The hall erupted into chaos.
"My lady!" Irene's scream echoed, but she could hardly hear her maid's petrified voice.
Her limbs collapsed. She expected to fall on the cold stone underneath her. But instead, a pair of strong limbs closed around her.
Azazeal caught her before she fell, so much for avoiding him for the rest of her life.
A small weak smile curled up her bloody lips at the thought.
Her head slumped against his chest, the world around her fading.
She was expecting the fury, the harsh reprimand, the steely distance that so often followed her pain or sickness when she previously lived in her father's kingdom.
But once the darkness seeped closer, all she felt was the steady, possessive hold of the king bracing her in his strong arms, she could feel him grip her shaking body tightly, his worry evident in his actions.
"Fetch the royal physician! Now!" Azazeal's voice rang out, sharp and commanding.
But Elora had no trouble in hearing the fear and worry in his voice through her haze of pain and exhaustion.
She frowned at that.
People didn't worry about someone like her. If she were ill, she would be left alone until she healed on her own.
Tears welled in her eyes at the gentle warmth of his chest against her soaked cheek when he held her tight.
Her lips moved in a silent prayer, though she didn't know for what. Another chance at life? Release? Sleep?.
Her limbs became numb and her lids fluttered shut. All she heard afterwards was the sound of frantic footsteps pounding and her heart thrumming faster.
Azazeal watched in pure fear as his mate lay down ghost pale on the bed sheets
He couldn't erase the image of her falling into his arms covered in her blood.
His wolf whimpered as they watched her, they could feel her temperature growing colder by the second.
She was barely breathing and Azazeal's heart was in his throat.
Kael ordered the castle gates to be sealed and every guest to be kept until the investigations were done, but Azazeal could barely hear his brother's voice over the ringing of his own ears.
Don't leave me, please. I've only just found a reason to hope, don't take it away with you Elora
How foolish was he to let his guard down over her protection? He has been hearing rumors that some of the Alphas he ruled over and their pack members don't support the idea of the wolf king having a human mate.
But he was heedless to the whispers, he believed that ni harm would befall his queen if she remained in his territory.
How wrong was he?
His hands reached out to hold her closer and Azazeal
let out a low growl at the deadly coldness of her skin, his wolf on the edge of shifting.
" Come here and feel her temperature " he ordered crisply, holding in his anger.
An older man stepped towards the bed with a shuffling sound.
Elora in her unconscious state, felt the light, tentative touch of his fingers on her wrist, only for him to recoil almost at once.
"She's… cold as ice," the royal healer stuttered.
Azazeal didn't utter a word only looked at the nervous man coldly, crimson hues already forming in his normally grey eyes
The royal healer touched her wrist again, then her forehead, then spoke in a voice that trembled with contained panic.
"The queen was poisoned. A tiger's blood was mixed in what she drank or had eaten."
She vaguely heard him explain.
"And the reason that the poison took hold of her so fast, is because …" His voice cracked and he paused. "She is a human, her system is weaker and her healing is slower"
The words hovered in the air.
The physician went on, his tone grim. "The venom is already coursing through her veins. I don't know if she'll make it through the night. If she does…" He hesitated.
"She's not going to last much longer unless we can get her to the winter sea."
"The winter sea?" a cold, authoritative voice said abruptly. This was undoubtedly Azazeal's voice.
"Yes, my lord," the man answered, terrified. " Only the water from the sea is potent enough to heal the effect of a tiger's blood poison, especially for her, whose body is already so weak. But my lord… going that far in her state is too dangerous. Her weak body might not survive the trip."
The grunt that followed was unmistakably Azazeal's. They did not speak further, and the royal physician felt the room growing colder.
Azazeal's silence felt deadly.
The doctor took a small step back, shaken. "Your Highness, her condition is getting worse. I'm afraid I'm unable to do anything anymore. If she doesn't make it to the sea in a few hours, W —we might lose her."
Azazeal's jaw clenched, Anax, his wolf was already overly agitated.
He adjusted his hold on Elora, looking down at her pale face Her lips were touched with faint red from earlier blood she'd coughed up, and her once-bright eyes were now closed.
He painfully took his eyes away from her to the Healer
Elora floated between consciousness and darkness, too exhausted to fight against either. Everything around her faded to a wash of soft voices and blurred shapes
A cold hand brushed her wrist, sending a shiver through her freezing body. It was the only thing strong enough to bring her back from the dark void.
She made an effort to open her eyes and slowly, everything around her came into focus just enough to make out an unfamiliar old man hovering over her, his face worried and solemn as he spoke to someone in the room.
Still hazy and on the edge of consciousness, her eyes went down and she faintly saw a figure next to her, who also didn't notice her watching him , he was busy speaking to the old man in a low voice.
It was the Wolf King.
It took her a while to realize he was kneeling on the ground next to her bed, holding her hand cold without so much as a second thought.
She was too tired to move, but part of her registered the heat of his palm against her frostbite-pale skin. His hand didn't falter, didn't hesitate, as if her icy fingers were nothing to him.
Their whispers gradually became clearer in her ears.
" Taking her as far as the winter sea might be dangerous in her condition, B-but there is another way to heal her your highness."
The healer spoke hesitantly
Azazeal's cold eyes snapped to the royal healer " And why are you holding back from saying it? Is it until my mate fades away right before my eyes?" he growled, his patience thin as a fragile ice
" Y- You have to mate with her and give her the mating mark. You heal her as you bond and your power seeps into her.
I-it is also the best possible way to revive her."
Her heart spiked at his words, she couldn't hear Azazeal's answer before she unwillingly fell into a restless slumber once again.
Azazeal's soft but uncompromising command was the last thing she heard before the darkness claimed her once more.
"Tell the knights to get the carriage ready, I'll take her to sea."
And then, when her senses had gone completely, a quiet, unbidden thought crossed her mind.
He wants to save me …