The Healer

Chapter 18

Victor POV

I stood there in Alpha Rick’s office, observing the exchange between him and Tori. She was nervous at first but relaxed more as time went on. Rick was careful in how he spoke to Tori, choosing his words carefully. He did not want to upset her or come across as controlling since they just reunited.

When Alpha asked Tori to take his hand and concentrate on him, I watched her face contort into so many emotions. It was heart-wrenching. Seeing her brows go up in surprise then she frowned, then she lowered her head with tears falling from her eyes. I felt so helpless then, but I understood that Alpha wanted her to see what happened. I guess this was easier than having to say it out loud to his daughter about how he treated her mother. I wasn’t there, but I heard the stories from my own father, and they weren’t very good. It certainly explained why he was so ruthless over the years. I count him lucky that he did find Tori and that she was willing to meet him and rekindle their bond. Even though Tori did not have an exceptional relationship with her mother, I feel that not too many people would forgive this kind of behavior, especially against their own mother.

Tori looked up at her father as I noted that she maintained her hold on his hand so he wouldn’t let go. I bowed my head and gave them a moment to relieve their emotions about what she apparently saw in him. From the sounds of it, Tori was giving him a chance to put it all behind them and start again. I smiled to myself and felt impressed by this young lady in front of me. She obviously understood what happened and was still willing to give him a chance. A chance to be a family again. It takes a strong-willed and understanding person to accept the events from long ago and move on. I was proud of her for doing so and extremely proud of my Alpha for laying it all out for her to either accept it or reject him.

As I stood there watching my Alpha hug his daughter, knowing that was his ultimate wish for almost two decades, it filled me with joy as an enormous weight had been lifted. I followed this man for many years with my soul purpose of finding her, and here she was, wrapped in warmth and love once again. I was about to excuse myself when the door to the office swung open and everybody’s nightmare stepped in. Corinne. The self-entitled Omega that warms the Alphas bed on occasion was standing there with the attitude that she had the right to just barge in without knocking. Seeing her stare at the two of them embracing, I know exactly what was going through her mind and smiled to myself. Maybe that will knock her down a peg or two. Although they are father and daughter, she doesn’t know that. Let her squirm a bit with that knot of jealousy and anger for now. She’ll find out when Alpha wants her to. After a bitter exchange between her and Tori, I grabbed her arm and led her out the door, and shut it behind her.

“Friend of yours?” Tori asked, staring at the door.

“Not exactly” He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Her name is Corinne, and she’s an omega servant in the pack house. Stay away from her. She’ll only cause you trouble.” Tori turned to her father and smirked.

“Ah, a jealous she-wolf. Gotchya.” I chuckled and stood beside Tori. Alpha just grinned but nodded.

“Yeah, she’s a… “ Tori threw her hands up and shook her head.

“I don’t wanna know. None of my business.”

“Alpha, the others are waiting for you to light the bonfire.” I reminded him as he checked his watch.

“Right. I guess we should go. Tori? Come with us to meet some of the pack, and then you should call the doctor and ask to meet him face to face tomorrow. Remember Victor, Tori is a visiting friend.”

“Yes Alpha” I bowed and looked down at Tori. She smiled back and wrapped her hand around my arm, tugged.

“Will you be my escort Beta Victor?” She asked coyly, peering up through her lashes at me.

“It would be my honor, Miss Tori.” I flashed a wide smile at her. I stood tall and proud as I placed my other hand on her arm and led her out the door. I heard the Alpha chuckle behind us as we left the office.

We walked down the hallway into the main part of the house and could hear the other pack members talking and milling about waiting for the Alpha. As we appeared in the main room, everyone bowed their heads and greeted us. A chorus of “Alpha” and “Beta” rang through the room.

“Good evening, everyone. I’d like you all to meet Tori. She is…. “ He looked down at her and smiled brightly. “…. Very dear to me. You will treat her with the same respect you give to me. Understood!” He glanced across the room of wide eyes.

“Yes Alpha!” They answered and then cleared a path for us to head out to the back garden to light the bonfire. I noticed in the back of the room, Corinne, in a huddle of other Omegas, chatting away and sending glares and sneers towards Tori. I glared back at her with a low growl. She shrugged her shoulders and turned her back to me. Other than the obvious sign of disrespect, I can tell she was up to something. Knowing her, it can’t be anything good. I will deal with her later.

I guided Tori out onto the patio, and all around us, people were getting tables and chairs lined up and long tables filled with plenty of food and deserts. Another table had drinks and a large punch bowl with some fizzy orange punch. Further down the garden, in the open gravel area, was an enormous pile of wood and pallets waiting to be set ablaze. I led Tori down towards the pile and watched Alpha step up to the pile with one of his warriors. The warrior handed him the torch, and the Alpha touched the wood, and the wooden structure immediately was engulfed in flames. There were wolf whistles and clapping and cheering as he stepped back and threw the torch onto the pile.

“Enjoy yourselves, everyone!” He announced as we heard music playing and people cheering again.

“Would you like something to drink?” I leaned down and asked Tori over the noise of the music. She turned into me, not realizing she was that close. I could feel her warm breath on my cheek as she leaned into my ear.

“Yes, thank you” She let go of my arm, and I walked back to the drink table and grabbed a bottle of iced tea and water for myself. I saw Corinne approaching me, alone.

“Beta Victor” She called out, trying to sound seductive. I turned and faced her with my eyebrows raised.

“What do you want, Corinne?” She sidled up to me and grabbed my arm.

“I just wanted to know if you would come dance with me.” She gently rubbed herself against me, and I tried to step back, but her hold was tight.

“I don’t think so” She looked up at me with a flirtatious grin. Standing on her toes, she leaned into my ear, glancing over my shoulder, she whispered.

“I was talking about a private dance, just you, me, and nothing else” Pulling away, she squeezed my arm and flipped her hair over her shoulder. I looked at her in confusion. She started giggling and looked behind me. I suddenly got a bad feeling and slowly turned around to see Tori right behind me. She had followed behind me to the table to get her drink. She had heard the exchange between Corinne and I. I yanked my arm from Corinne’s hold and glared at her.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I growled to Corinne.

“Is that my iced tea? Thank you. I'll just take it over here.” Tori reached out and took the bottle from my hand and turned to walk back to watch the bonfire. I slowly turned towards Corinne and gritted my teeth. It took everything I had not to strangle her in that moment.

“If you ever do that again, you will be punished severely!” Corinne just stood there with a silly grin on her face.

“Oh, silly Beta, I won’t need to” She winked at me and then sauntered away towards her waiting friends.

I watched in confusion as she walked away. What the hell was that about? I questioned myself before searching for Tori again. I saw her down by the fire and headed that way. As I approached her, she looked at me with a neutral expression.

“Does the Alpha do this often?” She asked after a few moments of silence. She didn’t say anything about Corinne, that could be good, that could be bad. I don’t know which yet.

“Not in a long time. The Alpha has something to celebrate now that he’s found you.” I said, smiling at her.

“Oh, yeah me” She said less than enthusiastically. Ok, now I see it was bad. “Excuse me, I’m going to go speak with Alpha.” She took off up the path towards the house to find her father. I just shook my head and cursed to myself. Corinne is going to learn her place whether she likes it or not.

I head up to the house, giving small nods to members as they greet me in passing. As I enter the house, I search for Tori in the main room and in the kitchen. I don’t see her, but I do get a whiff of her sweet scent. I follow it down the hallway towards the Alpha’s office. I start smelling saltwater along with her scent. I smell…. Tears. Damnit!

I stood outside the office door, shaking my head in anger. Corinne knew exactly what she was doing and that it would place doubt in Tori’s mind. Or at least make her think of something that wasn’t true. Or ever will be! I can hear her talking on the phone, and it sounds like she is going to meet someone first thing in the morning. I’m guessing the doctor from the hospital. I wait until she is done with her conversation and then slowly push the door open.

“Tori?” She is sitting at the desk with her hands on top holding her cell phone. She doesn’t look at me at first, sighs, and then brings her eyes to my direction. “Are you okay?” I gently ask, standing in the doorway.

“I’m fine” Now I don’t know much about the female population, actually, nothing at all, but I do know when a woman says she’s “fine” she really isn’t “fine”.

“I’m sorry Tori, I didn’t know that she would….. “ She stands up abruptly and walks around the desk.

“You don’t need to explain. It’s none of my business.” She brushes past me and briskly walks back to the main hallway.

“Tori! It’s not like that!” She continues walking as I quicken my pace to catch up to her. I get just a step away and grab her arm to turn her around. Her face is flushed, and her eyes are misty. The last thing I wanted to see was Tori so upset. She won’t even lift her head to look at me. “Tori, it’s all a misunderstanding.” She pulls her arm and shakes her head.

“You don’t have to explain, really. I thought that we were….” She didn’t get to finish her sentence when we heard screaming and saw people running towards the back garden. I looked out the patio door and saw the most horrific sight. A pack member had caught on fire and was running towards the front of the house.

“Holy s**t!” Tori took off after the poor soul on fire, and I followed right behind her. She was able to reach them rather quickly and tripped them, so they fell on the ground. She covered the person with her body and rolled them around. I saw that it was one of the young cubs in the pack, Tyler, maybe nine or ten years old. I checked to make sure all the flames were out.

“What happened?” I stood up straight and shouted at the crowd now forming around us. I saw the Alpha making his way quickly towards me from the other side of the garden. I noticed Tori carefully removing the boy’s clothing to inspect the damage. His entire right arm, shoulder, and some of his neck were obviously burned and turning bright red with black on the edges. She grabbed the water bottle that was still in my hand and opened it to pour on the boy’s arm. He was shaking badly and trying to catch his breath. Tears were in his eyes he was trying to be brave and not let them fall.

“Sweetheart, I need you to lay perfectly still for me. Can you do that for me?” I heard the boy answer Tori as she was turning into her nurse mode and triaging the boy’s injury.

“Yes ma’am. It hurts! It hurts!”

“I know, baby, we’re going to take good care of you, okay? You just keep looking at me with those beautiful blue eyes.” She was checking every bit of him and looking into his eyes, checking his breathing and his pulse. I was impressed that she was able to remain calm and composed as she looked over the gruesome burns.

“What the hell happened?!” The Alpha roared as he stepped through the crowd to see the boy.

Looking over the crowd, a couple of young boys and girls stepped up, probably his friends, with their heads down in either respect or just fear.

“He was roasting a marshmallow and dropped the stick. When he leaned over to get it, he must’ve lost his balance and fell on the fire. We grabbed him right after, but he started running away.” One of the young girls answered.

Rick kneeled at the boy’s head and smiled.

“Hello there, Tyler. Tori, here is gonna take care of you until we can get you to the hospital, ok?”

“Yes Alpha” Tyler answered breathlessly.

“None of that now, you just concentrate on your breathing, ok?” Rick kept smiling at him, and he even took hold of his uninjured hand. “You keep your eyes open for me, okay? “ This time, Tyler just nodded. “Tori?” Rick whispered to her as she was peeling some of the burned material away from the skin.

“Alpha, we need to get him to your hospital!” She was trying to keep her cool, but Tyler was beginning to shake a bit more, and his eyes kept closing like he was blacking out.

“The medical team are on their way.” Rick said.

“Tori?” I knelt next to her so no one could hear me. “Can you try to heal him?” Rick’s eyes snapped up to hers, waiting for her response. I looked into her eyes. There was concern, but a lot of fear. She looked down to Tyler, then to Rick, then back at me.

“I’ve never used my healing outside of the hospital.” She shook her head. “… and I didn’t have an audience.”

“Tori, honey, you can try if you want to. The doctors are on their way.” Rick encouraged lowly.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Rick let go of Tyler’s hand, and we both took a step back to give her room. She lowered her head and started breathing fast and deep. She held Tyler’s hand with one and placed her other hand on his chest.

The next moment, her head snapped up, and I saw something I’d never seen before.

Tori’s eyes were bright red, and a yellow light glowed under her hand that covered Tyler.