Chapter-17. Why?
[Raven]
I looked at my phone screen as I drove into the private driveway to my palace.
Through a spare guardian butterfly, I had been monitoring the omega while she interacted with Draknor and Nesryn. I knew Nesryn had a history with Draknor, but she had just met the omega. Why the hell was she being so protective of her? Just like Asher.
I still don't get what Asher saw in this breakable object. And why was he so protective of her? It could be because of the game. But if he wanted a play doll, there were far better women out there with richer blood and origin. Why settle for a bastard omega?
I knew all kinds of dark magic, but I couldn't break down what she was using to bewitch my family and bring them to her side.
Every time I thought of her, the only emotion that triggered within me was - rage and disgust.
If it wasn't for Asher's stubbornness, I would have never agreed to have her as our bride. Forget about forming a soul pact, I wouldn't have even glanced at someone like her.
'I want you to make love to me like you'd to the woman you love and respect to someone you'd never... hurt.'
I scoffed, glaring at the road ahead as I sped up my car.
The thought of touching her was arduous enough, making love was out of the question.
How dare she even speak those words so blatantly? How dare she think she deserved our love and respect even though fake? The audacity of that lowborn knew no bounds. She needed to be put in her right place until Asher gets bored with her. Once he does, I'll make sure to dispose of her soul myself.
With just a few senseless words, she had shaken the foundation of my brother's and my unity. Ezra sensed it as well, and I bet Asher did, too. So why the fuck did he side with her?
I didn't like how an insignificant woman like her made me feel. I hated change and even though it was minuscule and barely noticeable; she was changing control and order of things, challenging things around her.
Just like she challenged my treatment today. It wasn't just my treatment, but my knowledge she had questioned. And it hadn't even been two days since she entered the Prime pack. There was no way I would unsee that. Although I was curious to know how she got the knowledge to come to the level to challenge me? I wanted to know what was the basis on which she interfered with my treatment of my mother.
I curled my fingers around the steering wheel as her dress brushed against the only mutated specimen that survived in my recent experiments - Carvera X23.
A leaf of that plant is worth is more than your fucking life, you stupid! Stay away from my plants! Ugh!
I grunted, speeding up my car.
All she had to do was sit in one place and do nothing, touch nothing, but no, she needs to act out. What an imbecile!
I shut my eyes in frustration and when I opened it again, my eyes locked with hers for a few seconds through the phone screen as if she knew I was watching her through the butterfly's eyes.
The next second she collapsed onto the floor, messing up my desk, my books, my pens.
I stopped my car in the middle of the driveway.
"What the fuck! What the fuck is wrong with this omega! Seriously!" I clenched my phone in my hands, almost cracking its screen with the force I was holding it.
The hem of her dress slid up to her shin while she struggled to crawl away, revealing the carvera vines coiled around her ankles.
Just great!
I started my car and raced it at full speed.
Carvera vines had microscopic fangs like that of snakes which stored lethal poison, strong enough to paralyze an immortal for eternity. Adult carveras were impossible to deal with, even for immortals, because the only way to loosen the vine's grip was to hurt their roots or uproot them from the ground completely. And they could grow as large as a beech tree with their roots spreading as deep as thrice their size.This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
But the one in my office was just a baby sapling. Barely a month old. Even a weakling like her could uproot it with bare hands.
I drew in a quick breath, trying to stay calm for my baby carvera. I had to reach it before she uprooted my X23.
Baby carveras, once uprooted, had no chances of survival because their roots were the most fragile part of their body.
Out of all the plants, why did it have to be X23? Damn it!
Panting, she lifted her chest off the ground, turned around and peered at her ankle that had turned blue. Baby carveras had more poison in stock. No wonder it had started showing its effect already.
She reached out to snap the vines off her ankles that had started sprawling up her legs like dendritic veins.
There you go. My months of hard work going down the drain just like that! I swear this omega is going to pay for every damage she does to my X23.
The blueness crept up her legs with the vines. Her shaking fingers stopped before she touched the vines. At least she wasn't stupid enough to touch the vines directly, which meant she was going to hurt the main body of X23.
Did she know carvera's weakness was its roots? As far as I knew, carveras were only found in the Infernal realm.
I turned off my phone, an annoying rage pulsating through me. I drove for another five minutes before I slammed the brakes and the car stopped right in front of the entrance of my palace with a screech. Getting down from my car, I dashed into my palace and then to my office.
I slammed the door open and hurried into my office. My rushed steps faltered until they finally came to a halt against the pen she held in her limp fingers and the parchment she had scribbled on.
Squatting, I checked on my Carvera X23. Not a single leaf was damaged, nor was the vine. The soil was undisturbed as well.
Tensing my brows, I looked at her, and then at her blackened ankles. I lifted her dress to her thighs. The vines had spread to her hips.
Blankly peered at her unconscious body, for a few seconds I went into a state of complete thoughtlessness.
What the hell is wrong with her?
Don't tell me she couldn't even fight a one-month-old sapling? Or did she not know how to defeat it? Maybe the poison knocked her out. It was only logical and normal for her to struggle with the leaves and vines, but there were no signs of a struggle with the plant at all.
No. It looked like she didn't even try to fight. Instead, in the time she could have protected herself, she scribbled on parchment?
Is she mentally sick or what?
I got up, crouched and picked up the parchment she had scribbled on.
My eyes skimmed through the words on the parchment. Narrowing my eyes, I clenched my jaws, crumpling the parchment in my hand.
I ran my fingers through my hair.
Seriously, what is wrong with this omega?
"Good. By choosing death yourself, you just made my work easier. Good, that you know my X23 is worth more than your useless life," I mumbled. Her compromised heartbeats mingled with her labored breaths that broke with every passing second.
I looked down on her as life slowly fleeted right off her body.
Clenching my jaws, I clenched the parchment tighter in my fist as I contemplated her blankly for another minute, drawing my brows together. Why? Just why?
Damn you, omega!
I pulled out a scalpel from the inner pocket of my overcoat.
Stepping closer to the carvera, I grabbed its shoot, uprooted it out of the pot and threw it far away from her after severing the vines from the main body of X23.
I picked her up in my arms and carefully laid her down on the couch.
Rushing to my desk, I pulled out the drawer. The glass vials of antidotes clinked together as I fetched out the right one.
Drawing in the clear liquid from the vial into a syringe, I called the hospital.
"Alpha..." Nyssa, my hospital's chief executive officer, answered the line.
"Nyssa, I need an operating room prepped immediately. It's a carvera poisoning case. Vines have penetrated skin and flesh up to hips."
"Oh no, Alpha. Are you alright? Is it X23? Did it hurt you?" she asked impatiently.
"Nyssa, this is an emergency. Just listen, no questions. It is X23 poisoning, the one poisoned is a mortal. The vines need to be surgically removed or it can permanently damage her leg. I need a team ready..." I dictated her about everything the surgery would need while I injected the antidote to her bloodstream.
"I'll get the OT ready asap, Alpha. I will inform Dr. Ryle right away. He is the best lead surgeon of our hospital..." Nyssa asked.
"No. I'll lead the operation myself," I said.
"Uh? O-ok. Understood. Everything will be ready, Alpha," she said, and I hung up my phone, shoving it in my pocket.
Her chest heaved faster, sweats glistening on her skin.
"How dare you even think you could die without our permission, omega? Plus, you have a lot of explaining to do. I won't let you die so soon..."
I carefully scooped her up into my arms and rushed her to the hospital in my car.