Interrogation

EVERETT

“Heal?” I ask. I think about all the blood we found on her. Her blood. I watch as my little mate’s eyes widen. She averts her gaze and stares down at the bed. “Explain,” I continue.

She starts to reply but hesitates. She bites her lip, unsure if she should continue. I can’t help but notice how cute she looks when she does that.

I grit my teeth. Focus.

“I-I’m good with herbs and medicines,” she stutters. “I helped my mama a lot back at my old pack.”

She won’t look at me. She’s a bad liar. She was going to say something else.

“~She’s terrified~,” Chaos scolds me in my mind. “~Can’t you see that~?”

“~How dare she lie to me~?” I say to him. I try to focus my fury on the young woman before me, but I can’t. Normally lying to the alpha was a serious offense. But could I really punish her? Punish my precious mate…even if she’s human?

“~Because she doesn’t want to be banished again, you heartless fool~!” Chaos screams. “~Are you seriously going to reject her and throw her to the rogues?~”

I growl, anger white and hot flowing through me at the idea. Rory looks up at me, fear in her eyes. She thinks I’m mad at her.

I take a deep breath and calm myself. “You will stay,” I tell her. “You are my mate. I will not allow you to leave.”

The fear in her eyes melts, replaced by warm gratitude.

“Th-thank you,” she whispers.

My heart swells, and I want nothing more than to take her in my arms. I clench my fists to resist the urge. I will not throw her to the rogues, but that does not mean I’ll make her my luna.

“~Stubborn fool~,” Chaos mutters.

I spin around and head for the door before I do something stupid, like hold her and tell her everything will be okay now. I stomp away from the room, away from my mate.

RORY

The alpha’s words ring in my ears. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

Just yesterday, Alpha Nickolas banished me from my pack. And now this alpha is allowing me to stay? This alpha that was, impossibly, my mate?

I thought I could never even have a mate, much less an alpha.

I look around the empty hospital room, wondering what I’m supposed to do. I’m feeling much better now, and he didn’t tell me I wasn’t allowed to look around…

I get up from my bed and peek out into the hallway. I see a guard outside, and he growls menacingly at me.

Oops. Not allowed to look around.

“Be nice,” a kind female voice scolds the guard from inside another room. “Come here, child,” the voice calls to me. Hesitantly, I walk inside of the other room, throwing side glances at the guard. He doesn’t say anything, listening to whoever was inside.

Inside I see a woman. She smiles at me warmly, and I see her eyes fill with wonder when she looks at me.

She’s a wolf too, I know she is, but she doesn’t appear hostile toward me, a human.

She looks more judgmental, narrowing her eyes as if trying to figure me out.

“Hello,” I greet a little awkwardly, but this whole situation is awkward. I’m in a whole new place with a whole new alpha claiming that he’s my mate.

And funnily enough, I miss his presence around me already. Even though he’s furious at me, I still feel a sense of safety with him by my side.

I push that to the back of my mind as I focus on the woman.

“Hi,” she says, sitting up in her bed and continuing to stare. “Don’t mind Everett, sweetheart. He’s…a very dominant alpha. He cares about his pack a lot.”

“Everett,” I hum to myself to test it out.

Alpha Everett. Saying his name makes my heart yearn for him, which I can only sigh at. Stupid mate bond. I don’t even know him, yet I want him more than anything.

I have a boyfriend though, which, after dying and coming back to life and running from rogues and passing out numerous times and finding that I have an alpha soulmate, I forgot.

“Who are you?”

“My name’s Ophelia. I’m Everett’s aunt.”

“Why are you here?” I ask in curiosity. She doesn’t look injured.

“I’m dying. It’s a wolf disease. My wolf is dying and so am I.”

She’s dying? But…she’s a wolf. She can’t die. She’s Everett’s aunt too. He’ll be devastated, I know he will. I feel that he will.

“I’m all Everett had, but now you’re here. You can look after him. I’m happy he found you, even though he’ll be skeptical of the match at first.”

“Why?”

“You’re human. And he’s the alpha of the strongest and largest pack in the country.” My eyes widen at her words, and acknowledgement crosses my face.

He’s the alpha of the Shadow Blood Pack. And if he’s alpha and I’m his mate, that means I’ll be his luna, if he accepts me, which is why his aunt believes he’s skeptical of me.

I am human after all, and weak. He needs a strong mate and luna.

“But don’t worry. He’ll see sense,” she says.

I give her a small smile and walk closer. I attempt to walk a few feet just to her bed, but trip, of course, and end up falling over her legs onto the bed.

I hear her chuckle a little as she makes space for me and pulls me up. “Who tried to kill you?”

I glance at her, surprised. How did she know?

“I heard everything,” she says, tapping at her ears. Of course. Werewolves have better senses than humans.

“The alpha and his luna from my last pack,” I explain. “They hate humans. Their parents allowed my mama to bring me up in the pack, but their kids took over and soon enough, they kicked me out.

“They took me out into rogue territory and tried to kill me. But rogues scared them off and they thought the rogues would kill me anyway,” I lie.

But it’s almost the truth. They thought the rogues would eat my body, so there would be no proof of what they did.

And there isn’t. My wound is gone. It was like they never even slit my throat with smug smiles.

“That’s awful. So it was just you and your mama?” she asks.

“Yes. And my friends at school.”

“School?”

“I go to a human high school. The wolves at the pack school would bully me and push me around so my mama put me in a human high school with the permission of the old alpha.

“I like being around humans, I feel like I belong there,” I confess to her, and she smiles sadly.

“You won’t be able to go back. You have a duty now, as Everett’s mate. Did you have a boyfriend?”

“Yes.” I grimace a little and she grabs my hand in both of hers.

“He won’t like that, but you shouldn’t lie to Everett about it either. He can be intense, but he is reasonable. He understands that he can’t hurt humans,” she says.

“Does he hate humans?” I ask.

“No, he doesn’t hate them. He believes in coexistence. He likes that humans don’t know about our kind, so we can lead private lives away from them. He’s not like those in your old pack.

“Maybe because he’s older than your alpha? He’s twenty-five, and has already had a good few years as alpha, and he also learned from his father, my brother, before he died.”

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“Don’t be sorry, Rory. Just look after Everett. He’s like a son to me. He lost his parents and now he will lose me too. I only have so long. I want to know he’s in good hands.

“I can tell you are a sweet girl with a kind heart. He might not know it yet, but you are what he needs.”

“I’m not sure that’s true. He’s an alpha. He needs someone strong. I’m probably the clumsiest human alive. I tripped just walking a few feet from my bed to yours.

“One time I caused a riot in the halls of my school. I accidentally fell into someone who pushed a girl, whose boyfriend was temperamental and punched the guy I knocked.

“Then all the guys started fighting with each other over in that part of the hall. It was chaos.”

She chuckles at my confession but then shakes her head.

“Trust me, you’re exactly what he needs.”

I shake my head, knowing that can’t be true. I am many things, but I am certainly not luna material.

Ophelia’s face suddenly crumples up in pain. She closes her eyes and curls down towards her chest, grabbing the bed for support.

“Are you okay?” I ask, panicking. I lean over her, unsure of how to help.

“I’m okay, child,” she assures me, her voice strained. “It will pass.”

I watch as she takes a deep, rattling breath. I feel frustration building inside of me. This kind lady, one of the only people to show me true kindness in a long time, is suffering. And I’m here sitting beside her, completely useless. There’s nothing I can do to help her.

But suddenly, I realize that that’s not true. There ~is~ ~something I can do. I remember the dying baby fawn, how it had been miraculously healed after I laid my hands on it.~

Could I do it again?

Ophelia smiles at me, trying to reassure me even though ~she’s~ ~the one hurting. It’s okay if I heal her, right? They won’t know it was me. This power is less obvious than me resurrecting. It could just be a surprise recovery…~

I almost told Alpha Everett before, but I chickened out at the last second. But now there was someone who needed my help.

I smile at her, trying to hide how nervous I am. I reach for her hand, an innocent enough gesture. There’s no way she’ll guess that I’m trying to heal her.

Ophelia takes my hand, her grip so heartbreakingly weak.

I close my eyes and focus, trying to find that strange, draining feeling from before. I feel something begin to build up inside of me, only slightly terrified of what might happen.

Here goes nothing…