Refusing my Alpha mate
Chapter 32

Arthur

Clair helped me get dressed in her guard uniform, and I confess that I have never felt or imagined as vulnerable as I was there. But even with all the pain, suffering, and grief I felt, I still felt safe and supported.

With her there, with me.

It was as if after denying my rejection she finally had clarity about what she wanted, it was as if all her confusion was slowly dissipating and even though she told me she was there for me, my brain was still a little afraid of her getting confused and leave again. It was as if my reason was waiting the entire time for it to collapse, but my heart knew that she was being true there, she showed it and I decided to enjoy it while everything was fine.

And I liked that.

She drove to my Pack, it was very strange that I was giving a ride, after all, I was an Alpha, I wasn't used to needing care or receiving favors, but there I needed it, it was as if my soul needed it. My mate was Alpha too, not Luna, Alpha, she took care of me with all the firmness and certainty I needed, as well as being practical and taking any action I needed.

Clair parked and I took a deep breath before getting out of the car.

I knew what awaited me.

Spending that day in Clair's Pack made me escape reality at least a little, and it was good for me to come back with my mind in more control.

"Are you okay? Do you want to wait to go in?" Clair asked me placing her hand on my leg.

"No, let's go in," I said placing my hand on hers and trying to smile.

I entered through the familiar carved wooden door and entered the adjoining room that I had frequented my entire life, but now it was so strange, the aura of my Pack House was different and heavy, but at the same time, it wasn't one of sadness, it was a Farewell aura.

When I walked through the door, all eyes turned to me, my mother looked at me with wide eyes, which widened even more when she saw Clair behind me. They were at the table in the living room, my mother at the end of the table, she wasn't crying, but I saw her swollen face and that hurt me too. Beside her were Beta John and Beta Renne, Monica after her parents, and David, Ethan was on the other side of my mother and they already had some papers in front of them, which I didn't want, but I needed to know what they were.

I walked steadily and calmly towards my mother and stopped behind her, put my hand on her shoulder, and she placed her palm on top of it, squeezing me.

"My condolences, son," Ethan said squeezing my shoulder, and I just gave a curt nod.

"Thank you, Ethan," I said and my eyes went straight to the papers on the table.

"We've already taken care of sending the body to the funeral home, I've already contacted the florist and looked for the coffin catalogs. Your mother wanted to wait for you to decide which model of the coffin and the date of the wake and burial." Ethan said with the calmest tone of voice I've ever seen him use, and having him there, helping us with all of this, it was as if even without defining anything, the Troffendolls and the Hausen were a family, looking out for each other.

"Thanks," I said, slapping him twice on the back and leaning forward a little. "I didn't want to wait too long, I thought we'd set it for tomorrow."

I stepped aside to face my mother, and she nodded.

"There's the Alpha ceremony to be done. What do you think we start the wake at 10:00 so that by 3:00 everyone has said goodbye to start the ceremony, and at 4:00 we have the burial?" Ethan said pulling out one of the sheets that had a schedule with times on it. "When I held Ivy's wake I was completely lost, and not defining times meant the ceremony was held very late, it was already night, and we were all exhausted." He completed and swallowed hard, I knew it was a difficult subject for him, and for Clair too, I felt her heart squeeze.

My gaze went to her, and Clair stared at her father and then looked at me, but she sighed and took a step toward me, holding my arm and looking at the table as well.

"Thanks for the advice, Ethan, I like the schedule, and I have today to organize the ceremonies," I said nodding, and it was just relieving to just go along with things at that moment.

"Of the coffins, the three most beautiful are made of cinnamon, mahogany and cherry." Ethan continued.

"His desk was mahogany," I said remembering, and a smile appeared on my lips remembering me as a child hiding under his desk and saying that one day I would use it.

"Mahogany then." Now my mother said.

I tackled the rest of the paperwork, and Ethan had done a great job adjusting everything.

"Do you need anything else? If not, I'm going to go upstairs and change." I said looking at the Troffenholl guard uniform I was wearing.

"Just the ceremonies," Ethan said collecting the papers.

"That's right, and let me prepare." There were three important moments in an Alpha's funeral ceremony, but I was willing and honored to organize all three. "Thank you again, Ethan. If you'll excuse me." I said taking a step back and away from the table.

Clair followed me, and it was so good to have her there by my side, just being, but without me needing to say anything, as if she simply knew that her place was by my side, and made a point of always being there.

"Alpha." I heard David's voice and turned instinctively, but obviously, so did she.

And not only did David smile, but everyone at the table did.

"Alpha Troffenholl." David corrected himself, looking directly at Clair. "I know you just arrived, but we need to go back. I was already leaving, it looks like we discovered another guard involved in the ambush." David finished speaking and Clair received the information by releasing the air from her lungs and placing a hand on her neck.

"You can only be kidding." She said sighing, shook her head, and turned to me. "You're going to be okay, aren't you? If don't, I can…" She started to say, but I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook my head.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine, you've already done a lot for me," I said kissing her forehead. "Go take care of your Pack." I completed it and she gave me a cute smile.

I turned and went up the stairs, and she turned towards the door to leave, with each step I took I imagined what was going on in the heads of everyone there, seeing our scene, but if I didn't care about that before, much less now.

I went to my room changed into casual clothes and then went straight to my office, I needed to organize the three ceremonies.

The first was cutting the fur with a silver dagger, all the Alphas, when they took over, cut a lock of their wolf's fur and tied it with a red ribbon. The lock was kept until the moment he died, and they used the fur in the ceremony.

The second was the walk with the coffin, the 6 men closest to the Alpha carried his coffin to the funeral pyre, and I, as heir and successor Alpha, would light the pyre to burn the coffin and body, as well as light the balloon, completing the third ceremony.

I entered the office that for so many years belonged to my father, now it was mine, and entering there, after knowing that he was finally gone, filled me with memories and longing at the same time, I let myself be carried away by emotions for a few minutes, I needed that also.

I bent down on the shelf that was to the right of the table and picked up the dusty wooden box with the name Augustus Hausen carved on the lid, I sat on the floor with the box on my lap and slowly opened it, revealing the lock of gray fur from his wolf tied with red ribbon. I took the strand and rubbed the hair between my fingers, the hair was the same color as my wolf's, our wolves looked so much alike, and I sighed.

And then my eyes turned to the dagger, it was silver, but the handle was steel, so whoever was going to use it wouldn't get burned. It was a beautiful dagger, set with green stones. I lightly passed my fingers over the piece, but when I picked it up, I ended up touching the silver part of the blade, and the burning sensation soon hit me. The silver burn was hot like fire, it burned, and it was an acidic, horrible, singular burn.

And my brain tried to remember, that I had felt this recently, this same sensation, I closed the box and put it on the table, and my brain went round and round trying to think.

Until I remembered.

I felt the same feeling drinking Clair's tea, she said that Beta Veronica made the tea FOR HER. But I took it, and it burned, it burned like silver.

Clair was in danger, the silver that I saw in my dreams… I needed to understand better.

I ran down the stairs, past the dining room and it was just my mom and Monica.

"Arthur, where are you going?" The voice was my mother's, but I didn't have time to explain.

"I need to see Clair…" I said towards her, grabbed the car key, and left quickly.

My heart was beating so hard that I could hear it inside my head along with my thoughts.

I stopped at the hospital and ran in, looking for Dr Tyler, and luckily he was at the front counter.

"Dr Tyler I have some questions," I said directly to him.

"Of course Alpha, there's some issue with your father, I can clarify it for you and…" He began to say pointing to a side room.

"Not really, I have some questions about silver poisoning," I said as we walked into his office, and Dr Tyler walked around his desk.

"Oh, of course… What would you like to know Alpha Arthur?" He asked in surprise. "Touching silver causes a burn, it stings, but if it's on a small surface, our body heals itself without problems. When cutting silver, we don't stop bleeding, the silver enters the bloodstream and without the correct treatment, leads to death in a short time." Dr Tyler started to clarify and to be honest, I knew that part.

"But what do we know about ingesting silver?" I asked directly, that's what I needed to know. Dr Tyler widened his eyes and scratched his forehead before responding.

"Well, little is known about ingesting silver, it's not something that is widely used, but I remember having an old college book about it." Dr Tyler got up and went to his bookshelf, took a yellow-covered book from the top, and opened it on the table, leafing through the pages agitatedly, until he found something and looked quickly. "It says that ingesting silver burns in the same way as a burn on the skin, it burns the mucous membrane, and intoxicates whoever takes it, in high doses it is fatal, but…" He stopped for a few seconds reading and I could see in his expressions that he was genuinely surprised. "In small doses, our body has the capacity to adapt, and tolerates burns gets better, it can cause hemorrhage, and in the long term it has the effect of leaving the person vulnerable and susceptible, it acts as a mental controller." Dr Tyler finished saying and I took a step back completely upset.

Everything made sense now, the comings and goings with Clair, the way she seemed to accept me one minute and want rejection the next, her strange way, it was all the result of poisoning, she had been poisoned for I don't know how long. Maybe everything I knew about her was still a mix of the real Clair and the version created by this control, I needed to warn her.

I needed to save her.

Once again.

Big revelations.

What did you think?

Are you looking forward to tomorrow's episode?

I know that many here didn't like Clair, but who knows, maybe they didn't like the poisoned version of her...

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