The Hunt: War Continues

Chapter 25

"Don't mention the video to Kassandra," I said to Rowan, shaking my head as I imagined her teary eyes and her form crumbling to the floor at the sight of Finn. "She doesn't need to see him like that."

"I wasn't going to," Rowan said, offering me a small smile and a nod. "Your doctor is keen to see you. I can hear him mumbling in his office about wanting to check on the status of the baby." Rowan kept his voice low, whispering the last word.

Doctor Rygard.

I had put the thought of mine and Cole's baby to the back of my mind. I hadn't wanted to know if they were still alive or not. Not when there was a chance that I was going to lose Cole too. Although I didn't know this child yet, losing them would feel like someone was crushing my heart with a brick, painfully and slowly. My body couldn't take anymore.

Rowan disappeared and I was once again left alone, my entire being demanding for me to go and check on my mate, praying that he was doing better. Was this wolfsbane going to have left lasting damage?

Forcing my mind to rest, I clamped my eyes shut, willing to fall asleep, but I was rudely awoken by a loud knock on my door. I called the person in, and Doctor Rygard peered into the room, catching sight of me and frowning.

"Reya, how are you doing?" he questioned, looking like he wanted to remain professional, but I could tell that he was relieved to see me awake. "You took quite a hit. I was wondering if it would be okay for me to take a look at the baby?"

His voice was quiet. This still had to remain a secret until everyone was safe. It was too risky- especially since the colony was trying to find out where we were.

I nodded. I wanted to ask him if he had any news on my mate too. Was he going to be performing the surgery, or was his specialty only in the maternity side of things?

"I can see you have a lot of questions on your lips," he responded, setting up some small machine in the corner of the room, the object beeping and causing me a bit of a headache. I needed another drink.

"Do you know anything about Cole?" I asked, my fingers twitching at the prospect of news.

Doctor Rygard sighed, pushing his grey hair away from his face. "I always want to be transparent with you, Reya. We aren't too sure on Alpha Cole's condition right now. As you know, our research with wolfsbane is limited, but I assure you that we are trying our best. The nurses are testing his blood for the herb every few hours to check the level, and it is going down very slowly, but that doesn't mean that there isn't some still inside of his heart. That could be fatal."

I cleared my throat, it suddenly dry and sore. "What would that mean? Can his body not filter that out?"

Doctor Rygard huffed, pulling the blanket on my bed over me, signalling for me to lift up my hospital gown as he fiddled with the small machine by my bed. "It's much harder for the body to do so- well, that's what we have concluded. We've never been in this situation before. This could be a good opportunity to gather some information though. It will be interesting to see what effects the wolfsbane has on Cole's body, and I mean that with the upmost sensitivity and respect. He's our Alpha before he is a test subject."

I nodded. I didn't know what else to ask, because I knew that whatever I did question Doctor Rygard on, he wasn't going to know the answer. This was trial and error, and we all just had to hope that Cole was going to wake up soon. He wasn't going to die. He couldn't. He wouldn't leave me like that.

Humming at the black and white screen of the small machine as he pressed a metal knob to my stomach, Doctor Rygard squinted his eyes. "This machine isn't as reliable as the bigger one we have, but looking at this-" he brought a long piece of white plastic to his ear, "I can hear the heartbeat and can see its form. They're doing alright."