Chapter 207: Severance
The world was looking brighter and more beautiful, while the sharp smell of antiseptic threatened to overwhelm my improved sense of smell.
I glanced down; Darach was freshly bandaged, hooked up to an IV along with several other machines that beeped in regular intervals. Even after he had been cleaned up, he still looked devastatingly pale under the harsh infirmary lights.
At least his breathing was slow and even.
"Well, I have good news and bad news," Nicole announced, and because she was an angel that was simply too good for this terrible world, she did not ask us what we would prefer to hear; instead, she simply delivered the good news immediately.
"Darach is alive, and his human form would make a full recovery eventually. It will take a much longer time though," Nicole said, then her face fell as she had to deliver the second half of her news.
"What’s the bad news then? It can’t simply be that he’s a slow healer," Damon barked out, upset. "Come on, out with it."
I frowned at his rude behavior towards Nicole. Even if he was pissed and impatient, there was no need for such behavior.
Damon had already been waiting when Blaise and I strolled into the infirmary hand in hand, and that did nothing for his temper. His nostrils flared as his eyes darted between the two of us. We had taken a long, necessary rest after our playful jaunt in the shower before visiting the infirmary.
Of course, he would still be able to smell whatever happened between us in the shower. His senses were already top-notch, unlike mine who only heightened after I had slept with my fated mates.
My own improved senses caught sight of the brief, unhappy twist of his mouth when he realized what Blaise and I were getting up to.
I squashed down the strange feeling of guilt that threatened to emerge. Blaise was my fated mate too, and I marked him before I marked Damon. What right did Damon have to be jealous and upset?
Blaise’s grip on my hand tightened, and Damon’s eyes narrowed. I felt like a toy tugged in both directions. Damon didn’t get the chance to express any sort of physical affection to me in Thunderstrike, so I guessed Damon felt even more upset when he saw Blaise and I together.
When we were in Thunderstrike, there was a clear enemy uniting all of us. But now that we were all safely ensconced in Fangborne, I guess there was no helping the wellspring of instinctive jealousy that emerged between the brothers, with me at the center of it all.
At this rate, I would have to make a choice soon, so as to prevent Luna Cassidy’s prophecy from coming true. I couldn’t pick both of them, because one would be lost forever if I did.
But how could I possibly choose? I shook my head and focused my gaze on Nicole, who was staring transfixed at the three of us, as though she could sense the unspoken tension.
"Nicole? What is the bad news?" I prodded gently, and she blinked, refocusing herself.
"Oh yes, well, bad news is, there’s a high possibility that Darach might not shift as easily as before, if he ever shifts again," Nicole said sadly, but her shaking hands were clenched tightly against the side of the infirmary bed.
More than sadness, Nicole was furious. I was surprised; Nicole hadn’t shown anger since I’ve known her. I didn’t think she was someone who could even feel angry.
"What? Why?" I asked in confusion.
"The bond he has with his wolf is nearly severed," Nicole said, and both brothers had grim looks on their faces. I reeled back in shock― severance? Just the very thought made my stomach churn in absolute disgust.
"How can this even happen?" I asked, aghast. Nicole was speaking English, but somehow all her words strung together did not make a modicum of sense. "Isn’t this just something pack elders scare children with? You know, when they claim that you’ll wake up a human if you spit at the altar of the Moon Goddess?"
At least, that was what Shadowclaw liked to say. Of course, when I got older, they added a fun little twist where they claimed the pups would end up wolfless like me if they didn’t eat their vegetables.
Shadowclaw was not a great place to grow up in and my father was allying with vampires and hunters, but at least he, and the pack, had never actually severed anyone’s bond with their wolf before!
If working with vampires was considered a sin among werewolves, then severing a werewolf from their wolf would send the culprit on a one-way ticket to hell. No werewolf would do something so cruel to a fellow wolf, least of all a father to his son. This was something a vampire or hunter might do, if they were capable of it.
Hell, even vampires in the stories would not do something like this― they tended to overpower werewolves, drain our blood dry, and then decapitate us.
It was impossible to sever the wolf from a werewolf.
Wasn’t it?
Just the very possibility of seeing Damon and Blaise, along with the other Fangborne wolves losing their connection to the Moon Goddess made me shiver.
"It’s very rare, but it’s possible," Blaise explained, rubbing his fingers around my knuckles to calm me down. "But the circumstances around such an act is not common knowledge. I dare say no pack would dare to use it, or leak it out, in the event that it comes back to bite them in the ass."
"Unless they were Thunderstrike," Damon seethed. "Alpha Thorton must have gone senile after the ruined wedding. To think he would do this to his own son after his daughter’s meltdown!"
"No wonder he was sending men to kill Darach when he escaped." My mouth fell open in horror. "He was trying to get rid of a loose end. If Darach died, no one would know what he did."
And without his wolf, Darach would die all too easily, the same way an ordinary human would.
