The Alpha's Cursed Healer

ARIA WINTERS I wake up and everything hurts. My head is pounding like someone took a hammer to my skull and my whole body aches in ways that are making my face burn. I try standing, but I can’t. The room’s spinning, I had to grab the sheets to steady myself. What…. Where am I? I look around. This isn't my room. The bed is too big and the sheets smell weird. My dress is inside out and there are bruises on my thighs. What the… Suddenly, a burning sensation hits my neck, pulsing like a heartbeat. My hand flies to my throat immediately. I touch raised skin and I trace it. It’s in the shape of teeth. Oh f**k. It’s a bite mark. Oh God. Oh God oh God oh God. What happened? I try to remember but everything's fuzzy. I was at Celeste’s mating ceremony, and… she gave me champagne, and… Before I can get my thoughts together, the door crashes open so hard it slams against the wall. Celeste stands in the doorway with my father and three pack members behind her. She's still in her white dress from the ceremony but her smile is nothing like the sweet best friend smile I've known my whole life. This smile is cold and sharp and makes my blood run ice. "Well well well," she says, walking into the room with her arms crossed. "Look who's finally awake." "Cel?" My voice comes out hoarse and confused. "What's going on? Where am I?" She laughs. Actually laughs like I just told the funniest joke in the world. "Where are you? You're in the guest room where you spread your legs for a complete stranger like a b***h in heat, that's where you are." The words hit me like a slap. "What? No, I don't understand…." "Oh please." Celeste walks closer and I can see the hatred in her eyes now, burning bright and vicious. "Don't play innocent with me, Aria. Everyone saw you stumbling upstairs. Everyone knows what you did." "I didn't do anything!" I try to stand up but my legs are shaking too hard. "Cel, you're my best friend, please just tell me what's happening…" "Best friend?" She spits the words out. "You really thought we were friends? God, you're even more pathetic than I thought." My father still hasn't said a word. He's standing in the doorway staring at the wall above my head like he can't even look at me. "Dad?" I turn to him desperate for someone to make sense of this. "Dad, please, I don't know what happened last night. I think someone drugged me…" "Enough." His voice is ice cold and flat. "Get dressed. The council is waiting." "The council? Why would the council…" "Because you disgraced this family last night." He finally looks at me and the disgust in his eyes makes me want to disappear. "You were marked by a rogue during a sacred mating ceremony. In my own house. Do you have any idea what you've done?" "I didn't do anything!" The panic is rising in my throat now making it hard to breathe. "I swear I didn't mean for any of this to happen... "Didn't mean for it?" Celeste's laugh is high and cruel. "Oh that's rich. You've been jealous of me your entire pathetic life and the second you get a chance to ruin my ceremony you take it." "That's not true! Cel, you gave me champagne and it tasted wrong and then everything went fuzzy… Someone drugged me!" "Are you seriously trying to blame me right now?" She steps closer until she's right in my face. "You're the one who got drunk and threw yourself at some stranger. You're the one with his mark on your neck like a common w***e. Don't you dare try to make this my fault." "I'm not lying!" I can feel tears burning in my eyes but I refuse to let them fall. "Someone drugged me. I would never do something like that, you know I wouldn't…" "I don't know anything about you anymore." Celeste's voice drops low and vicious. "Except that you're wolfless trash who's so desperate for attention you'll spread your legs for anyone who'll have you." The words punch the air out of my lungs. This can't be real. This can't be happening. "Celeste, please…." She spits in my face. I freeze, feeling the wetness on my cheek, too shocked to even wipe it away. "That's what I think of you and your excuses," she says with a smile that's pure poison. "You're nothing, Aria. You've always been nothing. The only difference is now everyone else knows it too." "Get dressed." My father's voice cuts through the room like a blade. "You have five minutes before I drag you to the council in your underwear." "But Dad…" "Don't call me that." He still won't look at me. "You're not my daughter anymore. My daughter wouldn't have brought this kind of shame on our family." They all leave and the door slams behind them and I'm alone again trying to understand how my entire life fell apart in one night. How did this happen? What happened? I close my eyes and try to remember. Try to push through the fog in my head. *** The ceremony was beautiful. I remember that much. White roses everywhere and candles and champagne flowing and Celeste glowing in the center of it all. I was helping her get ready earlier and that's when I saw a locket on her dresser. It was weird that she had something as old-looking as that. It didn't match any of her jewelry. I opened it and I saw a photo of a girl who looked exactly like me but prettier. She’s smiling like she owned the world. "Who's this?" I asked. Celeste snatched it away fast. "Nobody. She doesn't matter anymore." The way she said it made my skin crawl but I didn't push because that's what I do. Stay quiet. Later at the party I was standing at the edge watching everyone dance and laugh when Celeste grabbed my hand. "Come on," she said pulling me toward a hallway. "We need to toast. Just us." She had two glasses of champagne and that bright smile that always made me feel like maybe I did have a friend after all. "To us," she said raising her glass. "To friendship. One last time before everything changes." Oh I should have asked why she kept saying one last time. Should have noticed how her smile didn't reach her eyes. Should have paid attention to the way her grip on my wrist was too tight. But I didn't because I was desperate to believe someone cared about me. I drank the champagne even though it tasted bitter, and different. But I didn’t care. It’s Celeste, my best friend. Why should I? "Good girl," Celeste whispered and her voice was different somehow. The room started tilting almost immediately and I grabbed her arm to stay standing. "Cel? I don't feel good." "I know." A cruel smile I'd never seen before appeared on her lips. "Some girls are meant to shine, Aria. And some girls are meant to disappear. You were always meant to be invisible." Then before I could respond, she was dragging me and I couldn't fight back because my body wouldn't work right. I heard her on the phone whispering to someone. "Yes, she's secured. The weapon is almost ready. Once this is done we move to phase two." Weapon? What weapon? She opened, opened a door and hurled me inside. Before I could hit the floor, a pair of strong hands caught me and the scent hit me like lightning. Pine and smoke. Every cell in my body woke up screaming. Even though my consciousness was slipping, I could fell butterflies waking in my tummy, goosebumps rising all over my skin. Then something yanked tight in my chest like a rope connecting me to whoever was holding me. Then I heard a voice in my head, my wolf. The one who'd been silent for nineteen years. She was screaming. “MATE! MATE!! MATE!!!”