’t have even advised Simon to stay awake by that time of the day. He just had to but that would be for a short while.