The Healer Luna

CHAPTER SIX

FIONA

That is. I am going to claw out her eyes.

But Elias held me back. I snarled at her. “I won’t stay at his side because he’s a cheating, vow breaking jerk.”

Her gaze slid pointedly to Elias’ grip on my arms. A smirk played on her lips. “Or perhaps you were just waiting for the perfect excuse.”

Murmurs rippled through the hall and Damien’s eyes darkened.

“What are you implying?” He asked Serena, his eyes fixed on me and Elias behind me. Serena shrugged delicately.

“I’m only saying what everyone else here is thinking. Why else would Elias dare to defy his alpha? Why would Fiona be so.. passionate in his defense?”

Heat flared in Damien’s expression.

The absurdity of seeing his jealousy especially given the situation was infuriating.

“She’s lying.” I said sharply then turned to her. “Not all of us spread our legs for the first man who is kind to us.”

Serena laughed. “Oh, then why does Elias look at you like...”

“Enough.” Damine barked. Serena lifted her hands in surrender but the seed had already been planted.

Damien’s gaze shifted between Elias and me. I scoffed, stepping into his view. “Surely Damien you do not believe that I was cheating on you with your second?”

Damien looked over my head, his face contorted in rage as he stared at Elias.

“Step aside Fiona.” he ordered coldly. “This no longer concerns you.”

“No.” I replied, moving deliberately to stand in front of Elias. “This absolutely concerns me.”

Damien’s eyes widened. “You’re shielding him?”

Damian looked like a mad man and my first instinct was to cower and take a step back. But I squared my shoulders instead.

“You’re acting insane.”

Behind me Elias whispered, “Luna, please…”

I shoved his hand off my shoulder and did not move. “If you want to punish someone.” I said evenly. “Then punish me. But leave Elias and the rest of the pack out of your misplaced anger.”

Damien’s control shattered.

“You think I won’t?” He roared and lifted his hand, fist raised. I closed my eyes, bracing for the hit. But it never came.

I opened one eye then the other and saw Damien’s hand, frozen mid air. Not because he had changed his mind but because someone else had caught it in an iron grip.


He stood between Damien and I, shoulders so broad, I could barely see around him.

It was like the air itself had shifted, becoming thicker and charged with a power so ancient and raw that every wolf in the room instinctively lowered their gaze. Including Damien.

I did not know what or who he was. But his aura rolled through the room like a tide, vast and suffocating. Even I who had no wolf could feel it.

He stood with his back to me, as if carved from stone and moonlight, his hand wrapped effortlessly around Damien’s wrist.

“Touch her, “ the stranger said softly, “and you will lose more than just your hand.”

The man's voice rumbled deep and soft. Like the sound of a storm crashing against the hull of a ship, ripe with the promise of devastation and yet filled with a warmth that sent goosebumps prickling across my skin.

Damien tried to yank his hand free but he couldn’t.

“Who the hell are you?” He demanded, turning even redder. The stranger did not answer him. Instead his head slowly turned towards me and eyes like liquid ink met mine. It caught the light and swallowed it whole in its darkness.

My breath caught in my throat. Looking into his eyes was like drowning and I could not get any air.

My lips fell open but no sounds made it past my throat. Deep inside my chest, something stirred, spreading out from my center until I could feel it to the very tip of my toes and fingers.

Every inch of my skin was burning and the longer he stared at me, the hotter it got. Recognition stole whatever air was left in my throat and I staggered slightly.

Without taking his eyes off of me, the stranger released Damien’s hand.

“You…” He started, but Damien cut him off.

“You dare enter an alpha’s estate and lay your hand on me?” My husband barked but there was an uncertainty edged in his voice that had not been there before.

The stranger looked away from me and I dragged in air like a woman drowning.

He was dressed in simple clothes yet everything from the velvet lined cape across his neck to the way his shoes gleamed, spoke of a means far beyond the mere estate of an alpha.

He looked at Damien, his head slightly tilted. “I dare many things, Alpha Damien. And right now, I am becoming more and more inclined to dare ripping your tongue out.”

Damien staggered back as if burned and the stranger turned back to me. His hair was the same shade of midnight as his eyes.

“Are you Fiona?” He asked and the sound of my name on his tongue was almost reverent. It sent a tremor through me and I had to try multiple times to get my throat to work.

“I am.” I finally managed to say but came out small and strangulated.

Impossible I thought desperately.

But I was wrong. It was not impossible. Somehow I had just never expected it to happen to me, I had no wolf, no powers. And yet it had.

I felt the pull. The quiet, inexorable thread bleeding out from my chest and tying me to him. I stared at my fated mate and a wave of dizziness threatened to knock me off my feet.

Elias reached for me but somehow the stranger was faster.

He caught me before I could fall, hands wrapped around my waist and I felt the scorching heat of his touch even through my clothes.

I placed my hand on his arm and his pupils dilated, a short involuntary breath tearing itself from his throat.

Quickly he steadied me on my feet and let me go like I had scaled him.

“What is this?” Damien demanded, staring between us, his anger overcoming his fear. “Fiona?”

I opened my mouth to speak, shaking my head but the stranger beat me to it. He straightened to his full height, so tall he nearly made Damien look small.

Hands clasped in front of him, the stranger steadied his gaze on him.

“Alpha Damien, I am here for your wife.”

I looked behind me, confused and disoriented, searching for who the stranger could be speaking about.

Nothing in the world seemed to be making sense anymore. Maybe I actually did die at camp and this was my own version of hell.

I could feel Damien’s rage radiating off of him and clinging to the walls like smoke, I could hear Serena’s uneven breath behind him and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Elias tense.

And yet, none of it mattered as much as the man standing in front of me.

The longer I looked at him, the more firmly the bond pulsed and when he looked at me again, I knew he could feel it too. He was just better at hiding his thoughts from his face. Yet I could see it in his eyes, in the way his jaw ticked.

I stared at him and realized he was waiting for something.

Me. He was waiting for me.

My fated mate.