Chapter 2
1328 Words
CHAPTER 2: HEALER AND STORM
Miles away, under the same moon that haunted Lucien Vale, Elara Dune stood outside her clinic watching the full moon rise above the treeline.
The sign beside her read "Dune Veterinary Clinic" in faded paint. It wasn’t much just a small clinic serving the nearby farms and villages. But it was hers.
Her mother, Diana, had left an hour ago, reminding Elara to lock up early, as she always did on full moon nights.
But Elara never closed early on full moon nights, despite her mother's warnings. She enjoyed admiring the moon too much.
And it was exceptionally beautiful tonight. Huge and silver, hanging low in the sky like it was close enough to touch. She raised her palm up, wishing she could touch it and just look at it properly.
Really look at it.
But she never got the chance.
Dark clouds were already rolling thick and heavy. Within minutes, they'd swallow the moon completely. It always happened like this. Every single full moon, a storm would come.
Elara had noticed the pattern, she believed it meant something but Diana always brushed it off as a coincidence.
She didn't want to stop staring, but she had to close up before the storm hit.
She went back in and moved through the clinic quietly, checking that everything was in order. Supplies restocked. Medications locked away. The small examination room was clean and ready for tomorrow.
It was peaceful work. Familiar. Safe.
Elara turned off the lights, grabbed her keys, and reached for her coat when she heard it.
A sound. Faint. Coming from outside.
She paused, listening.
There it was again. A low whimper. Pained.
Elara's heart clenched. She knew that sound.
An animal in distress.
Lots of stray animals get injured during the storm because of the bad road, they get hit often by cars.
She grabbed the flashlight from the drawer and unlocked the back door. A cold wind hit her immediately, whipping her hair across her face.
"Hello?" she called into the darkness.
Another whimper. Closer this time. Near the tree line.
Elara stepped out, her flashlight cutting through the rain. She swept the beam across the ground and froze.
A massive dog lay collapsed at the edge of the clearing, barely visible in the shadows.
"Oh my God," Elara breathed.
She ran to it, dropping to her knees in the mud. The animal was huge, with thick gray fur that was soaked and matted with blood. Its breathing was shallow, labored.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Elara said softly, her hands hovering over its body, checking for injuries. "I'm going to help you."
Her fingers found the wound on its side, a deep gash that looked too clean, too precise to be from another animal or from a car hit. It looked like it had been made by a blade.
In four years of practice, she'd seen countless injuries. Dog fights, car accidents, barbed wire. But this? This was different. Deliberate. Like someone had attacked this animal with a weapon.
“What happened to you?”
The dog's eyes opened slightly, amber and glassy with pain. It tried to lift its head but couldn't.
Elara made a decision.
"Come on, big guy. Let's get you inside."
It took everything she had to drag the animal toward the clinic. It was so heavy, far heavier than any dog should be. Her arms screamed in protest, but she didn't stop. She couldn't.
By the time she got it through the back door and onto the examination table, she was drenched in sweat and breathing hard.
The dog lay still, its chest rising and falling weakly.
Elara washed her hands quickly, her mind already running through what she needed.
Antiseptic. Bandages. Needle and thread if the wound needed stitches.
But when she looked closer at the injury, something felt wrong.
The edges of the wound had a strange shimmer to them. Almost metallic.
Silver poisoning? No, that didn't make sense.
She'd read about silver toxicity in textbooks, but only in fish and certain birds. Never in canines.
Elara shook her head and got to work. Whatever this was, the animal was dying. She had to try.
She cleaned the wound carefully, speaking softly the whole time. "You're going to be okay. I promise. Just hold on."
The dog's amber eyes locked onto hers. For a moment, Elara felt like it understood her. Like it was listening. Really listening.
"Easy now," she murmured, placing her hands gently over the wound to apply pressure.
And that's when it happened.
Heat spread through her palms. Not painful, but intense. She looked down and gasped.
Her hands were glowing.
It was faint, barely there, but she could see it.
A soft golden light pulsing just beneath her skin.
"What"
Just then, lightning flashed outside, brilliant and blinding. Thunder cracked so loud the windows rattled.
A sharp pain shot through her chest, stealing her breath, Elara stumbled back, pressing a hand to her heart. The pain was sudden and fierce, like something inside her was trying to break free.
But just as quickly as it came, it stopped.
Elara stood there, shaking, staring at her hands. The glow was gone. But the warmth remained.
She thought to herself her chest must have hurt because the lightning scared her, and the glow she thought she saw was probably just the lightning's reflection through the glass.
She looked down at the dog.
The wound was still there, but it looked... different. Better. The bleeding was reducing and the torn flesh didn't look as raw as it had moments ago.
The dog made a soft sound, pulling her attention back. Its breathing was steadier now. Stronger.
Elara finished bandaging the wound with trembling fingers. The dog was stabilizing too fast, but the animal was stabilizing. That was what mattered.
"Rest now," she whispered. "I'll check on you in the morning."
The dog's eyes followed her as she cleaned up, that unsettling intelligence still there. Watching. Waiting.
Elara locked the clinic and drove home in a daze. The rain pounded against her windshield, but she barely noticed.
That injury. The blade-like precision. The silver shimmer.
It was another one. Another impossible wound that didn't match any attack pattern she'd studied.
As soon as she got home, she was adding this to her notebook.
When she got home, she went straight to her room without telling her mother she was back.
She didn't want Diana scolding her for returning late.
She got up and went to the window. Sleep wouldn't come anyway.
She took out her notebook, the one she'd been keeping for the past year. Page after page of sketches: animals with strange wounds, injury patterns that didn't match any textbook explanation. She'd tried researching, cross-referencing with veterinary journals, even posting anonymously in online forums.
No one had answers.
Elara flipped to a blank page and began sketching the gray dog. The blade-like wound. The silver shimmer. The impossibly fast healing.
Another mystery to add to her collection.
Back at the clinic, the massive gray animal lay still on the examination table.
To anyone watching, it would have looked like a dog. A strange, oversized dog, but a dog nonetheless.
It wasn't.
Beneath the fur and the closed eyes, was Ronan Lucien's beta, his second-in-command.
The silver poison that had locked his form was fading. Slowly, painfully, but fading. And the bond, the pack bond he'd thought was lost forever was there.
Faint, but there.
He reached out carefully, testing it.
Alpha?
Nothing at first. Then, a desperate surge of recognition.
Ronan?
Alpha...safe…. she healed me…
Who?
Before he could answer, the bond flickered again, too weak to hold.
But it was enough.
Ronan let the bond settle, exhaustion pulling at him. His Alpha was coming. Everything would be okay now.
The storm outside would pass by morning.
But the storm racing toward Elara Dune's quiet life?
That one would change everything.
- Writer
