The Alpha's Unwanted Healer

The Doctor With A Secret

Four years changes a person. He couldn't recognize me easily, though he kept wondering, my face looks familiar.

I used to be Selene Carter, the girl with no wolf. The pack charity case. The girl who could not shift. The girl they all pitied.

Now I am Dr. Selene Carter.

I have a white coat. I have short hair. I wear glasses. I live in the human world. I pay rent. I buy chicken nuggets. I have a life.

No one here knows I ever lived with wolves. No one knows I sleep with a silver knife under my pillow. No one knows I have twins at home hiding in a small two-bedroom apartment.

"Dr. Carter to ER, please! Dr. Carter to ER, stat!"

I grabbed my coat and ran. My clogs squeaked loud on the clean floor. My heart was already beating fast.

The ER was loud tonight. Too loud. Monitors beeping fast. Nurses running. A little boy on the bed in Bay 3. Maybe four years old, maybe five. Burning up. His whole small body was shaking hard. Seizing.

"Sepsis?" I asked, pulling gloves on fast. My healer hands already started to feel warm.

"We tried everything, Dr. Carter," Jake, the resident, said. He looked scared. "Two antibiotics already. Strong ones. Fever not going down. Heart rate is too high. And the dad is... you know. Important. He is threatening to sue."

Important. Sure. They always are. Rich dads always think money can buy medicine.

I moved to the bed to check the boy, and then I saw the man in the corner.

Tall. So tall. Black suit that must cost more than my rent for a year. Hands in fists so tight his knuckles were white. He was standing still but the whole room felt like it belonged to him.

Gold eyes.

My heart stopped. Just stopped.

The gloves in my hands almost fell.

Damien Blackwood.

It was him. Alpha Damien Blackwood. The man who rejected me on the altar in a white dress. The father of my twins.

It was him.

My legs went weak. For one second, I had to hold the cold bed rail to stand up. I thought I would fall on the floor.

Something deep inside me that I thought had been dead for four years scratched to get out. It scratched my chest from inside.

Mate.

No. Not now. Please not now. You died that night. Stay dead.

He looked the same. Maybe worse. Maybe colder. He had more money now, you could tell from the suit, from the watch. And he looked tired. Like he had not slept in days. There were dark circles under those gold eyes. But he was still the most handsome and scary man I had ever seen.

His eyes moved across the noisy ER and hit me.

He looked at me.

He did not know me.

Good. Good. I look different now. My hair is short now, not long. I wear glasses now. No white dress. White coat. I am heavier now after twins. My face is not a soft girl face anymore.

He did not know me. Thank Goddess.

"Doctor," he said. His voice was low and deep and it made the hair on my neck stand up. My body remembered that voice even if my brain wanted to forget. "Can you save my son?"

Son?

I looked down fast at the boy on the bed. Dark black hair. Small nose. Sweaty skin. And yes, a little bit of gold in his eyes when he opened them for a second.

My chest hurt so bad I thought I would cry right there in front of everyone. Is this my son? Is this Liam?

Wait. No. Stop. Think, Selene. This boy is not mine. My twins are four. Three and a half, almost four. This boy is five, maybe six. Bigger. This is not Liam. This is Ethan, I heard a nurse say. His nephew.

Relief hit me so fast I almost fell over again. I gripped the metal counter hard until my fingers turned white.

"I will try," I said. My voice was steady. Somehow. I don't know how I did it. "Everyone out except staff. Now."

I worked for six hours straight.

I did not leave that bay for one minute. IV, blood work, fluids, I called pharmacy for a stronger mix we only use when nothing else works. I wiped his little forehead myself with a cold cloth. I put my healing hands on his chest when no one was looking and I pushed a little white light in. Just a little.

Damien did not move from the corner for six hours. He just watched. Like a wolf guarding its pup. Every time I looked up, those gold eyes were on me. Watching my hands. Watching my face.

At 3:12 am, the monitor beep changed. It slowed down.

Beep... beep... beep... normal.

The fever broke.

The boy was sweaty but pink again. Breathing normal. No more shaking.

"He is stable," Maya whispered next to me. She put a hand on my back. "You did it, Selene. You saved him."

I nodded. My hands were shaking hard inside my gloves. I pulled them off and threw them away. My white coat was wet with sweat.

Damien walked to the bed fast. He touched his son's (his nephew's) hair. So gentle. I never knew he could be gentle. In my memory he was only cold and cruel.

The boy looked like him. Same hard chin. Same black hair.

My heart cracked a little. Because my own son at home, Liam, looks exactly like that when he sleeps.

"Name your price," Damien said. He was not looking at me. He was looking at his nephew like he was the only thing in the world.

He said it like he says everything. Like an order. Like an Alpha order.

"Ten million. Come work at the Blackwood estate. My son needs a private doctor. He is sick often. I do not trust hospitals. I want you."

I almost laughed. A sharp, crazy laugh wanted to come out. Ten million dollars to go back to the place that threw me out in a torn white dress at sunrise. Ten million to go back to Blackwood.

"I have a practice here," I said. My voice was cold now. "I have patients. I don't do house calls for rich men."

Then he finally looked at me. Really looked at me. Not a quick look. A long, deep Alpha look.

His gold eyes narrowed. He tilted his head a little, like a wolf hearing a far sound. Like he smelled something.

"Have we met before?" he asked. His voice was lower now. "You seem... familiar."

My throat went dry. Like sand. I thought of Liam and Luna in our tiny two bedroom apartment sleeping with their stuffed wolves. I thought of Luna asking last night, Mommy where is Daddy? Why don't we have a Daddy like other kids?

My hands started to shake again. I hid them in my coat pockets so he would not see the white glow.

"No," I lied. I looked right in his gold eyes and I lied to my fated mate. "I don't think so, Mr. Blackwood. I meet a lot of people."

I walked out before he could see more. I walked fast. I went straight to the bathroom and locked the door and breathed. I put my hands on the sink and stared at my face in the mirror. Pale. Scared.

That night I went home late. Almost 4 am.

My apartment smelled like chicken nuggets and crayons. Like home.

Two little faces ran to the door even though it was so late. They waited for me.

"Mommy! Mommy is home!"

Liam had his father's gold eyes. Exactly the same gold. Luna had his stubborn little chin and black curls. They looked like him so much it hurt.

They hugged my legs tight.

"How was school?" I asked, kneeling down and kissing them both hard. I was so tired but holding them made all the tired go away.

Luna looked up at me. She is the smart one. Too smart for four. She has my healer eyes.

"Mommy, when do we meet Daddy?" she asked again. "Tommy at school said his Daddy is big and strong. Do we have a Daddy?"

I closed my eyes. My heart broke.

They ask me every week now. And Liam has been getting sick. Small fevers that come and go. My healer hands help but not for long. The light goes away fast. I took his blood last month in secret at the lab. His wolf blood is waking up too early. Human medicine cannot fix it. Only the Blackwood pack doctor has the old moon herbs we used in the old days. The herbs my mother used.

We need to go back. Even if I hate him. Even if I don't want to. My son will die if we don't.

I tucked them in. I read them two stories about brave little wolves. After they slept, their little chests going up and down, I sat in the dark kitchen and stared at my phone.

On the counter was a black business card. Damien left it on the boy's bed. Thick black paper. Just a number. No name. He knows everyone knows his number.

I picked it up. My fingers were shaking.

My fingers typed before my brain could stop me.

"This is Dr. Carter. I accept the job. 10 million. I start tomorrow."

I hit send.

The next morning at 6 am, there was a loud knock on my apartment door.

I opened the door in my pajamas, hair messy, no glasses.

A black SUV was parked outside my small apartment building. Engine running. So out of place here.

A driver in a black suit stood there with sunglasses.

"Dr. Carter? Mr. Blackwood is waiting. And he wants you to bring the kids."

My blood went cold.