The Luna’s rising

Blood soaked through my gloves, and the scent of it filled the infirmary, iron thick, clinging to the back of my throat. It drowned out everything else. Almost everything. My wolf stirred faintly, as if she too recognized the cruelty of this moment. “Hold still,” I said, my voice steady despite the tightness in my chest. “You’re bleeding more than you realize.” He flinched anyway. The movement was sharp, and it sent a jolt of anger through me that I had to swallow down hard. I forced my hands to remain steady. Be professional, I reminded myself. Kieran, my former mate, my public disgrace, the man who had shattered me under a full moon. He sat on the edge of the examination table with his jaw clenched and his eyes fixed firmly on the wall behind me. He refused to look at me. As if I were the one who had betrayed him. As if I were the wound. “I told them I didn’t need you,” he muttered. I didn’t react. Instead, I reached for the silver tipped needle resting on the tray beside me. “You told them you needed a doctor,” I corrected. “I’m on duty.” The lie was thin. Everyone knew he hadn’t asked for me. The guards had dragged him in half conscious after a border skirmish, and I had been assigned to him without hesitation. Not because they were cruel. Because I was the best. Because I was the only one who could save him. Still, the air vibrated with tension, stretched so tight it felt like it might snap. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to leave. Especially with her standing there. Mira leaned against the far wall, arms crossed over her chest, her posture flawless despite the blood and the antiseptic tang of crushed herbs. Kieran’s chosen mate. She smelled wrong. Too sweet. Too polished, like she didn’t belong among pain. The woman he had cheated on me with. The woman he had rejected me for. “You’re sure she’s capable?” Mira asked suddenly, her voice smooth but edged with disdain. “I mean… given her history.” The needle paused in my fingers. I didn’t look at her. I didn’t need to. I could hear the implication clearly enough. Rejected. Broken. Omega. “Liana is a senior healer,” one of the younger apprentices said from the doorway,“She’s treated worse injuries than...” “I wasn’t talking to you,” Mira snapped. The apprentice shrank back immediately. Kieran finally shifted, his jaw tightening. “Mira...” “No,” she cut in, eyes never leaving me. “I’m uncomfortable. That should matter.” There it was. I was too…but apparently that had never mattered. I exhaled slowly and set the needle down. “If you’d prefer another doctor,” I said evenly, “I can step aside.” Kieran’s head snapped up then, surprise flickering across his face before he masked it with something colder. Guilt, maybe. Or annoyance. It was hard to tell with him these days. Mira blinked, clearly not expecting that. “You’d just… leave?” “I would,” I said. “If that’s what the patient wants.” The word patient tasted bitter in my mouth. I straightened, rolling the tension out of my shoulders. “However,” I continued, “I swore an oath when I became a doctor. I don’t abandon injured pack members unless relieved by someone of equal or higher rank.” I met her gaze then. “You can request a replacement,” I said. “But until one arrives, I’m staying.” Mira's eyes narrowed. “And if something goes wrong?” she asked softly. “If his condition worsens?” I held her stare. “Then the responsibility is mine.” A lie. Or at least, only half the truth. We both knew how this would be spun if anything happened to him. Kieran looked away, shame rolling off him in waves. I felt it, even if my wolf refused to respond the way she once had. Once, his emotions had been mine. Once, the bond had hummed between us like a living thing. Once. The memory struck without warning. The moon had been full that night too. I stood in the center of the pack clearing, heart pounding, scent heavy in the air as the ritual circle closed around us. On the night he was supposed to claim me, I found the both of them entagled in a way I tried not to think about. With him, this close, his voice still rang in my ears. “I reject you, Liana Silverwyn, as my mate” he’d said. I remembered the way my knees had buckled in front of the pack. The way the bond had torn, not snapped cleanly but shredded, leaving behind a pain so raw I’d screamed. The Moon Goddess had been silent. Now, here I was. Stitching him back together with hands steadier than my heart had ever been. I resumed my work. Each stitch was clean. I didn’t rush. I didn’t linger. I focused on the wound, not the man attached to it. “You don’t have to do this,” Kieran muttered quietly. “I do,” I replied. “Because if I don’t, I become the thing they think I am.” Mira scoffed softly. “And what’s that?” I tied off the final stitch and removed my gloves. Only then did I look at her fully. “Unprofessional,” I said. “Weak. Replaceable.” Her eyes flashed. She opened her mouth to say something but before she could respond, the door creaked open. The air shifted instantly. Footsteps crossed the threshold. A familiar scent swept into the room…smoke and crushed pine. I turned. And my breath caught.