Luna felt a weight release from her shoulders as the healer returned to the room after walking out her alpha, Theo. She didn’t know if the calming presence she felt was from Theo, her new alpha, or the healer. Every time the healer came in the room to check on her while they waited for Theo to arrive, the wolf that lived inside her would peek out from behind the wall she’d built to protect it in her mind. It didn’t matter what her wolf thought; she was just so thankful for the kindness of the panthers who had saved her and their sensitivity to what she’d endured on that island.
“May I see your right arm?” the healer asked, setting down a few empty vials on the bedding at her feet. She held out her arm while he retrieved a pair of black gloves from a box on the counter across the room. “Okay, Luna. Ready?”
“Ready,” she echoed, looking down at the blanket that covered her lap. Whoever had made the beautiful quilt should probably sell them on the internet to make some extra money. They were beautiful and could probably fetch a big price. It made Luna sad that she hadn’t knitted in months. She didn’t even know when, or if, she’d ever be able to do it again.
“Just a stick,” Harold said as he wrapped the tourniquet around her arm and began to draw the blood. The stick of the needle wasn’t painful at all. That was easy compared to what she was going to have done in the next half an hour. She had to tell them she wasn’t hurt…but how?
“Now, I want to talk to you about the exam,” Harold said as he rolled his stool over to the counter to set down the vials of blood.
“I’m not damaged,” she blurted out, knowing her body was already healed from the violation. She didn’t need the doctor to exam her. Her powers weren’t affected during her time on that island. In fact, she had kept that part of herself hidden so the scientists didn’t study her for that, too.
“It’s imperative that I check you,” he stated, frowning. A wrinkle formed between his brow when he did that, and Luna wanted nothing more than to reach over and rub away the tension with her thumb.
“Honestly, healer,” she swallowed, “I know that I’m not damaged in any way.” How was she going to tell him?
“I need to know if you’ve had any pain or discomfort since you came off the island,” the healer asked, his eyes changing slowly over to an amber hue. There were little tiny specs of gold mixed in with the natural blue of his eyes, and the sight fascinated her. “Have you had any more bleeding?”
“No,” she said, scrunching up her nose. She was a shifter like him, but she was a different kind. She’d never dealt with the big cats before, and she wondered if he knew anything about her magic.
“I will need to perform an internal exam to make sure your body was not damaged when the scientist violated you,” he stated gently. The icy blue of his eyes flashed amber. They sparked like a live wire, and she tilted her head to the side in awe. “I know you think you are okay, but it would be better if I looked. I promise you, it will only take a few minutes.”
“I’m healed from the human male’s touch,” she rushed out, her eyes going wide. So much for easing the information out into the world, Luna. “I healed myself.”
“You cannot know that for sure,” the healer answered, then sighed. “If you are not comfortable with me, I can call in a female healer from another pride.”
“No, you do not understand me.” She paused, weighing her words. “Do you know anything about my kind?”
“I’m sorry,” he replied, resting his hands in his lap and rolling the chair back away from her to give some space. “I’ve never worked with wolves. They’re our enemy and are feral.”
“I’m not feral,” she denied with a growl. Her wolf was agitated and she commanded it to stand down. The male knew nothing about her.
“I can see that,” he agreed.
“I’m a white wolf,” she began, praying she wasn’t making a mistake. “We are…well, were very few in numbers. My pack consisted of twelve, and all of them were killed except my baby brother and myself. They killed him on that island, and now it’s just me. My histories say that there are no others.”
“I’m sorry.” The healer breathed out a heavy sigh and rolled his stool closer but did not touch her. “I know nothing of your kind. I am a doctor by the human’s schools, but I’ve only worked on panthers like myself.”
“White wolves are different.” She paused, looking into his beautiful eyes that had returned to the icy blue of his human self. “We…we have a magic inside us to heal ourselves.”
“All shifters have fast healing abilities,” he stated.
“No, you don’t understand,” she shook her head, “I have a magical ability to heal myself as long as I am able.”
“Wait, what?” he asked, his eyes wide. “You can heal? With magic?”
“I was unable to heal myself on the island when the warlocks were fighting and a piece of the tree sliced through my arm, because I was so weak. Once I regained some strength, I was able to repair all of the damage.” Luna was certain he knew nothing about white wolves from the stunned expression on his face. The pride of cats had been her saviors, and Theo trusted them, so she knew she should too. “You did not know this?”
“No,” he replied, shaking his head when she turned to lift the sleeve on her hospital gown to show him the wound was gone. “The doctor side of me wants to know more, but I refuse to study you. It would make me no better than the men on that island.”
“That is not true, Healer.” She smiled at him. It was a soft smile, only the corner of her lip lifted to give him peace. “Let me show you.”
Luna slid off the stretcher and walked over to the sink. The healer did not say anything to her as she moved slowly toward where she’d seen a scalpel in a drawer he’d opened to remove something else earlier. As soon as she opened the drawer and removed the cutting tool, the male jumped to his feet.
“Don’t touch that!” he barked, rushing toward her, but she held up her hand to stop him. “Put down the scalpel, Luna. There is no need to harm yourself. I promise you will be fine and people are here to help you work through what happened.”
“I’m trying to teach you something about white wolves,” she said, rolling her eyes. The healer looked stunned at her actions, but she was offering him the information he was seeking. “I can heal myself.”
The healer made a strangled noise in his throat when she opened her left hand and used the tool to slice into her palm, ignoring the burn of the cut.
“What have you done?” he gasped and reached for a glass jar full of gauze. “Let me see your hand.”
“Watch,” she ordered, holding out her unharmed hand to stop him from fretting over something to clean up the blood.
Luna dug down deep, past where her wolf slept silently in her mind. She felt the healing power and harnessed it, pushing it out through her palms. A warmth began at her fingertips on both hands; the glow from her magic grew like a bulb warming up on an antique lamp. She didn’t look up at the healer’s reaction while she concentrated on stitching the damage she’d done to herself. With such a simple wound, the magic worked quickly and thoroughly. It only took half a minute to seal the wound. She looked up at his shocked face. “See?”
“How did you do that?” he asked, sitting down heavily on the stool behind him. She was shocked he landed directly on it, because the healer looked like he had seen a ghost. The male was pale and his eyes widened as he watched the scene before him.
“Magic,” she shrugged.
“I…I don’t understand,” he said, looking at her in awe.
“I healed myself as soon as we arrived here. I was given food and water, and it strengthened me enough so I could repair the damage to my body.” She smiled, but it was sad. The look on the healer’s face worried her. He looked concerned and almost angry. “Maybe I shouldn’t have showed you.”
“No,” he jerked, shaking his head. The male’s features softened, and Luna let out a soft gasp. He was absolutely stunning. The male’s eyes were a bright icy blue as they locked gazes with her own yellow. “I will not say anything to the others, unless directly asked by the alphas. If you do not want this known, I swear to you, you have my utmost confidentiality.”
“Thank you,” she replied, the tension in her shoulders releasing with his promise. “I don’t know who I can trust, but I trust Theo, and I know if he brought me here, I should trust your pride as well.”
“We are a peaceful pride,” the healer told her. “All we’ve ever wanted to do is live happily amongst our land, and now that the humans know about us, we just want to be left alone with our families.”
“Do you have a family?” she asked quickly, the heat from embarrassment creeping up her cheeks. “I’m sorry, that was too personal.”
“No, no. It’s okay,” he replied. “I haven’t mated, and my family was killed twenty years ago in a fire.”
“Oh!” Luna gasped, feeling tears well up in her eyes when she realized this male had also lost his family. “I’m so sorry, Healer.”
“Harold,” he corrected her. “You can call me Harold.”
“Harold,” she nodded, testing the sound on her tongue and liking the way his name fell from her lips.
Dane sipped on his beer, his eyes narrowed on the middle-aged human men who were ordering their dinners across the bar. Olivia was working a double shift that evening since Winter had taken Nova and their son, Atlas, away on a sudden vacation a few hours ago and wouldn’t be home for another three days. Liberty was working on payroll in the office and had left Cole in charge of the bar for the night.
Dane’s panther was prowling in his mind. The past forty-eight hours had been hell after returning home from recovering Evie and finding a handful of other shifters on that island with no families or homes to return to once they were rescued. Thankfully, a new little development was brought into the light.
Who would’ve thought that any alpha could run a misfit bunch of shifters? Dane sure was dumbfounded when he’d learned that little fact. Theo was the alpha to two black bear shifters, a white wolf, and a lion shifter who wasn’t even through his prime yet.
Dane shook the thoughts of the others from his mind and let his eyes scan the crowd. For a Thursday night, the place was very busy, and Cole was working feverishly behind the bar. Dane had seen him watching Olivia from time to time. The male seemed overly concerned about the new waitress. Yes, she was tiny, and Dane found himself keeping better tabs on her than anyone else who worked the evening shift.
“She’s not my mate,” he mumbled and took a swig of his beer.
His gaze swung over to the human bartender. He and Cole had forged a strong friendship over the past few years. Dane found himself quizzing Cole on safety and his knowledge of the guns he kept hidden behind the bar more than a few times a month. He was concerned for the male. He didn’t have the strength of a shifter, and the thought of Cole getting hurt because of a feral shifter caused Dane’s panther to snarl inside his head.
“Get the hell out of the bar!” Olivia’s voice rang out over the music coming from the overhead speakers. Several men at the pool tables stopped their play and set their sticks across the table.
In a blink of an eye, Dane was out of the booth, and he caught Cole’s scent as the man rounded the bar to come to Olivia’s aide. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Lawson seems to think his hands belong on me and not the table while he eats his food,” she spat, shifting her body to the left when Dane got a little too close. The female had already learned the protocol about touching the panthers, and Dane’s beast snarled when he realized she put so much distance between them.
Cole grabbed the man by his collar and pulled him from his seat. “Apologize to the lady.”
“Man, I didn’t do shit!” the male snarled. Dane looked over his head and raised a brow at the bartender. Cole’s eyes darkened a split second before he spun the male and pulled Mr. Lawson’s back against his broad chest.
“You are not allowed in here ever again,” he said, taking a step toward the door, but the male was obviously sparring for a fight. “If I see you even drive into the parking lot, I will call the sheriff. Got me?”
“Fine,” he snapped. “I’m gone!” The human jerked out of Cole’s hold and stormed out the door. Dane pivoted on his feet to address Olivia, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Where did she go?” Cole asked.
“She went in the back,” Liberty said as she came up to the table. She inclined her head to both men. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Dane replied. He really wasn’t paying much attention to the alpha’s mate. His concern was for the tiny blonde who had run off undetected. He started toward the back but paused when Cole went to make the same move.
“We should check on her together,” Cole sighed, shaking his head. The male let out a harsh breath before he spoke again. “I wanted to kill that man.”
“Are you sure you’re not a shifter?” Dane teased, holding out his hand for Cole to go ahead of him to the backroom.
“Last I checked, I didn’t grow fur.” Cole shrugged and walked away. Dane let out a short laugh and followed the male to go find Olivia.
“May I ask how old you are?” Harold continued.
“A woman never tells her age,” Luna remarked. Harold knew she was trying to lighten the mood in the room, but she had to be scared out of her mind. She was a misfit among the cats, but he didn’t want her to worry.
“My apologies, ma’am,” he said with a grin.
“I’m kidding,” she shrugged, “I don’t care about telling you how old I am. I’m twenty-nine. Are you going to tell me your age now?”
“I’m forty-three,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “I pegged you for much younger.”
“I don’t think I would ever want to go back to a younger age,” she replied, her nose scrunching like the idea repulsed her. Harold chuckled as she continued. “I’m kind of happy where I’m at now. Well…I mean before.”
“I’m extremely sorry for the trauma you have endured,” Harold said sincerely. He was a doctor by human standards, but the beast inside of him wanted blood for the things done to her, regardless if the men who violated her were already dead. “I know a few counselors you can speak with and they can help you move past this.”
“I think we will be leaving as soon as Theo make arrangements.” She frowned. “Maybe I can find one wherever we are going?”
“I can help you with that,” he replied, but his panther snarled at the idea of the female leaving the Shaw pride.
“Thank you. Is there any way I can get some clothes?”
“Oh, yes!” He cringed, realizing she had nothing to her name. “I will have a female bring you something immediately.”
Harold’s hands shook as he left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Marie, Evie’s mother, answered immediately. “How may I help you, Harold?”
“The female wolf needs some clothes,” he stated. “Can you gather up some?”
“Do you know what size she wears?” Marie asked.
“Ah…”
“Don’t worry,” Marie chuckled. “I will personally come by there and speak with her if she is well enough to have a visitor.”
“I’m sure she would like to meet some more females,” he told her. God, he hadn’t even thought about her sizing. Hell, he had no clue what she’d need. Did she like jeans or slacks? She would need bras and panties, too. The healer blushed at the thought.
As soon as Marie hung up, Harold walked into his office and took a seat behind the desk to shake the need to provide something warm for the female to wear if she got cold in his office. Was the blanket he had in that room going to be enough?
Harold brought his hands up to cup his head. He didn’t even know how to care for a female beyond his skills as a healer. He’d dated a few females in his time, but he’d never mated. He just needed five minutes of quiet to get his thoughts in order. A knock on the exterior door told him he wouldn’t be getting off that easily.
“How is she?” Theo asked as he stepped inside.
“She is doing very well, alpha,” Harold replied, not knowing just how much Luna wanted known to her alpha. “I think you should talk to her, but if you could wait until one of our elder females bring her some clothes, I would appreciate it. She seems stable, but I would rather she rest for a little longer.”
“That is fine,” Theo nodded, “I think we all need some rest.”
“I would advise that for all of you,” Harold replied, leaning against the door frame. He crossed his arms and looked down at his feet. “What do you know about white wolves?”
“Nothing,” Theo answered. “I’d never heard of a white wolf until I saw her shift at the lab. They’d brought her into the cages a month ago and she had already shifted. It was early in the morning and her growls woke all of us. As soon as she was locked in there, she returned to her human form and I had to pinch myself to believe what I was seeing.”
“Why have none of our histories spoken of them?” Harold wondered aloud. “We know about the variety of bears, the feral wolves, foxes, and panthers…but no white wolves.”
“She’s very docile, and I just don’t understand how.” Theo said, his eyes flickering to the door where Luna rested.
“Wolves are feral,” Harold reminded the alpha. It was best he reminded himself of that as well. “This is a fact, and one that has been proven over thousands of years. Luna is different, I agree, but what makes her not like the others?”
“We will find out, Healer,” Theo promised, holding out his hand to shake Harold’s in a sign of respect. “I’ll be at the main house if she needs me.”
“Thank you,” Harold said. “Please get some rest for yourself.”
“I think I will.” The old alpha yawned and left the healer’s home.
Harold returned to his office and took a seat in the old office chair. His elbows rested on the top of his desk as his eyes scanned the papers scattered there. He really needed to get his charts in order, but at that moment, he had no care in the world to work on such a daunting task. Maybe he’d wait until things calmed down with Luna and the others.
A female voice registered as the door to the home opened again. Harold called out for his visitor and smiled warmly when Marie appeared. “I’m here to see the female. Is that alright?”
“Sure, let me introduce you,” he said, pushing back his exhaustion for at least another hour or two. He was grateful there weren’t anymore injuries to his pride or the others who were rescued from the island.
“Luna?” Harold called out as he raised his hand to the door. Knocking twice, he waited for her to reply, but after a few seconds, there was nothing. His panther snarled in his head as his body tensed. Where was she? Was she okay? He didn’t hesitate to push the door open. When he did, a relieved breath rushed from his lungs. The female was curled up on the gurney, fast asleep. She’d covered herself up with the quilt Marie had made for his patients. The wolf looked like a small child laying there in her slumber. Her vulnerability tore at the healer’s heart.
“She’s close to Evie’s size,” Marie whispered, backing out of the room. Harold closed the door softly and turned toward the older female. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”
“Thank you, Marie.” Harold smiled and held the door open for her to leave.
Once the house was quiet again, Harold tried his hardest to return to his office to wait for Marie to return with some clothes, but his panther was pushing to override his desire to stay away from Luna. As much as the healer pushed at his beast, the animal returned it ten-fold. Before he realized what he was doing, Harold cracked the door to the room to watch the wolf sleep in peace. Luna’s light brown hair was curled around her throat and her long lashes rested softly against her pale cheeks. His panther relaxed in his mind once it was satisfied she was okay.