MY HEALER

CHAPTER THREE

Luther’s POV

The dreams didn't halt.

They appeared to get sharper when I returned to the Pack. They arrived as bits and pieces: silver forests, voices just out of reach, a presence standing at the edge of my vision, a silent assurance that someone had been watching me for a much longer time than I knew.

I awoke each morning, and the events of my dreams unfolded before me, not all of them the same, but all of them unsettling, with the feeling that some part of me had awakened.

The healers said that my condition was an imbalance. Lucas said it was a 'defect'. I had started to think that maybe it was. The fevers had subsided by the third week after I returned, and I was able to get back to my regular work. My body still acted up, but I didn't feel like death was waiting at my bedside. Everything that had almost taken me over was beginning to fade, but not how the healers could make sense of it.

I was stronger each day. At times, too strong. The world was too sharp at times. I could hear what was being said from all over the training grounds and could smell individual scents in a large room. In the sparing situations, my body acted before my brain could catch up. It felt like an instinct had come to life to learn how to walk along with me. I told no one. The Pack already felt like I was an oddball. I had no interest in trying to be anything else.

My days turned into a grueling regimen of work, care, and contemplation. I heard more than I spoke. I watched the Pack rhythms, the alliances, the resentments, the loyalties I hadn't seen since I was gone.

Lucas was an Alpha who had set up a sound rule. It wasn't easy to accept that. Our relationship did look like it was going to last long as children. Before ambition and grief divided us into distinct men, Lucas was the source of almost all the good memories I had. We were born minutes apart and raised to be as close as the moon meant to keep us. We hunted together, we trained together, we competed in every wrestling match, in the highest pitch of the tallest pine to climb first.

Our mother would laugh at how she could hear us arguing from a half mile away,y and five minutes later, er the two of us were hugging and joking as if nothing had ever happened. I never thought that a time would come when my brother would not be by my side in those days.

Our mother was the one who bound us together. Years after her death, memories of her were still vivid, almost tangible, the aroma of herbs on her hands, the softness of her voice when she called us in after training, the sternness that could be more effective than any Alpha's command. She was a devoted follower of my father's that I only appreciated after he left.

I can't recall much of him. I was three when he faded away, too young to remember much: broad shoulders, a deep voice, the feeling I could reach out and touch the moon. But I recalled how it affected her when he was gone. She never spoke ill of him. Not once. At all times, there was a guarded part of her grief, like she couldn't accept that he had left us behind. She stored his things in a tidy manner always.

One night after I woke up, I found her sitting by herself with one of his old shirts in her lap, her face unfocused and too sad to be consoled. When he left, everything changed for us all. In response to this, Lucas became more determined, more eager to prove himself worthy of the expectations that were placed on him. As time went on, our mother was more protective, particularly of me. When I was sick, she insisted on herbs and medicines and watched me quietly with a watchfulness I didn't understand. I read it as being too protective. It wasn't until recently that I started to think if she felt something in me that she couldn't explain or control.

She did everything she could to keep Lucas and me together, even though it hurt her. After training, she made us sit together and eat, she made us solve our differences before going to bed, and she repeated her favourite saying until we could recite it with her.

“Blood is blood. You can't lose your brother for anything.”

******

The summons came just after midday. When I was working behind the infirmary stacking firewood, the messenger told me the Alpha was expecting me. I was still smelling of cedar and sweat when I got to the Alpha house.

At the central table, Lucas was looking at some documents. He didn't look up at once, a conscious reminder that his time was more precious than mine. Finally, he lifted his eyes, and his face remained blank.

“The princess, the Werewolf King's daughter, will be coming tomorrow,” he said. “Princess Avery will be staying with us for a while.”

“That is why the whole pack is polishing the stones,” I said dryly, still not getting his point.

He had a slight smile on his face. “She must be treated with the dignity she deserves.”

“Okay, so how does this relate to me?”

Lucas put the papers to the side and folded his arms. “While she is there, you will be her guide and guard.”

I looked at him, and I thought I misunderstood what he said. “I’m an omega.”

“Exactly.” It was an answer I was not pleased with.

“You are putting your faith in the lowest wolf in the Pack to protect the future queen?”

“Trust your instincts, your discretion, and your sense of danger.” His gaze sharpened. “And I like to have you where I can see you.”

There it was. The real reason. A mix of punishment, monitoring, and a purposeful test. I should have told him no. It was often not productive to have Lucas refuse in his own home.

“When does she come?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

When I looked to go, Lucas spoke again. “She's not one of the others.”

I glanced back. It was such a surprise, he almost seemed like the brother who used to warn me before every fight that got his danger senses up. He turned his face away before I could ask him what he meant.

“You’re dismissed.”

******

Dawn lit up the Pack centre. There were banners with the royal crest hanging from all the most prominent buildings. In the middle of the path, warriors were standing in formal line. The wolves were standing around the edge, waiting to see the princess. I was close to the front, clasping my hands behind my back, knowing how ironic it was. Five years ago, I would have thought I would be meeting royalty as an Alpha. Now, I was waiting as an attendant.

Shortly after sunrise, the royal convoy came in. A line of black cars drove through the gates, guarded by many police officers. Warriors walked with stealth, eyeing every shadow and rooftop.

The crowd was silent as the central vehicle door opened. The princess, Avery, walked with a calmness that she had grown used to being watched with. She was striking, but not as a frail woman was often described in stories of royalty. She walked with quietness; there was intelligence in her eyes and a restraint that showed she had learned not to let her thoughts be carefree. But there was something in her that was more than calm. Sadness. Hard to see, but easy to spot. She was formally introduced to Lucas, who then turned towards me.

“This is Luther. He will accompany and guard you during your visit, Princess Avery.” Her gaze fixed on me.

For a fleeting instant, the Pack's noises were silenced. I noticed all the things: the wind through her dark hair, the shift in her fragrance, the strange feeling of energy that seemed to ripple through me, just as if she had touched me. My mind didn't object, but something in me did recognize her. She extended her hand and held it out.

“Then we shall have to spend a lot of time together, shall we?” Her voice was soothing and also surprisingly sincere.

I took her hand. A bolt of electricity surged through me when my skin contacted hers. My breath caught. Avery’s eyes widened ever so slightly. She had felt it as well. We were both silent. Lucas was watching. All the others were also watching.

Avery pulled back her hand, but her eyes seemed to be curious about me. I knew at that instant, facing the daughter of the strongest wolf in our world, that my life had changed once more. I had come back to the Pack with the thought that I had three things to fear: illness, my brother, and the embarrassment of having to start again.

But as Princess Avery looked at me with a sense of awe, as if she'd known me all my life, and felt the faintest stirrings of a feeling I had never experienced before, I knew that none of those dangers were as dire as what had just transpired between us.

For the first time in years, I felt like my destiny was finally in my face.