Chapter 137

Ava

The next morning, Chris and I headed straight to the clinic, the small plastic baggie containing the mysterious white powder clutched tightly in Chris’s hand. We didn’t waste a single moment; as soon as the clinic opened, we were headed out, barely even having slept all night.

“What do you think it is?” Chris muttered under his breath, his brow furrowed, as we walked into town.

I shook my head as I gnawed on my lower lip. We had spent all night puzzling over it, but were ultimately too frightened to open the bag to even see what it smelled like. “I have no idea. But whatever it is, it has to be linked to what happened to that Omega girl. I’m sure of it.”

Chris nodded apprehensively. We both knew the implications; if that Omega girl was meeting this cloaked figure and exchanging… whatever this was with them, then maybe that was why she had been pushed.

And somehow, I had a feeling that this ran deeper than a simple drug exchange. Part of me wanted to believe that this had Olivia written all over it, although I didn’t want to be too hasty to jump to that conclusion just yet.

When we arrived at the clinic, the receptionist took one look at our grim expressions and ushered us straight back to one of the exam rooms. A few minutes later, the resident chemist came bustling in, pushing his wire-rimmed glasses up on his nose.

“What seems to be the trouble, Alpha Chris?” he asked, already warily eyeing the baggie in Chris’s hand.

I glanced at Chris and nodded almost imperceptibly before he took a deep breath and handed it over. “The Acting Luna and I found this on the edge of the forest last night,” he said, avoiding too many details—just in case. “I need you to test it and see what it is. And keep this between us, please.”

The chemist’s eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t protest against his Alpha. “Of course,” he said, taking the baggie and pinching it between his fingers. “Interesting… I’ll be right back.” With that, he scurried off into another room.

As we waited, I couldn’t help but worry the hem of my shirt between my fingers. If this was somehow connected to that poor Omega girl, if some kind of deadly drug ring had made its way into Moonstone… Then this was serious. Really serious.

“Hey.” Suddenly, Chris’s warm hand closed over mine and ripped me out of my reverie. “It’ll be okay, Ava. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

I offered him a tight smile, but before I could respond, the chemist came bursting back into the room with his face having gone pale. Chris quickly dropped my hand.

“This…” The chemist held up the baggie between two gloved fingers, his hand trembling ever so slightly. “...Is Moonbite powder. An extremely potent and dangerous drug.”

My heart plummeted. “A… A drug?” I echoed stupidly.

The chemist nodded grimly. “A highly addictive one at that, and it never leaves a trace in blood or urine samples…”

He shook his head, his expression grave. “If ingested by humans or werewolves, it induces a deep sleep within an hour depending on the person’s constitution. But if rubbed into the gums, it often has the opposite effect on werewolves: violent rage, erratic behavior, a complete loss of control.”

Chris and I exchanged a horrified look. Moonbite powder… I had never heard of it before, and it seemed that Chris hadn’t either.

“Where could it have come from?” Chris asked, narrowing his eyes.

The chemist shook his head quickly. “I’m not sure. It’s an incredibly rare drug, one that has been outlawed in both the human world and werewolf world for over a hundred years. It’s typically made from the root of a moonwillow tree.”

“I see. Thank you,” Chris said, curtly snatching the baggie back. Without another word, he then turned on his heel and stormed out of the clinic, his shoulders tense. I quickly thanked the chemist and scrambled to follow Chris, calling his name.

“Chris, wait!” I caught up to him just outside the clinic and grabbed his arm, tugging him to a stop. “What are we going to do?”

He fixed me with a blazing look, his jaw clenched. “We’re going to track down that person we saw last night; and we’re going to squeeze every last drop of information out of them before someone else gets seriously hurt.”

I stared at his intense expression for a long moment, my heart pounding in my chest. Then, nodding, I released his arm and took a step back. “Alright. Whatever you need to do, do it. With me by your side.”

The fierceness in his expression softened, and he reached for my face—but then his hand fell back to his side when the realization hit him. We couldn’t be too open in public; especially not in broad daylight. And besides…

Stepping back, he lowered his voice.

“There’s something else we need to discuss,” he said.

“What is it?” I asked, although somehow I already knew the answer to that question.

Chris eyed me warily for a few moments, his throat bobbing as he swallowed, before he said, “I want to continue our relationship.”

My eyes widened. “Chris, we can’t—”

“I don’t give a shit what we can and can’t do.” He paused, pressing his lips into a thin line. “I want you, Ava. I’m not afraid anymore.”

For several long moments, my tongue worked uselessly in my mouth like a puppet with no strings attached. Finally, I dropped my gaze to my feet and wrung my hands. “Don’t forget about Elise,” I whispered. “We still don’t know what she meant by what she said to me the other night.”

Chris’s jaw tightened. “You’re right; and before we announce our relationship publicly, we’ll handle her. I won’t have an Elder going around threatening others; not on my watch.”

“So…” I paused, slowly lifting my gaze to meet his. “After that…”

“After I handle Elise, I want to announce our relationship—and my intent to marry you. No more of this, Ava.” He paused, and this time, he didn’t stop himself from reaching out to touch my chin with his thumb and forefinger, sending a shiver down my spine. “I can’t take this anymore.”

His words made my heart skip a beat. Despite those who still stood against us, I knew that this was the right thing to do—what we should have done all along. Announce our love, say goodbye to the old customs even if it pissed people off.

But not quite yet. Soon, though.

Finally, I nodded, a tiny smile flickering across my lips. I bit my lower lip to quell it, although it hardly worked. “Alright,” I murmured. “We’ll try again.”

Chris beamed in response like a kid on Christmas morning. Wordlessly, he stooped down to pluck a flower from the clinic’s front garden—a white rose, one of my favorites. He studied it for a moment, picking off a few dried leaves attached to the stem, before he went to hand it to me with that sheepish gleam in his eyes that I had missed so much these past few weeks.

But before he could, a shrill voice cut across the square and caused us both to turn. A head of red hair bobbed toward us, a freckled hand waving delicately at Chris.

“Alpha Chris!” Amelia cried out, jogging to catch up. “Alpha Chris! I was just looking for you!”