"I will only go over our placements one last time," the Alpha addressed the entire pack of Blood River as he gestured to a large map of the royal capital of Riga. There were a lot of encircled positions where the lycans were supposed to come in.
All of the lycans were paying attention to their leader and discussing everything with them. This was the time that they had all been waiting for and they could already taste the victory on their lips.
"The scouts will be the ones in charge of making sure that no human escapes from the capital. They will go ahead and ruin the carriages, unloosen the horses and do everything to ensure that none of them make it out alive."
Leland was currently discussing strategy and position with the rest of the lycans when he suddenly felt his heart being squeezed and strangled. The Alpha's eyes widened and before any of the lycans in the meeting room could ask a question, he stormed out of the room.
He felt his knees weaken for a moment and his lips had already turned pale. If it was already bringing him to this point, the Alpha couldn't imagine what was happening to Sophie.
Where was his mate?
"Sophia..."
Leland rushed down the hallway and headed into Sophie's room just in time to see his mate currently lying down on the bed, pale and feverish. There were shards of a teacup littered across the floor and no one else was around.
"Sophia!" Leland's own throat was hoarse and he ground his teeth. The Alpha concentrated on strengthening himself and then lending it to his mate. To share his strength with her, that was the best thing that a mate could do.
However, nothing was happening.
Before he knew it, Dinah rushed in with one of the lycans who were great with treating the sick amongst their kind. This older lycan lowered his head and then looked at their Alpha.
"Alpha, if you would—"
"Find out what's wrong with my mate and heal her!" Leland growled and shoved the healer forward to his wife. As the healer approached Sophie, the Alpha immediately turned to Dinah. He grabbed the collar of her dress and glared at her. "What is the meaning of this?"
Dinah was paralyzed in fear and only managed to call a healer and tell the man that their Luna suddenly fell ill. However, when she was faced with Alpha, suddenly all her strength was gone. Just like that.
Isolde waltzed into the room and there was a look of worry and concern written all over her face.
"What happened to Anne's daughter?" she asked. "I heard the commotion… Oh wait, we already have a healer. Great. Let him do his job. Leland, please return to the great hall and continue with the plans of attack, we will take over from here."
"NO."
"What do you mean no?" Isolde narrowed her eyes at Leland. "I'm not sure what happened to your wife but don't forget what we came here for."
Leland let go of Dinah and turned his murderous glare at his mother. His sense of paranoia finally came back. He stepped towards his mother, with each of his steps forward, his mother remained on her ground.
Isolde didn't flinch away and stayed looking aloof.
Leland growled at her. "Is this situation of your doing? Did you do this to Sophia? Did you poison her, Isolde? I should have known better than to trust your appearance."
Isolde's eyes widened and she placed a hand on her heart. "You dare throw accusations around right now? I'm terribly hurt. You have no evidence at all and yet whenever something terrible happens to you, you blame me. How dare you accuse me of a crime I certainly didn't do!"
Leland threw a look at Dinah and narrowed his eyes at the woman. "You are the only one who serves Sophia. Tell me if this woman is involved and do not hesitate to tell me the truth."
He pointed at Isolde, with rage evident on his face.
"Oh, so you want her word against mine?" Isolde's gaze sharpened at Dinah. "Will you really believe some random female lycan over me? You've really sunk low, son."
"I'd rather believe her than you!" Leland shouted at Isolde and then felt his heart hurt. It skipped a beat. His heartbeat was slightly erratic and he glanced over to Sophie who was still in bed.
The healer didn't seem to have managed to help her and was now only running through a diagnosis. He shook his head. "Alpha… the Luna. I can't detect anything wrong with her physically."
Leland gritted his teeth and glared at Dinah. "Summon more healers. Summon doctors from humans, the best ones, as long as they can diagnose and help my mate."
Dinah immediately rushed out of the room and took the opportunity to leave the room. There was immense guilt written all over her face but she focused on getting help to the Luna.
The current healer looked stumped at the situation but said. "I will do my best to help, Alpha. But there doesn't seem to be anything wrong when I'm looking for the root cause."
"How can you say that when it's clear that my mate is in pain?" Leland barked at the healer. "Check the shards and try to detect any kind of ill-inducing substances, poison, or anything!"
The healer immediately moved forward and started to check the shards, sniffing them, and yet he shook his head.
Isolde's lips didn't move an inch. Eloise may have wanted to immediately hurt Anne's daughter, but the witch was an expert at making poisons and reassured Isolde that it wouldn't be traced back to any of them.
Even the greatest lycans wouldn't be able to detect it.
As far as Isolde knew, the materials used to create the poison didn't actually have any dangerous and ill-bearing ingredients… but it was Eloise's hexes, curses, and negative energy that transformed even simple water into the deadliest poison.
Eloise only needed to have something in her hand once and she could already imbue poison by just having it near her. That was why Witches were a great ally to the lycans because of their capabilities.
That was why Isolde was frustrated that her son couldn't see how wonderful of a pairing he and Witch Eloise could be. Magic paired with the best physical prowess would make their offspring unstoppable.
"Alpha?" Several lycans from the meeting hall followed Leland and arrived outside of Sophie's room. "Alpha, are we not going to discuss the operation?"
"We still have a lot to discuss, Alpha."
"Is something the matter, Alpha?"
"Wait, the Luna is in bed. Hush, we should shut up."
All of the lycans immediately started to exchange looks with one another in concern. None of them knew what to say because they were seeing their Alpha in a vulnerable state.
Leland was kneeling in front of Sophie and holding her hand. He was in pain from feeling the immense pain in her body. Her face was scrunching up and she was covered in a cold sweat.
He slowly glanced at the men outside of the room and only said one word. "Out."
The Alpha didn't want to do anything with the operations and all the lycans immediately scattered out of fear of being used by the Alpha to vent his anger and stress.
Visit freewe𝑏n(o)vel.𝑐𝘰𝑚 for the best novel reading experience