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"W hat!? Oh, My God! Ohmigod, Ohmigod, Ohmigod!" Sandra shouted, so freaked out she was practically vibrating with fear, "Is she going to die!? My best friend can't die!! She can't die!!!"

She hurried towards Ismena and shook her, hard. "Ena, stop! Ismena! Ismena!!!" Tears streaming down her face, she looked at Eline, "Do something!"

Eline began pulling off her clothes, "I'm going to stay with her. Go and get the Alpha King! Hurry!!"

Sandra didn't ask why she was undressing, instead, she shook her head, "You have to go, Eline. I can't be fast enough! Fifteen minutes!? She will die even before the Alpha King gets here! Ohmyyyygod!!!"

"I'm going to try and see if my touch, my body's touch, can provide some kind of help," Eline tried not to sound as panicked as she was feeling, knowing fully well that her body can't do anything because she is not the Alpha King and worse, she isn't even his packmate or relative.

With a werewolf or his sister's body, Ismena would stand a better chance, but there's no other choice. She can't just do nothing! "I can't go to get the Alpha King, so, you have to try. Beg any cougar changeling you see outside to take you to the Tower."

"I can't—"

"You have to try, Kassandra! We don't have much choice!" Eline shouted sternly, "Go...! Now!"

Sandra swallowed down another ball of fear that rose to her throat, "Okay, okay, I'm going, I'm going!" She hurried out of the bedroom then.

Eline heard the front door open and close, as she climbed into bed totally naked and grabbed Ismena's convulsing body.

In swift movements, she tore the nighties from Ismena's body, leaving her naked too. Then, she flipped them around; her back on the bed and Ismena's body plastered all over her.

"Please, don't do this. Please, don't do this.

Don't do this, please. Oh, God, don't do this please.

" Eline muttered over and over again as she hugged Ismena's body tightly to hers, touching her all over in an effort that her body will register the touch.

It isn't the Alpha King's, but she's a changeling.

Tears were streaming down her face as she desperately kept doing the touching therapy. Palming her face, kissing her hair, rubbing her shoulders....everywhere.

Moon Goddess, please help me. Please help us !

It's the middle of the night, but Alphose was still at the Tower. The meeting ended an hour ago but Wolfaraine needed him to wrap up some paperwork with him.

All his life, he'd seen Wolfaraine and he'd been close to him, he thought he'd seen all sides of the male there is to see. Well, except for the weak side of him—he never allows anyone to see that—but he'd been wrong. These past few days he'd seen a different side of him.

Cold, distant, heartless, and ruthless. Absolutely, utterly ruthless.

He knew Wolfaraine changed when Ismena entered his life—it wasn't a visible, blatant change, but it was there nonetheless—but he never realized how much until she was no longer in his life.

There was no warmth in his eyes, no life in his face as he carried out his duties, and saw to the new mission.

The mission to look for every experiment laboratory that might be associated with the Facilities and the Wolfhunters.

The meeting tonight was about the progress of the mission.

Or lack of. Beta Dane and Sentinel Adams were nervous wrecks as the Alpha King scolded them in a cold, detached tone about their pathetic jobs as a Beta and a Sentinel who was sent to the human world, but returned achieving absolutely nothing.

They'd been unable to find any lab that belongs to the Facilities, all the leads they had ended up being a dead end.

Wolfaraine did not bite his tongue or pamper their feelings but instead, he laid it so thick on them that Dane began crying and Adams was on the verge of peeing himself—Alphose was very sure of that.

It's been so bad these past few days that changelings practically hide when they smell him even from a distance. Sentinels keep out of his way.

Alphas keep out of his way too. It's the most rational thing to do .

Head Sentinel Rodarh had approached him after the meeting, looking so concerned.

Of course, the Elephant changeling did not ask what was wrong because ALL of them knew what was wrong. Everyone heard the rumors that Alpha King had a fight with his mate and she might be returning back to her world anytime soon.

"He'd always been a damn scary male, but I've never seen him like this before.

" Rodarh was saying, "Ratinus pissed himself when he snapped at him, and I know he did because I was seated right beside him and I smelled it alright.

Would have laughed at how ruffled the Rat bastard was and take a little pleasure from seeing him all nerved up like that after everything he'd put me through in this council but I couldn't even bring myself to do so.

Not too much of a fan of his but at the moment, I did not want to be in his shoes. "

"Hmm." Alphose huffed, not knowing what to say. Or do. He'd tried to get Wolfaraine to talk about it but he'd shut him out flatly whenever he raised the issue.

Rodarh scratched his head, "Do you think, maybe you could...uhm take him hunting for Wild Ones or something? Fighting might help, you know, calm him down or something."

Alphose didn't bother telling the Elephant changeling that Wolfaraine had actually taken him hunting three days ago and they'd discovered a lot of Wild Ones. It wasn't much of a fight when Wolfaraine simply went all savage on them.

He did not even shift into his otherhalf to battle them animal to animal—which was the best way to fight wild changelings—instead, he took them all in his human form. And he easily overpowered them and killed every last one of them in the most savage way .

No, fighting and hunting will not help. The only solution that can pull Wolfaraine out of this "emotionless machine" he has become, is the only solution that was not applicable.

Alphose was on edge. Long after Rodarh and the rest of the Alphas left, he remained on edge. The helplessness was killing him.

"We will wrap it up here today. I know you are tired. Go home." A familiar voice rose in the air, shattering the rest of his thoughts. Alphose raised his head to see Wolfaraine getting up from behind his desk and closing the huge booklet in front of him.

He was tired but he wanted to stay and talk. However, he knows that tone. It wasn't that of his friend but the commanding tone of the Alpha King of Naturiah. Not even the 'normal' Alpha King but the 'post-Ismena' Alpha King.

Alphose knows when to pick his battles and this time wasn't one of them. "Okay."

Wolfaraine nodded curtly, walked passed him, and started down the hall towards his own bedroom, his hands behind his back, his black cloak making waves of dramatic movements as he strode away.

Alphose palmed his head, rubbing the spot that hurt the most. Indeed, he needs to sleep—if for no other reason than to get rid of the terrible, persistent headache he'd developed for the past three days.

As he walked out of the Tower, he was most surprised to see Kassandra barge in through the gates in her nighties, ignoring all the sentinel guards trying to stop her and running towards the entrance of the Tower. Towards him.

She passed him, so desensitized to her environment that she didn't see him. "Kassandra? What's going on? Why are you here— "

She was startled at the sound of his voice, turned, and ran back to him. "Alphose, Alphose, oh thank God, Oh, thank God. Please help—"

"You are crying. Why are you crying?" The cougar is already on high alert. Alphose forced himself to breathe through his nose, rattled at how distressed she looked and sounded.

"Ismena is dying! She might already be dead because it took me fifty-two minutes to get here. My best friend is dying—"

"Take it easy, take it easy." Alphose stepped forward, trying to calm her down. She sounded so out of breath it's a miracle she hasn't fainted, "By the moon, Kassandra, you'll die of a heart attack at the rate your heart is beating too fast. So, calm down let me understand what you're saying—"

"Ismena is in Crave Shock." She panted out, cutting him off abruptly. Tears streaming out of her eyes, she repeated, "Ismena is in Crave Shock."

Alphose needed that repeat because honest-to-God, he does not understand what she was saying. No, he heard the words clear but it wasn't making sense to him.

"No, she can't be, Kassandra. Apart from the fact that it sounds so far-fetched, it's not even possib—"

"She's been sick for three days now. The fever kept switching on and off, on and off, she wasn't getting better at all.

Harhan was there, he'd rested her and given us her meds to treat her with.

We did everything by the book but it's not working and then, we woke to her confusing and her skin turning red and her teeth clattering.

" She was speaking so fast, her words jumbled up but she couldn't help it.

"WHAT!?" Alphose felt his soul leave his body. Those symptoms—especially the color change of her body—caused a ball of fear to form inside him. It's Crave Shock .

Ismena went into Crave Shock.

Ismena went into Crave Shock FIFTY-THREE MINUTES AGO!

Alphose was already rushing back through the doors he just walked out from a few minutes ago. He was running and by the footstep he could hear behind him, Sandra wasn't far behind.

He took the stairs three at a time, his heart pounding in his chest. The rush of adrenaline pumping through him did nothing to cloud the panic that rose with each step he took up to Wolfariane’s bedroom.

By the gods, let this be a bad joke.

By the gods, Ismena cannot be dead.