Page 48 of Her Eternal Mate

“Will? How long are you going to be quiet?” Alexis asked from behind. Ever since we’d walked out of the facility, I’d been giving her the silent treatment, walking five paces in front of her. I knew that if I spoke, I would unleash all the anger that I’d been holding back. It had come back after all this time, that unresolved red ball of rage burning in my chest.

It made me recall all the times Alexis had been reckless before. There was that one time when she had walked into Blair’s office for a job interview, and he had kidnapped her. Then, after I had ‘died,’ she had ditched Fiddler’s Green and sought sanctuary in another city while our enemies pursued her. She would have died that day, too, if I hadn’t attacked the assassin feigning as her lover. And, of course, there was that time when she let herself be captured by Maurice. If it wasn’t for our bond, I’d have never found her back then, either.

Maybe the resentment made me think like this, but I was beginning to see a pattern of recklessness that Alexis was prone to follow. I couldn’t hold back anymore. I had to say something, or else the veins in my forehead would burst.

“What were you thinking?” My voice was considerably calm, given how I was truly feeling. It was only a matter of time, though. The injuries I had sustained were not healing as fast as I had anticipated, leading me to think there was something more to the soldiers than met the eye. Maybe, Blair had tampered with their physiologies in a way that I was not immune to physical injuries as I once was. It could be that he had gotten his hands on his father’s research. He could have used my blood to make these soldiers effective against me.

“I was trying to be diplomatic, as I said, Will,” Alexis said, sighing. She did not get to sigh and show signs of exasperation after what she had just done. She was in the wrong.

“Diplomatic? Are you dense?” The pain from the injuries, combined with the anger that had been bubbling underneath the surface, finally caused me to give in to my hectoring nature, the one that I had kept at bay for months.

“Excuse me?” Alexis’s face was mortified with shock, her eyes strained, and her forehead furrowed. “What did you say?”

“Oh, so you’re hard of hearing now too? Is that why you misunderstood me when I explicitly told you earlier to stay put in the commune? Are you so reckless that you would deliberately go out of your way to jeopardize your life? Do you have such little regard for your safety? For my feelings? I thought you had grown up, but clearly, I was mistaken. Underneath everything, you’re a little girl who does not know better!”

“Will,” Alexis’s voice was breaking off. “Why are you saying all of this to me?”

“Because the last time I checked, you had gone off to find Blair’s secret headquarters and had the fucking audacity to barge in there without reinforcements, without a game plan, and without common fucking sense!”

The gashes that those soldiers had torn into my skin were burning now. My whole body felt like it was set on fire. I could feel that it wasn’t just the injuries that were making me feel this way; it was all the rage that was finally unleashed like Pandora’s Box, finding channels in my body to agitate. I really needed to calm down before I did something irreconcilable.

“You are not being yourself,” Alexis said quietly. She took a few steps back, standing even further apart from me than she already was.

“Are you fucking serious? Blair has been our number-one enemy for the longest time. Do I need to remind you that he almost killed me once? All the atrocities that he’s committed? What made you think that going to him and talking it out was a reasonable option?”

“Because I am afraid, Will! I do not like admitting it, but I am afraid of what’s going to happen to the commune, to the town, and to you if this whole thing doesn’t end anytime soon. People will die. There’s a war coming. I only did what I did so that I could avert it. Wouldn’t you do the same if you had the chance?”

“The time for averting it is long past, Alexis!” I snapped at her. “If something terrible had happened in there, and if we hadn’t gotten out as miraculously as we did, who would have been to blame for that? And you disobeyed my orders. Do not forget that I might be your mate, but I am your Alpha above all else!”

“Some Alpha!” Alexis snapped back and stormed off.

I didn’t have it in me to go after her. She needed to sit with her failure for a while and know how much she had screwed up. Because of her, our entire stance was compromised. Blair might have let us go, but now he knew that the pack wasn’t as strong as he’d initially thought.

I couldn’t help but think that, somehow, everything had gone according to Blair’s plan. It took a bit of deduction on my part, but what I perceived was this: Blair must have created a new batch of serum to inject into his soldiers. This particular serum was imbued with my blood, rendering me un-immune to it. That’s why these injuries probably were taking a long time to heal. He had wanted a visual demonstration of that. That’s why he’d let so many of his soldiers die. To him, this was nothing more than one expensive science experiment.

I looked around the forest and saw no signs of Alexis. My Jeep was parked up the road where I had left it. I needed to get back home and consult with the pack’s healer to confirm my suspicions about these injuries.

As I drove back to the commune, I could not help but feel remorse for the way I had let my old nature dominate me. It had not been my intent to berate Alexis like that, and yet I’d done exactly that. Could this factor also be attributed to how the soldiers had affected me in the fight?

It would be a shame if, after all this time, I ended up back at square one. All that hard work, all that character building, everything that I’d done for the commune, for the city, and for my mate turned to dust.

I could not let that happen.

***

“Yep. These injuries are going to leave a scar, for sure,” the healer said.

“Where’s the other doctor?”

“Oh, him? He’s gone to pursue his post-doctorate in Memphis. Besides, we pack healers never hold the position for too long. It’s like a curse with us. I’ve only been here a week, and who knows how long I’ll be here, huh?”

“Well, you’re a lot nicer than the other doctor,” I said.

“Eh, that’s because I finished medical school in Minnesota. The people are so polite there; it rubs off on ya!” the healer said, taking a closer look at my injuries. “And fortunately for you, I have an interest in hematology. We can get down to the root of this problem in just a few minutes.”

“Dr. Munroe, I am beginning to like you. You’re efficient,” I said.

“Well, I’ll tell you the truth, Will. I’ve always liked you.”

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