Seraphina POV
I stood outside Alaric's recovery room with my medical bag clutched so tight my fingers ached. Twenty-nine minutes had passed. One more minute and I'd have to go in.
Through the small window in the door, I could see him lying on the bed. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. Even unconscious, tension radiated from every line of his body.
"Get it together, Sera," I whispered. "He's just another patient."
But he wasn't. He'd looked right at me and said those words. 'I know what you are.'
My hand shook as I reached for the door handle. The metal felt cold against my palm.
I pushed the door open.
The reaction was immediate.
A growl ripped through the room, so deep and violent it rattled my bones. Alaric's eyes snapped open, blazing pure gold. His wolf surged forward with such force his entire body lifted off the bed.
"Get out!" The words came out twisted, half-human, half-wolf. "Get away from me!"
I froze in the doorway. Every instinct screamed at me to run. Omegas didn't stand their ground against aggressive Alphas. We ran. We submitted. We survived.
But I was supposed to be a Beta.
"I'm your healer," I said, forcing my voice steady. "Head Healer Thorne assigned me to your care."
"I don't care." He gripped the bed rails, his knuckles white. "Your scent, it's wrong. You're wrong. Get out before I..."
He cut off with a harsh gasp. His hand flew to his ribs where the worst of his injuries were. Blood seeped through the bandages wrapped around his torso.
My healer instincts overrode my fear. I stepped into the room and shut the door behind me.
"You're bleeding again," I said. "If you don't let me help, you'll rupture something vital."
"I said get out!" His voice came out as another growl. The lights flickered. The air pressure in the room changed. Pure Alpha dominance rolled off him in waves.
My knees almost buckled. I grabbed the edge of a nearby chair to stay standing. My wolf whimpered inside me, wanting to bare her throat. Wanting to submit.
I bit down on my tongue until I tasted blood. The pain helped me focus.
"No." The word came out steadier than I felt. "You asked for me by name. So here I am. Now let me do my job before you bleed to death."
Something shifted in his gold eyes. Surprise, maybe. Alphas weren't used to being told no.
"I didn't ask for you." His breathing was labored now. "I don't even know you."
"Then why did you tell the healers my name?" I took a careful step closer to the bed. "Why did you say you know what I am?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." But his eyes tracked my every movement. "I never said your name. I was unconscious."
Either he was lying, or he didn't remember. The injury had been severe. Head trauma could cause memory gaps.
I took another step. Then another. Each one felt like walking through water.
"Your ribs are bleeding," I said quietly. "I can smell it from here. Let me help."
"Stay back." But the command came out weaker this time. Pain was winning against his wolf's aggression.
I reached the bedside. Up close, I could see how bad it really was. His skin had a gray tint. Sweat soaked through the sheets. The bandages around his torso were completely red now.
"I'm going to check your wounds," I said. "This will hurt."
"Everything already hurts." He closed his eyes, gold fading slightly. "Just do it."
I set my medical bag on the side table and pulled out fresh bandages and healing salve. My hands were steadier now. This part I knew. This part I could do.
I carefully peeled back the blood-soaked bandages. He hissed through his teeth but didn't pull away.
The wound was worse than I'd thought. The sabotaged equipment had torn through muscle and scraped bone. Internal stitches had started to tear.
I placed my hands over the worst of it and let my healing ability flow.
Heat spread from my palms into his skin. I felt the torn tissue, the damaged organs, the fractured bones. My power sank deeper, knitting things back together cell by cell.
Then pain exploded in my chest.
I gasped and nearly fell. My hand flew to my bond scar. It burned. Actually burned like someone was carving the mark into my skin all over again.
"What's wrong?" Alaric's eyes snapped open, more brown than gold now.
"Nothing." I gritted my teeth and kept my hands on his wound. "Just focus on breathing."
But the pain got worse. My scar felt like it was on fire. This had never happened before. Not once in the year since Caelan died.
I pushed through it, forcing more healing energy into Alaric's injuries. His flesh knit back together under my touch. Faster than it should. Much faster.
"How are you doing that?" His voice was rough with pain and something else. Confusion. Maybe fear.
"Doing what?" I couldn't look at him. All my focus was on breathing through the agony in my chest.
"I can feel it. My wolf. He's settling. He's never settled this fast."
I glanced at his face. The tension in his jaw had eased. His breathing came smoother. The gray tint was leaving his skin.
My hands shook but I didn't stop. Just a little more. Almost done.
The worst of the internal damage sealed. The bones straightened. The muscles repaired themselves enough that he wouldn't bleed out.
I pulled my hands back and stumbled away from the bed. My chest was screaming. My vision blurred at the edges.
"What just happened?" Alaric pushed himself up on his elbows, staring at his torso. The wound that should have taken days to heal looked weeks old.
"I healed you." I pressed my hand against my scar, trying to smother the burning. "That's what healers do."
"Not like that." He swung his legs over the side of the bed. Too fast. He should have been weak. "Healers don't work that fast. And they definitely don't make an Alpha's wolf submit."
"I didn't make your wolf do anything."
"You did." He stood, towering over me despite the fact that he should barely be able to sit up. "My wolf wanted to tear you apart when you walked in. Now he's practically purring."
I took a step back. Then another. My back hit the wall.
"That's impossible." But my voice shook.
"You're right. It is impossible." He moved closer. Not threatening, but intent. Focused. "Just like it's impossible for you to smell like that."
My heart stopped. "Like what?"
"Like everything my wolf wants." His eyes were doing that thing again. Brown to gold and back. "Sweet. Soft. Like orchids and rain."
No. No, no, no. Those were Omega scent markers. My suppressants should have locked them down completely.
"You're imagining things." I tried to slide along the wall toward the door. "The pain medication is making you imagine things."
"I'm not on pain medication." He didn't move, but I felt trapped anyway. "I refused it. Said it dulls my senses too much."
Of course he did. Typical Alpha behavior.
"Then you're just confused from the injury." I reached behind me, searching for the door handle. "I should go. Let you rest."
"You're not going anywhere." Not a threat. A statement of fact. "Not until you tell me the truth."
"I don't know what you want me to say."
"Start with why you lied." He tilted his head, studying me like I was a puzzle he needed to solve. "You're not a Beta. I know you're not."
My fingers found the door handle. "You're wrong."
"Am I?" He took one step forward. Just one. "Then why does my wolf recognize you? Why does every instinct I have say you're mine to protect?"
The bond scar on my chest burned hotter. I couldn't breathe.
"I'm not yours." The words came out barely above a whisper. "I can't be anyone's. Not ever again."
Something in his expression softened. "What happened to you?"
"Nothing that concerns you." I turned the handle.
"Wait…"
But I was already pulling the door open.
His hand shot out, impossibly fast for someone who'd been dying thirty minutes ago. His fingers wrapped around my wrist. Not hard. Not painful. But absolutely unbreakable.
"Let go," I said.
"Not yet." His thumb pressed against my pulse point. I knew he could feel how fast my heart was racing. "Just answer one question."
"What?"
He leaned in close. So close I could feel the heat radiating off his skin. So close his cedar scent wrapped around me like smoke.
His eyes locked on mine. Pure gold now. No brown left at all.
"What the hell are you?"
The bond scar on my chest flared with pain so intense I cried out.
And for just a second, just one impossible second, I felt something I hadn't felt in a year.
A bond. Not the broken one from Caelan. A new one. Fresh and terrifying and absolutely forbidden.
Forming with the Alpha whose hand was still wrapped around my wrist.
The Alpha who was staring at me like he felt it too.