Free Web NovelChapter 113: Sitting Duck
The room was filled with the gentle beeping sounds. Tucked in her bed, Willow looked as though she was peacefully sleeping.
I sucked in a quick breath, entering the room and carefully closing the door behind me. I walked slowly towards Willow, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
My sister had shifted back into her human form, most likely induced by a drug. However, even though she had shifted back, there was still a hollow gauntness in her cheeks that scared me.
Just like how her wolf was losing fur, my sister’s human form also had thin, sparse hair with several bald patches. Her cheeks were sullen, and there were all sorts of cuts and bruises that littered her body.
If this was the state she was in after receiving a huge amount of blood to help with her blood loss, it barely helped her heal. It seemed to just be enough to keep her from dying, but she certainly still looked every bit like the dead.
I looked down at her hands, and I felt my eyes well up with tears. Her arms and hands were so bony that it looked like I could snap her wrist with my fingers, even with the paltry amount of strength I had.
I knew she wasn’t in a good state, but never would I expect her to look like this. I guessed I had foolishly hoped that my blood would have solved all problems, but it wasn’t possible. No matter how much I loved her, I was still only a malnourished human. My blood wasn’t― couldn’t be a cure-all for her.
If only I had a wolf. Maybe if I had one, my blood would’ve been better for her. Never before had I felt so upset at my own powerlessness.
"Willow..." My voice came out in a choked whisper as I sank to my knees.
I reached for her hand, but just before I touched her, I hesitated. Her skin looked so rough and calloused, yet so thin that I was afraid to hold her tightly. I was worried that if I did, I might just end up bruising her instead.
It had been so long since I had last seen her so up close. Ever since her health started deteriorating, Cedar and everyone else made sure I stayed far away from Willow. They believed I was a hazard to her health, even though there was no possible scientific reason for me to be.
Nevertheless, it didn’t stop them from keeping me away. But even though I was kept away from her, Willow’s health continued to turn worse. I couldn’t have been the root cause of it, but no matter how I pleaded with anyone, even the Alphas, no one believed me.
They said it was better safe than sorry. In my opinion, they just wanted someone they could blame.
Willow continued to sleep, oblivious to everything around her. I couldn’t even detect her eyes moving underneath her eyelids, or even any sign that she had at least heard my voice, smelled my scent, or felt my hand on her own. She didn’t seem to register my presence at all.
A cold chill crept over me as I realized Willow truly wasn’t conscious. She was a sitting duck.
Anyone could easily kill Willow like this, be it Violet herself or someone else she might’ve hired. All she needed to do was to visit her in the guise of concern, then hold a pillow to suffocate her, and Willow would die before anyone came running. Violet wouldn’t even need to pull any fancy tricks.
I watched her carefully for a moment longer before deciding to quickly look through her room.
I wasn’t the reason behind Willow’s declining health, but there surely had to be a proper reason for it. I refused to believe that it had just gone downhill for no reason. The healers had examined her, but even though years had passed, they were never able to find anything conclusive, which was also why everyone blamed me.
It was simply much easier for them to pin this all on me.
From what I had gathered, her health only started declining after my return, which was pretty much the only reason why everyone suspected I was the reason behind it. It started slowly at first, but eventually snowballed so far that the Alphas couldn’t name her their Luna in fear of the pack’s protest― no pack member would be willing to have a sickly woman as their Luna, a woman who couldn’t protect them in their time of need or even properly lead the pack.
She could barely even leave her bed for too long a time.
However, as long as the Alphas didn’t explicitly choose Willow as their Luna, no one would dare say a thing. In theory, Willow would’ve been the perfect choice. But only in theory. The Alphas kept that theory entirely possible by refusing to fill in that slot.
Until Willow was presumed dead, of course.
With such a poor health condition, it wasn’t surprising that she would be easy to harm. It wouldn’t even have been surprising if Willow actually died that night she went missing. In fact, it was a miracle her wolf was still strong enough to make sure she survived, albeit barely.
Surviving two months in the wilderness alone couldn’t have been easy.
I started at the cabinet closest to her bed, rummaging through the drawers. For her to be poisoned so easily, the main cause must be somewhere close to Willow, tucked in a place where she would constantly be exposed to.
Within a few months, Willow was almost entirely bedbound. She could barely even set foot outside her bedroom. That meant that whatever Willow had been exposed to, it had to be here within the confines of her bedroom.
It could’ve also been the food that she was fed, but that was their first suspect. Cedar and my parents had made sure to comb through all the meals that were sent to Willow’s bedroom before she consumed them. Of course, they never found anything, because there was nothing there to begin with.
Could it have been the decor in the room? Maybe there was something missed out or hiding in plain sight.
Inside the drawers, I didn’t find anything interesting. There were a few books that Willow hadn’t managed to finish before she left, the bookmarks still tucked neatly in the pages.
The next drawer held some cosmetics. The packaging seemed normal enough― they were all brands that I recognized. I opened a random tub to check― they didn’t seem to be tampered with. I closed the lid and placed it back in its original spot.
Just like that, I went through several other cabinets and drawers. The things I found weren’t anything to write home about and were more or less common items that didn’t seem out of place.
I sighed, biting my bottom lip as I rested my hands on my hips. My eyes scanned the span of her bedroom. Compared to my room, it was huge and spacious. It had every comfort that she might possibly need. But as a result, it also meant that whatever was harming her could have been kept anywhere.
If it still remained in this room at all.
I exhaled deeply, watching as my fringe fluttered with my breath. Perhaps I had been a little too optimistic. Whatever that could’ve been used to harm Willow could’ve been removed by now. I had hoped and convinced myself that it would still be here, but truthfully, I wasn’t sure at all. Everything was a major ’what if’ and ’might be’.
I made my way over to the door. Since Willow wasn’t responsive, there was no point for me to stay here. There was no way for me to warn her. I had gone through nearly every drawer in her room, and I still hadn’t found anything that could’ve been responsible for Willow’s declining health.
In this case, I had better leave before Cassian returned. If he found me here, he would just explode into yet another tirade about how I was trying to kill Willow. He probably wouldn’t even care about the fact that I was the reason why Willow was still here in the first place, and not him.
Just as I made my way over to the door, I stopped short.
There was a scent in the air that caught my attention. I hadn’t noticed it when I entered the room, for some strange reason. However, it did seem like my sense of smell had suddenly gotten sharper.
I could smell everything a lot more clearly― the scent of the fresh flowers in the vase on the table, Cassian’s lingering scent in the air, even the smell of the body soap that was used to wipe down the dirt and blood on Willow’s body.
However, there was another scent that caught my attention. It was much fainter than nearly anything else in the room, but it was there, masked by a stronger fragrance.
I turned my eyes to the last drawer by the door that I hadn’t checked.
