#Chapter 42 – Memory Lane

Olivia’s POV

He gusts a gentle chuckle and slides his arm around me further. I take that as permission to try and relax, at least for now. I sink into his hold and his warmth, my legs instinctively curling around one of his as I settle in for a long night ahead of us both.

His lips press into my forehead as I close my eyes and dare to drift asleep. I figured tonight would be about me comforting him but instead he seems to be trying to help me relax. It works too. I whimper slightly while drifting into some much-needed rest, Gabriel’s side more and more healed every time I wake up, surrounded by hot water and his protective arm.

I would usually bat his arm away but tonight I’m glad he decides to hold me anyways.

**

It’s a few days before the nurses give Eugene a good bill of health but he has to stay one more night for observation after healing from his wounds in the rogue attack. I spend most of the day with him, stealing the dessert from his dinner tray and returning to my little spot on the couch where my work is set up.

I’ve managed to keep the suspicious bottle I found hidden from sight and I curl up with my laptop, going back through a few charity documents while Eugene tries his hardest to distract me. He doesn’t talk about the attack, and I don’t dare to bring it up.

“Hey,” he says, his voice nagging as it has been all day. He throws his empty plastic bottle at me, begging for attention like a toddler. “Hey, Olivia. Come over here. I’m bored. Let’s play a game of cards.”

“I can’t beat a man in a game of cards while he’s hurt—it wouldn’t be nice,” I joke.

Eugene flutters the deck between his hands. “Come on, please. I’m bored!”

“You need rest, Eugene,” I snicker, not even daring to look up from my work.

“I’m being released tomorrow from my own staff, under my own treatment plan. I’m fine. This is literally just a formality in case I fall on the way to the bathroom or something.”

“Then I suggest you hold your pee,” I say back, taunting him outright.

He groans but finally he settles back in bed. I continue my work as the sun goes down and feel my eyes straining to see the laptop in the dark. My body is weary as well and I ignore the call to rest for too long. I slouch forward, my eyes resting for what feels like three seconds, until I’m shaken awake by a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I sit upright, reaching for the computer in my lap that is no longer there. I rub my tired, heavy eyes and glance sideways, Alpha Herold bent over beside the couch where I sit, unknowingly sleep, and his tired eyes show he could probably use a night of rest.

“What—” I breathe, reminding myself that although I despise Herold, it isn’t unforeseen to run into him in the hospital where his brother is admitted. I stop my harsh tone short and eye Eugene, sleeping blissfully in his bed. “I can leave you alone with him, if you want.”

“No, no,” Alpha Herold hums. “I don’t want to disturb him. I didn't want to wake you either but I had a question?”

It’s too early in the morning and I’m too exhausted to fight with him. I concede my hateful tone and ask in a gentle voice, “What do you need to ask?”

He brings his hand up, clutching the bottle full of cloudy, white liquid inside. “Where did you find this exactly?”

The lump in my throat seizes. “I found—it’s nothing—I just—”

“I’ve seen this before,” he cuts in. “I have smelled this liquid in the past.”

I perk up, my hands rattling in my lap with running dread. “You have?”

“Yeah, I have something just like it in my pack house.”

Every part of my body is throbbing in heat now. “How?”

He glances back toward his brother and straightens up, whispering his reply, “Perhaps we should move to the cafeteria for now. Just so we don’t wake up my brother.”

Normally, I would jump at any opportunity to shoot down an offer from Alpha Herold. Tonight is very different. I agree and follow him out of the room, tiptoeing past Eugene while we head downstairs in utter, tense silence. I want him to start explaining now but he takes his time fixing us two cups of coffee.

I sit down, sipping my coffee and trying to subdue a look of shock on my face.

“Something wrong with the coffee, Queen Luna?”

“No,” I admit shamefully. “Cream and sugar, right?”

“Of course.”

I hide the look of surprise but I’m not very good at it. This was my coffee order when I was Olivia, when I was his false, useless mate in my last life. Why he would fix it for me now as the Queen Luna is baffling to me but I know he has had his suspicions since the funeral he held for his mate. If I bring it up now, I’ll only bring more attention to those conspiracies.

No matter if they’re true or false in his mind.

“What can you tell me about that bottle?” I ask, leaning back in our cold booth, the cafeteria dark and empty while the world outside rains profusely. He sets the bottle on the table in between us but doesn’t break eye contact with me for a moment. “What do you have at your pack that is similar?”

“It’s a different bottle but the liquid inside is cloudy and thick, like cough syrup.” He sips on his coffee, speaking quiet like we are in front of his slumbering brother still. “It was left by Alicia. When she grabbed all of her stuff from my packhouse, I guess it fell out of her bag.”

I growl at the mention of that treacherous snake’s name. “Of course it belongs to her.”

“Where did you find this one?”

I look at the gentle, wandering storm outside. “It was at the field where the rogues attacked our pack. Eugene and I were separated but when I caught back up with Gabriel, I found this bottle. I don’t know why the rogues would have it though, if it is something that witch had left behind at your house as well.”

“I can bring it back to compare,” he hums, leaning forward as he hold his warm cup in both of his massive palms. “I don’t know where I put it exactly. I might need help.”

I knit my brows in curiosity. “You want me to help you go find it?”

Relief flickers over his otherwise tense features. “That would help a lot. Maybe if we get them both together we can take it to have them both tested. That way if they have similar properties we know that it has something to do with that snake.”

Part of me doesn’t trust Herold but another part of me is focused on Mara and Reese especially. If this has anything to do with Alicia, with the poison she has spread around to other wolves, than I have to get it in a lab with someone who can curate an antidote.

“Probably shouldn’t tell Gabriel,” Alpha Herold mumbles, his voice strictly in a heavy exhale. He looks aside, something so uneasy about his slouching posture now. “He doesn’t like me all that much right now.”

“Neither do I,” I admit blatantly.

He winces. “If there is ever a hope of changing that, I won’t squander it.”

“Just promise that this trip is strictly about finding the cure for Reese’s illness. I can’t focus on forgiveness; on anything you think you deserve right now.”

“Of course,” he says. “But for the record, I never said I deserved forgiveness.”

“Good. You will not receive it anytime soon.”

We leave the hospital together in the dead of night.