Tolerance

*NOT EDITED*

One month later...

"Calista," I heard someone softly say my name, waking me up from my nap. I felt the strain in my neck and back as I woke up from the uncomfortable position I was sleeping in, but willed myself to sit upright.

"Yeah?" I reply groggily as I stare at Mason's worried face.

"Why don't you try to sleep in your bed tonight? It might be better for you. You've been napping in this hunched over position on his hospital bed since Axel was admitted, and you're barely letting your body get any rest."

"It's okay, I want to stay, so that I'm here for Axel when he wakes up," I explained.

"Calista, it's been a month, and he barely seems to be getting better. There is a big chance that he won't wake up. You need to understand that. He wouldn't want you wasting your days in his hospital room," Mason counters.

"He is going to wake up, Mase. I can feel it. He's my mate, I would know if he wasn't going to make it. And I am not wasting my days. I have been performing all of Axel's duties and making sure that everything in the pack is running smoothly like it should. Why is everyone mourning him, when he isn't even dead yet?"

"Calista, you're hurt, and I don't know what you are going through because I haven't lost my mate. But, he is my best friend, who I spent every waking moment of my life with. Trust me that my heart is broken, but he wouldn't want us to just be sitting around just waiting for him to wake up. I know you have been doing a wonderful job with the pack, but you haven't been taking care of yourself at all. You have lost so much weight, you barely sleep, and you have all the added stress of running the pack. If Axel wakes up and sees how much you are hurting yourself because of him, it would knock him back into his coma again," Mason released a half-hearted chuckle.

"I just feel that if I left and something happened, then I am not there for him when he needs me most," I say as caress the smooth skin of his face that I shaved yesterday.

"I'll stay with him for now, if you want to leave and take a shower and rest for a little bit. I will mind-link you if anything happens. I promise."

"I'll leave in a little bit. I just want to stay here for a little while longer," I conclude with a smile, letting him know that his efforts were appreciated, but I am not ready to walk out of this hospital room just yet.

"Did you finish the speech for the remaining Councilmen's executions tomorrow?" he asks me.

"Yeah, I did. It's done, but I don't know why we even need to do this," I say.

"Well, we need to address the pack as a whole when we kill a bunch of traitors. It sends a stronger message that we will not be messed with. And honestly, we need to make sure everyone understands what happened. It doesn't do us any good if there are rumors or if people get confused about why a well-respected Council member in some pack communities is being executed."

"We should have listened to Jace and killed them all way before now," I say.

"Are you okay with having to carry the weight of killing him on your conscience your whole life?"

"It's not a weight I'm carrying. It's a badge of honor. That man hurt my mate, and I avenged him."

"But, if you need to talk to someone, there is no shame in doing that. The first time I killed a rogue, I had an anxiety attack. So, I understand that it is very difficult."

"Are we letting them have funerals?"

"Well when Jace killed Darren, they let his family have a funeral. But, that was a different circumstance. Their families are still members of the pack, who will want to mourn. This will be a decision an Alpha would make. So, it's up to you."

"They aren't getting funerals," I finalize. I refuse to let someone honor them in their deaths. They deserve to be burned for eternity and not have roses thrown at their caskets.

"Yes, Luna." Mason respected my decision, but he gave me a glance that told me that he is worried about me, without using the words. I guess, killing someone changes a person.

We stayed in silence for a while until Dr. Parker walked into the room.

"Hello, Luna, Beta, I'm just going to be doing a routine check," he informed us. After letting him run a few tests and look at Axel's chart, I finally asked, "So, is he better?"

"Actually, he is. I can't be totally certain, but I think his body is finally starting to detox from the effects of the Wolfsbane. He was given a lethal dose, that would have been enough to kill 2 wolves. Let alone just one. So this is a bit of a miracle."

"Do you know when he will wake up?" I say, letting a few happy tears coat my cheeks, my excitement peaked through but I was still wary of the fact that anything can still happen.

"I can't be sure, but I think he just needs more time. The effects of his healing are pretty evident now. From previous studies, it looks like his healing will be exponential. As he heals, his body will become stronger, letting him heal more. It's looking good, Calista. Our Alpha might be coming back!" Dr. Parker says.

"See!" I direct to Mason, who was just silent in awe at the news. "You were just saying that I have to accept that he won't wake up, and we have real hope now!"

"I guess I will release the good info to the pack tomorrow before the execution of the Councilmen. It will surely lift everyone's spirits, and ruin their last moments on this planet," Mason states.

A few minutes later, Tyler and Jace walk into the room.

"Mason told us the good news," Tyler says, they gave Mase a bro hug and me a small tap on the back and a shoulder squeeze. It felt comforting. Jace sat next to me at Axel's bed, and asked me how I was. Within this month, we deeply bonded and he helped me get through the rough nights. He had experienced losing his mate and he was a great friend to have during this time.

"Tyler, if you want to finally go back to your pack and run things there instead of doing everything remotely, you finally can. I think things are starting to look up." Mason tells him.

"No, it's okay, I'll just wait for him to wake up. Besides, Duke and Emory are really liking all the attention that Mason and Jace are giving them. And my wife can handle running the pack, and if she needs something, The Gaurdians have a pact together, so they are helping out too. She's got this, she's the real Alpha, and I'm not worried. I secretly think she is enjoying the time off from dealing with the two menaces we made together," he laughed.

"I'm sorry that you have to be away from her and that you can only see her every weekend." I say.

"She knows that my relationship with Axel became rocky because of her pack, and that is her way of feeling like she is doing her part. Leading the pack is what she was born to do. I'm just mostly along for the ride," he laughed.

"By the way, Jace, I have been trying to mind link you for a couple of days now, and I haven't been able to reach you. The only person I can contact is Tyler through the link." Mason says.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I have just been taking wolfsbane like Axel was doing, and that's just a side effect. I mean it is good to train my body like Axel did. He was injected with a lethal injection of wolfsbane and now he is going to come out the other end." he casually states.

As he said this, I remember from a month ago when neither Axel nor I could figure out why he couldn't mind link me. We thought something was wrong with the mate bond, but it turns out he was not able to mind link with anyone. When Mason left, there was no reason to test the mindlink on him, so he never actually realized that it wasn't just me whom he couldn't link with.  Axel had been taking some wolfsbane occasionally to build a tolerance against it, which is also why he could control himself so well around me when I was in heat. The silver played a part, but at the end of the day, I was his mate and the silver alone couldn't stop him. But, with some Woflsbane too, that would do the trick. I guess Axel didn't realize that losing the mind link was a temporary side effect of consuming minute concentrations of wolfsbane. It was a good thing that he was doing this and Dr. Parker pieced all this together to figure out how he had to deal with the wolfsbane in Axel's body.

"Does it hurt to keep taking wolfsbane like that?" I ask, worried about how much pain Axel was going through before all this even happened.

"Yeah, but it will eventually pay off when my body can resist the worst thing ever. I mean who knew that we could desensitize our bodies to wolfsbane?" Jace answers.

"Jace, it's really dangerous though. When the news broke out that we can build tolerance and that Axel wasn't killed by Wolfsbane, two wolves from other packs tried doing this and ended up poisoning themselves and dying. Maybe you should stop," Mason warns.

"We are stronger wolves than normal pack wolves, it'll be okay," Tyler disagrees with Mason, urging Jace to continue taking wolfsbane.

"Wait are you consuming some too?" I ask Tyler.

"Yes," he simply states, "It's for the best, and my body can handle it."

"Is Gwen okay with this?" Mason asks still skeptical about all this.

"Well, she said that as long as we still can mind link with each other, she is fine. The minute I am consuming enough Wolfsbane that cuts the link, she said she is pulling the plug on the operation," he laughs.

"You should just be careful. Anyway, I think now that you are all here with Axel, I think I am going to do what Mason said and take break, maybe a walk outside to clear my head a bit. I'll be back soon." I told the boys, as I left a soft kiss on Axel's lips and left the room for the first time in a month.