Chapter 16.

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I listened to the silence of Karabo's house as I packed my bag. I had left it for the last minute because we had been out all night and as soon as we got home we both were so tired we went right to bed. Ironically, as soon as I got to bed, I couldn't sleep. There were no nightmares this time because I was way too restless to sleep at all. Needless to say, three hours later, here I was packing and I can't say I wasn't relieved to finally be getting back to my own bed. I was beyond sleep-deprived.

When I was done packing, I lay back down beside my bag and listened to Tamia's phone alarm go off before it was followed by Ben's. We had booked a pretty early flight.

I stayed still, dreading having to see Karabo for some reason. My chest felt tight and hot. I knew the heat was coming more from my wolf. After being down for hours, he seemed to be becoming both angry and desperate. Luckily, I could handle that pretty well and just kept him locked in easily.

Eventually, hearing everyone in the dining room, I forced myself off my bed and made my way downstairs. I grinned greeting everyone before I was caught in a tight hug by Thandi that made me chuckle.

"I wish you didn't have to leave so soon, I've only just met you guys," she said. I glanced behind Thandi while I hugged her and watched Karabo avoid my eyes as he stared at the scrambled eggs on his plate.

"I wish so too," I said. "It would have been nice to stay longer, but my pack needs me," I mumbled.

"I know, honey," she said glancing at her son, of course she did. "Eat."

I nodded and joined everyone seated at the dining table.

Breakfast was pretty normal, except for the part where if I got a million for every time I heard Karabo's voice, I would be completely broke. The most interaction I saw from him was when he looked up from his food to reach for the apple juice in the middle of the table.

I felt torn; I needed to head home to take care of everyone, especially now that Paps and Sean were weak. Karabo wasn't making it any easier. It's not like I wanted to leave so early, why was he acting like I was choosing to leave for the fun of it?

When we finished eating, Ashton, Ben and Tamia began taking our bags to the car while Karabo and I helped his mom clear the table and clean the dishes; that was until she got a call that left us alone in the kitchen. It was weird hearing just the sound of plates on plates as I dried them while Karabo washed. We were never awkward, we argued a lot but the uneasiness between us was new and I hated it.

"Are you driving us?" I asked.

"Yeah, mom's got to get to work." He replied.

We lapsed back into silence and packed everything away before I hugged his mom again saying goodbye as she left for work.

"Your flight?" I looked at Karabo hearing him speak.

"Is in an hour and a half." I glanced at my watch returning a smile as he gave me one.

"Let's go." I swung my arm onto his shoulders and steered him towards the front door, the car was already in the driveway because Ashton had moved it out of the garage earlier so he could lock up.

The ride to the airport was nothing like breakfast, it was full of all of us laughing as we pointed out some places we had been and Karabo told us more about some sites we drove by. The mood died out once we reached the airport and unloaded our bags.

"I'm going to miss you so much." Karabo chuckled as my sister bear-hugged him tightly.

"I'll miss you too." He replied. "Visit?"

"I will." She smiled.

I watched as Ashton and then Ben hugged my mate before Ben looked at me.

"Uh... We'll go on ahead." He grabbed my bag along with his. I nodded and watched them walk away feeling slightly sick.

I felt my heart pound and tried my best to hide the growing knot in my throat as I turned back to Karabo.

"Karabo." My voice sounded flat.

"Goodbye." I stared at him. My acting skills seemed to have rubbed off on him a little; I could only just hear the faint tremble in his voice. I didn't want to leave him, but I had a pack to lead. I had people to take care of... So did he... I wished he was not an Alpha... I wished it was easier.

"Goodbye." I gave him a nod. I wanted to hug him so badly, but I was afraid that if I did I would not be able to let go.

We stared at each other and I knew we were thinking the same thing. Should I reject him? The pull was not going to go away now that we found each other. If it was the end, why not reject him and save at least one of us a lot of hurt?

I was not ready to do that yet.

"Have a nice flight. Get some sleep, alright?" He said. Neither was he, I guess.

I nodded, "Drive carefully."

"Eli, our flight." I heard Ashton call from the airport door causing me to glance over at them.

I looked at Karabo again. I was not sure if I would be back and I wanted to remember his face. I studied his dark brown eyes that reminded me of my Dad's, the smile lines beside them, his full lips that I loved so so much. I wish he would smile so I could see his nose scrunch up, but his eyes looked hurt. Even with the slight improvement, he really wasn't good at hiding his emotions.

"I should go." I smiled giving Karabo a nod and he returned the same gesture as his eyes dropped from mine.

I turned and began making my way to my friends.

I wanted him to yell that he would come with, like in all of those stupid romantic movies Ben forced us to watch, but as I got further away I heard his car door shut and knew he wasn't going to. He had his own responsibilities...

Once I reached my friends, I heard his car startup as we walked into the airport before he drove off and I was practically choking on the knot in my throat as I tried to swallow it down. My chest felt sore, my head slightly aching from my wolf suddenly reeling as it became clear our mate was really gone.

Inhaling, I shut my eyes for a second trying to calm my wolf. It's fine. It's time to fully focus on our pack again. The work would distract us until we were used to being away from him again.

"Eli." Tamia whispered as she took my wrist to make us stop walking. My gaze moved from her hand to her eyes. Ben and Ashton had gone ahead. I gave her a smile.

"Good thing I didn't tell Dad and Paps that much about him, right?" I asked. She shook her head slowly and tried to hug me but I flung my arm around her shoulder and began following our friends forcing her to walk along with me. "I'm good, Tammy."

"Good? You're leaving your mate –"

"Trust me, it's nothing," I said confidently. "God, I'm so tired. This flight is going to kill me." I groaned with a chuckle as I dropped my head against hers.

Tamia looked at me uncertainly before she nodded seeming stunned and I think I finally managed to fool her.

I fought the urge to look back at the airport entrance. Karabo was gone, I could tell by our pull and it was making worry raise into my chest. A normal side-effect that came with being far away from one's mate according to everyone else. It was the first time in my life I truly wished I wasn't an Alpha.

-----

"Thank you for picking us up, Gary." I paid the taxi driver from our pack before I followed everyone else out. I frowned instantly noticing that there wasn't much sound around us... Gary left to drive someone else to Inferno as I looked around to study the abnormal lack of movement on our pack ground. I thought Gary was exaggerating when he said everyone was afraid to be around each other.

"So, we're going to –" Ben began.

"Get to work. Things seem slow, might be because quite a few people are sick or because everyone's scared. We need to calm everyone down and make things run smoothly again if it isn't that way. Ashton, you're meeting Calvin and the others. Ben, check on the elders. Tamia, see how the pups are doing." I said.

"Got it. So –" Ashton began.

"Text me if it's important. See you later." I cut him off before running towards my parents' house.

They didn't follow me so I was on my own when I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. I listened but didn't hear a sound before realising that I had stopped breathing and was holding my breath. Maybe they just took a drive... Yeah, probably not.

I sighed locking the door before I made my way towards the pack hospital. I walked into the reception area and immediately felt someone grab my arm.

"Alpha, what are you –?" I looked at her as she coughed, her face was covered by a mask, "You are not allowed in here." She said.

"I'm not allowed?" I'm allowed everywhere. "Are Corey and Jayden here?" I asked trying to focus on sniffing out their scents.

"It's contagious, you should not be in here –" she tried, desperation and worry clear in her voice as she tried to tug me towards the door but I stood my ground easily against her.

"Erika, calm down. I'm not leaving. Where are my parents?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, Alpha. I can't tell you. I can't let you stay here –"

"I command you to stop this and tell me where they are." I used my Alpha tone sternly as I looked into her eyes. She let my arm go and stepped back before mumbling the room number. "Thank you," I said walking by her.

I made my way through the hospital waving off anyone that tried to speak to me until I stepped into the door of the hospital room Erika had told me about and stopped as my eyes fell on them. Their beds were side-by-side, but it was Paps that my eyes were glued onto. I had only ever seen him vulnerable once and could barely remember it. It unsettled me to see him as he was at that moment. His skin was pale and glistening with sweat, his heartbeat sounded faint. My eyes shifted to my Dad. He looked like he was just taking a nap. I never thought I would see the day Dad looked stronger than Paps... It seemed to be just appearances though because his heartbeat sounded even weaker.

I walked over slowly and carefully knowing Paps was an incredibly light sleeper. I stopped beside him and lifted my hand to his forehead head. He was cold despite being damp. I opened my mouth to speak but decided against it. He needed sleep. I looked back at my Dad and frowned. He wasn't strong but his hugs were suffocatingly tight. Usually, I would groan and cut it off very quickly when they hugged me but I really wanted that now. I turned my head hearing a groan and heard Paps' heart pick up. Was he having a nightmare?

"Paps –" I was cut off by him jolting awake with tears in his eyes.

"No –" He sat up and seemed to realise very quickly where he was because ripped the needles out of his arms and bolted out of bed.

"Paps, you can't –" I froze as grabbed my face before covering it in a mask he had retrieved from behind me before giving me a hug. I felt calm for a second before he pulled back.

"What the hell are you doing in here, Eli?! You could get sick, where's your dad?"

"T-there." I pointed.

I saw relief wash over his face as he grabbed Dad's hand with his shaking one and pressed it to his lips. So that was what his nightmare was about. He looked back at me as he dropped the hands from his mouth but didn't let Dad's go.

"Eli, you need to get out of here before you catch this." he stared at me sternly.

"But I have to –"

"No." I raised my brows as he cut me off, "No, the only thing you have to do is listen to me." I stared at him surprised, "You get everyone that isn't sick and you leave and don't make Tamia come in here, I don't want her possibly getting sick. I told you to go straight to Inferno when you arrived back and stay there, Eli." He said.

"But... But I have to help. And you and dad –"

"We'll be fine. The only way you could help the pack is if you stay healthy. You can't be -" he sighed in exhaustion and I watched as he sat on the edge of Dad's bed. "You can't be here," he said. "Where... Have you been to inferno yet? Did you check on your brother?" Inferno was Dad's best friend Kaden's pack. The one my Dad belonged to before he joined Galaxy because Paps couldn't leave, him being Beta.

"I was going to call him right after I made sure you were alright," I said.

"Eli, we're fine."

"No, you're not." I glared at him.

He looked at me and sighed. "Is something wrong?"

"Is something wrong?" I coughed in disbelief, "Other than this?" I motioned to the mask on my face and then to him.

He shook his head, "Something else is wrong... Have you been sleeping?" he asked.

"Yeah." I lied. "Paps –"

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" he shut his eyes.

"That's not important right now. Paps, you need rest."

"No, I need to know what's bothering my son." he hissed. "Eli, you don't need to worry about us – any of us here – right now. We're werewolves. Nothing's going to happen. You need to make sure everyone else is alright and help Kai figure out a cure for this." He said.

"I'm not abandoning everyone out here. We can figure all of that out while we're here." I said.

"Eli." He sighed as his eyes met my face and he realised there was no convincing me.

"I have work to do, Paps. Get some rest." He gave a half-nod.

"Check on your brother, okay? Make Tamia go to Inferno." I nodded. "Try to get some sleep." He added.

"I will, Paps." I nodded walking out of the room and hearing him follow behind me.

"Don't come back here unless you have a cure." He said shutting the door behind me and I sighed.

I walked out of the hospital and made my way back home feeling the tiniest bit better knowing that they were alive before I groaned as I shut my eyes. I felt so tired but I knew I would be too restless to actually sleep. I needed to straighten things out.

"Eli!" I raised my brows as I heard Riley shout. She was our Delta of Security, why was she there?

"Riley?" I called as I walked into the house but I stopped as I smelt something I had not smelt the first time I walked in. Wolfsbane?

"Alpha." She ran out of the kitchen and I watched the bottle of water in her hands as she ran up to me. "I ran into Ashton and he said you might be here, there –"

"Did you put wolfsbane in that?" I asked still looking at the water. The smell alone was enough to make my nose burn and stomach twist nauseatingly.

"No. I got it from a tap." My eyes moved to hers and I realised she looked absolutely terrified. "Since yesterday – we tried a few of our houses, we even called packs in cities nearby and it's the same, Alpha. There's wolfsbane in the water."

I furrowed my brows taking the bottle from her. In the water? Could it be connected to the sudden sickness? Was someone was trying to kill us...? Or... drive us out... I clenched my teeth. But if it was just my pack and another wanted us to leave, they would not have poisoned the water. It was probably targeted at all werewolves nearby.

An idiot human in front of a camera was a far stretch but at the moment, that seemed like a plausible explanation...

It did not seem like whoever had done it was trying to kill us, because wasn't the sickness enough for that? Unless it was not connected. For the moment, I was assuming that the two were connected given both problems surfacing at the same time. The wolfsbane would lead us to look for other water sources or would cause us to move to other areas. Maybe they wanted all of us gone or...

"I need you to keep contacting packs and see if anyone's water isn't affected," I said.

"Why...? You want us to move?"

"I doubt. Do that, and have some of the other Deltas get bottled water before we run out." I added. She nodded and left.

If I was right they were trying to drive us to a specific location by making it the only city in surrounding areas with wolfsbane-free water. Whether I was right or wrong, I needed to contact some of the other Alphas and figure out how to clean the water.

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