Chapter 5

Nate’s POV

  

  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?