Chapter 85

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SISTER?” Ethan demanded angrily as he marched straight over to the bed.

Sawyer stood up and got between him and I not that I thought Ethan was actually dumb enough to fight me, but I was still touched that my brother came to my defense.

“It was my ex,” I said tiredly. “She somehow managed to poison her with wolf poison. I assume when we left the dungeons because as you know we ran into her there. I don’t really remember her touching Grace, but she must have.”

“And where is your ex now?” Ethan seethed. “Sitting somewhere in her bath robe as someone rubs her feet?”

“She’s dead.” I answered dryly. Ethan might be Grace’s brother, but I was really over his disrespect. “I took care of it a couple of hours ago.”

“Oh.” He answered, his fire dimming a little. “Well, how is Grace doing?”

“She’s hanging in there,” Sawyer answered, but he was looking at Ethan with some uncertainty. “She’s through the worst of it all, but her brain might need some time to recover.”

I looked up at Ethan. Sometimes, when I look at him, I am struck by how similar he looks to Grace. It was crazy. But there were other times, like when he would talk, that he was nothing like Grace. He was so much more calculated in how he spoke, it sometimes made me feel uneasy. In this moment though, he was clearly distraught over his sister being in a coma, and if he felt anything like me, he felt like he was in hell.

Nobody spoke for a while. We all just stared at Grace. I watched her chest rise and fall, over and over again so I could just be sure she was still breathing. I was sure I’d be watching her like this for the rest of our lives.

Ethan coughed, and I turned my attention back to him. His blonde hair was disheveled, and there was something red on his green shirt...

“Is that blood on your shirt?” I demanded.

“Oh, yea,” He answered, but his voice sounded off. “We ran into trouble in the city.

I narrowed my eyes at him. He should have led with that instead of doing whatever little temper tantrum he’d had when he’d come in. “What kind of trouble?”

“The city is in complete disarray. I mean, it is literally utter chaos. I talked to a lot of people and everyone seemed to know someone who was missing. Whatever is happening is drawing human attention and scaring them terribly.”

“Missing people?” Arlo frowned.

“That’s what they said,” Ethan answered a little too casually.

“Do you think this is a part of their Lycan expansion project?” Sawyer asked, hesitantly.

I knew he was hesitant to talk in front of Ethan, but I didn’t think it was fair to deliberately leave him out of a conversation that he would probably have more insight.

“I think it’s safe to assume that, yes,” I answered aloud. “They’re moving faster than I expected.”

“Maybe they have a reason to be moving fast,” Ethan added.

I didn’t like the way he said it. It was once again like he knew something more, but was just leaving us breadcrumbs to follow.

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Ethan attempted to look thoughtful. “Maybe they need a full moon? There’s one coming up. Or maybe they just a set amount of people for their next plan?”

I nodded and gave it some thought. It was possible. It seemed sort of panicked to me though. It didn’t really seem like it was thought out super well. Was it one of those things where they were trying to draw attention to one thing so they could do something else completely? Did they need a full moon to maybe activate the new Lycans? There had to be something we were missing.

Sawyer stood up and began to check Grace’s vitals again. Blood pressure: 105/73. SPO2: 99. Pulse 80. All normal, she was just unconscious, so I could breathe again.

“Hey Sawyer,” Arlo started breaking the silence again. “Where did you get an antidote for the wolf poison? It’s incredibly rare, isn’t it? Like even rarer than wolf poison itself?”

I looked up curiously, I hadn’t thought about that, but Arlo made a good point. How did Sawyer just happen to have a vile of the antidote?

“I actually only got it recently. It is extremely rare,” Sawyer agreed with slight chuckle, “But honestly it was easier to get than I expected.”

“How did you get it?” I asked, having a feeling that I wouldn’t like his answer.

“I got it from the witch, Sandra,” Sawyer answered easily, like it was no big deal.

And I was right. I didn’t like his answer, My own brother was now making deals with witches? What was our world coming to???

“Sandra? As in the witch who bound Grace twice as a literal baby?!” I felt my temper flaring. I was going to explode soon if people kept being stupid.

“Well, yea...” Sawyer said slowly. “I had asked her if there were any remedies that I should have in my arsenal at the clinic, and she stated several, but said it’s always good to have an antidote for wolf poisoning... I must admit, I did laugh at first because I thought wolf poison was too rare, but when she offered to help me make a small batch, I took her up on it because even if she just gave me the recipe, I would have never been able to make it myself. It’s a magic concoction. So, she did the hard part, and the herbs I had you hand me Rhys are to be added in when you want to activate it, so it will last longer.”

“Again, you got help from the woman who bound my mate twice as a baby?”

“It was to benefit the whole pack!” Sawyer exclaimed in frustration. “We don’t usually interact with witches; I wanted to take advantage of the situation!”

On a normal day, I might have accepted his answer, but on a day like today, there was no chance in hell I was going to let that slide.