Adonis POV
”Don’t push yourself if you can’t do it.
We’ll try again tomorrow.” Caspian reached down to help me up from the floor, but I slapped his hands away.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” I snarled.
“We’re completing every single exercise today.
If I don’t finish, no one leaves this training yard.”
I tried to stand on my own, but my legs were burning like they were on fire.
I pushed myself up and groaned heavily in the process.
My guards tried to reach for me, but I growled in disapproval.
I hated the way they looked at me since my collapse—like I was a sick, dying bird.
I was their Alpha for fuck’s sake!
They were never supposed to see me this vulnerable.
I didn’t want anyone getting any idea of a rebellion or coup.
“If you keep spoon-feeding me, I’ll never heal!” I roared.
“And if I don’t heal fast, neighboring packs will smell blood and strike.
Do any of you useless bastards honestly think you’d survive another rogue attack?”
No one said anything as they all looked away.
“And if you kill yourself trying to prove a point, we all die in that rogue attack anyway.” Eris strolled onto the training ground, looking as elegant as ever.
It infuriated me.
How was she glowing so much while I was slowly dying?
“Caspian only found a temporary solution,” Eris continued, her voice cool and annoyingly calm.
“If you keep pushing yourself like this, you’re going to weaken the effects of his magic.”
”I wouldn’t have to push myself if these incompetent fools knew how to do their damn jobs!” I snapped, redirecting my rage at the guards.
“It’s been over a month since Thalia vanished!
How hard is it for a dozen trained warriors to hunt down a single wolfless girl?!”
One of the guards swallowed hard, taking a hesitant step forward.
“We’ve combed the borderlands and back, Alpha.
We’ve searched every neighboring village and town.
There is no trace of her scent.”
”So, what are you insinuating?” I bared my teeth, daring him to finish the thought.
Like a complete fool, he took the bait.
“The only logical explanation for her complete disappearance…
is that she’s dead, Alpha.
Her carcass was likely devoured by wild beasts in the borderlands, just like the others—”
I hadn’t expected the blow to even touch him because of how weak I was.
But not only did it touch him, but it also sent him flying, and by the time he landed on the floor, half his face was gone.
Smashed and splattered all over the training grounds.
“Adonis…” Eris groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“I’ve told you to control your strength!
This is the second guard this week.
Are you trying to kill us all before the rogues even get here?!”
With a wave of her hand, she snapped at a nearby guard to drag the corpse away.
I looked down at my hands, wondering yet again where that sudden burst of strength came from.
The first time it happened was a week ago, right after Caspian completed his temporary healing spell.
I’d still been unsteady, but desperate to prove I was fit.
I was sparring with one of the elite trainers Eris had hired when I suddenly lost control and slit his throat with my claws.
Since that day, the volatile energy had been entirely out of my control.
No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, I ended up destroying property, terrifying my pack, or killing my own men.
What was worse was the fact that I could still feel Thalia, still feel the connection we once shared.
That was the only reason I refused to accept she was dead.
When I tried explaining it to Eris, she dismissed it, claiming it was the other half of her wolf playing cruel mind tricks on my dying brain.
At night everything intensified.
I got wild, sudden urges to kill myself or to tear my skin open.
I was running insane.
“I can’t keep living like this!” I roared after another internal collapse
The guards tried to hold me down, but I shoved them off with unnatural force.
“Get Caspian in here NOW!” I screamed through the blinding pain.
Since Thalia ran away, I had been surviving on medical concoctions and Caspian’s magic spells.
What if I had decided to kill Caspian that night Thalia disappeared?
I would have been a dead man, that’s for sure.
After Caspian came by and performed the temporary spell and the pain receded to a dull ache, he stood beside my bed, looking down at me in silence.
“What the hell are you staring at?” I growled, scowling up at him.
I hadn’t forgiven him for trying to steal Thalia from me.
The moment I was fully healed and Thalia was back in my arms, I was going to sever his head from his shoulders.
But for now, I needed the bastard alive. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
He eyed me up and down as if disgusted by my existence.
“Keep looking at me like that, and I will gouge your fucking eyes out,” I threatened him.
Caspian looked me in the eye and chuckled, completely unfazed.
“You and I both know I’m your most prized possession right now,” he murmured.
“If anything happens to me, you’re a dead man within days.”
He stepped closer, invading my space.
“It’s quite ironic, isn’t it?” he whispered, a mocking grin spreading across his lips.
“The stone the builder rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”
I wanted to break his jaw and wipe that arrogant grin off his fucking face, but I knew if I swung my hand, his head would fly off his shoulders.
I couldn’t risk killing my only lifeline.
So, I forced myself to look away, swallowing the humiliation.
“Eris is right, though… You need to stop overworking yourself, or your body will reject my magic,” he said, his tone shifting to something eerily calm, like he actually cared.
“I understand you have a duty as Alpha, but if you don’t slow down, you’re going to die long before we find a permanent cure.”
”And how do I know you aren’t the one poisoning me?” I hissed, glaring at him.
“I know you’re still hunting for Thalia yourself.
What if this whole illness is just your twisted revenge for me taking back what’s mine?”
He fell silent, his eyes never leaving mine.
After what felt like hours, a cold smile touched his lips.
“If I wanted you dead, Adonis, I wouldn’t make it this enjoyable,” he whispered, leaning down until his breath brushed my ear.
“I would ensure you suffer a pain far worse than eternal damnation.
You would beg for death and never find it.
And the exact moment you tried to cling to life…
I would steal it right from your chest like a thief in the night.”
Before I could react, he gripped my jaw and blew a powdery substance into my face.
I gasped, fearing that he might have poisoned me.
But as the dust coated my throat, my violent heart rate plummeted as a wave of relief washed over me, forcing my body to relax against my will.
He stared down at me, and I watched his eyes fall to my lips.
When he looked back up and realized I had caught him staring, he immediately took a step back.
“If you keep pushing yourself and making it difficult for my spell to work…” he said softly, turning toward the door, “…I will kill you myself.”
Without another word, he walked out of my chambers without looking back.
I cleared my throat, trying to get rid of the sudden, confusing heat that had just crept up my neck.
“Proud, spell-casting bastard,” I muttered to the empty room.
“After Thalia is back in my bed…
I am going to thoroughly enjoy watching you die.”