Sold to the Alpha With Silver Eyes - Chapter 52: Chapter 52

It takes everything in my power to not reach out to Leoni and Topher through the mind link looking for their input, but at this hour of the night, it would likely set them off in a panic. Something is wrong. I can feel it in the way my chest refuses to relax, the muscles spasming as I rub along my rib cage as though I’d been struck.
Shit, if I look back now, nothing has felt right since Eden made it clear she wants nothing to do with me. Just thinking about her makes my stomach burn and I groan, sitting on the edge of my bed. What the fuck is going on? I can’t sit still any longer as I rush to my bathroom, tossing the shower on the coldest setting before I shed my clothes and jump in.
I gasp at the temperature change, my muscles tensing as I press my fists against the wall, forcing myself to stay under the stream. After a moment, my body adjusts to the temperature, the tension in my shoulders relaxing enough to finally suck in a full breath of air.
My eyes slip closed, my body shaking in the water as I punish myself and my unruly nerves for their attack on my mind. It takes great effort to remain still until I can no longer handle it and I twist the knob toward heat, groaning in relief before it turns into a burning sensation. I need to feel something, anything other than this feeling eating away at me.
The lycan side of me is just as uneasy, the anxiousness seeping into my soul with every passing second as I growl and slam my fist into the tiled wall. Every passing second only feeds my annoyance and anger as I forcefully shut off the water and towel off.
Steam swirls around the bathroom, the mirror cloudy as I step up to the counter and lean on it, trying to catch my breath yet again. Then I see it. Tucked deep into the fresh vase of white flowers, nearly invisible to me, is a hint of blue, the tiniest of Wolfsbane.
My lips curl up in anger, my hand swiping it from the counter with an enraged bellow. Shards of glass dance across the counter, spilling to the floor as water splashes around, the small blue flower drenched and held down by a piece of broken glass.
How long has someone been slipping this into my fresh flowers? The same vase of flowers, my uncle insists, ben in every room. My lycan has slowly grown more agitated, harder to control, and my mind flustered. My only clarity was when I was with Eden. Could that be because no one could get to me with this poisonous plant?
The more pressing question being, who else has this in their room? I storm out of my room, rushing down the hall to the room next to mine, tearing the door from its hinges as the warrior sits up on high alert.
“Stay where you are,” I order him in a menacing growl.
Moving to his bathroom and looking at his flowers. Nothing. It can’t just be me, but clearly it is not everyone. So I sprint my way to Jasmine’s room, hammering at her door until she opens it, eyes sleepy until she looks at the state of me and her eyebrows raise in concern. She drags me by my wrist into her room, flipping on the light as I rush to the bathroom, with her hot on my heels.
“What the fuck are you doing?” She hisses.
I ignore her as I grab the vase in the corner on her bathroom counter and dump it into the sink, a little blue wolfsbane flower sticking out against the stark white marble.
“Damn it,” I grind out, trying to control myself as I spin and pace.
“Dev!” she says, shoving me to the side. “Why the fuck are you naked and wet while in my damn bathroom?”
“Something has been off. My brain is mush and I can’t focus. My lycan is taking over at times and I am losing the ability to do anything about it.” I try to explain, but she looks at me like I have grown a second dick.
“So you are going crazy and forgot your clothes?” She scoffs. “When I said to make people believe we want each other, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“Look in the damn sink!” I point, and her eyes follow my finger before she moves closer and leans over.
“What the hell…” she murmurs, grabbing a washcloth and extracting the plant from the sink. “Someone is trying to make me weak?” She frowns, looking up at me, confused.
“Not just you,” I mutter, moving toward her room to leave. Jasmine rushes behind me.
“Woah, woah, woah, where are you going?” She asks, a towel in her hand. “If you are leaving, put this one. The last thing you want is it getting back to Eden that you left my room naked.”
I frown, taking the towel and wrapping it around my waist.
“It’s better if hates me anyway,” I mutter, moving through her room with ease to her bedroom door only for it to fly open and for Nate to be standing in the doorway, his cheeks flushed red, murder in his eyes.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He growls, his voice low and commanding. Nothing like the Nate I thought I once knew, but after that night in the dungeon, who I thought I knew ceased to exist. Everything surrounding him is a lie, but I can’t figure out why or the motive for it.
“Why would you care what I am doing in my chosen mate’s room?” I ask, looking at him in disgust as he pans his eyes over to Jasmine, who looks as confused as I pretend to be.
“But you aren’t mated yet.” He reminds me and I scoff, giving him a gentle but intimidating shove to the shoulder, sending him into the hallway.
“Since when does anyone wait for their mating ceremony before fucking around, Nate?” I ask, tilting my head.
“What would Eden say?” He whispers low, his gaze filled with fire. I step back into the room, reaching to my waist as I shut the door slowly, yanking on my towel just before the door clicks. Then I whip around and stare at Jasmine.
“We need to check on Eden.” I whisper, dragging her to the window.
“Holy shit dude, seriously, you are all over the place. I can’t hardly follow what you actually want to do.”
“I want to protect Eden, and keep my title, and figure out what the fuck my uncle wants and who is poisoning us…” I groan, annoyed, before pinching the bridge of my nose. “Just get out the fucking window.”
“Is she in trouble?” She asks, suddenly eager to do whatever she needs to in order to see Eden again.
“I don’t know. I can’t think clearly in this fucking house, so I need to leave. Are you coming or not?” I hiss at her as I slide the window open.
“Hell yes, I am.” She straightens her back and moves over to the door, ignoring the repeated knocking as Nate calls her name. I pause, looking at the door and then at her.
“How long have you known about that crush of his?” I ask her and she frowns, looking over her shoulder.
“It’s complicated.” She mutters, her cheeks burning before she hustles out the window and drops to her feet with a light thud.
I follow her out the window, the two of us sprinting through the woods, me in nothing as I shift into my lycan form, making better time as she shifts and strides along behind me. It doesn’t take us long to get to Leoni’s, the lights out in every window but a stench in the air that makes my stomach recoil.
Jasmine rings the doorbell, a light popping on as I hear Leoni rushing around before the door yanks open and her eyes grow wide.
“Why are you naked?” She asks me before scowling at Jasmine, “And why the hell are you here?”
I don’t have the patience for this shit, so I push her to the side, rushing through her house as I skitter into the wall at the base of the stairs before righting myself and rushing up to Eden’s room. My heart is pounding in my throat, my ears ringing as I slow down for the first time tonight and swallow the lump in my throat.
Sweat covers my quivering hand as I reach out and twist the knob, the door swinging open, a cool breeze coming from the open window as I step in, flipping the light switch.
“What is that odd smell?” Leoni asks, her face ashen as she looks around, the room looks clean, not like there was a fight but the scent is enough for us to know that Eden is not only gone but that something was used to help remove her without too much of an alarm being raised.
“Fuuuuuck.” my chest rumbles as I hammer my fist through the wall in a fit of rage, my lycan trying to take charge as I fight for control. “Find the fuckers who were supposed to be keeping an eye on her now!”
“Yes, Alpha.” Leoni sprints from the room.
“Why didn’t Leoni smell that?” Jasmine whispers, looking around. “It’s potent.”
“I don’t know,” I admit before I peek out the window.
“Well, we can’t just do nothing. We have to send someone after her.” Jasmine insists as I nod along, knowing exactly who is going after her.
Leaving means I give up my title. I lose everything, the future I dreamed about and planned for to honor my father and brother. And yet, my heart doesn’t ache for the loss of it. It aches with missing her, full of fear of what might happen without protection.
“I am going after her.” I say, the answer is so easy and I have never been more clearheaded than right now.
“Dev, you give up everything if you leave this pack.” Jasmine says, her eyes wide.
“She IS everything, Minnie.”