KAEL’S POV All around me was darkness.
Cold, suffocating darkness.
For days, I was drowning in a sea of hot fire.
The ancient beast’s claws had torn through my chest, leaving behind a dark poison that burned through my veins like lava.
I felt my life force slipping away, bit by bit, as my wolf slowly gave up the fight inside me.
I was dying.
I knew it.
My pack knew it.
Then I felt it.
It was a spark.
It didn’t feel like medicine.
It felt like a sudden wave of warm, pure light pouring right into my broken chest.
It was a golden heat that washed away the poison, stitching my torn skin back together and fixing my broken bones with a deep, soothing relief.
My eyes snapped open.
I gasped hard as air rushed back into my lungs, deep, full, and completely free of pain.
I sat up fast, the heavy sheets falling to my waist.
I pressed my hand to my chest, my fingers searching over my bare skin.
There was nothing there.
The huge, bloody wounds that had been close to my ribs only hours ago were gone.
In their place was smooth skin with faint, pale pink lines that looked years old.
Even the dark, poisonous black veins had vanished without a trace.
My wolf, who had been quiet and near death in the back of my mind, suddenly moved.
He stood up, shaking off the weakness, and let out a low, restless rumble.
He started pacing in my head , his nose lifted, sniffing the air like he was searching for something.
Rain and wild honey.
A faint, sweet scent filled the air in my room.
It wasn’t the heavy smell of my own blood, nor was it the cold pine scent of the Northern mountains.
It was soft, warm, and entirely captivating.
“Alpha?” I snapped my head toward the door.
Garrett was standing there, holding a heavy wooden tray of bandages.
The moment his eyes hit me, sitting up, wide awake, and breathing easily, the tray slipped from his hands.
The wooden bowl crashed onto the stone floor, spilling water and towels everywhere.
“Kael…” Garrett breathed, his voice shaking.
He rushed to the edge of the bed, his eyes wide as he stared at my smooth chest.
“By the Moon…
it’s a miracle.” “What happened?” My voice was rough as my chest felt tight, but it still carried its full power.
“Who saved me?
Did the High Elders arrive from the capital?” Garrett shook his head quickly, letting out a breath.
“No.
The capital turned us away, Kael.
The storm blocked their roads, and the other packs refused to help.
They thought you were already dead.” Cold anger flared in my chest, but I forced it down.
“Then who healed me?
The poison from those claws was meant to kill an Alpha in two days.
No normal pack healer could have treated it.” Garrett paused, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I…
I went into the human city.
I was already dying from my own wounds when I crossed the border, and I collapsed outside an emergency hospital.” “A human hospital?” I frowned, my eyebrows pulling tight.
“Garrett, you risked revealing us to humans?” “I had no choice,”Garrett said defensively, though his eyes were full of relief.
“And it wasn’t a team of doctors.
It was one woman.
A human doctor.
She healed my chest right there on her apartment floor, Kael.
In less than ten minutes, my wounds were closed.
When I saw what she could do, I begged her to come back with me.” I stared at my Beta, my eyes narrowing as a heavy wave of doubt entered my mind.
“A human doctor?” I repeated, my tone dropping low and cold.
“Garrett, think for a second.
A human doctor cuts skin and sews it back together.
She doesn’t clear out ancient poison, and she doesn’t fix broken bones in two days.
That isn’t human medicine.
That is pure magic.” Garrett blinked, caught off guard by my immediate suspicion.
“Kael, I smelled her.
I stood right next to her for hours.
She doesn’t smell like a wolf.
She has no pack mark.
She lives in a small apartment and works double shifts at a hospital.” “Then she is hiding what or who she is,” I said sharply, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.
My feet hit the cold stone floor, and though a small wave of dizziness hit me, my body held strong.
“A rogue mage, a witch using a spell to hide herself, or a spy sent by whoever let that beast loose on our borders.
No normal human has power like that.” A sudden, clear picture flashed behind my eyes.
Stormy eyes meeting dark ones in the dim light, a soft, bright white light coming from small hands and a woman’s voice, shaking with fear, telling me: “No.
You don’t know me.” My heart gave a hard thump against my ribs.
It hadn’t been a dream.
I remembered her face—or at least, the faint shape of it through the dizziness and the wave of pain I had been feeling.
I remembered the heavy, magnetic pull that had slammed into my chest the second she walked into my room.
A deep, ancient pull had surged through my wolf, demanding that I reach out and hold her close.
“Where is she?” I asked, my voice low as my wolf paced restlessly inside me.
“She’s in the guest room down the hall,” Garrett answered softly.
“She completely ran out of strength saving you, Kael.
Her hands were shaking, and she could barely stand when she stepped out of this room.
I told her to rest.” I pulled a dark shirt over my head, pulling it down over my healed chest.
My mind was racing with questions.
A mysterious woman who claimed to be human, yet held light strong enough to remove ancient poison from my bloodstreamA woman whose scent was driving my wolf crazy.
“Bring her to me,” I ordered, turning to Garrett with a stern look.
“I want to see this human doctor face-to-face.
And Garrett?
Put guards at the end of her hallway.
Until I know exactly who or what she is, no one leaves this house.”