Chapter 160: Refused To Take It Off
Chapter 160: Refused To Take It Off
Kaden’s POV
I was making my way back into the mansion when a sound pierced the morning air.
A scream.
It was faint, and distant, but to my wolf, it sounded like a bomb going off. It was her. Rebecca.
Before I could even process the thought, my body reacted. I sprinted toward the house at a brutal, bone-breaking speed. The scent of her blood hit my nose—not just blood, but a sickening, rotten taint. Poison.
I burst through the tree line into the back garden, my eyes locking onto the small, crumpled shape of her lying helplessly in the grass.
"Rebecca!"
I dropped to my knees beside her, my heart hammering violently against my ribs in a way it hadn’t since the night Helen died. Her skin was deathly pale, a cold sweat breaking across her forehead as she whimpered, her consciousness slipping away. I grabbed her leg roughly, my eyes zeroing in on the two bloody puncture wounds on her ankle.
A snake bite.
Without a single second of hesitation, I yanked her leg up. I pressed my lips directly over the puncture wounds and sucked hard, pulling the black, bitter venom from her flesh. I spat the toxic blood onto the grass, coughing, before leaning down and doing it again, and again, until the blood running from her skin turned bright, clean red.
"K-Kaden..." she breathed, her half-closed eyes fluttering open, filled with utter shock. "You... you sucked out the venom..."
"Shut up," I growled, my voice thick with raw panic.
I scooped her small, trembling body up into my arms, holding her tightly against my chest as if she would vanish if I let go. I stormed into the main house, kicking the glass doors open, and laid her down on the large living room couch. She was shaking all over, her breathing dangerously shallow.
"Healers! Someone get the goddamn healers!" I roared, my voice vibrating the very walls of the mansion.
The heavy thud of footsteps hurried into the room. It wasn’t the pack doctors. It was my mother.
She looked at Rebecca on the couch, her face twisting into immediate concern. "Kaden, what happened?"
"A snake," I snapped, my hands hovering over Rebecca’s pale face, completely terrified to touch her but unable to pull away. "She was bitten in the garden. Where the hell are the healers? Why aren’t they answering my roar?!"
My mother stepped forward, her voice remarkably calm despite the chaos. "The healers aren’t in the pack house right now, Kaden. A group of pregnant she-wolves from the outer sector needed an emergency check-up. They won’t be back for hours."
"Hours?!" I exploded, standing straight up, my gold eyes glowing with lethal fury. "She doesn’t have hours! The poison is already in her system!"
My mother looked at me, her eyes drifting down to the heavy, silver-lined choker wrapped tightly around Rebecca’s neck.
"Kaden, you have to take off the choker," my mother said softly. "Take it off so her wolf can wake up. Her wolf will heal her from the inside out."
I froze. The air in my lungs turned to ice. "No."
"Kaden, she is going to die!"
"I said no!" I roared back, my jaw tightening.
"What are you so afraid of?!" my mother pressed, stepping closer, her tone forcing me into a corner. "Please, Kaden, help her. Look at her. She is fading right in front of you. Take it off!"
A cold, paralyzing terror gripped my chest. I stared down at Rebecca’s beautiful, breathless face. My mother didn’t understand. Nobody did. I wasn’t just afraid of her wolf healing her. I was terrified of what would happen the moment that silver choker clicked open.
Kane.
Kane’s scent was everywhere in this house. What if I removed the choker and her wolf recognized Kane as her mate?
The mere thought of her belonging to another Alpha—belonging to my brother—sent a wave of possessive, feral madness through my blood.
"Just get the healers!" I panicked, my voice cracking as I looked wildly toward the door, my heart pounding.
"Kaden, no healer is coming for another hour, do it now!" my mother ordered, her voice loud with the power of an Alpha Matriarch.
I looked back down at Rebecca. Her lips were turning a dark purple. She was dying. My wolf yelled in pure pain inside my head, telling me to save her. But I was terrified. If I took off that collar, the bond would wake up. If she looked at Kane... if her wolf chose him...
Pure, wild jealousy completely took over my mind.
"No," I growled, my voice dropping into a dangerous, breathless whisper. "I’m not unlocking it."
Before my mother could yell at me again, I dropped back down to my knees on the floor. I grabbed Rebecca’s thin, pale leg, pulling her hurt ankle back up to my mouth. I didn’t care about the danger. If the healers weren’t coming, I would suck every single drop of that bad poison out of her myself.
I pressed my lips against the bleeding bite wounds and sucked with a desperate, heavy force.
The bitter taste of the venom exploded across my tongue, burning the back of my throat like fire. I pulled away, spitting the dark blood onto the floor, coughing as the poison began to sting my mouth.
"Kaden! Stop! You’re going to poison yourself!" my mother shouted, reaching out to pull me back.
"Stay back!" I roared, a dark warning growl shaking my chest. I didn’t let go of Rebecca’s leg. I held her thigh tightly, pinning her down as I leaned down again.
I sucked harder, biting slightly into the skin around the bite to force the deep, hidden poison out. My heart was beating so loud it drowned out my mother’s voice. Every time I spat out the bad blood, I went right back to her skin, breathing heavily, my eyes locked onto her face.
The poison was entering my body now. I could feel a dull, heavy ache beginning to spread up my jaw. My vision went a bit blurry at the edges, and a thick heat began to move down my throat. But I didn’t care. I kept going, putting my mouth to her leg over and over again, quickly drawing out the venom until my own lips were stained red with her blood.
Rebecca let out a soft, broken cry. Her chest rose and fell in a sudden, deep gasp as the heavy weight of the poison finally began to leave her heart. The purple color on her lips slowly faded back to a pale pink.
I gave one final, tired pull, spitting out pure, bright red blood. It was gone. The venom was out of her.
But as I looked up at her, the room suddenly spun around. The strong snake venom I had swallowed was hitting my own blood, fighting hard against my Alpha strength. A heavy wave of dizziness hit me, and my knees gave out.
I fell forward, my upper body crashing heavily across Rebecca’s lap on the couch. I could not move at all, my breathing turning into rough, heavy pants as my wolf began to fight the poison inside my own veins.