King Nicholas Anderson

I was worried about Arabella. I wasn't sure if that was because it was my basic instinct to be worried about her, as she was my mate, or because there actually was something to be worried about. I mean, yesterday was gory, but I've seen things just as bad, if not worse. Has she though?

We got some answers though, one way or another. That was okay for now. "So, we know that a man called 'Hook' gave them the plants. He told them to coat two knives with the oil of the plants, and stab both Arabella and Jason Dimitri at some point. We know that one of the men, Jamie Irving, told Penelope which knife to choose at the fight the other day, so Penelope would choose the one coated in the plants and stab Arabella with it. We also know the four men were paid a lot of money by this man called 'Hook' to carry out the deeds," I explained to the meeting room full of people, as we tried to piece everything together.

"We have since raided the homes of the four men and found in one, concentrated oils of Wolfsbane and the unknown plant, as well as the crushed plants, from the oil collecting process," Owen said, placing them on the table.

"That's Nightwort," Arabella said instantly.

"Nightwort?" Skye, one of my gammas, questioned.

"My mother told me about it once. I should have realised it sooner. She's used it before. She told me all about it, the distinct orange flowers with blue stamens. I'd recognise it anywhere," Arabella explained.

"Did your mother happen to tell you how to reverse the effects?" Skye asked.

Arabella shook her head. "But, I think I know where she got it from. Sylvaria Sharpe." That name sent a shiver down my spine. I am sure many people had a similar reaction; it was obvious on the looks of almost everyone's face. They were terrified.

"Why would Sylvaria Sharpe want to poison the two of you?" asked Logan, my beta.

"She isn't the only source of Nightwort. She'll know how to reverse the effects though. I need to pay her a visit," Arabella announced. There were a couple of gasps around the room.

"No one has seen her in years, she went into hiding at the same time your parents did. She could be dead for all we know. She's untraceable."

"No one is untraceable, and she isn't dead. Well, she wasn't when I saw her six years ago, when she spelled our cave to let no wanderers in," she explained. What the heck have we gotten ourselves into now?

***

Arabella Dimitri

I had to stay in that meeting room for three hours. Well, I didn't have to, but I wasn't going to be anywhere else. Three hours wasted, when the end conclusion was the one I said right at the start – we needed to go find Sylvaria Sharpe.

They tried thinking of every other avenue, every other option, every other way, but in the end, there was no other option. Nicholas also tried to make it so that I wouldn't have to go on the journey, but we all knew no one else would ever find that witch, and even if by some miracle they stumbled across her, she wouldn't give them squat. Nicholas knew that, and he knew there was nothing he could do about it, so now he was just angry, and grumpy.

For the rest of that day, if anyone wanted to know where Nicholas was, all they would have to do is follow the sounds of him growling and breaking things. He was angry, not just because I had to go on the journey either, but because there was a hit out on me, on his mate, and that made him furious. Wherever he was in the castle though, he was never far from me. He kept coming into the room I was in and checking up on me. At one point, Obi and Chase just 'happened' to want to hang out with me, just by chance, but it was obvious they were sent in there to watch over me.

"Ma'am, your dinner," said the maid, placing a tray in front of me.

"Ooo, food," Chase said, going to pick up some of my food, whilst Obi stole the glass of orange juice and started drinking some of it.

"Hands off you pigs," I slapped their hands away. The next thing I knew, the glass of orange juice had fallen from Obi's hand, smashed on the floor, and he had fallen along with it.

"Obi!" I shouted, trying to wake him up. I could smell the Nightwort from the orange juice. It was distinctively sweet, yet bitter, and it burnt the nose slightly. I could also smell wolfsbane, a strong dose at that too.

Almost instantly, Nicholas ran into the room, along with other Night Warriors and Logan. They rushed Obi to the pack doctor immediately. I tried to go with him, but Nicholas held me back. "That was my food Nick, that was supposed to be me," I was frustrated.

"I've mindlinked my men to search the kitchen, find out who laced your drink. I know it's hard, but that's the job of the Deltas; to protect their Queen, with their lives if necessary. Obi was doing his job."

"Did you tell them to test my food before I had some?" I asked, pushing him off me. He said nothing, but I knew the truth. "You could have killed Obi."

"If you had it, where would we be, huh? We would have no idea how to cure the two of you, no idea how to find that witch, and I would be useless because you, the other half of me, would be either in a coma or dead. How would I be able to help you then?"

"It should have been me..."

"Well, you can thank him by finding that damned witch, waking the two of them up, helping me find out what fucker is trying to get rid of you two, and ripping their heads off when we find them."

"I'm hungry still," I mumbled. I allowed Nick to pull me into his comforting embrace now.

"I'll make you some food," he whispered in my ear.

***

This all seemed like too much to handle. I was happy living with my brother in our small cavern home. It was uneventful, it was normal. Now, I come to the Kingdom, and look what's happened. I'm tired of this. I want normalcy again. I know the only way I'll get an ounce of normalcy now though is when the people who are after us are dead, or if I was to leave, so for now I have to stick with this. They won't be my only enemies though. I don't think I'm ready for a life like this.

That night I let Nicholas stay with me again. It was going to be almost impossible to say no to him. He'd been growling pretty much all day, and it got worse after the attempt on my life, he hadn't let me leave his sight, even when he was cooking, and it took way too much convincing to get him to let me just pee on my own, without him watching me like some creep. There was no way he would let me sleep on my own. To be honest, I don't think I wanted to be on my own that night either. Being in his arms was comforting, and it was warm, and I felt safe, so for that night, I revelled in the warmth and the safety that I was being doused with.

We woke early the next day. Last night they had found the maid who spiked my drink. She said she was paid to do it – her confession wasn't hard for the Warriors to get. During the night all of the things we would need for our journey were also put together. Four wolves that had the best noses in the world smelled everything, for even a trace of Nightwort or wolfsbane, and luckily everything was clean.

The party of us who were going on the adventure, all stood together inside one of the rooms of the castle, all in furs, with our hoods up and our backpacks on. There was Nick and I, of course, then Chase, who was determined to guard me 'till the day he dies', according to him. Then there was Frederick, who was the top tracker, and Skye, one of the Gammas, who was a skilled fighter. Finally, there were three Night Warriors – Shane and Selena, who were twins, and Brogan, who was a mountain of a man, with tattoos over every bit of skin, although his face was slightly bare.

We decided it may be safer for people not to know that we were leaving, and so we snuck out early in the morning. Somehow, Logan was going to cover for us all. Nick and he had cooked up some plan, and I was way too tired in the morning to ask any questions, so I didn't.

I had some kind of idea of where Sylvaria would be, but I wasn't certain of it. In order to be certain, I had to swing by my old cave, so that was the first stop. It didn't take us too long to get there, but once we had it had long been dark, so we settled in the cave for the night.

I handed out blankets and pillows to people, and we all fitted either in the two bedrooms or on the sofas, so it wasn't that bad. Shane, who was more wolf than man, shifted though, and slept by the entrance of the cave. As everyone was sleeping, I rummaged through my drawers in search of the way I was going to find Sylvaria.

Six years ago, when she spelled our cave, she handed me a flip phone. The phone was spelled so that only myself, or Jason, could open it, and the only contact in there was her. She's a clever little witch really. I pulled out the phone, and texted the number, 'ned ur help. jason got posined wiv nightwort – A x.'

"You can't spell very well," Nicholas said, looking over at my shoulder at the phone.

"Stop intruding in my personal space," I pushed him away.

"You weren't saying that last night," he grinned at me.

"You're sleeping on the floor you know," I crossed my arms and glared at him.

"Oh really?"

Before I could reply, the phone pinged, and I looked down at it. Nicholas tried to read it over my shoulder, but I moved it away from him. It was the exact location of where she was. She hadn't moved since the last time we found her, not that I expected her to, but I had to make sure. I flicked the phone shut quickly and put it down. Nicholas then proceeded to pick the phone up and try and open it, but of course he wasn't able to.

"Why can't I read it?" he asked me.

"Because it has her location," I shrugged my shoulders.

"That's perfect, tell me where she is, I'll go get her, you stay here."

"And that is exactly why you can't read it; I'm not staying."

To that, Nicholas just growled lowly.