CHAPTER TWO

Eva 

"This will lightly sting," I warned the patient before me before I applied the herla extract to her torn skin.

"Ah!" she arched her back a bit before I felt her trying to stifle her whimpers.

"I'm so sorry." I bit my lower lip, taking a quick glance at her before I applied the extract to the last end of her wound. I hated to put her in pain but it would subside in a few seconds. A silver knife had glazed her skin in a fight so this would help her heal properly.

"I'm sorry," I muttered once more, covering her up with bandages. This would help prevent bacteria from touching the wounds so she could heal faster.

"It's okay, Lora. Thank you." A smile pulled on her lips as she reached out for her polo.

"Let me help you with that," I offered, helping her carefully tuck them down her head, then down her torso.

"You are the best, Lora, Thank you!" She smiled before exiting the spacious room with different healing ointments, leaves and equipment arranged neatly in their places.

A faint smile graced my lips as the praises of what people always said about my healing ability echoed in my mind. This has always been what I wanted to do; To take away people's pain. Maybe, somehow it would ease mine.

I cringed as the scene of that night crept back into my mind. The night that has always haunted me even after five solid years. Always screamed of my foolishness. I betrayed my kind. They are under bondage now because of me.

I thought running away from the palace and staying with Grandma in the far land of woodland would make me feel better. Thought entering the Healing Academy and becoming the best healer would help me ease the guilt stabbing my heart. 

But it didn't. Healing people for free didn't take away the pain I felt. It only worsened when patients who were wounded from working so hard in the mines; made to slave away by the Lycans, would come to be treated.

'The best?' I huffed, I was far from it. I was not just a liability to my kind because I had no Wolf, but I was also a traitor. I gave them away to the enemy because of my foolishness. 

"Don't tell me my granddaughter is still fixated on loathing herself?" Granny's voice drew me out of my mind and I almost jumped. She is quite sneaky sometimes.

Her smile, which stretched the little wrinkle under her eye and accentuated her pale blue eyes that matched mine, warmed my jumpy heart. "Don't scare me like that, granny. Jeez!" I sighed as she pulled a chair near me and sat down.

She chuckled and shook her head. "You are always in your mind, Pup. When will you stop loathing on yourself?"

Grandma knew the truth. I told her everything that happened when I came to stay with her here in the woods. I leaned on her shoulder just as her arm encircled mine. "I don't know…" I said defeatedly. I don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself for being so stupid. 

"It was not your fault dear…" 

"It was. I let him deceive me. I betrayed my people. I shouldn't have told him secrets only known to us. I foolishly trusted him!" I let tears stream down my eyes. No matter how much I cried, I couldn't change what happened. I wasn't even concerned about the heartbreak that came from him. The guilt rather consumed me.

"No one can control who they fell in love with, Sweetheart. When we are in love, we trust blindly, My dear. I mean, by how you described he treated you; I would have fallen in love with him too!" She teased, making my tears mix with a chuckle. She always knew how to get through to me since childhood. That was why she was the only one I thought about when I needed solace for my broken heart.

She moved here in the woods when her mate, the former Alpha King died. She always told me she found peace being here and basking in his memory. They had met each other here on a faithful day as teenagers even before they knew they were mates.

"Granny…" I tried to warn her to stop it. She never allows me to wallow in my sorrow. And sometimes I just want to do that.

"You dedicated the last five years of your life to mastering healing so you could help our kind from the cruelty of the Lycans. You treat every single person that comes here without demanding anything, then you use a different name to avoid any honours or recognition. You have paid your debt if you ask me, Sweetie."

"No granny, I will never be able to…"

"Enough." She made me sit up from her arms. "Maybe this good news will give you a reason to." She tucked out a scroll from her loose gown pocket. A few strands of her black hair mixed with grey, danced with the rhythm of the wind that blew past the room.

She handed the scroll to me and I opened it. It was a scroll from the palace. My eyebrows knitted when I saw what was written on it. I turned my gaze to Granny but she just shrugged. "I don't understand?" I muttered under my breath, still fixated on what was written in it.

"Apparently, your boyfriend…" my head snapped up at that word. I can't believe Granny thinks this is funny. I have told her to stop calling him that. I want nothing to do with that Man and he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me ever. The satisfactory smile on her face told me all I needed to know. She just wanted to rile me up. 

I rolled my eyes at her before she continued. "The Lycan King has decided to give back authority to your Father even though he still reports to him. A celebration would be held in the next three days to sign a treaty with him. So according to tradition, all the Wolves would be in attendance to honour the Lycan King for his benevolence. And that includes you too."

"But why?..." I asked, still staring at the paper. "Why would he do that? Why does he finally want to give back rulership to Father?"

"Old age doesn't come with reading people's minds, you know?" She replied.

"Maybe your…"

"Granny!" I warned.

"Sorry dear, it always slips from my mouth. I can't help it!" She chuckled and I hissed in annoyance before she held down my hand.

"Maybe he is not that bad after all. Come to think of it, he didn't treat us Wolves as badly as they Lycans were treated under our Mercy. I mean, he even lets us old people have rest! Your Father wouldn't have done the same thing for them if he was in their shoes." Granny stated. Maybe she is right but that doesn't cancel the fact that he used me. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. 

"I won't go. They have no need for me there." I dropped the scroll back on her lap. I was lying. I just didn't want to see him. It would open up so many wounds. The fact that I am a member of the royal family will make our meeting inevitable.

"Oh dear, you have no choice. It's the King's order."