Chapter 399 Clashing mate

Doctor Gilbert was already sweating through his lab coat as he peered through the microscope at the latest blood sample mounted on the slide. Around him, test tubes, centrifuge tubes, and chemical compounds were scattered across his workstation, all part of his desperate attempt to formulate an antidote to the powerful wolf suppressant.

To top it all off, Matt had told him the Alpha would have his head and his legs if he didn’t finish it within three days.

He hadn’t left his office since they had returned from the Grim Pack, and quite frankly, he was beginning to regret ever accepting that invitation to the ceremony. He could have used that time to make far more progress on the antidote instead.

The Luna was everything and anything he had never encountered before in his life. Her blood chemistry and DNA were unlike anything he had ever seen, and so was the substance used to suppress her wolf.

By now, he was certain she had one, or else that chemical would never have been present in her body in the first place. Wolf suppressant existed for only one purpose, to suppress a wolf.

There was absolutely no reason for someone to administer such a massive and unusual dose to a woman who was supposedly wolfless, unless there was far more to her condition than what he was currently seeing through his tests.

He wished he had more reason to run further tests on her, but the Supreme Alpha had limited him to what he already had, forbidding him from finding any excuse for additional testing. Yet the more Gilbert discovered, the more he knew he would need to get her here in person to finish this faster.

Under the microscope was a slide containing a sample of Viola’s blood saturated with the heavy suppressant. Beside it lay another prepared slide containing a tiny sample of the compound he had formulated using Sebastian’s blood and several other ingredients collected from the werewolf healing system. His previous test using Sebastian’s blood had yielded no reaction, and now he was trying a different approach, one he wasn’t entirely certain would work.

Gilbert was more than exhausted, but he knew he had to find out what was stopping the blood from clearing the suppressant. He was so immersed in it that when the door opened, without looking away from his work, he ordered,

“Keep it right there and back away.” He said this to the she-wolf working in the lab, believing she had returned with the samples he’d asked for. But the she-wolf foolishly dropped the tray in front of him, and Gilbert, who rarely cursed, cursed as water sloshed out of the tray and into his slide sample.

He jerked back to scold her in irritation for ruining his hard work, but his voice died in his throat when he realized it wasn’t the she-wolf he’d sent at all, but Laila, standing there in her nightdress with her arms crossed over her chest, having just dropped a tray of food and a glass of water in front of him and spoiled his work.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, his voice irritated, his eyes narrowed in displeasure. She had just ruined days of his hard work, and had Gilbert been a violent werewolf, which he wasn’t, he was sure he would have shoved her right out of his lab for what she’d done, mate or no mate.

Laila heard his irritation and rolled her eyes in annoyance. “If you’ve forgotten, Mr. Rodrigo, you and I are connected by a bond, and I can feel every bit of the distress you’re going through, so much that I can’t sleep in peace. You are disturbing me with it, so I brought you something to eat so I could get some rest.” She said, her own anger barely contained.

She still felt cheated and betrayed, and on top of that, she was doing her very best to stay away and let him forget her, to let him live his life with Zoe, something Laila knew she would never have done had it been any other she-wolf instead of Zoe.

But for the first time in her life, she was being noble, even while she suffered. Her sleep was all that mattered to her right now, and she hated that he was ruining that too with his distress and hunger.

Having an Alpha wolf who spoke to her only occasionally didn’t make it any better, since her wolf had pushed her out of bed to go feed her mate.

Gilbert, who was not only sleep-deprived but working under a threat hanging over his head, couldn’t have been more triggered.

“You could have put the damn tray anywhere else, but you chose to dump it right onto my worktable, Miss Serrano. Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, for it almost felt as though she had ruined his life. That was the last blood tube of the Luna he had left.

The more she brought herself to him and triggered the mate bond, the more she complicated his life and filled his mind with conflict, when he should have been focused on his work.

“Well, it was the only table I knew you’d notice the food on,” Laila said, looking at the table and seeing nothing worth being so frustrated over, except for the fact that he disliked her so much that her mere presence triggered his frustration.

The feeling made her shrink inwardly, and that hurt returned to her chest, like a live wire gripping her insides. The mate bond tightened, as though it wanted to snap and break under his rejection.

Gilbert could feel himself losing his grip on his frustration at her cluelessness and lack of apology, though he realized he didn’t even need one, since it wouldn’t fix anything for him. This was why he had never wanted to put any effort into finding his mate in the past; she-wolves always had, and always would, make him miserable.

He composed his anger and said, “Please leave.” He gestured toward the door.

Laila felt his hurt as though it were her own and looked at the table where the water had spilled. She hadn’t meant to ruin his work, and had only been frustrated that he’d pulled her out of her bed. “I am—”

“Please go away,” he gritted out, pointing firmly at the door. Gilbert immediately noticed how her lashes trembled, but she didn’t let him see her hurt. She composed herself quickly, then turned to leave.

“Wait,” Gilbert stopped her, and for a moment Laila’s heart soared as she looked at him almost eagerly, but he merely pointed toward the tray of food containing the steaming instant noodles she had prepared for him by pouring hot water over them.

“Take that away with you.”

Laila’s fingers clenched at her sides, and without arguing, she shot him a heated glare before walking forward to collect the tray. As she did, her eyes fell on the slide beneath the microscope, and she blurted out,

“Your sample is smoking…”

Gilbert cursed and quickly moved her aside before rushing to the microscope. Sure enough, a thin trail of smoke was rising from the sample. He cursed again in frustration and peered through the microscope. A second later, his eyes widened, and he breathed out in disbelief,

“I’ll be damned!”