Pretty Red Eyes (previously "KING, AGAIN")

49| the other man

49; the other man

By the time enough of the poison had exited Valius's body for him to regain control again, the sun had already peeked its way into the day, signalling the start of a new day.

Gone was the night, and so was Chelsea.

Valius's jaw tightened as he thought back to the last six hours.

Six fucking hours.

That's how long it had taken him to recover from the poison she had clawed into him. All these years of experience with silver, and he was still paralysed the second it hit his bloodstream. It was pathetic.

He had let her slip away just like that.

He raised his arm to touch his tense temper, only to be stopped short by the pull of his open wound. A hiss of pain escaped his teeth as he slowly lowered his arm back down.

Beta Ryan cringed at Valius's action as he continued to roll the bandage around the injury on Valius's bicep. "You are honestly asking for it if your wound starts tearing up again."

Adjusting uncomfortably in his half-sitting lean on his office desk, Valius stayed limped to let Beta Ryan finish up his patching. "It's my dominant hand. I'm too used to using it."

"Well, you got to stop doing that now. The pack doctor said there's still traces of poison in your system, I doubt you'll be seeing recovery as fast as you're used to this time."

Valius groaned, unsatisfied with his diagnosis. The frustration was rolling off him like bad radiation.

"I've things to get onto. There's no time to recover slowly." He growled.

Time was ticking.

He had no idea where Chelsea had disappeared to, which direction she had taken into the woods, if she had already made it out of his gates, and if so, how had she escaped his security. Hell, he didn't even know the reason why she ran again.

Valius needed to find her.

Beta Ryan clipped the bandage in place before slapping a hand over it roughly. The surge of pain caused Valius to yank his arm back, cradling it to his chest, and hissed at his beta in threat. "What's your issue?"

"You. Need. To. Recover." Beta Ryan emphasised, before turning to pack away his first aid toolkit.

It's already been six hours.

The voice in Valius's head reminded, eating at him with the panic feeling that was slowly but surely filling up his chest. The animal in him wanted to sniff out her lingering scent and chase her down immediately.

"She went out of the window." Valius blurted out, the words escaped him like he hadn't even realized he was saying his thoughts out loud. Beta Ryan suspected that he probably didn't know he was. "She fucking ran."

"She also poisoned you. Ripped your skin and flesh open, and stuck silver into your blood." Beta Ryan pointed out. His tone had been neutral but the subtle hostility in his words were still apparent to familiar ears. He had been torn with conflicting feelings after finding his friend doubled over on the floor, left by his mate to bleed out in the middle of the night. How could a mate inflict pain on their other half like this and bolt?

It had baffled the Beta.

But Valius's mate had never been one to appear overly hateful or cruel too. He could not understand what was happening from the outside.

Valius flexed and rolled his shoulders while slowly moving his injured arm back to his side, testing its mobility as he pushed. "I did give her the ammunition to shoot the gun," he admitted quietly.