Captive of The Beast Alpha: Drugging the CEO Was a Mistake.-Chapter 32: Naya: The only choice.

Andrew returned, panting slightly as he walked up to me. "You don’t need to worry about Hansel. Doctor Morgan has been his doctor for years now and knows how to handle things like this. If it’s very severe, he’ll tell us too, don’t worry."

From the way Andrew sounded, it meant this was not a first-time thing."

"I’m not worried," I said, shaking my head. If he’ll be fine, then it’s okay, I guess."

Mina, Margaret and David came out afterwards.

They all exchanged quiet looks before Margaret turned to face Andrew. "Sir, our numbers are not looking good. We need to publish a statement debunking the rumour about Miss Rivers joining Apex and see if things improve from there."

"I know," Andrew sighed, "but Hansel said we cannot make any decision concerning Miss Rivers until he approves. I’m sorry, there’s not much we can do until he recovers, but you could still try to keep things at bay, right?"

"Yeah," Margaret nodded, casting me a side glance. "I’ll return to the office then. There’s so much to do."

After she left, Mina, who had excused herself to the hallway to take a call, came back with a frown on her face.

"What’s wrong?" Andrew asked.

"I just got a call from the company, and it’s not looking good," she gave Andrew another knowing glance. "We need to get it resolved right now, or else, things would only get worse."

"We can’t leave him alone," Andrew sighed. "Hold on, let me ask Doctor Morgan if..."

He didn’t need to complete the words because Doctor Morgan was already strolling back to the sitting room, wiping sweat off his brow. When he got to Andrew, he shook his head.

"If we don’t get him home by nightfall, he’s not going to live to see the next day."

I froze.

Both Mina and Andrew stared at the doctor as if he had developed a second head. After a while, Andrew laughed and said. "It’s a joke, right? I mean I know he used to have these lapses but dying?"

Doctor Morgan stared at him and shook his head. He wanted to say something, but then his gaze caught mine, and he sighed again. "I can’t reveal more with her here, but basically, his organs are failing. His heart is shutting off, and the Raze is getting stronger than it should be at this point in the cycle."

"And that is not normal?" Andrew asked, staring at the man as equally confused as I was.

"It’s not," the doctor shook his head. "I can’t determine if it’s because he’s been overdosing on the suppressants or if something else is triggering it, but either way, he’s in grave danger. If we don’t get him stabilised soon, it’s going to consume him completely."

"But the full moon is not for another three days," Mina cried out, her voice was shaky. Her face had gone pale; all the earlier hostility had been replaced by terror. "How can his Raze be this strong already?"

"I don’t know," Doctor Morgan admitted, and the helplessness in his voice was more frightening than anything else. "But that’s why we need the pack healers. They’ll be able to keep him stable until we can figure out what’s happening. They have access to treatments and remedies I don’t have here in the city."

"It’s not looking good at all. We need to rush him back to the pack and allow the healers to handle it. He has less than four hours, or else, things would really go bad."

"Is this really the end for him, Doc? Is he going to die?" Mina asked suddenly.

Doctor Morgan sighed. "I don’t know, Mina. He might survive it or not. But we need to remain positive and try our best."

Mina let out a choked sob and turned away from all of us, her shoulders shaking as she covered her face with both hands. She walked into a corner and sank to the floor, weeping silently.

Even Andrew’s expression had changed into disbelief.

I stood there watching them, trying to piece together what they were saying. Pack house? Raze? Full moon? None of it made sense, but the way they were reacting—like Hansel was dying right in front of us—that part was crystal clear.

Also, I felt sad.

I couldn’t tell if it was the energy in the room, but there was this ache in my chest and a feeling that the room was closing in. Was it guilt? Sadness or helplessness?"

"Does Hansel have a terminal illness?" I found myself asking. "Is it cancer or something else?"

No one answered me.

After a while, Doctor Morgan sighed heavily again and cleared his throat. "We might still have a chance to save his life, but we need to act fast."

Mina quickly wiped her tears, stood up, and said in a husky voice, "I’ll make arrangements for transport. The private jet can be ready in an hour."

Andrew nodded and pulled out his own phone. "I’ll call his father and let the pack know he’s coming."

As they disappeared into different corners of the house, making urgent calls, I was left standing there feeling useless. I didn’t understand what was happening, and I didn’t know how to help, but watching Hansel lie there unconscious, with a burning fever, was causing my heart to ache.

That shouldn’t matter to me, right?

When Doctor Morgan turned to leave, I reached out and grabbed his sleeve.

"Doctor," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "Is it... is it a terminal disease?"

He paused. Looked at me for a long moment. Then nodded slowly. "Something like that."

I didn’t let go.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked, desperate now. "Anything?"

He looked down at me again, this time his eyes softer. "Go to the kitchen. Bring me a bowl of water."

I nodded and ran to the kitchen, grateful to finally have something useful to do. I found a large bowl and filled it with cold water from the tap before rushing to Hansel’s bedroom.

When I entered Hansel’s bedroom, I stopped short at what I saw.

Hansel was lying on the bed, stripped to the waist. His body glistened with sweat; his skin was red-hot and twitching, but what froze me was the cuffs.

Both hands and legs were cuffed with big iron chains. Judging by the size of the chains, you’d think an Elephant was in the room with us.

"What—" I started to say, but Doctor Morgan cut me off.

"It’s necessary," he said firmly, noticing my shocked expression. "So he doesn’t go into delirium and hurt himself. Or someone else. Now bring the water here."

I nodded mutely and came closer to the bed, setting the bowl down on the coffee table with my hands trembling slightly. Doctor Morgan handed me a towel and gestured to Hansel’s fever-flushed body.

"Start cleaning him. We need to bring his temperature down as much as possible before the transport arrives."

I dipped the towel in the cold water and began wiping down Hansel’s chest, trying not to think about the fact that I was basically touching a half-naked man who was unconscious and restrained.

His skin was so hot it felt like I could cook an egg on it, and every time I pressed the cold towel against him, his muscles would twitch, and he’d murmur something that sounded like a plea for something.

We worked in silence, Doctor Morgan checking his vitals while I focused on cooling Hansel down. I desperately wanted to ask more questions about the restraints, about what ’Raze’ meant, about the pack house, and why going there would save his life, but something about the doctor’s intense concentration told me this wasn’t the time.

Was the pack house a health program where people confined themselves and tried holistic treatment?

My mom used to go on those kinds of things a lot.

Mina rushed back into the room an hour later, her phone was still pressed to her ear. "The jet will be ready in forty-five minutes," she announced. "And the car is on its way to take him to the airport."

Andrew came in right behind her. "I called them, and they’re expecting him. The healers will be standing by."

Mina’s phone started ringing again. She would look at the screen and immediately decline the call.

After it happened about three times, Andrew leaned close to her and asked. "Who keeps calling you, and why aren’t you picking up?"

"It’s several things all at once," she snapped, declining another call that came through immediately. "The Sterling deal, they want to have a sit-down with Hansel and the other thing I told you about."

Andrew sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead. "We need to handle that now. With Hansel unconscious, we can’t leave it unattended. If we don’t finalise this deal in the next few hours, it’ll be awarded to someone else. That’s a five-hundred-million-dollar contract we’ll lose."

"Well, I’m not leaving Hansel!" Mina shouted, eyes wide with panic. "Someone has to go with him! He can’t go alone—he needs me there!"