Chapter 178 Traces of silver
_Author’s POV_
The gunmen that attacked the courthouse were not Theodore’s people as Alaric had thought. Gabriel figured that out within the first thirty seconds, that was how long it took his team to get inside the courthouse and engage.
He soon found out who had sent those men. It was the one enemy that they still hadn’t caught, Drake.
Gabriel had felt something was wrong that morning before the session even began, just like Kasper.
Kasper also happened to have mentioned having a bad feeling about the day, so that validated his own feelings.
So without much thought, he had positioned extra men outside the courthouse without telling anyone he was doing it because he wasn’t sure yet if he was overreacting and he didn’t want to bring it to Alaric over a feeling. He had to be careful of the new position.
He stopped second guessing the feeling the moment those doors opened. Thankfully, his men were already pushing when the first shot was fired, coming through the side and rear entrances. The exchange inside the courthouse was short, brutal and it ended within minutes.
Too bad his men weren’t fast enough to stop the death of the judge and Alaric being short at.
Three of Drake’s men died inside the building, two more ran outside trying to get back to their vehicle, while the rest scattered into the city. That was a problem for later.
Gabriel got to Alaric in the side corridor where Kasper had moved him and took one look at the jacket Alaric had on before calling the hospital without asking for permission.
Alaric looked like he was about to argue against needing a hospital, so Gabriel had to speed his speech up so the medic could get there before Alaric successfully argued it.
Soon, they arrived and Alaric was taken.
Alaric sat in the ambulance with his right hand pressed against his left arm and his face giving absolutely nothing away. Everyone knew it was normal, he wasn’t the best at showing his emotions.
He could be dying of that pain but say he was fine. Alaric was character on his own.
“Virella?” Alaric asked, as the ambulance pulled away.
“Already handled,” Gabriel said from the other side. Yes, the came in the ambulance just for extra protection for Alaric . “All three of them went directly to the holding. The courthouse disruption doesn’t change the verdict. The judge’s decision stands on record.”
Alaric nodded and said nothing else for the rest of the drive.
.........
Rowena saw the of what happened at the courthouse, she was at Ashthorne’s residence when she saw it on TV. She was seated with a cup of tea she hadn’t drunk yet.
She stood up before she had fully processed what the reporter was saying on TV. All she heard was courthouse, shooting, and then the dreaded words, Alpha King.
Seraphine appeared in the doorway with her hand pressed to her chest in shock, she had heard everything too.
Rowena was already rushing to her bag and pulling up her phone.
“Go,” Nana said, before Rowena could say anything. “Go, I’m fine. Just go.”
Rowena nodded and disappeared towards the main door.
She drove faster than she should have, not bothering to slow down.
She felt like a part of her was about to die just hearing what happened to Alaric. She didn’t even bother confirming where he was shot.
The hospital wasn’t far from the Ashthorne residence but every traffic light felt like a personal obstruction. She was honking so loudly as if she’d lost it.
By the time she pulled into the hospital car park something in her chest had drawn itself extremely tight and was not loosening.
She found the right ward from the front desk, the top floor VIP ward.
When she reached, the guards gave a slight bow before letting her in.
Alaric was sitting up on the hospital bed with his left arm being worked on by two doctors. He had a poker face on, as if they wound was nothing.
To the doctors, he wasn’t hurting, but Rowena could tell where it was hurting the moment she looked at him. His posture was horrible.
His wound was visible and at a closer look, she saw it was worse than the news had made it sound. The tightness in her chest became harder.
He looked up when she came in and let out a small smile, the doctors were shocked. That was the first ever emotion to cross his face since he arrived.
“I’m fine,” he said immediately before she could say a word.
“You were shot,” she repeated Kasper’s words..
“It’s being handled.” He replied and gestured with his jaw towards the doctors.
She stopped at the side of the bed and looked at the wound. The doctors were working carefully, she let them work because interfering wouldn’t offer much help. She just stood still and waited for them to finish.
“It was Drake, wasn’t it?,” she asked without beating around the bush.
“It appears so,” he nodded.
Anger filled her chest when Alaric confirmed, she could already tell who it was before he explained to her.
She hadn’t wanted to look into Drake’s issue personally, letting Alaric and the others handle it, but now he’d gone and touched what was hers.
Rowena froze at that thought. Had she just called Alaric hers?
“The wolf is doing it’s healing as well,” One of the doctors interrupted with an apologetic look because it appears to be that they were struggling with the wound.
“That’s great.” Rowena commented.
“But there’s one problem, Marchioness.” The doctor said.
She raised a brow and he continued.
“The wound contains traces of silver in it and as we know silver slows everything down for our kind. We’ll need to extract it carefully and the process is going to take time.” He explained.
Alaric didn’t say a word or show any visible sign that he was scared. He wasn’t normal, the doctors concluded.
Anyone would’ve been scared hearing that silver was in their wounds. Silver killed wolves faster than anything else.
Rowena remained just as calm, but there was an undeniable fear that crept into her heart regardless.
.......
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel arrived and to deliver the report.
He gave a bow when he saw Rowena, his posture a bit rigid as a feeling washed through him. Rowena smirked and looked away.
“Alpha, the men we caught aren’t talking,” he said. “We’ve had three of them in separate rooms since we left the courthouse. None of them have said a word about Drake, or about who gave the order.”
“Keep trying,” Alaric sighed, he knew this wouldn’t be easy.
“One of them bit through his own tongue,” Gabriel added. “Hard enough that he needed medical attention. He still wouldn’t say anything.”
The room went quiet at those words.
Rowena looked at Gabriel. “He bit through his tongue?” She was shocked, actually shocked.
“Yes.”
She looked at Alaric, they were both thinking the same thing. That level of loyalty was scary, people didn’t do that over ordinary loyalty.
They only did that when they were more afraid of the person they were protecting than they were of anything the people questioning them could do to them.
Whatever Drake had over these men, it went very deep.
Soon, Kasper and the others arrived.
The room soon filled up.
Ezekiel and Pierre came in last.
“Tell me what you need,” Ezekiel hurriedly said after hearing the explanations of the silver from the doctors again. “You said Drake is responsible, and my family has connections that might help find him. Different networks than what you’ve been using, It might reach places your cousin’s people haven’t reached yet.” He shrugged.
Rowena looked at him and felt warm. Ezekiel offering his family’s resources wasn’t a small thing and he wasn’t offering it lightly, she could see that.
“I’ll let you know the moment I need it,” she said. “And I will need it, just not yet.”
He nodded in understanding and took a step back.
He had totally gotten himself roped into Rowena and Alaric’s life. And honestly, he didn’t have any regrets.