Chapter 2: A Dangerous Secret
507 Words
The howl echoed again, closer this time, vibrating right through my chest. My nursing instincts screamed at me that we were out of time. I looked at the man—the Alpha—and saw his icy blue eyes flicker with a golden light that matched the glow starting to burn in my own palms.
"I’m not leaving you," I said, my voice firm despite the trembling in my knees. I grabbed his heavy arm and draped it over my shoulders. "I have a small clinical shed not far from here. It’s private. If we can make it there, I can treat those wounds properly."
He groaned, a sound that was half-growl and half-pain, but he leaned into me. As we stumbled through the dark undergrowth of the Adazi-Nnukwu woods, I could feel the heat radiating off him. It wasn't a normal fever; it felt like a furnace. Every time my skin brushed his, a spark of electricity shot through my arm, making my heart race.
We reached the small, corrugated metal shed I used for practicing my suturing and first aid. Once inside, I kicked the door shut and slid the bolt into place just as a heavy thud hit the outside wall. Whatever was hunting him had followed us. The metal groaned under the pressure of claws, and a low, guttural snarl seeped through the cracks in the wall.
I ignored the scratching at the door and focused on my patient. I forced him onto the exam table. I grabbed a bottle of antiseptic, a clean needle, and a silk suture thread. "I don't have anesthesia," I whispered, looking into his piercing eyes.
"Just do it, Miracle," he rasped, his hand gripping the edge of the wooden table so hard the wood began to crack under his fingers.
As I began to clean the deep gashes on his chest, I noticed something impossible. The skin was already trying to knit itself back together, fighting against the black veins of poison surrounding the wounds. This wasn't a human anatomy I had ever studied in my textbooks. My anatomy exam tomorrow felt like a joke compared to the biological miracle bleeding out in front of me.
"Who are you?" I asked, my needle poised. "And why is your blood gold?"
He looked up at me, a dangerous, beautiful smile touching his lips. "My name is Silas. And you, little medic, have just saved the life of the man who is supposed to be your enemy. The ones outside... they are Rogues. They don't want my life; they want the power I carry. And now that you’ve touched me, they’ll want you too."
I froze. The scratching at the door stopped. For a second, there was total silence. Then, the door hinges began to scream as something began to tear the metal apart. Silas reached out, his hand covering mine, and the golden glow in my palms exploded into a blinding light.
"Finish the stitches, Miracle," he commanded, his voice dropping into an Alpha's authority. "We have company."
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