Cole had been only five minutes just as he said. However, he emerged from the apartment complex with a scowl, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes blazing.

"What is it?" I questioned, and he shook his head, grunting.

"Apparently none of them knew what was going to happen, but I don't believe them. We need to have a serious discussion about whether we will continue housing these humans," Cole grumbled as he gestured for us to begin walking. "They are causing far too much trouble than they are worth, and I doubt that us doing this for them will make them keep out secrets."

I nodded. I didn't know what to say to make Cole feel better. This all felt a little too far gone now. These humans hated us- that was clear, and we weren't going to be able to convince them that the wolves weren't the evil ones in the situation.

"So you're just going to kick them out?" Finn asked, but I widened my eyes at him. Now wasn't the time. Cole was raging.

"I don't know," Cole told us with a strained tone, keeping his eyes trained forwards, not looking at anybody.

That was enough to shut Finn up.

We walked the entire way in silence, Kassandra and Finn hanging back a few times to conversate briefly, and I could see Cole raising his brows, listening in on their conversations. They were clearly never anything of interest though, Cole huffing a few seconds later.

Nosy bastard.

When we finally reached the pack grounds, Cole turned to me to plant a lingering kiss on my forehead, gesturing in the direction of the hospital. "Are you okay to take these two? I need to go and speak with Rowan immediately."

I nodded, smiling. I liked how much he trusted me.

"I'll meet you at home," I told him, smiling at Finn and Kassandra as they followed me towards the hospital.

Finn groaned. "I might as well just live here. It's becoming my home."

Kassandra laughed, but frowned once again when she moved too much. It appeared that she was actually starting to feel sore, and the adrenaline from the attack had worn off. She had had a knife almost dug into her neck.

Kassandra looked slightly overwhelmed as we sauntered into the hospital, her confident and sassy demeanour when I had first met her seemingly gone. Perhaps she was putting on a front at the time?

Making our way to the reception, we got Kassandra checked in, but the waiting time looked longer than expected, and they both settled down into chairs. I was about to do the same when I spotted Anthony and Amber walking through the door, Anthony raising his brows at me once he spotted my small smile.

"Hi, Reya," he said, gazing down at Amber who waved at me, looking slightly awkward.

"Hey," I said. "Are you both here to see your Mother? It's very early in the morning. The sun hasn't even risen yet."

Anthony nodded. "Yes, and don't worry. Rowan already knows we're here. He's given Amber a ten minute time slot to see her Mother. He thought it would be best for us to come when it's not too busy."

I nodded. Ten minutes didn't seem very long, but trust Rowan to decide on that. He disliked the fact that Amber was here.

"You've never met our Mother, have you?" Anthony questioned, and I shook my head, frowning at him.

Why was he asking that?

"Did you want to come and meet her? She's asked about you a few times, and I believe she would like to thank you for what you have done for Amber," Anthony said.

I felt my face redden slightly. She had asked about me? I had no intention of ever meeting the woman, not feeling as if her dying was any of my business, but, if Anthony and Amber wanted me to go and pay her a visit, I would.

"Okay, sure," I said. "I can go in and say 'hi'."

I informed Kassandra and Finn, knowing that they would still be waiting by the time I came back. The hospital was surprisingly busy. Following Anthony and Amber down the hall, I stopped before a large and tall metal door, gulping as it was pushed open.

Inside, lay a small and frail looking woman in a bed. Her skin was as white as a ghost, her straw-like golden hair falling to just above her shoulders. It was as if she didn't even notice us walking in, and Anthony had to place his hand on hers for her to realise.

"Oh, Anthony, Amber," she sighed, smiling at her two children, her eyes looking quite glazed over and almost see-through.

"She's gone legally blind," Anthony whispered to me. "She has about thirty percent of her vision remaining."

I nodded, trying to keep my face calm. I didn't want to appear shocked and make Anthony or Amber feel worse.

"Mother, Reya is here to see you. I know you've been asking about her."

Her eyes somewhat lit up, and she turned to me, beaming. "Ah yes, hello. Thank you so much for all you have done for my children. We are indebted to you."

I laughed, shaking my head. "No, definitely not. It's lovely to meet you."

I hung back for the majority of the ten minutes, allowing Amber and Anthony to speak to their Mother. I tried excusing myself, but she insisted I stayed, and so, I remained comfortable in a chair in the corner. Amber giggled with her Mother, but she found herself coughing whenever she laughed too hard, and Anthony had to pass her a cup of water a few times.

"Excuse me," spoke a nurse, popping her head through the door. "There are a few things we do need to discuss with you, Anthony. It's regarding your Mother's blood work."

He looked surprised, but gestured for me to get up also, following him out of the room, angling himself so that he could still see his little sister. "I wanted to give them a couple of minutes alone together," Anthony stated, and I nodded in agreement.

"Alright," said the nurse, pinching her nose and sighing, fumbling around with multiple sheets of paper in her hand. "So as you know, we've always ran tests on your Mother, including blood tests. We never found anything, but what we never told you was that we always did see traces of some kind of herb in her blood. We never thought much of it. Your Mother drank a lot of herbal tea, and we brushed past it, thinking it was just from that."

"Yes, she used to drink multiple cups a day," Anthony clarified.

The nurse cleared her throat, talking in a hushed tone. "Well, after some more testing, we've discovered that it is actually wolfsbane that is in her system."

"What?" I asked, my mouth wide open.

The nurse nodded. "Yes, we had never managed to get our hands on any, but after Markus' attack, we managed to collect it off the ground and test on it. We wanted to work out why it affects us and if there was anything that we could do to stop it from hurting us, but we realised that the DNA collected matched the DNA in your Mother's blood. We don't know what this means, but an investigation will have to go underway. Foul play could be involved."

I gasped, Anthony standing next to me with a pale face, the nurse excusing herself. "That's the reason why my Mother is so sick? She has wolfsbane in her blood?"

"How did it get there? Do you think someone was slipping it to her?" I asked, running my hand through my dark hair. If that was the case, that meant that there was another traitor within the pack who had been here for years.

"I don't know, but I need to ask her straight out," Anthony said. "I'm not beating around the bush with this. There have been enough secrets within the pack. She doesn't have any enemies, so this doesn't make any sense."

"Anthony's wait!" I called as he stormed back into the room, picking up Amber from the bottom of the bed and placing her in the corner of the room in the leather armchair. I furrowed my brows, hoping that Anthony was going to go about this calmly. His Mother may have been innocent in all of this.

"There's wolfsbane in your blood," Anthony spoke, shaking his head. "Explain." He looked somewhat hopeful- as if she would have some reasonable explanation for all of this.

His Mother remained silent, her face not appearing shocked at all. She smiled sadly at him, releasing a small sigh.

Did she know this entire time?

"What?" Amber questioned, clinging onto the arms of the chair, digging her nails in, looking frightened.

"Anthony," I said calmly. "Perhaps it would be best to do this when Amber isn't present?"

"No," their Mother spoke, clearing her throat. "They deserve to know before I pass. You all do."

"So you were aware of this in your bloodstream and never told anybody?" Anthony growled. "How is it in you? Why didn't you tell anyone so that you wouldn't have to die?!"

"Okay, okay," groaned their Mother, releasing multiple coughs. "Please just calm down. I'll tell you everything."

"There will be an investigation into this," Anthony grumbled. "You could get banished if you-"

"I think I'm going to die before then," she responded, and Anthony scoffed, moving over to Amber to place her on his lap, running his hands through her curly hair soothingly.

I gulped, leaning back against the hospital wall.

"I've been putting wolfsbane in my tea for years," she started. "Wolfsbane has always been a weakness for us wolves, and I wanted to change that. I was getting shipments of it in every six months or so. I had been in contact with someone outside of the pack who grew it and I was paying good money for it.

"I was hoping that drinking just a little bit a day would build up my tolerance, so much so that wolfsbane wouldn't harm me the way it did other wolves. It mostly worked for a little while, and I was almost ready to share my findings and start putting it in your hot drinks too, but then I fell extremely unwell."

I was frozen. I didn't want to speak or move. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"It seems ingesting wolfsbane is the most deadly to us, and it locks onto our organs and stays in our bloodstream for an extremely long time. I had been drinking way too much of it. My body couldn't keep up and it didn't have enough strength to pass it through my system before I drank more. I've done irreversible damage, but I didn't tell anyone because I knew that what I had done was against the rules."

"So that person that you contacted? They know the location of our pack?" scoffed Anthony, running his hands through his hair.

His Mother shook her head. "No. I would tell her to ship it to a specific location, but then I would go and collect it from there. I was very careful."

"Not careful enough," growled Anthony as he stood up, placing his little sister down on the floor. "So this could have all been avoided? You've practically killed yourself, and for what? To try and be the hero? Every creature has a weakness, and wolfsbane is ours! Why did you think there would be some loop hole?!"

I moved over to my friend, placing my hand on his arm, silently begging him to calm down. Amber looked frightened, with silent tears dribbling down her cheeks. We didn't want to make this any worse for her than it already was.

"And you were going to start giving it to us too? Without even knowing the real consequences?" Anthony chuckled with venom, taking Amber's hand and heading for the exit. "You did this to yourself. I felt sorry for you, but not anymore. You knew the risks! Amber needed her Mother! We don't have a Father and now she's going to be an orphan!"

"You don't understand how sorry I am, but I don't regret conducting my research," his Mother stated, her eyes filled with tears, her bottom lip wobbling slightly. "I'm a scientist, and you know that."

"No," Anthony huffed, shaking his head. "Not anymore. Now you're just a failure of a parent."

•••

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