Chapter 12
Dahlia’s POV
“Sit,” I commanded.
My doctor’s voice was the only thing I had left to protect me. “If you want your booster, I need a fresh sample. I can’t administer a hormonal stimulant without checking your current levels p>
Gina glared at me, but she sat. She was so convinced of her own power that she didn’t see the trap I was setting. She thought I was just a ’whore’ with a medical degree, someone she could scare into submission.
I reached for fresh blood, my fingers trembling slightly as I tightened the tourniquet around her arm. As the needle pierced her skin, the blood didn’t flow with the bright, vibrant red of a Luna. It was sluggish. Dark. Almost like oil.
What p>
I masked my shock, capping the blood and tucking it into my kit.
“I’ll have the results in an hour,” I said, already moving toward the door.
I needed to get away from the smell of her; that cloying mix of lilies and something that smelled like a grave.
“Remember what I said,” Gina called out as I reached the handle. “Nate belongs to the pack. He belongs to me. If I find out you’ve been doing more than ’healing’ in that cottage, you’ll find out how we deal with intruders p>
I didn’t answer. I walked out into the hallway and leaned against the cold stone wall, gasping for air. Every word she spoke was a threat to my children, but there was something else bothering me. The ’Thinning p>
In the medical world of shifters, the Thinning wasn’t just a spiritual idea. It was a biological reality that happened when a pack’s energy was being drained.
I hurried to the small lab at the end of the wing. I didn’t wait for the automated machines. I prepped a slide and slid it under the microscope.
What I saw made my blood run cold.
Gina’s cells weren’t just unhealthy; they were parasitic. They were literally consuming the energy around them. It wasn’t that she couldn’t conceive because Nate was ’distracted.’ She couldn’t conceive because her body was busy acting as a siphon.
It was beginning to make sense.
I looked at the lab logs, searching for the pack’s fertility records over the last five years. The data was horrifying. Every time Gina went through a ’strengthening’ ritual for her mate bond with Nate, a dozen other women in the pack suffered miscarriages or became sterile.
It was a case I had handled once. I wasn’t very sure but her scent was familiar, so it confirmed my doubts.
She wasn’t just a fake mate. She was a leech. She was sacrificing the children of her own people to keep her bond with the Alpha artificially strong. The oxidation I found in the Elder? It was the waste product of the dark magic she was using to keep Nate bound to her side.
“Doctor p>
I jumped, nearly knocking the microscope over. Nate was standing in the doorway, his eyes were back to their natural blue but filled with an unreadable shadow.
“Nate,” I breathed, trying to hide the slide. “I thought you were with the council p>
“The meeting was short,” he said, walking into the room.
The space felt instantly smaller, charged with the same tension that had nearly exploded at the cottage. He stopped just inches away from me. “We still haven’t finished our conversation p>
“I have work to do, Nate. The Elder p>
“The Elder is sleeping,” Nate said.
He reached out, his hand hovering near my mask. “Who are you, really? Gina thinks you’re a menace. My wolf thinks you’re a miracle. And I… I look at your children and I see my soul staring back at me p>
I stayed frozen. “I told you. I’m a specialist p>
“A specialist who smells like the woods I used to run in with a girl I loved,” he whispered.
He stepped closer, his heat radiating off him. “A specialist who has three children with my eyes and my temper p>
He knew I was Dahlia. Why was he doing this?
He reached for the edge of the mask. I should have pulled away. I should have slapped his hand. But my heart was hammering so hard I couldn’t move.
“Nate, don’t,” I whispered.
His fingers brushed the ribbon at the back of my head. “Just one look, Dahlia. Just tell me I’m not crazy. I need to know that I’m not imagining things p>
The ribbon gave way. The mask slid down, clattering onto the lab table. I squeezed my eyes shut, my breath hitching as the cool air hit my face.
“Open your eyes,” Nate commanded softly.
I did.
For a long moment, he just stared at me. His hand shook as he traced the line of my jaw, his thumb brushing over my bottom lip. All the anger, the fury, the years of pain… It all seemed to vanish in that one look.
“Dahlia,” he breathed, the word sounding like a prayer. “It’s really you p>
He didn’t wait. He leaned in, his mouth crashing against mine in a kiss that tasted of desperate longing and years of grief. It was a claim… A recognition.
But as his hands tangled in my hair and drew me closer to him, I felt something sharp against my hip. I looked down and saw my medical tray had been knocked over. Gina’s blood vial had shattered on the floor, the black liquid spreading toward us.
And in the middle of that black oil, a single drop of my own blood from the cut on my hip was glowing. A brilliant, blinding silver.
The lab door slammed open. Gina stood there, her face white with shock, as her eyes fixed on my unmasked face. Behind her stood the Alpha Council.
“I knew it,” Gina shrieked, her finger pointing at us. “The healer is the traitor! She’s the one who poisoned the Elder! Look at them! She’s used her magic to bewitch the Alpha p>
But the elders weren’t looking at me. They were looking at the floor. At the silver glow of the blood.