I was gone for two minutes to wash my hands clean of whatever parasites lived on that dildo.

Somehow in those two minutes, Alrik found something that was disconcerting, and all of a sudden, I found myself running beside him out of the house and back into the woods.

I didn't even have time to process that he was carrying an unconscious Ester over his shoulder along with a large garbage bag that was overflowing with papers.

"Alrik, what. The fuck. Happened?" I panted between my breaths. He looked completely at ease with our fast pace as if he wasn't carrying an old lady, "Malcolm knew we were visiting."

"What?" I shrieked, skidding to a stop, "How did you find out?"

He nodded to the bag in his other hand, "There was a letter. He was ready for us. They were ready for us."

I underestimated Malcolm. In my eyes, he was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch who didn't know left from right. He never gave me a reason to believe he could concoct complex and thorough plans. It was no wonder why he was running around confidently.

Every time we made a move, he was two moves ahead of us.

"Come on," Alrik said softly, nudging me, "We can discuss this after we get back to the ship. I have already mindlinked Reece the coordinates of our location and by the time we get to shore, they should be there."

I nodded my head and pulled the loose strands of hair from my face as we picked up our pace again, "We're going to have to stop overnight though, and if we're going to use Ester for questioning, we have to heal her head injury."

"Do we have to?"

I gave him a deadpan look, "How do you expect her to talk if she dies? Summon her ghost?"

"Witchcraft?"

I grabbed the garbage bag from his hand and whacked his back although I was partially amused, "I hate you and your witch jokes."

"As I said before, the double standards in this relationship are terrible."

"What relationship? All we do is insult each other, make out, and have occasional deep discussions."

He turned his head and lifted a corner of his mouth in an almost seductive manner, "I can get deeper with you if you'd like."

I didn't miss the innuendo, and my eyes widened as he took a large step into my personal space, practically crowding me into a row of trees. He bent his head in my direction like he was about to kiss me, but I gently moved one of Ester's arms so it was in his line of vision.

"Don't forget we have a guest–"

"That's unwanted," he muttered, stepping back.

"You can't say she's unwanted if you kidnapped her."

"It's not kidnapping. We're just taking her in for questioning."

"Were you planning on letting her return to her home?"

No reply.

A part of me wanted to push him for answers, but the rest of me wanted to see what he would do. Maybe this was how I was supposed to discover the other side of him– the one that gave him his feared reputation–because it was clear to me that he would never reveal his dark parts around his mate without good reason.

Until then, I would just have to work on getting through the thinner walls he had up.

"Since you offered to get deeper with me," I started, capturing his attention, "Tell me about yourself. What are your hobbies?"

"Shouldn't we be discussing Malcolm and these letters?" He asked, trying to divert my attention to the garbage bag.

"There isn't much to discuss. We know he knows a lot more than we thought he did, and we'll probably need a good hour or two to sit down and read through everything so we can do that when we stop for the night. And hopefully, by then, Ester will be awake so we can question her at the same time."

He sighed, "Eating foods from different countries and gardening."

My mouth fell open in surprise, "Gardening? Do you plant flowers?"

I found it adorable trying to imagine his huge figure watering daisies or roses or an equally dainty plant that was the complete opposite of his personality.

"It's not as innocent of an activity as you might imagine," he said, shaking his head at my astonished face, "Yes, my garden has flowers, but a majority are poisonous and fatal."

"Poisonous? So you use them to torture your enemies?"

The look on his face was the only answer I needed.

I had heard of Alphas using chains and whips and shocks to torment their enemies, but Alrik used poisonous flowers.

He really was one of a kind.

"What about your family? Any siblings?"

His face hardened, and I noticed how his jaw started ticking, "An older brother."

From his stiff posture, I knew that it was a topic I shouldn't press.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, "What about–"

"I think we need to take a bathroom break," he cut me off sharply.

He leaned Ester against a tree trunk and disappeared into the mass of trees without another word.

I sighed and crouched in front of Ester to check her head wound, "Note to self: don't ever ask about his brother."

***

We traveled for a good five to six hours before I called it quits and collapsed on the dirt. Alrik snorted and dropped Ester a few feet away, "I think this trip is finally catching up to you."

My sore legs agreed with him. I laid my head on my backpack and watched Alrik's back disappear as he went in search of firewood.

Although he sounded a bit flat after he returned from his supposed bathroom break, his face didn't betray a single emotion of pain or anger. He just seemed indifferent.

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine what had happened that made him so upset about his brother. Maybe it was a power struggle? Perhaps they both had wanted to be Alpha and had a duel of some sort?

A tree branch cracked a few inches away from me, causing my eyes to snap open in shock.

Ester had been crawling toward me. With the blood-stained bandages around her head, and the twigs and dirt stuck in her hair and to her face, she looked like a character from a horror movie. The evil smile that bared her pearly white teeth along with the crazed glint in her eyes sent shivers down my spine.

My heart started pounding out of my chest as she let a low snarl like an animal about to rip apart its enemy and jumped on top of me with her hands outstretched to potentially strangle me.

I was surprised by the amount of strength she had, but I managed to hold her back as I kicked the lower half of her body away from me.

She grabbed a handful of dirt and wildflowers and tried to stuff it into my mouth as I attempted to grab my wand. Unfortunately, she managed to get some leaves in my mouth that I partially spit out before I let out a growl and shoved her with all the strength I had.

I struggled to pin her to the ground with her face in the dirt before my hands were able to reach around her neck and pinch her pressure points.

Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and I panted as I let go and leaned against the tree trunk in complete shock.

Had she been awake the whole time? How did we not notice? Where was Alrik?

My chest tightened, and an odd bitter taste filled my mouth. As I continued to inhale deeply, it felt like every breath was starting to get harder like I was sinking underwater.

As if my nasal pathway was blocked.

"Jaslynn?"

I raised my head slowly, and my eyes met Alrik's as he dropped the wood and rushed toward me.

"What the fu–" he stopped short when his eyes landed on Ester's hands that were still gripping dirt and leaves.

"Jaslynn, did you swallow any of that?" He asked sternly, gripping my shoulders and shaking me lightly.

"I spit most of it out," I gasped, digging my nails into his forearms.

He turned around and shook the dirt out of Ester's hand and cursed as he studied the leaves, "Cicuta maculata."

Fear was starting to overtake me when his worried eyes met mine. It looked as though he didn't know what to do.

"Hemlock," he explained quietly, staring back and forth between my eyes as though he couldn't believe what was happening.

I didn't know much about hemlock. All I knew was that it was highly poisonous.

Leave it to Ester to grab the most deadly plant she could get her hands on.

"Alrik," I said, trying to swallow around the building lump in my throat, "What do I do?"

This was the first time I had seen Alrik look so unsure of himself. His eyes were darting around as if they were scouting a solution and his fists were clenched until his knuckles were white.

"You have to let me mark you."