The Mad Alpha's Chapter 75: Not Dead Yet

Chapter 75: Not Dead Yet

(CORRINE)

When my eyes open, I find myself in a familiar room.

This ceiling...I’ve seen it before. I try to move, but I feel so weak. Where am I?

There’s sothing cuddled by my side, and my eyes move to my left. I see a small wolf cub sleeping.

"Finn?" I struggle to speak, and my voice is scratchy.

My son starts, and then he sits up on his hind legs, staring at . Before I can try to say anything else, he throws his head back and starts howling at the top of his lungs.

I hear loud footsteps. Panic fills . But when the door is thrown open, two familiar faces burst in at the sa ti.

Locke.

Sigrid.

Locke makes a beeline toward , but Sigrid pulls him back. "No!" Her voice is a shout. "She’s too weak. Stay back."

Weak?

I can’t talk. My throat feels like paper.

She approaches

and brings a small bottle to my lips, ordering, "Drink."

I take a few sips and then sigh in relief.

"Don’t speak," she says sharply. Her eyes are glistening with tears.

She opens the bedside drawer next to

and takes out several potions, forcing

to drink every one of them. Her touch is gentle, and I gulp them down thirstily. They taste like nothing, but my throat is so parched that they feel good.

When she’s finally done, Sigrid murmurs, "Give it a few minutes. You’ll be better soon."

She has one arm wrapped around my shoulders to support , and soon enough, I feel my strength return.

"What happened?" I ask roughly. "Why am I here?"

Sigrid looks at Locke and nods her head. My mate is by my side in a heartbeat. "How are you feeling?"

His voice is hoarse, and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days. "I’m tired. Where am I?"

"In the palace," Locke tells . Finn’s wolf crawls into my lap and curls up. His body is trembling. I touch his fur and stroke him. He whimpers but does not shift into his human form.

"What’s wrong with him?"

"He’s been like this ever since he saw you," Sigrid tells

sadly. "He refuses to shift back."

"Finn." I touch his nose, his forehead, forcing him to look at . "Finn, I want to see your face."

He whimpers again, and Locke says, "Give him so ti. He hasn’t left your side in days."

"What happened to ?"

Everything is very hazy right now. My mories are in chunks and bits, all over the place. I need sobody to help

piece them together.

"You don’t rember?" Locke asks cautiously. "Ravenna attacked you."

Ravenna. Her very na sends a shock to my system. And then the mories start flooding back. The attack. Jerry.

"Where’s Jerry?"

"He’s fine," Sigrid assures . "He woke up two days after the attack. You took two weeks, my dear. The royal healers have been working on you around the clock. You nearly died." She wipes her eyes. "We didn’t know if you would ever wake up. Your injuries were life-threatening, and whatever Ravenna gave you, it temporarily disconnected you from your wolf."

"Is Ravenna—"

"She’s dead," Locke says bluntly. "She died far too easily. But not before she answered a few questions."

"I see." I don’t know what else to say. I feel so tired. "Can I go to sleep for a while?"

Locke and Sigrid exchange a look, and the latter nods. "I’ll bring up so food first. You can sleep after you eat."

Locke sits by

after she leaves the room. "I thought I was going to lose you. I never want to go through that again."

"I’m sorry," I whisper, my head still too foggy for

to actually feel anything.

When the food arrives, Locke feeds

every bite with his own hands. He tries to give so to Finn, but my son is only willing to eat if I feed him myself. He still doesn’t shift back, however.

When I’m done eating, my mate lies down with

and brings Finn to sleep between us. Sigrid enters the room, removes the dishes, and turns down the lights. "Sleep. You all need so rest now."

I don’t know what that ans, but surrounded by my family, I feel safe, and I let myself slip away.

It takes

another whole week to recover. Information is fed to

in bits. But by the ti I’m walking around, nobody has told

what happened in the lab. And every ti I ask questions, my attention is diverted elsewhere. I do get so answers, though, especially about why the palace guards were nowhere to be seen. The enemy had drawn them away.

I finally manage to track Jerry down, and I sit with him. The royal healer looks like he has aged twenty years. With Finn in my arms, I study the healer. "What happened, Jerry? I need you to tell . No more hiding the truth. Where is Maya? Why hasn’t she co to see

yet? Why is everybody avoiding talking about her?" I haven’t been allowed to leave the palace building, so I haven’t been able to go to her cottage.

Jerry buries his face in his hands. "Maya is gone."

"Gone?" I stare at him, confused. "Where did she go?" Jerry is silent. "Cassian."

"What about Cassian?"

Then, Jerry finally tells

what happened that fateful night.

"Maya called

to the lab. She had gotten the test results. We managed to find out how the victims were being kidnapped. They were being given a specific formula that was able to disconnect them from their animal, sothing that should be impossible." He looks at

intently.

"The sa formula was given to both of us. That’s why you weren’t able to heal properly. I reached out to the intelligence unit, and it turns out the person who was in charge of Harold’s dical examiner report was Cassian. He deleted those two pages. The two shifters who died while looking into this case had apparently co far too close to the truth. They were able to figure out that Harold’s file was accessed by Cassian, who was studying Harold’s lineage. All of the shifters who were kidnapped had lineages that went back to a very specific ti period."

"I don’t understand."

A voice from my left says, "Cassian was a mber of the Silver Ring Organization, the sa group that killed Locke’s parents. He was also the one who sidetracked the guards and helped Ravenna escape." I look over, still reeling from all this information, and see Erik standing in the doorway. He enters the room. "It’s good to see you up and about. I’m sorry I haven’t visited. I’ve had my hands full, what with the Eastern royal family being murdered and all."

"Murdered?" I gape at him in alarm. "Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?"

"You’re still too delicate right now," Erik says gently. "And ’murdered’ is the wrong word. They were executed. The Eastern royal family was in cahoots with the Silver Ring Organization. From what we understand, the Eastern royals had been working with this group for decades. They were kidnapping shifters. Ravenna told us the gist of it. Her father and uncle were fully involved, as were most of the noble families of the East. We spared the only child from the royal family, an innocent boy. He will be the new king, and in the anti, a delegate will be appointed to help him run the kingdom."

Erik sits down beside us, looking exhausted.

"What a ss." I look between him and Jerry. "And Cassian was working with them?"

Erik nods.

"I rember seeing him and Maya walking toward—"

"He attacked

and dragged Maya away," Jerry says. "If you saw her with him, they weren’t out for a stroll together. He was taking her."

"Oh no," I groan. Bile rises in my throat. I could’ve stopped him. What have I done? "Have you found her?"

Erik shakes his head. "I’m sorry, Corrine." "We have to look for her!"

"It’s useless. Locke sent his best trackers after them, and they ca back empty-handed. The Silver Ring Organization has a base that we can’t find."

"But we can keep trying—"

"We will. I will," Erik assures . "There is too much chaos in the three kingdoms, and you are far too weak right now. So, I will be continuing to search from here. You need to go back to the North with Locke and work on your health and on your kingdom."

"I can’t abandon my friend." I get to my feet.

Erik and Jerry exchange a look, and then Jerry says heavily, "We believe she’s dead."

Tears spring to my eyes. "You’re wrong."

"I’m not wrong," Jerry sighs. "Cassian said he was going to take her hostage and then get rid of her. He needed to know what she knew, and that was it. She’s long dead, Corrine."

I break into sobs, unable to stop myself. This is my fault. I dragged her into this.

Two small hands cup my face. "Don’t cry, Mom. Please don’t cry."

Finn’s voice jerks

out of my despair temporarily. My sweet boy has shifted back. I hold him in my arms, trying to swallow my sobs. I hear him crying, as well. It takes a lot of effort to force myself to calm down. This is not the ti to grieve.

I look at Erik. "What about her mother?"

My voice is thick, and Jerry says, "I’ll keep looking after her. Even if Maya isn’t here anymore, I will keep my end of the bargain and give her mother the best life I possibly can."

Erik puts his hand on my shoulder. "You should go ho, Corrine. You barely survived. Locke nearly lost his mind. Go back to the North and rebuild your life. Maya is gone, but your son is here, and so is your mate. From what I know of your friend, she would have wanted you to live a happy life."

Two fat tears roll down my cheeks, and I nod. "I know." I take a deep breath before asking, "Have you looked into how Cassian got involved in all this?"

"He visited the East for a study program," Erik tells . "It was for two years. When he returned, he began working for . He had asked Jerry if he could work in the royal palace. Nobody suspected him because he was Jerry’s nephew."

I look at Jerry. "And he tried to kill you?"

The healer’s face is drawn. "He didn’t say anything. He simply cut

down and told Maya he needed to use her as a hostage. I still can’t understand it. But I heard him tell her about the Silver Ring Organization. I couldn’t rember much, but what I did, I told Erik. Everything else Erik and Locke found out was from Ravenna’s uncle. But even that information was sparse."

Finn is clinging to , and I hold him tight. "If you want

and Locke to go back, are you saying you don’t need our help?"

"I will always need your help, Corrine," Erik admits. "But for now, we have to put a pin in so things and focus on picking up the pieces. We have identified our enemy. But the Eastern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom have taken massive hits. There have been enormous changes in the hierarchies. The kingdoms need ti to recover and heal. And I need to do damage control here."

He looks at Jerry. "I’m going to increase security around the palace, and Jerry will keep investigating whatever Maya left him with. But I don’t think we are going to include any more humans in our world. She managed to get results, but the price she paid was far too high, even for us. We’re going to rember Maya and what she did for us for a long ti."

I look at the child in my arms. Maya would have wanted

to look after Finn. She loved him.

"Okay," I murmur. "We’ll go ho. If you need anything, please let us know." I take a step toward Erik to hug him. "Thank you for being a friend to

all these years."

He holds

for a mont before backing away. "I hope to be invited to your mating ceremony."

I smile at him sadly. "Of course."

I look down at Finn and stroke his hair. "Let’s go ho. We’ve been here long enough."