This strange sensation within me doesn't fade away, even as I run the whole way to the healing center. I keep rubbing the center of my chest with my left hand, trying to get rid of this feeling.
The man doesn't follow me, and I'm grateful for that.
I know most of the shifters around here. Whoever that man was, he wasn't part of the Moonlight Pack.
He seemed to be around the same age as me. There is no way a good-looking shifter like that would not have been included in the pack's social events.
The fact that he was sneaking around the border of our territory makes the whole situation even more suspicious.
I should just forget about the whole incident. About him. And whatever this feeling is, it'll fade away soon.
The Moonlight Pack's healing center is a large compound with different buildings. Each building is dedicated to different parts of the territory. This way, the healers are not overburdened.
The building that covers my area is Number Five, but when I walk in, the receptionist looks up and then rolls her eyes.
"We're busy today."
I'm not in the mood to argue with her. "Is Mary in?"
"Do I look like your secretary?" the receptionist, Sarah, snaps. "I told you, we're busy. Come back another time."
I let out a long breath, trying to stay calm.
My entire face hurts. So does my neck, and every other part of me that was beaten. The blood has trickled down the side of my face, and I can taste it now.
I am pretty sure I have a concussion because everything seems to be spinning around me.
"You're not busy." I scowl. "You only have one patient, and I can see him all the way from here."
Sarah gets to her feet, her voice haughty. "If I say we're busy, we're busy. We heal shifters, not useless lumps of meat like you."
"Lump of meat?" I roll the words around in my mouth. "You're not even a healer, Sarah. You're just a receptionist. Why don't you do your job for once and go get Mary? And if she's not available, I want another healer."
I don't care that I've hit her below the belt.
There are different kinds of shifters. Some are born with the ability to heal, but sometimes that ability is not enough for that shifter to become a healer.
Sarah is one of those unlucky ones. She has a desperate desire to heal, as all healers to, but her ability is simply not strong enough.
I refuse to feel bad, though. She and others like her have used their words to hurt me plenty of times. I don't believe in being the better person. I believe in getting even, if I can.
"How dare you?!" she spits out, her eyes welling up. "At least I have my wolf spirit! You are just a charity case living in our pack. You don't deserve our resources! Get out of here!"
I refuse to budge. "Get me a healer, or I'll file a report with the pack's council for discrimination."
The pack's council is a group of elders who oversee civil matters that don't need to go to the alpha. While they are a step below Alpha Black, they are known for being fair and just, and they are the reason I wasn't killed when I was discovered.
Sarah's face pales but she refuses to budge. "Report all you want! They don't care. Even they would be glad if you dropped dead!"
I'm not surprised by her ruthless words. Sarah was one of the orphans I grew up with. I remember her being sweet and kind at one point.
We shared a room till we were ten. She was the first to turn against me. Things like spitting in my food and cutting my hair while I slept were childish pranks she indulged in that soon escalated into violent ones.
"If you're not going to get me a healer," I say tightly, "I'll just go inside and look for one myself."
She immediately walks around her desk and steps in my path. "You walk past me, and I'll kill you. Just give me a reason."
I raise a brow even though it hurts my face. "You'll kill me? For seeking the healer I have every right to see? I wonder how that's going to look on your record?"
"Well, I stopped you from going in, and you attacked me. I had no choice." Sarah looks smug, as if she has devised an ingenious plan.
"Why don't you try it?" I sneer.
I may not be as powerful as a shifter, but I can fight dirty. It's the only way I survived as a kid.
Young wolf shifters don't really know how to hold back when fighting; whenever I was ganged up on, I had to do whatever it took to survive.
And here, now, I may end up with some vicious injuries, but the prospect of being able to get some blows in has me motivated.
"There will be none of that!" comes a loud, annoyed voice.
Both of us stiffen, and I look behind Sarah to see an older woman approaching us. She's one of the senior healers in the pack, Edith Monroe.
Her silver hair is tied in a severe knot, but she looks quite good for her early sixties.
"Sarah, get back to your seat. I'll be having a word with you later. And you, Emery, what in the world happened to you? Can't you go one day without coming to me all black and blue?"
Sarah bristles. "Bitch probably deserved it."
Edith's eyes narrow into dangerously small slits as she turns to face the receptionist. "Say that again."
Sarah snaps her mouth shut.
Edith steps toward her. "I let you work here because you begged me to. You wanted to be part of the healing center even when you didn't qualify to be a healer. I could have refused you. But I hired you because you seemed sincere. What gives you the right to reject patients?"
Sarah's face is bright red, but she's always been stubborn to a fault. Instead of holding her tongue, she grimaces. "She's not a patient. She's not one of us. She's just a waste of space. She doesn't contribute anything to this pack—"
"And you do?" Edith crosses her arms over her chest, her tone harsh.
Sarah's eyes widen. "I-I have my wolf spirit! I'm a shifter! I—"
"You contribute nothing to the pack, Sarah," Edith cuts her off coldly. "Yet, you're here. Next time you turn a patient away, you'll be out of a job. Leave your personal feelings at home when you come to work. Am I clear?"
I have to hide my grin.
Edith has always had a no-nonsense attitude. Unlike the other healers who turn up their noses when it comes to healing me, she does the job quickly and efficiently.
After Mary, she is my preferred healer. However, she's a senior healer who usually deals with serious cases. That hasn't stopped her from taking over if she spots a healer mishandling me, though.
"Come along, Emery," Edith orders. "I don't have all day."
Sarah shoots me a look filled with hatred and tears as I walk past her. I sneer at her.
Edith's back is to me, but she snaps, "Stop smirking." I immediately put a somber expression on my face.
Each building in the healing center is divided into several rooms where healers treat shifters with a combination of both healing magic and human medication and equipment. Edith takes me down the corridor to the last room and closes the door behind her before asking grimly, "What happened?"
I shrug, and she gives me a stern look. "That's not an answer, Emery."
"What are you going to do if I tell you?" I sit on the edge of the examination table, my voice dry. "Can you make sure it doesn't happen again? Because I guarantee it will."
She studies me for a few long moments, and I see the heaviness in her gaze. "Did you piss off Zara?"
It doesn't surprise me that she has come to that conclusion. Edith is well aware of Zara's hatred of me.
While I have been knocked around by other shifters, these sorts of injuries only come to pass when Zara's father decides to step in.
The last time Thomas brought me into line, I was unconscious for a week. He was actually quite gentle this time, I must say.
I give the healer a humorless smile. "All I have to do is breathe, and it pisses off Zara. Along with half the pack. Do you have any medication for that?"
Edith picks up a tray of cotton swabs and disinfectants and comes to stand in front of me.
In an uncharacteristic move, she smooths her hand over my head. "I wish I could tell you that it will get better, but it won't."
I lower my gaze, my throat feeling thick with despair that I try my best to keep at bay. "I know." I try to shrug nonchalantly, but my body doesn't comply.
"Here." She reaches into her pocket and hands me a small box. "I know it's your birthday tomorrow. I got you this."
My birthday?
I give her a puzzled look before realizing she's right. I never keep track of my birthdays. I don't celebrate them. There's nothing to celebrate about my existence.
As Edith snaps on her gloves, she glances at me. "Well? Aren't you going to open it?"
I look at her cautiously. "You've never given me a gift before."
"It's not every day a wolf comes of age." Edith offers me a small smile. "It's not much, though, so don't have any high expectations. My mother gave it to me when I came of age.
Tomorrow, you turn twenty-two. This is the most meaningful gift I could give you. I don't have children of my own, so I thought you might appreciate it."
I open the box, touched by the fact that she is giving me something that a mother would pass on to her daughter. It's a silver ring. A plain-looking band. There's nothing remarkable about it, but as of right now, it is the most precious thing I own. When a female wolf comes of age, she is gifted a
piece of jewelry by her mother or some other female elder of the family to signify her entering adulthood.
I don't have a habit of crying, but I lower my eyes, feeling overwhelmed. "It's perfect. Thank you."
Edith unwraps the binding on my hand, and her lips press together into a thin line when she sees the infection. "Thomas did this?"
I nod. "He stabbed a letter opener into my palm. I don't know why it got infected—"
"I'll fix it." Edith's voice is strained.
I expect her to apply some ointment, but to my surprise, she uses her healing ability.
I close my eyes as the warm, comfortable wave of healing energy passes through me.
Some of the pain begins to diminish. As Edith uses her ability to reverse the damage, I wonder if I should celebrate my coming-of-age birthday.
When a female wolf comes of age, she is no longer bound to the wolf pack she is associated with. She's old enough to leave if she wants, and she's also old enough to take a mate. I have never had anything to celebrate before, but now…?
I could leave the Moonlight Pack. I could go live in a human territory.
It's not like I can shift, after all.
I could start a different job, a new life.
No wolf will ever accept me as their mate, and after the tumultuous life I have experienced, the idea of somebody loving me and wanting me is nothing short of a fantasy.
I've been told my whole life how unwanted and undesirable I am.
Why would that ever change? It won't