Veer released my hand and blinked slowly. Confusion clouded over his face as he looked into my eyes. The red rings around his irises glowed furiously. I clutched his hand and snuggled closer to him before whispering, "Forgive Radhe, please. He has no fault in this. It was me who should be punished."

Veer stiffened at my words. After a small pause, he asked hesitantly, "What did you do?"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I had to do it... to save him."

Veer's brows furrowed for the briefest moment before realization crossed his face. The shift was immediate. His eyes turned viciously red and inhuman. He shoved me away from him, gripping my arms so tightly I winced in pain. "No! You didn't—tell me YOU DIDN'T DO IT!"

My confession had both shocked and infuriated him severely at the same time.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO!" His voice trembled with anger and helplessness. "I told you, the doctors would find a cure! Why didn't you wait?" He shook me violently, his words sharp, each one cutting deeper. "You've made both of us weak. Do you understand that?"

I felt the pang in my chest while my eyes were glued to Veer's aggrieved face. Weak? How could my blood possibly weaken them? My blood was potent. It was supposed to give them strength.

I observed Veer closely. I could see the pain in his eyes, the betrayal etched deep in his features. It felt like a chasm had opened between us, one that might never be bridged again. Tears welled up in my eyes as I tried to make him understand. "I couldn't just stand by and watch him die. I had to act. It was the only way I could save him."

He released me abruptly, as if my touch had burned him. "But at what cost?" he demanded angrily, his face contorted with anguish. "You've changed everything. You don't even understand what you've done. Things will be difficult, Urvi. Very much so."

I took a shaky breath, feeling the weight of my actions crashing down on me. "I don't know why you're so disgruntled by my action, Veer. I'm just trying to save him! Like everyone else!" I exclaimed. "I can't see either of you in absence of the other. I just can't, and for that, if I have to pay the price, I will pay for it no matter how much it cost me."

Veer frowned as his jaws clenched. For a moment, we just sat there staring at each other, the silence between us remained heavy with unspoken words and unexpressed pain. I could only hope that Veer would understand why I did what I did. But in that moment, it felt like I have broken his trust somehow and it was irreversible.

Veer broke the eye contact first. He swiftly turned his head away and stood up hastily. I copied his movements swiftly. But before I could make another desperate plea, he dashed out of the hospital in a blur.

My shoulders slumped down as I saw him vanishing into the forest. My eyes darted toward Radhe and widened in alarm immediately. I had completely forgotten about him while trying to persuade Veer.

"Doctor!" I screamed. "Doctor!" As I rushed to his side and collapsed beside him.

"Radhe!" I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as he finally gave in and fell over the ground, losing consciousness.

"Radhe!" I had no idea what to do now. I couldn't possibly use my blood again to heal him. Could I? That might be the worse decision to even consider after what just transpired between me, Ved and Veer.

My eyes shifted from Radhe to the other pack members lying on the floor before wildly scanning the area. Veer's parents were seated there. But I couldn't see them anymore. Where did they go? What should I do now? "Oh God!" I panicked.

"Doctor!" I screamed again as my eyes burned and tears gathered in them. I shook Radhe helplessly while the tears streamed down my face. "Radhe, please please please!" I whispered with a broken voice. I'd never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to him. He was the first family I reconciled with after my exile. I didn't want to lose him just yet.

Please, lord! Help him!

While I was praying from a place of distress and ineptitude, help arrived. Veer's parents, doctors, nurses and several other pack members came running toward us. After showing the initial shock, everyone got to work almost immediately. I was watching with teary eyes as they lifted Radhe and the other wolves and placed them on the stretchers when I felt someone's hand wrapping around my shoulder. I looked at the person. It was Abhay.

"Abhay!" I cried out. "What-this all-I-" I couldn't form proper words as he comforted me. "Sshh...it's fine. This is normal for us Urvi. We're used to violence. Even within the pack. Things get bloody at times. No need to stress too much. Everything will be alright."

"No, it won't." I shook my head. "The damage has been done. You can't undo a damage."

"We can't undo a damage, true. But we can attempt to replace the loss," Abhay responded, his voice steady and comforting. "Urvi, the past is already written and gone. We can't do anything about it. But we can definitely shape our future. That's still in our control."

I was about to deny but he interrupted me before I could. "Damages can't break a wolf, Urvi. You should engrave this in your mind forever. We're a bunch of dominating beings. We rise, we fight, and we rebuild ourselves stronger than ever. Wolves are unstoppable, Urvi. Stop worrying like humans. They'll be fine."

He wiped my tears and patted my head. "Get yourself together. We still have a lot of fights in front of us. You can't just fall weak in the very beginning of it."

I sniffled but understood what he tried to convey. I couldn't break just yet. Even if I couldn't feel like it, I'd have to at least pretend to be strong. It was the price I'd have to pay for the wolf-blood running in my veins.

Veer's parents although didn't say anything to my face directly, but I could feel their disapproval in every pointed glance. My eyes wavered, avoiding their judgment, and asked Abhay to take me to Ved's room.

Abhay didn't argue. He wrapped his arm around me, the warmth of his touch offering some comfort, and led me there. Once we reached the door, Abhay stood there for a moment, staring at Ved helplessly. Then he cleared his throat uncomfortably and offered to get me a drink. I nodded, almost absently, still focused on Ved.

Without another word, Abhay left, leaving me alone with the stillness of the room, and with him—the one who I might lose.

As I focused my undivided attention to Ved, my eyes welled up as the helpless ache in my chest threatened to swallow me whole. He looked so vulnerable that it nearly broke my heart...all over again. I wiped the tears away roughly with the back of my hand, but they kept falling freely anyway. Both my eyes and chest burned as I took three long strides to reach his side.

There was a small stool beside his bed. I pulled it closer to the bed and sat down on it.

A whisper left my mouth while the ache in my heart returned with full blast. "I'm sorry. I don't want to lose you. Neither of you. You helped me when there was no one. I can't let you go now." I reached forward and took his now almost pale and cold hand in mine and held it softly. "Please Ved, come back." I squeezed his hand tighter as my fingers shook faintly. "Please, Ved. Come back to me." My voice trembled as the words left my mouth.

~~~

Several hours later, I was still sitting beside Ved's bed, waiting for some signs of his return. But so far there was none. I refused to leave his side when Abhay and Ved's parents came and asked me to return to the packhouse. I couldn't leave him in this stage. I had to take the responsibilities of my actions. No matter what, I was somehow connected to this whole situation. It wouldn't be an exaggeration if I claimed to be the kernel of it.

Meanwhile, Veer...Veer hadn't come back. After our fight, I hadn't seen him. I was worried for him and asked Abhay to keep an eye on him. Although Abhay said it was normal for werewolves to clash at times, especially when tempers flared, I could certainly sense, he was worried too.

However there was some small solace in the fact that Radhe and the other wolves were healing faster than expected. That was one good thing. One small victory in this storm.

As night fell, Ashifa and Abhay returned to take me back to the packhouse, but I refused. I wasn't leaving. Not until Veer came for me. I needed him. I wanted him to come to me, to tell me everything was going to be okay. Only then would I leave Ved's side.

So, helplessly, they left me alone with Ved.

~~~

The room was heavy with silence, the kind that you experience in the deep of the forest like a cold, suffocating fog. I hadn't moved from Ved's side for hours. My back ached from the uncomfortable position I'd stayed in, but I refused to leave. Not until I knew he was going to be alright. Every minute that passed felt like an eternity, and every passing moment without a sign of life from him was like a knife twisting in my chest.

The memory of what had happened—the fight with Noraak's son, the way Ved had fallen to the ground, the poison spreading in his body—haunted me like an unshakable shadow. I couldn't lose him in an unfair war. Not after everything. Not when I was finally starting to understand my place in all of this madness.

I didn't realize when I had fallen asleep until I felt a warm, familiar touch on my face, moving slowly, almost as if testing to see if I would react. I blinked a few times, my brain still fuzzy from the haze of exhaustion. As I became fully conscious of my surroundings, my eyes shot open wide.

I froze, then jumped up, instantly alert. My heart leaping into my throat as I focused on the person beside me. Ved was conscious.

His beautiful eyes though were looking tired, but they were shining bright as always. There was something in the way they shone, something I couldn't quite name. His lips curled at the corner as he saw me studying him without blinking my eyes. After the initial bewildered phase, my eyes dropped to his chest, where the wound had been. It was almost fully healed, leaving only a faint reddish mark behind as proof of what had happened. My fingers brushed over the place lightly, worrying not to hurt him. He winced slightly, but didn't stop me.

"Is it hurting?" I whispered, my voice barely audible as the dread in my chest twisted.

He shook his head slightly, not enough to be certain, but enough for me to feel the quiet relief that washed over me.

I breathed out audibly, the tension that had been clenching my chest for so long finally loosening. But when I lifted my gaze back to his face and focused into his eyes, my body stiffened. My heart stilled at what I was witnessing.

Those two prominent red rings around his irises were unmistakable. My breathe caught in my throat as I sat there flabbergasted like a ghost. A surge of realization hit me all at once, and even though I barely knew the flamboyant norms of the supernatural world, my instincts told me the unfortunate truth. Unknowingly I did what might lead my life to a different location where I knew, there's no way back to normal life.

I had marked my Mates. Both of them.