TO MATE A MONSTER

CHAPTER 4

ETHAN’S POV

If there was one gift the moon had granted me that I could never explain, it was my healing power. Not for myself, I healed like any wolf, but for others. My hands, when paired with the right herbs, could draw out poison, ease pain, and knit broken wounds faster than any healer. It was rare. In all the packs I knew of, no Alpha had ever been born with such a gift.

Outside the Eclipse Shadow Pack walls, I had built a small place for this. A long wooden shelter open to the air, filled with herbs strung from the rafters and tables where I could work. People came when they needed me, and today was no different. I was crouched over an elder from the northern border, grinding dried leaves into powder before mixing them with warm water.

“Drink,” I told the man, lifting the cup to his lips. “It will burn, but the fever will break by morning.”

I stood, wiping my hands on a cloth. I had done this so many times that it felt like second nature. Helping eased something in me that nothing else could. It made me feel useful, like the bond I lost hadn’t broken me entirely.

Then it hit me.

My wolf surged up, wild and restless, so sudden that I nearly doubled over. The pull, the same one I felt at the gathering. Stronger now, and fiercer.

I turned.

And there she was.

My mate

Her body looks weak, carried in Alpha Lucas’s arms, her skin pale, lips parted as though she was fighting for every breath. But her eyes, her eyes were half-open. Conscious. Barely, but there.

My wolf roared inside me, clawing to get to her; mine. The sound of it echoed through every bone in my body.

Everything around me doesn't matter but her. The herbs, the people waiting for my hands. I dropped the cloth and moved forward. “Put her here,” I snapped, motioning to the table closest to me.

Lucas obeyed without a word, though his wolf bristled just beneath the surface. He was restless as well; his eyes glowing faint gold as he lowered her down. I didn’t miss the way his hands lingered on her skin.

“Her wound was laced with wolfsbane,” he said through clenched teeth. “She won’t last if you don’t…”

“I know what to do,” I cut in. My voice was sharper than I intended, but I couldn’t stop myself. My whole being was focused on her. Her pulse was so unstable. The poison is burning her veins.

I pressed my hand against her arm, feeling the heat beneath her skin. Then I reached for the bundle of sacred herbs, green stalks with small white blossoms. The only plant known to fight wolfsbane when paired with my touch.

I ground the leaves quickly, added water, then spread the mixture across her wound. The second the paste touched her skin, she gasped. Her body arched slightly, a sound breaking from her lips. My wolf howled in response.

“Stay with me,” I murmured, pressing harder, forcing the herbs to work faster. “Don’t let go.”

From the corner of my eye, I caught Julian’s sharp stare. She had been silent until now, but the way her gaze was going between Lucas and me was anything but calm. Lucas’s wolf was restless, fighting him, clawing to get closer to Elena. His fists trembled at his sides, his jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth might c***k.

“Alpha,” Julian said quietly, stepping closer to me. “Look at him. His wolf can’t stay down around her.”

I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to acknowledge what she was saying. But I did, and it was true. Lucas was struggling to keep control. His wolf wanted Elena. His wolf thought she was his.

Julian’s voice dropped lower; this time, her words weren't smooth. “What if… what if they were mated?”

The words twisted in my gut, but I shoved them away. No, she was mine. I knew it in my blood, in my bones, in the way my soul lit when I touched her skin. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to pull her in two directions. And yet… the way Lucas stared at her made my wolf snarl inside me.

“Enough,” I snapped, not at her, not even at him, but at the thought. My focus returned to Elena. Her breathing had steadied slightly. The herbs were doing their work, but it would take time. Time, and my touch, and my will not to let her go.

I bent over her, whispering low, only for her ears. “You’ll wake up. I’ll make sure of it.”

*******

ELENA’S POV

Darkness. That was all I knew for what felt like forever. A weight pressing down on me, pulling me under. Every time I tried to fight it, my body grew heavier, my skin burned. I thought maybe this was it, maybe this was how it ended.

Then something changed.

A steady warmth pressed into my arm, moving through me, pushing back against the poison. A voice, deep somewhere close. My wolf stirred weakly, lifting its head inside me for the first time in hours.

I blinked.

The light stabbed my eyes, making me groan. The fan above me wasn’t mine. The walls were made of dark stone.

I turned my head slowly. My throat was dry, but I forced out a word. “Where…?”

A low voice answered before I could finish.

“Forty-seven hours,” it said. “And she’s up. That was a battle.”

I froze. My gaze drifted to the side.

Alpha Ethan Morgan was sitting there, his storm-gray eyes on me. Watching me like I was the only thing that existed in the room.

“No way,” I whispered.

And then it hit me again, that pull. That magnetic force I hated, that made my blood race and my wolf rise like it was starving. The attraction slammed into me all over again, harder this time. My heart betrayed me, pounding like a drum.

Not him. I hope it's just a nightmare.