I sat in the pack hospital waiting area my back covered in blood and vomit. Mathew came out of the back and handed me a patients gown.
"Sorry, but it's the best they have around here." He sighed. "Jeff is stable and they say he'll recover soon." With a smirk he looked at me. "It was a good thing he vomited when he did. That stuff seems to be more lethal to adult werewolves than infants but…" He rubbed his face. "If Maggy got to the bottom of the container…" I nodded. From what I had heard whatever was inside the formula was far more concentrated towards the bottom. This also meant that Jeff took a nearly lethal dose.
"Why that idiot drank the stuff I'll never know until I kick it out of him." Mathew smirked.
"I'll admit… I would've done the same if it gave me a clue to what it was. If it didn't kill a child it wouldn't kill an adult… but I guess that was the trap…" He frowned. "If I would have done it so would Derick." We stared at each other before he closed his eyes with frustration.
"You think someone was trying to get to Derick?" He nodded.
"Why else would you have a poison that doesn't kill an infant instantly but would kill an adult?" I shrugged.
"Why would an adult drink baby formula?" Mathew shrugged.
"It's basically powdered milk. When Lilly was small, we use to put it in our coffee all the time…" His face darkened again. "Someone close to us inside the packhouse is a mole…" He looked to me and I rolled my eyes.
"There's no use jumping to conclusions until we discover what this stuff is first." He nodded then looked to my shirt.
"It would explain the attack on Lisa and the twins and how this poison is so targeted..." He sighed. "You should get a shower and change before you get a rash." I nodded.
"Or start attracting flies." He flopped into a seat as I walked to the reception and was shown to a shower and locker room that the staff used.
After a long shower I came out in my shorts and hospital gown. I felt ridiculous but there was nothing else to wear. I rolled up the extra material and tied it into a bow at the back then wandered out to the front where Mathew was sitting on his phone. He looked up as I came closer and nodded as he finished his conversation.
"You managed to make a hospital gown look trendy." I shrugged.
"Needs must. Any news?" He shook his head.
"Not yet…" He looked around as a doctor came towards us.
"Beta. I can't identify the poison here. I've sent the remaining samples to a lab in the city but it'll take at least a day before we know anything. But there's not a lot of it to begin with." He seemed worried.
"What's on your mind?" He shrugged.
"We ran a comparison of the formula with a fresh tub and it's definitely a poison added and nothing to do with manufacturing. I've personally run blood test's on Maggy every time she was sick, now we know why, but her results were always negative." His brow furrowed. "Whatever this stuff is it seems to attack the digestive track first." I frowned.
"How do you know that?" He sighed.
"That idiot Jeff, I've been running test on him all afternoon. The way this stuff worked on him was to attack the stomach and cause it to produce a hell of a lot of acid followed by a necrotic action throughout the intestines that then dissolve the soft tissues outside the stomach. It caused instant heart burn and swelling of the soft tissues followed by stomach cramps, bleeding... if left to progress... infections, perforated gut then death." I blinked.
"Fucking nasty." He nodded.
"Outwardly it'll cause a rash that if not cleaned off. It's not too dangerous to handle but ingested in a high enough quantity it'll kill." He looked to me and frowned. "I don't think I've met you." He held out a hand and I shook it.
"Danica." He held my hand a little longer than necessary.
"Richard." Mathew nodded.
"She's a good friend of ours, the alpha has allowed her to join the pack." Richard nodded and let go of my hand a slight look of disappointment on his face.
"Well, always good to get new members." He looked around as someone called him. "Got to go." He turned on his heals and was away.
"Why did he look so disappointed?" Mathew smirked.
"You weren't his mate." I frowned.
"What's the big deal about this mate thing?" He sighed happily.
"It's the best feeling ever." He grinned. "I can't imagine my life without Jenny now. No one will ever be able to hold a drop of perfection she has." He sighed and seemed very happy. "At the end of the month we're hosting a get together for neighbouring allied packs. It's a mixer, if you will, for single wolves to attend and hopefully find a mate."
"I still don't see the value in this." He looked at me with suspicion.
"When it happens to you, you'll know." I rolled my eyes.
"It did happen to me, and the fuckers rejected me, and I never saw them again." Mathew stopped and turned looking like I had just insulted his mother.
"What?" I shrugged.
"It's not something I've talked about… Well, Rodger knows of all people and you. But this mate thing is just crap. It doesn't mean anything except pain… well, it didn't seem to hurt them when they left so I guess it's a one-sided thing." Mathew blinked and held a hand to his face.
"Them?" I nodded and he seemed about ready to kill someone. "There's a coffee shop across the road. You better tell me everything." I shrugged and followed as he led the way out of the hospital.