Full Moon Rises

Chapter Three

Both werewolves quickly made their way out of the woods and back to the safety of the Greenwood pack house. The members inside the house instantly sensed a shift as well as the foreign smell in the air and emerged from the place to find their Alpha carrying an injured human in his arms.

Lane, one of the pack’s healers raced to Daniel’s side and led him into her healing room. Daniel gently laid the human on one of the empty beds while Lane busied herself getting everything she would need and shooing out the rest of the pack while Alex gave them Daniel’s orders.

Daniel smiled adoringly at the human, she was even more gorgeous in the light. Where she wasn’t covered in blood, Daniel could see a scattering of light freckles, and her eyes were laced with long luscious lashes.

Everything inside him was in awe of the sight before him.

“Uh oh,” Lane noted his gaze and smirked knowingly. “Someone’s got puppy love,” she grinned.

“I have not.” Daniel defended, glaring at her.

“Sure,” she laughed. “Then could you please remove her shirt without molesting her? I need to check out the bite.”

Daniel wondered if he actually could remove the human’s shirt without molesting her and quickly pulled himself together. She was hurt, and his inappropriate thoughts needed to stop. He decided he’d try removing her shirt slowly, forcing his wolf at bay. It took one swift movement for the shirt to tear open and for Daniel to remove it with little effort.

“I said remove it, not destroy it.” Lane giggled slightly, shaking her head, before placing a cloth in warm water and cleaning the blood from the area around the bite that was already starting to heal.

“It’s off, isn’t it?” he winced in sympathetic pain for the young human.

The bite was a nasty one, though it was also clean. The human didn’t seem to have struggled, which might hurt her worst, and Daniel furrowed his brow at that; why didn’t she try and save herself?

“Do you know her name?” she asked, turning deep amber eyes towards him.

He shook his head sadly, “Passed out before she could say anything.”

“Well, for now, I’m going to call her freckles,” she grinned, little dimples framing her slender face.

“I’m sure she’ll love you for that when she wakes up,” Daniel replied with an eye roll.

“IF she wakes up.” Lane corrected, clearing blood from the human’s face before placing a bandage over the bite.

“If?” Daniel asked, finding it hard even to consider this beautiful human might not wake up.

“Yeah,” Lane replied sadly, “If her body doesn’t reject the bite and she turns, then she’ll wake up… otherwise…” she didn’t finish her sentence, but Daniel stiffened all the same.

“How long before we know?” he asked anxiously, taking the human’s hand in his. Why did he feel so attached to her already? This was absurd.

“The bite takes about an hour or two to complete the change, so if she hasn’t woken up by sunrise, then my guess is she’s not waking up at all.” she softly brushed her fingers along the girl’s face, “She really is beautiful.”

“Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “Mind if I stay with her?” Daniel refused to even think about leaving this human’s side.

“Of course not. Just don’t do anything stupid,” Lane answered. “I’m glad she won’t have to wake up alone,” she smiled before turning to leave. “Oh, I almost forgot.” she picked up a needle and syringe, took the human’s arm, and slid the needle into her vein.

“What is that?” Daniel was curious about this human, about everything that happened to her. The need to protect her at all costs was overwhelming.

“It’s a mix of aconitum and silver.” Lane retracted the needle and gently massaged the surrounding area.

“What the hell is aconitum?”

“More commonly known as wolfsbane.”

“You just injected wolfsbane and silver into a f*****g werewolf?!” Daniel was fuming. He knew from experience what those things did to you and he couldn’t believe a member of his own pack would inject that into another.

“Calm down, Daniel,” she put a hand on his chest to keep him in his seat next to the bed. “It won’t hurt her. If she wakes up before sunrise, then she’d be waking up in a full moon, confused with a huge desire to shift and then terrified of what’s happening to her, and then to top it all of, she’ll be at full strength, and her bloodlust would be crazy. I know it should be your call, but I’m not going to risk anyone in this pack at the hands of a chaotic newborn.”

Daniel sighed heavily, “You’re right. You sure it won’t hurt her?”

She smiled reassuringly. “She hasn’t shifted yet, so it won’t hurt her as it would hurt us. Just keeps her strength down for a few hours.”

“Thanks, Lane.” Daniel breathed a sigh of relief that it wouldn’t hurt her while effectively dismissing Lane and thanking her for her help. 

Now he would wait.