* * ☾ * *

Healer Rhea's POV

With her back straightened and forcing her knees to unlock themselves, Rhea managed to push through from the crowd with the given mask over her face and watery eyes—Death was never easy to witness.
No matter if they were good or bad.

Not to mention that Blair was giving her the sly comments of 'Queen of Poisons' every other breath, it was most certainly going to her head. But that was the very motivation she needed when facing off with an absolutely livid Rogue King.

"FEMALE?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS—My males are falling ill?!" With soot clear on her face, her body smelling entirely of an herbal remedy, smoke, and a bit of salt that was starting to drift into the King's nostrils, he took in Rhea's attire.

She looked the part of a constantly working Healer in an attempt to contain everything.

With the King completely vacant during lunch, the three had plotted another way as she came rushing forward and offered up another makeshift mask. One that was soaked in the placebo broth, and infused with the wolfsbane concoction while also coated in tears.

"Sir, please. We can't afford for you to fall ill." Her desperation to get things sorted was easy to play into, but Dreven had only pushed away her offering before roughly caressing her cheek.

"Control this."

"I can't. Even with Lillian and Blair, we're only capable of so much. We hardly knew what we were dealing with when it first started. It's infecting the lungs, making it difficult to breathe." The description was similar to that of wolfsbane, but as Dreven had eyed the better part of his camp, the darkened smoke filling the sky like a beacon, he growled in aggravation.

"Who's idea was it to burn my males?" The question had caused Rhea to sigh, taking the blunt force of his anger as he pulled her forward by the braid and yanked down the mask in response.

"How dare you act with permission, female." His words were low and continued once more as the saved males were lingering about on the other half of the unscorched property, watching the newest Healer be dragged her braid through the land and straight to his tent.

Goddess, she couldn't imagine what would happen if she was secluded from the rest—And so she acted, she screamed, kicked, and did all she could.
How was it that she was playing the part of a concerned Healer and this is the reaction of the King?

To put blame?

No, she would not have it—And given that the King had his closest males with him during his expedition back toward the mountains. It meant only a select few were at risk of still being a threat, while the others were in various states of being ill or on the verge of getting burnt.

"Rhea!" A shout reached, and that in itself had caused the entire territory and its humans to stop their clean-up assignment to see the King manhandling their kind Healer.

And the only instance that sparked through it all was the animosity and trauma that wracked through all the humans. Man or woman alike. There were a few glances between one another as Rhea was losing her strength and the King began to actually drag her the rest of the way—Out of the public eye.

However, it was Gilroy who was the first to make the move, followed by Dane and Hawes—Who tackled the King with a similar concoction that they were instructed to use. Yet they didn't hold back, it was supposed to be used in small amounts, and while she had shouted her indiscretions—It was no use.

Not when her mask was no longer on her face, it was a wonder she hadn't inhaled more of said mist.

"Rhea!"

"Shit! Rolf—!" The shouts and roars of battle weren't at all coherent as Rhea fell to the ground, barely being able to catch herself by her hands as they slipped through the dirt. Thankfully, it was much safer than what was happening just above her.

The King had made a fatal mistake in thinking that humans weren't as dominant in terms of fighting, not when they had a similar mindset of protecting their Queen.

Yet the growls and howls that soon tore through the sky suggested that the King had called for backup, and it was clear they weren't risking a fight in their non-dominate form.

Still gasping for her next breath, Rhea was helped to her feet by Hawes, who tried to get her away from the better half of the commotion—In seeing the newest raid of those in fur, Rhea reached deep into her belt and handed her friend a tool.

He didn't need to ask, knowing full well that his Queen managed something with her own twist to add to the equation.

With the wolves and their ability to dominate over them, it only made sense to make the playing field even. And that is exactly what she was seeing, dozens of other humans were using their provided tools—All dripping with the toxin that she left Blair to watch over and disperse throughout the human population.

But that came with a record of carelessness, with those not understanding just what the toxin could do. And in another record of chaos, Rhea was one of the first to see just what fire could do with a wolfsbane mixture.

Electing and a type of blue-flamed fire to rake through the madness, making the wolves desperate just for a free breath, one that wouldn't cause immediate damage to their lungs and offer the same infection to the rest.

"Who would've thought...Wolfsbane could create such a demolishing weapon." She whispered, voice as raggedy that Hawes looked over towards her in concern. His expression had changed from the previous attack that no longer came forward—However, with their backs turned from their friends, and the commotion offering no hint of the battle happening at every angle.
Rhea was not at all prepared for a set of claws to wrap around her neck and squeeze—It felt as though her entire throat was shattered within one simple twitch of a muscle.

Hawes had stumbled back before pushing forward and trying to slash the King with the very weapon Rhea had given him, only to be backhanded and fall to the ground with the rest of their elected group.

"ENOUGH! STOP THIS PETTY REBELLION!" The King was certainly not in the mood for a riot of this extent, but his careless expedition hadn't put into the fact that more than half of the camp's wolf population was turned to ash. And the other quarter was infected with only a cure just now starting to enact in their system.

"My brother and his men are coming, and they will offer a punishment so severe you will not think of another attack...As for you, my sweet little Healer—" The King had paused, knowing that no male would test his patience when he held Rhea in such a way.

Hawes' fallen weapon had been the perfect tool, one that he teased and toyed with in his grasp before hiking it up into Rhea's stomach—And a sharpened scream fell out of her lips as she crumbled back to the ground, unable to stop the poison from entering her own system.

Wolfsbane was designed for wolves, but Lillian and Blair were cautious for a reason, and the tears that bustled out of her eyes were the only reminder that a stab wound shouldn't burn.

No.

Another howl had responded to the former, and the King had chuckled as he stood in utter boredom with a slight cough to manage through—The ignorant fool didn't take into consideration what the smoke is doing to his body, or the mist her male had tossed in his face.

It was slowly working—But they didn't have the time to wait.

Instead, Rhea turned to look at her males, all beaten and bloodied by the King. It was a surprise that they were all moving. But it was better than most, and she truly did not want to think about the causality number at this moment.

Not when it wasn't finished, not when the King was still standing.

A voice, one that could've been a deep memory had burst in her mind. And another burst of pain had coursed through her as though she needed the reminder—

"There will come a time when any King will need to stand with his men and defend their kingdom and word. Do not be too coward to make an order you yourself aren't brave enough to follow through with."

With the beautiful voice of her father whispering through her mind, Rhea managed to find the strength—And it was a haunting image for her four remaining males to see.

Her mouth filled with blood, staining her teeth after the foreign object impaled so deeply into her stomach, was already a ticking time clock if not checked and managed soon. So when she looked into the eyes of her males while Deverin reigned forward with possible punishments, she offered a kind smile before mouthing the simple apology— "I'm sorry."

It meant nothing and everything to the imprisoned males she's fought and cared for since the fire she started in the forest so long ago, but even now, they were being greeted by darkened clouds of their own creation.

With a small jolt to her feet, Rhea tinkered her hand deep into her pouch to find the much-needed vial before popping off the cork. None of the males beside her had the energy to disagree, nor could voice her movements.

Either Dane or Rolf had assumed that she was attempting to heal, but it was Hawes that started to violently shake his head—Back and forth as she took the careful push forward as he crawled towards her in an attempt to stop her, yet the moment had passed.

Having yanked out Hawes' tool from her stomach, she coated the bloody and rusty nail with another douse of poison before getting back to her feet—Which were entirely unsteady to begin with, yet somehow she managed to make the agonizing steps forward to stand right beside the King.

"You utter bastard!" The mere words of disrespect had blind-sighted the King just long enough for him to turn around so carelessly that Rhea didn't waste a moment of hesitation before lodging the pic where he should've aimed for before.

"The heart, such a precious organ—Within seconds your body will pump this throughout. May the goddess have mercy on you—Deverin." The humanizing taunt had caused the kick to fall straight to his knees, but it wasn't the last thing she had witnessed before the world had gone dark.

It was a feeling of falling before being caught by a few sets of hands that weren't prepared or strong enough to catch their fallen Queen.

But with her fall, another one had settled into the scorched ground with no one around to catch him.

______

Date: 05/25/23

Time: 2:52

Words: 1864

Author's Note:

This Queen doesn't wait to be saved💁‍♀️
But maybe she should've.

Next chapter coming up in a minute!