I Drugged the Snake Beast Alpha… And the System Screamed I Chose the Wrong Mate Chapter 07
The next morning, Rowan headed out with the hunting party at dawn.
The settlement had two hunting teams, made up of the strongest young males, taking turns going
into the forest.
The best fighter led each team, and Rowan captained one of them.
He was strong, sharp, and careful. His team always came back with plenty, and they almost never
lost anyone.
After Rowan left, I couldn’t sit still. The whole day dragged.
The hunting party didn’t come back until evening.
A hunter called to me from outside the cabin.
“Sloane, Rowan’s hurt. You need to come now.”
My stomach sank.
I followed him to the healer’s cabin. Rowan was on the bed, streaked with red.
A gash ran across his chest, deep enough to show bone, still welling dark red. He was unconscious.
The healer ground a fistful of herbs into a paste and packed it into the wound. The bleeding slowed, then stopped.
“The wound’s bad. I’ve stopped the bleeding, but tonight will decide whether he wakes up.”
[Don’t panic. He’s a villain. That means plot armor until at LEAST the second-to-last chapter.]
[This man hasn’t even KISSED her yet. You’re not allowed to die before the first kiss. Those are the
rules.]
The comments steadied me a little.
I looked at the hunters who’d gone out with Rowan. Every single one of them was injured.
“What happened out there? How did he get hurt this badly?”
One of the hunters stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at Silas and Julian.
“This is on them. They led the ember lion straight to us, and Rowan got mauled saving their hides.”
That’s when I noticed the cub in Silas’s arms, small, fiery red, round-eyed, and completely
clueless.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a pet for Chloe. None of your business.”
Julian scoffed. “If I’d been half a second faster, that pet would’ve been mine to give her.”
The story came out piece by piece. The party had gone deep into the Whispering Woods, and Silas had found an ember lion cub tucked away in a den, a gift for Chloe.
Julian spotted it at the same time. The two of them fought over the cub, and the noise drew the
mother.
The mother was an adult ember lion, nearly Apex-tier. Rowan had thrown himself between the beast and both of them, and he’d taken the blow.
I slapped Silas across the face, then Julian. They stared at me, hands pressed to their cheeks, too
stunned to react.
“You were so busy showing off for a girl that you put every hunter out there at risk. You should be
ashamed.”
[YES YES YES. Those slaps just healed something deep inside me. I feel CLEANSED.]
[Is the bar for being a male lead really this low? Embarrassing.]
Julian dropped his gaze and said nothing.
Silas bristled. “I didn’t ask him to save me.”
I slapped him again.
“Rowan saved your life, and you can’t even say thank you?”
Silas’s form flickered, scales rippling across his skin for just a second.
“Sloane, don’t push your luck.”
I slapped him again.
“You took a few hits. Rowan’s in there fighting for his life.”
Silas stood there and took it. The fight had drained out of him.
The elder spoke up. “That’s enough, Silas. This one’s on you. You deserved every bit of that.”
Silas swallowed the rest of his pride and stayed quiet.
I went back to the healer’s cabin and sat at Rowan’s side.
That’s when I noticed his fist, still clenched even while he was unconscious, wrapped around a
handful of small red berries.
They were the ones he’d promised to find for me.
I slipped one into my mouth. It was sweet, with a faint floral warmth.
The tears came before I could stop them. “You idiot.”
[A man’s greatest weapon isn’t strength. It’s showing up with the berries he promised while bleeding out.]
[I was emotionally dead and this scene just brought me back. Call off the funeral. There’s a PULSE.
[If I have to pray every single day for the rest of my life to manifest a man like this, SO BE IT.]
