Page 93 of Chosen Destiny

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

Dina wincedas though the next words were torture.

“What is it?” The words scraped out of my throat as I forced myself to speak gently instead of allowing my impatience to show.

Dina turned to Chelsea and nodded.

“Oh. Right.” Chelsea straightened her shoulders. “We’re pretty sure the wolves had the witches coat the tips of their claws in nightshade, which is what killed the shifter.”

Bodey’s anger swirled into me, heating my blood. He growled, “Of course. Why not add poison to her ever-growing list of ways to harm others? The bitch wouldn’t know a fair fight if it slapped her in the face.”

“How the hell did they think to use that?” King Sutton rubbed his forehead.

“Witches.” Dina frowned. “This coven has no trouble ignoring the wholedo no harm to otherspromise. But why would they still help after losing so many of their coven members?”

The room descended into tension-filled silence, every one of us absorbing the news.

We were wasting time.

Time we didn’t have.

A delay would only afford Kel more opportunities to think of creative ways to fuck us over.

“This doesn’t change anything.” I kept my breathing even. Showing my rage wouldn’t do any good, and I needed to save my energy for later. “We’ll need to be more careful when we attack, and hopefully, they won’t have time to take preventive measures since we should be the ones catching her off guard.”

Bodey’s jaw clenched, and cold tendrils of his fear squashed his anger and turned my blood to ice. He linked,Is there any way I can convince you to—

Don’t finish that sentence.I didn’t want to argue with him even though I understood his concern.If we’re going to war, I need to be there with my people. How would you like it if I asked you to stay behind?A selfish part of me hoped he would say that he’d stay if I asked. He was the one who’d been captured and beaten.

His silence spoke volumes and confirmed what I already knew.

He wouldn’t.

“How did you figure out it was nightshade?” King Sutton clenched his hands at his sides. “And why wasn’t my coven able to determine that?”

“We figured it out together.” Dina lifted both hands as if in surrender. “They were focused on healing a normal shifter wound, which doesn’t have herbs involved. As we discussed the wolf’s struggle right before death, we were able to determine the cause.” She nodded to Chelsea.

“Right.” Chelsea bit her bottom lip. “Fortunately, our coven has an antidote for nightshade on hand.”

Michael’s brows lifted. “We do?”

She nodded. “We have the manchineel fruit preserved just in case someone ever tries to poison our king and queen. We’ve never used it before, and we have several doses that we can take with us. We’ll still need to be careful, though. We don’t have enough for everyone.”

Some of the tension eased from my body. I should’ve known Dina would have something like this in place. She was thorough, and that was one reason I was so thankful to have her on our side.

“If they use nightshade, they might also have an antidote in case of accidents.” Samuel tugged down his cotton shirt, pulling it over the waistband of his jeans. It was strange to see him dressed so casually. “If it comes down to it, we’ll force them to give us theirs.”

“Agreed,” Lucas said as he patted Samuel on the back.

Janet strolled into the dining room. “You all prep for war, and the rest of us can clean up.”

After kissing his mate’s forehead, Michael strode from the room with everyone behind him.

The time had come, and there was no point delaying anymore.

* * *

An hour after breakfast,we were ready to go. There were two points of contention with our plan—having the former advisors stay here with the pack and Theo, Charles, and Jasmine joining us.

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