Blue sighed, turning his head away from the little wolf as he spoke. Sig was right. Blue didn't want to admit it, and though he could feel the warmth from Sig's fingertips against his hip, inside was all ice. Tentative fingers stroked the soft pink of his lips.<i>It would break him. </i>Eivind had never feared the quiet of solitude. Never had the wolf felt overwhelmed by the burden of loneliness. He did well for himself. Hunting, sleeping beneath the stars. A life dedicated to maintaining a comfortable complacency. But then<i>he</i>showed up, interrupting Eivind's mundane life with his unimpressive existence, wrapped in dirty linens and stinking of infection. But Eivind didn't mind. And since that day, Eivind had seemed to care for nothing other than his young lover and the boy's happiness. What monster was Blue to threaten the happiness of the only man who had loved him more than he could ever love himself?<br/><br/>"You're right," Blue whispered, nodding. "Lofgren didn't want to kill me then, though he certainly liked to threaten me with death regularly. Once he had grown bored of me, he said. I was never boring, I guess. He'll be too excited to kill me now. Hopefully."<br/><br/>"I can get the rest of the pack away. Lofgren will want you to himself for a while, and I have high status. They'll listen. With the three of us workin' together, we can get rid of 'im, Blue. Sig and me won't let you down. We won't need to make you promises 'bout Eivind because you're comin' back to him." Stellan stood, reaching to take the bottle of capsules from Sig's hand.<br/><br/>"No way I'm lettin' you test this out." He frowned, plucking the single capsule from his mate's palm. "If this stuff can knock an average sized wolf on his ass, I don't wanna think what it can do to you, Sig. Besides, it doesn't make much sense testin' it on you, anyway. I'm closer in size to Lofgren. We're gonna get a better idea of what it'll do to him if I try it."<br/><br/>The bottle was capped and set aside, eyes trained hard on the clear capsule. Poking at it with a finger, Stellan noted how it was harder than he expected. Old school gelatin capsule. The casing felt like plastic. Not made to be chewed, but it wouldn't immediately dissolve in Blue's mouth and he could crack it with his teeth if needed. He'd just have to be careful and put it in his mouth when he thought he saw an opening.<br/><br/>Returning to the sofa, Stellan sat back and shrugged his shoulders. "All right, here we go." He tossed the capsule into his mouth, swallowing it dry. It was uncomfortable going down his throat but that hadn't been unexpected. "Alaric didn't say nothin' about timing," he mumbled, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.<br/><br/>"Mouth is gettin' dry," he complained. Ten minutes had passed and still Stellan felt little change. He shook his head, standing up to retrieve a glass of water.<br/><br/>One step. Stellan's legs buckled beneath him. Unable to regain balance, the big wolf fell to the floor. He groaned in pain as his head smacked against the leg of a small table. He tried to roll over. Or maybe he just wanted to roll over? He definitely wanted to, and yet the connection between his brain and the rest of his body seemed to have been severed. Aside from the ache in his now injured head, he felt nothing. Nothing at all.<br/><br/>"Shit!" Blue yelped, kneeling down and rolling Stellan onto his back. "You okay? Fuck, he's bleeding."<br/><br/>"I'm fine, I'm fine," the wolf murmured groggily. "Just a little scrape. It's nothin'. I can't... can't feel anythin' below the chest," he explained, words slurring as he spoke.<br/><br/>"Okay... okay," Blue replied gently, looking to Sig. "Well... that's good. This is good. If this happens to Lofgren... I have a chance."