Chapter 294
Dominic’s POV
Vivian’s room was at the far end of the hall, past the guest quarters and through the second-floor atrium. I kicked the door open and carried her inside, where I laid her on her bed as gently as I could.
She immediately curled onto her side, knees drawn up to her chest, hands still clawing at her sternum. Her face was slick with tears and snot, and her whole body was trembling.
“Vivian,” I said, sitting beside her and putting my hand on her shoulder. “Look at me.”
She didn’t seem to hear me.
Sighing softly, I grabbed the blanket at the foot of her bed and pulled it over her while I mindlinked my Beta for the pack healer.
The healer arrived a few minutes later. She was one of the pack’s most experienced healers, and if anyone could help Vivian right now, I had faith it would be her. She swept into the room with a leather bag in one hand and immediately went to Vivian’s side. I stood, stepping back to give her some room.
“What happened?” she asked, already pulling out a stethoscope.
“Mate bond rejection,” I said. Vivian had calmed down somewhat by that point, although it was more so that her voice had given out from screaming, and not for a lack of panic.
The healer didn’t ask any more questions. I watched from the sidelines as she started examining Vivian, checking her pulse, her breathing, her pupils. Vivian complied, partially because she was too out of it to fight back.
My hands shook a little. I shoved them into my pockets and walked over to the window, looking out over the grounds. Behind me, the healer worked quickly. She gave Vivian something to help with the pain-some kind of herbal tincture that she mixed with water and made her drink. Vivian choked it down, gagging, and then went limp against the pillows.
“Well, her vitals are stable,” the healer said after a few more minutes. “But her wolf is in bad shape. The bond severing is traumatic. It’s like losing a limb.”
I nodded. Thankfully, I had never had to go through the pain of that myself. But I had heard the stories. We all had. Many wolves, the weaker ones especially, didn’t survive being rejected. They could leave a person wolfless, or the person could die along with
their wolf.
Despite everything, I didn’t want that to be the case for Vivian. Or anyone in my life, for that matter.
“Will she be okay?” I asked.
“Physically? Yes. She’ll survive.” The healer packed her stethoscope back into her bag. “But she’s going to need time to recover. A lot of time. And she’ll need extra care. Her wolf is devastated. It could take weeks, maybe months, betore she’s anywhere close to normal.”
“What kind of care will she need?”
“Rest, mostly. Keep her calm. No stress. Someone should check on her every few hours to make sure she’s eating and drinking The tincture I gave her will help with the pain, but it’s going to come back. I’ll leave more doses with you”
She pulled a small vial out of her bag and set it on the nightstand.
“Anything else?” I asked.
The healer sighed softly. “Just be patient with her. This is going to be hard.”
I nodded.
After that, the healer left, and I sank into the chair beside Vivian’s bed. She was still now, eyes closed, breathing shallow but
112
+30 Bonus
steady. The tincture had knocked her out, or at least dulled the pain enough that she could rest
I stared at her for a long time.
I couldn’t believe Ellie would do something like this.
I mean, I knew things between her and Vivian weren’t great. They were sisters who had once been close, but not for a long time, and ever since the wedding it had only gotten worse. But this? This was cruelty on a level I didn’t know Ellie was capable of.
She’d orchestrated the whole thing. Brought Colt here knowing he was Vivian’s mate. Made some kind of perfume to force his wolf to react. And for what? To hurt Vivian? To cause chaos?
P
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