Chapter 12: Nothing But A Failure
1021 Words
"What happened to him?!" Kendrick asked as Collon and the rest of the people who went with Alpha Elton rushed back into the Pack and directly to the Pack clinic with a bleeding Alpha Elton.
"He's wounded and bleeding, obviously," Collon replied.
"I can see that! I mean, why isn't he healing? What happened in the duel?"
"They cheated," Collon breathed out, his fist clenching tightly, but his eyes refused to meet Kendrick's as he stared at the wall before looking around the long clinic hallway. "Alpha Jones used wolfsbane on his claws."
"That's a piece of..."
"Language, young man," Elder Ambrose warned. "It was our fault for thinking they would play fair. We should have checked all the boxes, seeing how their Pack has always been hostile towards ours."
"I'm sure if you went with us, you would have checked, Beta Kendrick," Tobi, a warrior, added under his breath. "You were always that careful."
The room fell silent as Collon glared at Tobi, his jaw tightening. Kendrick, however, didn’t take the bait. He was too focused on the pale figure of his father, lying on the bed behind the closed doors, his breathing shallow and uneven.
"Correct! I would have checked because that was what was meant to happen; even in friendly duels, you have to check that nothing would go wrong," Kendrick admitted quietly. "I should have been there."
"You were ordered to stay behind; it's barely your fault," Elder Ambrose said gently, placing a firm hand on Kendrick’s shoulder. "You did your duty. Don’t blame yourself. None of us saw it coming."
"I did. I knew something was off. I felt uneasy about the whole damned situation."
"I felt a lot of things were out of place, like why would they suddenly ask for a friendly duel when they have been the ones attacking us for months?… I should have insisted on going with you all instead of Collon," Kendrick argued; his fist was balling tighter as he took a deep breath.
"As much as I would like to agree, we didn't see it coming. We did… at least I did," he continued as he looked into Collon's eyes. "You promised me you guys were ready for any surprises... You didn't think Wolfsbane in an unfriendly Pack was part of the surprises?"
"It could have been anything else... Snipper sneak attack? A witch attack, an ambush... Did you even bother to check everything instead of looking forward to the fun?" Kendrick demanded as he glared at Collon.
"Are you blaming me?" Collon growled while stepping closer to him with his chest puffed out. "You think I purposely allowed Father to get attacked?"
"Obviously? If you were careful enough. If you allowed yourself a moment of..."
"Both of you, cut it out. This is not the place or the time for whatever you're about to do," Elder Ambrose cut in as he placed his staff on the ground.
"What's done is done, and we should find solutions instead of arguing about what could have been."
Hearing his words, the two stepped away from each other, and Kendrick punched the wall before turning to the doctor who just walked out of the Alpha's ward.
"How bad is it?" He asked.
The elderly woman glanced at him and shook her head with a sigh. "The wolfsbane has spread," she announced, making everyone frown.
"That's not possible… it shouldn't have spread that fast given the Alpha's healing abilities," Collon muttered.
"Well, that's true, but it's mixed with something else—something that resists healing even further. We’ve slowed it, but if we can’t flush it out soon…" she didn’t finish the sentence, but her silence said enough.
"Well, can you identify the other substance?" Kendrick asked, and the doctor shook her head.
"We haven't been able to identify it. And it appears that the poison has been in his body longer than the wolfsbane," she explained.
"What does that mean?"
"It means he had been poisoned before, but the poison lay dormant, and it got triggered by the wolfsbane, and both poisons are now working together in the Alpha's body."
"How do we flush it out then? What do we need?"
"We don't know yet...we'll keep searching. But for now, he'll have to remain in our care until we find the poison and a way to cure him. But it's estimated that he has about ten days to live if we don't find a cure as soon as possible," she explained and walked away, leaving the crowd stunned.
"She's kidding, right?" Collon asked but got no response.
"We need the witches," Elder Ambrose muttered. "They might be able to cleanse the poison."
"I'm not sure any of the witches would agree to come to our pack; we've been hostile towards them for ages," Someone noted, suddenly dampening their moods.
"There has to be an exception, right? We can't just give up without trying, can we?" Collon replied.
Kendrick nodded. "I’ll go to them myself."
"You’ll do no such thing," Collon snapped. "You’re not the Alpha yet. You stay here and manage the Pack like you were told."
"I’m the Beta," Kendrick shot back, standing tall. "It’s my job to protect this Pack... and it's Alpha, where you failed to do so as his personal guard and first son!"
"You've been nothing but an egotistical jerk showing off in the Pack without contributing a damn thing to it! You throw your weight around and then blame people for your failure... You expect me to trust you with such an important assignment when you've been nothing but a failure?"
Collon took a step forward, his eyes narrowing. "Say that again."
"Enough!" Elder Ambrose barked, stepping between them. "This is not time for a pissing contest. Collon, you’ll lead the warriors and tighten border patrols. Kendrick, gather whatever you need and ride for the witches’ coven. Take only those you trust. We don’t know who might try something next."
Collon scowled but didn’t argue. Kendrick nodded once before looking back at his father.
"I’ll come back with a cure," he whispered. "Just hang on.”
- Writer
