Chapter 490: ... together!!!

Adrein.

A hot, suffocating spike of anger shot through my chest as Noah roared at us, his hand wrapped possessively around Maria’s cold fingers.

My own Alpha aura flared in response, snapping the frayed thread of my bond so hard I nearly gasped.

Who the hell did he think he was?

He had spent the last two hours choking on his own blood on the floorboards, completely useless, and now he was suddenly standing over her, acting like he was her sole protector?

Like he was the only one who cared whether she lived or died?

I took a sharp step forward, my knuckles turning white as I clenched my fists at my sides, ready to tear into him right then and there.

Damien’s heavy arm instantly shot out, slamming into my chest and blocking my path.

"Adrein, don’t," Damien muttered under his breath, his voice low and razor-sharp as he kept his eyes locked on Noah. "Not now... look around us."

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stand down. My chest heaved as I shoved my dominant pride down into my stomach, swallowing the bitter taste of my own anger. Damien was right. We were hiding in a rotting wooden, and we were so sure the enemy’s scouts were patrolling the lower ridge and the wind howling through the wall slats. This wasn’t the place to let our tempers tear what was left of our pack apart.

I dragged a hand over my face, letting out a long, frustrated breath to calm my racing pulse.

"You think we did this to her, Noah?" I said, my voice low and bitterly raspy as I stepped up beside Damien. "You think we’d lay a single hand on our own mate?"

Noah did not let go of Maria’s hand. He kept his broad frame positioned between us and the cot, his eyes glowing a dark, dangerous gold as he glared up at me. "She’s barely breathing, Adrein! Her skin is like ice! Tell me what happened to her!"

"It’s the same thing that happened to you," Damien spoke up, his tone flat and dead serious. "She was poisoned, Noah. With refined wolfsbane."

Noah froze. The dark aggression in his eyes flickered, replaced by a sudden, sickening wave of shock. He looked down at Maria’s pale, peaceful face, then back up at us, his grip on her hand tightening just a fraction.

"Wolfsbane?" Noah whispered, his raspy voice cracking. "How? How could... who could give her enough refined wolfsbane to put her in a coma without any of you noticing?"

"Daniel admitted to slipping it into her daily tea and medicines at the Pack," I said, shaking my head as the bitter truth cut through me again. "He was working for Vincent the entire time, using the wolfsbane to slowly paralyze her wolf so she couldn’t fight back when they staged the raid."

Noah stared at me, his expression tightening as his brow slowly furrowed. His jaw shifted from side to side, working silently as if he were struggling to make sense of what he had just heard. He did not say anything for a long, heavy moment. The silence stretched between us, thick with thought and disbelief.

His dark eyes moved away from me, darting back and forth between Maria’s face and the crackling hearth fire. The flames reflected faintly in his eyes, but his attention was clearly somewhere else. His brilliant mind was working rapidly behind those dark eyes, carefully piecing the timeline together and going over every detail in his head.

His expression grew increasingly troubled as he connected one point to another. He remained silent, his jaw still tense as his thoughts raced.

Then, suddenly, Noah let out a harsh, bitter scoff. The sound cut through the heavy silence, sharp with disbelief.

"That is impossible," Noah said, his voice having dropped into a low, lethal growl, the words carrying a weight that made his disbelief unmistakable.

Damien frowned immediately, his eyebrows drawing together as he leaned forward slightly.

"What are you talking about?" Damien asked, his voice edged with confusion.

"Daniel is a traitorous snake, but he’s not a ghost," Noah snarled, looking up at us with raw, burning fury in his gaze. "He only had access to her for two days after we brought her back from the Lycan territory... two days of light doses wouldn’t completely collapse her nor her bond thread and put her wolf into a deep coma like this! Not refined wolfsbane!"

I took a slow breath, my heart skipping a beat as Noah’s words settled into the quiet cabin. "Noah, Daniel confessed—"

"Daniel took the credit because he’s an idiot who wanted to look powerful!" Noah snapped, standing up from beside the cot, though he kept one hand firmly resting on Maria’s fur blanket. "Think about it, Adrien! How long was Maria held prisoner in the Lycan territory before we mounted the rescue? How long was she trapped under Vincent’s roof?"

My stomach dropped into a cold, bottomless pit.

"Almost up to a month," Damien answered quietly, his face draining of what little color it had left. "She was in Vincent’s keep for a month."

"Exactly!" Noah spat out, the rage in his chest practically vibrating through the floorboards. "Vincent did not just capture her—he was poisoning her the entire time she was in his territory! He was slipping refined wolfsbane into her food and water every single day for a whole month straight, weakening her spirit drop by drop so she couldn’t trigger her wolf! Daniel did not start this poison... he just finished what Vincent started!"

The realization hit me like a physical blow to the head.

The image flashed in my mind—Maria sitting alone in that cold, dark tower in the Lycan territory, forced to eat and drink whatever Vincent’s servants brought her, completely unaware that every bite was slowly suffocating her spirit, slowly tearing her away from us. Vincent hadn’t just wanted to use her as bait to fracture our pack. He had been quietly killing our mate from the inside out right under our noses, laughing while we scrambled to save her.

But if he wanted to marry her, then why poison her?

The question slammed into my mind, and the more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

If his intention had truly been to marry her, then what reason could he possibly have had to slowly destroy her?

Did he predict she would escape?

The thought alone sent a hot, blinding fury exploding through my veins, instantly burning away whatever fatigue, guilt, and exhaustion had weighed down my body moments ago.

"That bastard!" I roared, as my voice echoed violently off the rough cabin walls, filling the small space with the force of my anger.

Damien immediately reacted, jumping toward me and grabbing my arm before my fury could carry me any further.

"Adrein, keep your voice down!" Damien barked directly into my ear, his grip tightening around my arm.

"I don’t care!" I shouted back, though I forced my voice into a harsh, strangled whisper.

I tore my arm out of Damien’s grip, my chest heaving as my Alpha aura flared wildly around me. The sudden surge of power made my vision blur, everything around me disappearing beneath a haze of golden fire.

"He was poisoning her for a month!" I hissed, my voice shaking with rage. "A whole damn month!" I clenched my fists, barely containing the fury burning through me. "He sat across from her, pretending to play the civilized prince, pretending everything was normal, while he fed her poison every single day!"

My hands shook violently with pure, unadulterated hatred. I paced across the dusty floorboards, my chest heaving as I squeezed my fists together so hard my nails cut into my palms. I didn’t care about the war bands waiting at the border anymore. I didn’t care about the pack or the political fallout.

I wanted Vincent’s blood on my hands.

"I’m going to kill him," I snarled, turning around to face Damien and Noah, my teeth bared in a feral grin. "I swear to God, the second I get my hands on him, I’m going to rip his throat out with my bare teeth. I’m going to tear him apart piece by piece for what he did to her!"

Noah didn’t argue with me this time. For the first time all night, the hatred in his eyes matched my own. He looked down at Maria, his fingers gently brushing a dark lock of hair away from her warm cheek, before looking back up at me with absolute, lethal intent.

"Not if I get to him first," Noah rasped out, his voice dark and heavy as iron.

Damien stepped between the two of us, his own jaw set tight, his dark eyes burning with the exact same deadly promise. "Neither of you is touching him until we get Maria safely across the border but when the time comes... we tear him to pieces together."