The Alpha's Unwanted Healer

The moon was too bright tonight. It was too big. Too white. It hung over the Blackwood pack house like a cold eye watching me. It made the whole yard look silver. Like ice. Tonight was my mating ceremony. My hands would not stop shaking. I tried to hold them together but they shook more. The white dress they gave me felt heavy and itchy. It was not my dress. The pack Luna gave it to me. It was too tight on my chest and too loose on my waist. I kept pulling at it. I felt ugly in it. Everyone was there. The whole pack. More than two hundred wolves. They formed a big circle around me, and I was in the middle alone. Like I was on trial. My heart was so loud I thought they could all hear it. Boom. Boom. Boom. I tried to breathe. I told myself, it will be okay. Tonight Damien will claim me. Tonight I will be Luna. Tonight I will finally belong. Then he came. Damien. Alpha Damien Blackwood walked through the crowd and everyone moved for him fast. No one dared to touch him. He was tall. So tall. He had not even bothered to wear a proper shirt for our ceremony. Just black pants and a black shirt half open. His hair was still wet like he just took a shower. He looked bored. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. And for three days, since my eighteenth birthday when I smelled him for the first time, he had been mine. My fated mate. I tried to smile at him when he stopped in front of me. My smile was shaking. He did not smile back. His eyes were gold. Bright wolf gold. He looked me up and down slowly. From my bare feet to my face. Then his mouth twisted like he saw something dirty. He did not touch me. He did not say my name. He just opened his mouth and said it loud so everyone could hear. "I, Alpha Damien Blackwood, reject you, Selene Carter, as my mate and as my Luna." For a second my brain did not understand. The air just stopped. No wind. No sound. Then people started gasping. Whispering. One woman laughed loud. It was Jessica. The Beta's daughter. She has always wanted to be Luna. My knees went soft. I had to hold my dress tight with both hands so I would not fall down in the dirt. "What?" I said. My voice was so small. Like a child. "What did you say, Damien?" He kept looking at me like I was nothing. Like I was trash on his shoe. "Are you deaf?" he said. Louder this time. "I said I reject you. You are rejected." "Why?" I whispered. Tears are coming fast now and I could not stop them. My chest hurt so much. "We are fated. The Moon Goddess chose us. You are my mate..." He came closer. I could smell him. My mate smell. Pine and smoke. My body wanted to go to him even though he was hurting me. He bent down near my ear so only I could hear him, but his voice was low and mean. "Because you are human," he hissed. "You have no wolf. You cannot even shift. You are weak. You are small. You heal small cuts and you think you are special? I need a real Luna. A real wolf. Someone who can fight by my side. Someone who can give me strong Alpha pups. Not you. Not a little healer we kept in this pack out of pity." Pity. That word broke me in half. My mother was the pack healer before she died. She was human too but she had strong healing hands. When she died last year, the pack let me stay in Blackwood even though I could not shift. Because my hands could heal. If I touched a cut, it would close. My hands would glow a little white light. That was all I had. That was my only power. I thought it mattered. I thought Damien saw it as a gift. It did not matter to him. To him I was just charity. He stood straight again. He turned his back on me. Right there. On our altar. In front of the whole pack and in front of the Moon. He turned his back. My wolf, I have never shifted but I always felt her deep inside me, quiet and soft. She always slept. That night she woke up and cried. A small, broken cry. Then she went silent. I could not feel her at all anymore. "Take her," he told the guards. His voice was cold. Like ice. "Pack law. A rejected human has no right to stay on pack land. She leaves before sunrise. She is not Blackwood anymore. Strip her name." Two big warriors grabbed my arms hard. Their nails dug into my skin. I cried out. No one stopped them. No one said anything. I looked at my best friend Lila in the crowd. She just looked at the ground. She was scared of the Alpha. Jessica was smiling now. Wide. They dragged me away from the circle. My white dress dragged in the dirt. That night I ran. I did not pack. I had nothing to pack. The room they gave me was not mine. The clothes were not mine. I just ran in that stupid white torn dress. I tore the bottom off with my hands so I could move my legs. My feet were bare, and the forest floor cut them. Rocks and sticks made me bleed. Five miles to the human town. I ran the whole way. Branches hit my face. I fell twice into mud. My knees bled. But I did not stop until I could not smell wolves anymore. Until I saw the yellow lights of a gas station. Until I was safe from him. I collapsed behind the bins there. I was shaking so hard and I threw up. From running. From crying. From heartbreak. Then my stomach cramped. Hard. I put my shaking hand on my belly. I was two weeks late. I thought it was just stress. Because of the ceremony. Because I was scared. My hand started to glow a little. White light. Like it does when someone is hurt and I try to heal them. But I was not hurt. There was something inside. I pressed harder. I held my breath. I pushed my healing light in. Two. There were two tiny heartbeats. Fast fast fast. Like little birds wings. So fast and so strong. Oh god. Twins. I sat there behind that dirty gas station in a torn white dress, bleeding feet, rejected, alone, with no pack, no home, no money. And I was pregnant with two babies. Alpha babies. His babies. I cried until I had no voice left. Until my throat bled. Four years later... "Dr. Carter! You need to come now! NOW!" Maya busted into my call room. I had been asleep for maybe twenty minutes on the chair. I have been on call for thirty hours. I jumped up so fast my coat fell. "ER. Bay 3. Boy, maybe six years old. He is seizing and we cannot stop it. Neuro has tried two drugs already. His heart rate is dropping!" I was already putting my white coat on. My hands were already glowing a little from panic. "I'm coming!" Maya grabbed my arm. Her face was pale white. She looked scared. "Selene. Stop. Listen to me. It is a Blackwood." My whole body went cold. Like ice water poured down my back. "What?" My voice broke. "The kid. His last name is Blackwood. On the chart. And the father, or whatever he is to him, is here and he is losing his mind. He said he will give ten million dollars to anyone who saves him. He is shouting at everyone. Security cannot hold him." No. No no no. There are many Blackwoods in the world. It cannot be. Please Goddess, it cannot be him. My heart started beating crazy again, just like that night four years ago. Boom. Boom. Boom. I walked to the ER. Each step was heavy like my shoes were made of stone. I could hear him before I saw him. That angry Alpha voice that still lived in my dreams. "I do not care about your damn protocol! If he dies, I will burn this whole hospital down! Do something! NOW!" That voice. I have heard that voice in my nightmares for four years. I pulled the curtain for Bay 3 with a shaking hand. It was him. Damien Blackwood. He looked older. Tired. His black shirt was wrinkled. His hair was messy. And he was holding a little boy in his arms. The boy was shaking all over. Seizing hard. His small face was white. Sweat on his forehead. His lips were blue. And the boy had black hair. Black like Damien's. And when his eyes opened for one second between seizures, they were gold. Bright wolf gold. Alpha gold. Just like his. Just like Damien's. Damien looked up and saw me in my white coat. His mouth opened. All his anger just stopped. His gold eyes went wide. "You," he whispered. My desk was just down the hall. In my locked bottom drawer, I had a photo. I look at it every day on my break. Two toddlers. A boy and a girl. Both four years old. Both with black hair. Both with the same bright wolf gold eyes as the boy in his arms. My twins are at daycare right now. They have no idea who their father is. I told everyone their father died. I had kept my secret safe for four years. And now I had to walk into that room and save his son or whoever that is to him, I am yet to discover the truth. Even if it meant he would see my face and might know. Even if it meant he might find out I hid his pups.