Chapter 78

Aria

My body felt like it was floating through a void.

I didn’t have any dreams—no prophecies, no dead parents coming to give me cryptic messages, none of that.

Everything was just… dark.

And then I woke up. Sort of.

The first thing I noticed as I slowly returned to consciousness was the sound of sniffling and little hiccups, followed by the warm pressure of tiny hands gripping mine. I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt glued shut, and my head was pounding with a dull, unrelenting throb.

Everything about me felt sluggish and wrong, as if my body was working against itself.

Did I get… hit over the head with something? I wondered groggily. Because it certainly felt like I had gotten steamrolled by a freight train in the middle of the night.

“Is Mommy gonna be okay?”

I recognized the trembling little voice immediately: Lucas.

My heart twisted, even through the haze that was clouding my mind. I forced my aching eyes to flutter open, the bright fluorescent light overhead stabbing into my skull like thousands of tiny needles. I winced and turned my head, blinking until the room came into focus.

I was in a hospital bed.

Lucas sat on the bed beside me, his little fingers wrapped around my hand so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. His tear-streaked face looked up at me, and when he saw I was awake, his mismatched eyes practically began to glow.

No, they actually began to glow. He was so excited that his furry little ears even began to peek out from amongst his chestnut locks.

“Mommy!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms around me before I could even sit up properly.

The word made my chest ache—not from pain, but from the weight of everything it implied. I wasn’t his mother, but at this moment, it didn’t seem to matter to him. He clung to me like I was the only thing keeping his world together, and I found myself hugging him back, even though my movements were slow and weak.

“Lucas,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “What… happened? Where am I?”

He pulled back just enough to look at me, his lip quivering. “You fell. You were all dizzy and—and Daddy had to carry you. I was so scared.”

My brows knit together as I struggled to piece together the fragments of last night. It was like trying to sift through smoke—fuzzy snippets of raised voices, Lily’s angry face, and… Oh god.

My breath hitched as the memory hit me like a truck. The argument. Lily’s voice cutting through the noise. Mate.

I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, god,” I muttered. “What have I done…?”

“It’ll be okay, Mommy,” Lucas said softly, his small hands prying mine away from my face. When I looked up at him, I saw him gazing at me with nothing but love in his eyes, and I felt tears prick at my own.

At least someone didn’t hate me for my fucking stupidity.

I pulled him close, resting my chin on the top of his chestnut hair. “Thank you, sweetheart,” I murmured, stroking his back.

Suddenly, a throat cleared from somewhere nearby. My head snapped up, the room spinning a little from the movement, and my heart sank as my gaze landed on Darren. He stood a few feet away, his arms crossed and his expression unreadable.

Beside him, Liam leaned against the wall, his hands shoved into his pockets. They were both watching me like hawks, and under their scrutiny, I felt like I was shrinking into the bed.

“Liam,” Darren said quietly, “take Lucas outside for a bit, would you?”

Lucas looked reluctant, his grip on me tightening. “But I wanna stay—”

“It’s okay, buddy,” I said gently, brushing his hair back. “I’ll see you in a little bit, alright?”

He hesitated, his bottom lip trembling, but eventually nodded. “Okay.”

Liam pushed away from the wall, ruffling Lucas’s hair as he led him toward the door. “Come on, kid. Let’s go grab a snack.”

The door clicked shut behind them, and the room felt infinitely heavier without Lucas in it. Darren stayed where he was for a moment, his sharp gaze fixed on me. I braced myself for the inevitable reprimand, my heart pounding like a war drum in my chest.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Darren,” I blurted out, my voice trembling. “I didn’t mean to cause all this. I—I shouldn’t have gotten so drunk, I just wasn’t thinking, and—”

“Aria,” he interrupted, his tone softer than I expected. He took a step closer, his arms dropping to his sides. “It’s alright.”

I blinked, caught off guard. “You… you mean that?”

He nodded, pulling a chair up to my bedside and sitting down. “At first, I was angry,” he admitted, his voice low. “I couldn’t understand why you would drink enough to lose control like that—fighting with Lily seems so… out of character for you. But then you passed out all of a sudden, and I realized that something was very wrong.”

My stomach twisted a little at his words. “What do you mean?”

“You didn’t just pass out from drinking too much,” he said, his jaw tightening. “I had you brought here, to the werewolf hospital. They ran some tests.”

“And?” I prompted, dread coiling in my chest.

“There was a drug found in your system,” he said bluntly, his brown and blue eyes locked onto mine. “A recreational drug for werewolves. It’s harmless to us in small doses, but for humans… it’s dangerous. Very dangerous. It makes you not only very aggressive, but also highly suggestible. The slightest thing could set you off and make you do something reckless.”

He paused, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as if what he had to say next pained him. His voice was low as he finally said, “And in high enough doses, it can cause cardiac arrest.”

The room spun, and not just from the lingering effects of whatever was in my system. “Cardiac arrest?” I repeated, my voice barely more than a raspy whisper.

He nodded grimly. “And the amount they found in your system… it should have been enough to do just that.”

My breath hitched, and I gripped the blanket tightly in my fists. “But… I’m still here,” I pointed out thickly.

“Somehow,” he said, glancing up at me. “You’re very lucky, Aria. I have no clue as to how you survived it, but you did.”

I stared at him, my mind racing. “But… I swear I didn’t take anything,” I said quickly. “I swear to god, Darren, I wouldn’t—I mean, I only had one drink last night.”

His gaze sharpened. “Did you take the drink from a stranger? Leave it unattended at any point?”

“No,” I said firmly, but then hesitated as the events of last night slowly filtered back in. “Well… I did leave it at one point, just to run to the bathroom. But I left it with Tracy. She wouldn’t have let someone…”

I stopped, my voice trailing off as the implications hit me. Would Tracy do something like that? It didn’t seem like her, and yet… Darren’s expression darkened, his eyes flashing with something dangerous.

“Darren,” I began, but before I could say anything else, he stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor.

Without another word, he strode toward the door and flung it open. He didn’t look back as he stormed out.

The door slammed shut behind him, leaving me alone in the hospital bed.