*Zara*
I waited for Noah’s response, my heart pounding with worry for him. He was playing a dangerous ga and making incredibly nervous about his health.
The Luna Lily had unknown effects as of now, and I didn’t want Noah to be in danger. Pleading bled from his gorgeous blazing blue eyes, though, and I felt my heart clench for him.
I understood entirely why Noah had done it. He wanted to feel what he thought wasn’t real to begin with but had finally felt for himself.
I hoped that his mate bond mories weren’t wiped out for good. He wanted to fix this, and I did, too.
But we needed to be patient, and this wasn’t the answer.
“Promise , Noah, please,” I said. “Seriously, we don’t know enough about the lilies yet to do this safely.”
With a sigh, Noah nodded. He gave a sad smile and leaned in for a kiss, which I returned tenderly. His arms wrapped around for a mont, and when the kiss ended, his lips brushed against my ear.
“I promise,” he whispered.
“Thank you. I need to hear those words one more ti.”
“What?” He pulled back, staring at quizzically as I smirked.
“One more ‘I promise’ from you just to make sure, since you drank a higher dose of tea twice.”
He chuckled. “Fine. I promise. That’s two promises. You’ll be off my case now, right?”
“Nope, not at all,” I said in a teasing way.
He opened his mouth to respond, but then let out a breath. I furrowed my brow. He took another breath, his chest heaving, and I realized his breathing was rapidly growing labored.
“Noah?! What’s wrong?”
“Zara, I–”
His gorgeous blazing blue eyes suddenly beca glassy, and he fell to the floor, convulsing violently.
A scream erupted from the pit of my chest as panic surged through my body. My screams turned into pleas, yells for help. “Help! Please, soone, help!”
Caleb rushed into the room, his eyes wide. “What is going on?!” he asked, but he got his answer when his eyes landed on Noah. “Oh shit, what happened?!”
“I–he started convulsing, h-he drank a higher dose of the tea without telling , and–”
Caleb interrupted . “We need to get Healer Calvin in here now. I’ll call so of the staff to administer ergency care until he gets here.”
It didn’t take long for the pack’s healer to get here, and in the anti, Noah had passed out. His heart was pounding, and I could only watch in sheer horror as he grew more and more pale.
Tears stread down my cheeks as I stayed there by his side, though I made sure to move out of the way of staff when they got there.
They moved him to the bed, and when Calvin arrived, he imdiately began to administer dications to stabilize his condition. I looked on in horror, placing my hand over my heart and starting to pace.
The staff rushed out of the room soon after, despite my protests.
“But he’s my mate. I need to make sure he is okay!” I said frantically.
Caleb, who was completely tense given the situation, muttered, “I understand that, but Calvin needs space to work. Plus, we need a full picture of what happened. Can you explain it to us?”
We took a seat at the table, and tears still spilled from my eyes. It took a few minutes to get a hold of myself so that I could explain everything with clarity.
“Noah kept forgetting our mate bond, and the ti we spent together over the past couple of days,” I said.
Caleb nodded. “That I know. I told him that he rembered again when he drank the tea. But why would this hit him now rather than when he drank it?”
“He made himself a higher dose because he forgot again,” I said, my voice breaking just a bit when I said that.
Noah had been so determined. It broke my heart to see him driven to hurt himself.
He was so stubborn, and right now, that was backfiring on him. I couldn’t be mad at him, but now I was panicked for his health. He had to be okay.
I began to breathe fast again upon realizing that the strong dose he made may have made him extrely sick for a while, or worse.
“Did he know about these side effects? Did you tell him?” asked Caleb, his eyes moving toward the door in alarm, then back to . “All of this magic is... new to us, completely new.”
“No, he didn’t. I don’t know them either. I tried to warn him, but he insisted, then went on to do it without knowing, until he told just now.”
Caleb clicked his tongue. “This is extrely bad news. We should have known this magic was too dangerous to play around with,” he muttered.
I gulped, recalling the council’s questioning regarding the ‘witchy magic’ I had, and wondering if that attitude was shared by other mbers of the Drogomor pack.
It wasn’t a concern right then, though. Noah needed to get better. Caleb let be for a bit while I sat there, clutching my head and feeling the stress race through .
I began to think about all of this, and how it really was all my fault. As more tears poured from my eyes, I recalled how much I had emphasized the mate bond to Noah.
He was so intent on feeling it with the tea and rembering everything, when we could have just let things develop naturally. I could have told him I felt it and should have firmly told him no when he wanted to try the tea.
It would have been enough to know he and I had t in the clearing, and that our child was his. Now, he was in extre danger, all because I couldn’t let sothing go.
My heart clenched. I wondered whether he thought I wouldn’t love him because he didn’t feel the mate bond like I did. That may have been why he was insistent about the tea.
That pleading in his gaze pulled at , and despair flowed through even more strongly. I only had myself to bla for all of it.
There was too much pressure on Noah, especially after all that had happened. I should have seen the signs that he was truly falling for , but he’d been respectful toward the idea of my true mate... when in the end, it was him.
He saw how much it bothered that I couldn’t find my true mate, and I knew how much I emphasized it to him.
Really, I just wanted him to be happy. He wasn’t happy with Serena, and didn’t seem happy with rida, either. With ... he was.
It was because we were true mates, yes, but also because he fell in love with naturally. He’d said he’d felt sothing for .
I should have insisted that it was okay that he didn’t rember our eting in the woods. I could have just told him I knew, and we could have gone from there, no tea needed.
Damn it....
Eventually, the door opened, and Calvin erged from the room. He eyed warily, then said to and the gathering mbers of Drogomor, “Noah is in critical condition. We need to return to Drogomor.”
I put a hand over my heart, feeling the panic intensify. I nodded. “I just want him to be okay,” I said in a worried whisper.
“I’ll contact Alpha Issac and Luna Estella imdiately,” Caleb said to the healer. He looked at questioningly, clearly wondering if I would speak up.
“I want to be by his side,” I said firmly.
There were murmurs through the pack about my pregnancy, but for now, they had relented. Caleb stayed with , as did Calvin, as I entered the room again.
I gasped, noting how Noah’s chest was heaving, and how he’d gotten even more pale. He was completely unconscious and in a cold sweat.
The healer stood next to and said grimly, “Whatever toxins are in that flower are potent stuff. I brought him back from the edge, but he’s still not in the clear.”
“I am so sorry,” I managed to whisper. “I should have gotten him to listen better.”
No one replied to that. The Drogomor mbers spoke amongst themselves as we waited for transport back to the Drogomor pack mansion.
I was eyed warily, but I never left Noah’s side. He was my mate, though the tensions between the mbers of Drogomor and were rising.
My wolf was antsy and uneasy as the looks I got were suspicious and searching, especially when we arrived at the mansion itself. My stomach clenched from the anxiety.
Noah was transported to a sophisticated healing room, and I followed, determined to be there for him. But I wouldn’t get that chance, as so Drogomor guards approached .
“Zara Star, you’re to stay in your room away from the Alpha Heir until we get this situation under control.”
“What?” I asked. “Noah is my mate. I want to be by his side.”
Another shifter approached next to the guard, fixing in a powerful, unwavering glare—Alpha Issac. He was completely tense, with his fists and jaw clenched while he stared down.
“This isn’t up for discussion,” the Alpha said gruffly. “You will stay in your room. That is an order, Zara Star, while you are here on our territory. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Alpha,” I said in a small tone, knowing not to argue with Drogomor’s Alpha, especially with his son’s life on the line.
As I was transported to my room, followed closely by guards, I caught wind of the conversation, feeling glares of suspicion and even the edge of hatred from Drogomor pack mbers.
“I can’t believe we let her and her magic into this pack,” one of them said. “Clearly, it’s dangerous.”
“Look what’s happening, everything is in shambles!” said another. “The Alpha Heir is barely holding on, and it’s all because of her.”
I heard more muttering from the pack mbers, though I wished I had been out of earshot.
“Did you hear Zara Star tried killing the future heir?!”
“Do we have war on the horizon? This is clearly a hostile act.”
“I hope they have that witch under control. She is a danger to our pack.”
“I hope Alpha Issac takes care of the woman who tried killing Alpha Heir Noah.”
My breathing beca more ragged as I heard the rumors now spreading around Drogomor pack.
This was all wrong....
I wanted Noah, my love, to be okay. Would these people even listen to ? Would Alpha Issac listen, and did he think I had actually tried to kill his son?
As the door to my room shut, and I realized that guards were standing outside, I wondered with fear whether Noah was going to be okay... that, and whether I’d even be able to see him myself if he was.
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