Chapter Eight

Jasmine’s POV

Life at the Midnight Wolves pack was nothing short of a dream for me.

For the first time, I was treated like everyone else.

For the first time, I had a friend and people who looked happy with my presence.

I was happy.

I had begun helping out at the healing house with Lena, Nana and two other werewolves.

Elena had insisted that I called her Lena like her friends and family did.

I had assisted in tending to minor wounds and watched closely to learn all that I could.

After all, I didn’t know when the scary Alpha would decide that I was no longer useful.

After I had once helped stitch the injured arm of a werewolf, Nana had declared that I had a talent for stitching and so, I had started helping out with stitching the wounds of the patients that visited the healing house.

While working there, I noticed that there was something a little strange about Nana.

I had noticed her chanting what I believed to be spells from time to time while treating patients with particularly terrible wounds and they all eventually recovered.

I was too scared to ask Lena about it, partly because I wasn’t sure I was ready for the answer.

Sometimes, I would catch her staring intently at me like she was doing at the moment.

She was always kind to me.

Yet there was something about the way she stared at me that unnerved me.

I heard her footsteps as she came over to where I sat, sterilizing the tools with hot water.

“Jasmine”, I heard her call and turned around so sharply that I knocked over the bowl with the hot water and burned myself.

I shrieked in pain as the hot water scalded my hand, tears readily springing to my eyes.

Nana immediately gripped my hurt hand and brought it closer to her left eye to inspect it.

Lena rushed in from where she was in the outer rooms of the healing house.

“Jasmine!”, she called urgently as she rushed into the room where Nana and I were. “What happened?” She asked, seeing the tears in my eyes and Nana moving about to gather some herbs.

“I-I burnt myself”, I sniffed, trying to hold the tears at bay.

She came to me and put an arm around me in comfort.

Before she could say anything, Nana was back. She gently took my arm and let me to seat on an empty bench in the room before sitting and turning to face me. She then took some of the herbs she had gathered and squeezed, and placed it on the part of my hand that had turned red from the burn.

Right before me, she began to chant.

As I stared in shock, the pain in my hand began to subside rapidly until I could almost not feel it.

While I was still frozen, she finished chanting and wrapped my hand carefully with a strip of cloth.

“Do not touch it or do anything with it for a while”, she said, bringing me out of my state of shock. “It needs to heal completely”, she added.

I nodded and turned to Lena with questioning eyes, only to find that she was already subtly shaking her head at me. It could only have meant that she didn’t want me to ask any questions at that moment.

“Be more careful, Child”, Nana said, bringing my gaze back to her.

Before I could do anything other than nod, one of the helpers at the healing house walked in.

She gave a brief bow before turning to Nana after throwing a worried glance at me.

“The Alpha has asked for her”, she said. “A warrior is here to escort her to him”, she said.

Nana was quiet for a moment while Lena shot me a worried look.

I was worried as well.

And scared.

What if the scary Alpha had decided that he had no use for me after all and intended to send me back to Blackmoon?

A shudder coursed through me at the thought. Perhaps my reaction finally snapped Nana from her thoughts because she suddenly turned to me.

Despite my fear of what I suspected she was, I took comfort in the resolve I saw in her eyes. Somehow, I knew that Nana would not harm me or wish me harm and that brought a strength I didn’t realize I needed.

Besides, with how close Lena and I had gotten over the days we had spent together, I was confident that she wouldn’t let me be sent to my death without a fight.

“Go with them, Jasmine”, Nana said. “I will come soon”, she promised.

Knowing Nana to be a woman of her word, the knowledge that she would come for me was all the confidence I needed to stand up and follow the helper out of the healing house.

I could feel Lena close behind until I met with the warrior outside the healing house.

She grabbed hold of my arm to get my attention.

I turned to face her and she must have seen the fear in my eyes because she gave me an encouraging smile.

“Everything will be fine”, she said. “You have Nana on your side now and no one would dare cross her”, she told me and leaned closer to whisper the last part in my ear. “Not even the scary Alpha”.

Her referring to him with what I secretly called him brought a smile to my lips. One I saw that was mutual as she pulled back and let go of my arm.

Still smiling, I turned away from her to follow the large warrior who led the way to the door of the Alpha’s study from the last time.

We came to a stop in front of the double doors and he knocked twice, waited a short moment, then pushed the doors open and waited for me to enter.

‘Nana won’t let you die’.

I reassured myself before taking a deep breath and walking into the scary Alpha’s large study.

It looked just the same as last time.

The only difference was , he wasn’t seated behind his desk like last time, and he wasn’t alone.

Unlike last time, Luke wasn’t the only other occupant in the room as I walked in.

Instead, there were about five other were wolves who stood to the side, all their heads bowed in submission.

Rather than behind his desk, scary Alpha stood leaning in front of his desk in what I could only describe as the most intimidating position I had ever seen.

He was half-sitting and half-leaning on the front of his large desk with both hands spread to his sides and gripping the edge of his desk from both sides.

I looked up at him and though his eyes were not on me, I began to tremble from the look on his face.

Even though I had never seen him smile, the look on his face now told me that something had happened.

And it wasn’t something good.

Trying to control my trembling, I walked in silently, trying not to make any sound.

A part of me was proud that I didn’t freeze in a spot like last time.

As I drew closer, Luke’s head came up and the look on his face told me that something serious had happened.

I came to stop putting a very good distance between me and the scary Alpha.

“You asked for me, Alpha”, I said as quietly as I could, sure that he would hear me clearly, and waited.

Even though I tried not to breathe too loud, I was sure both him and everyone else in the in the room could hear the thundering of my heartbeat.

“Come”, I heard that familiar, terrifying voice say and I jerked in response before taking two steps further and coming to a stop.

“Closer”, I heard him say and took another two steps further, trying to force myself to keep breathing.

“I SAID CLOSER!!!”, He roared suddenly, bringing a hand down on his desk and causing it to break in two.

Even as I fell to the floor trembling and began panting for breath, I could see the warriors who stood with their head bowed take shaky steps back.

I tried to get up. I truly did.

But my body would not obey. It did not even obey my need to take in air.

As I struggled to stand, I saw Luke move as if to help me.

“Leave her!” He snapped at Luke, causing him to stop in his tracks.

As I tried to get my body to obey me, he was suddenly before me. He crouched down and gripped me by my injured hand, probably trying to pull me up.

Due to the state he was in, he must have forgotten that I didn’t have a wolf, which meant that I wasn’t as strong as the average werewolf should have been. He grabbed the hand with too much force for my body to handle and tried to pull me up at the same time with too much force as well.

I screamed as I felt my shoulder bones dislocate and from the pain when he gripped my bandaged hand.

He immediately dropped my hand as if it was hot coal and jerked back in surprise.

Through the sea of pain that swept through me, I heard the doors to the study suddenly slam open and caught the familiar scent of strawberries and herbs as Lena embraced me from behind.

She easily moved me to lay in a way that wouldn’t hurt me too much as I tried not to sob.

I felt a familiar hand on my arm and opened my eyes to see Nana crouched before me.

She was speaking angrily to someone behind her but I couldn’t hear anything she was saying.

I was beginning to feel lightheaded from the pain and couldn’t really hear what was going on around me.

I caught the eyes of the scary Alpha who was watching me with something akin to concern but I was sure I was hallucinating from the pain.

Nana was saying something to me but I could barely hear her.

I had begun to feel hot and could feel the sweat dripping from my face, probably mixed with tears.

Nana said something else and I screamed in pain as she popped my dislocated shoulder back into place.

I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness but forced my eyes to remain open.

I felt Lena whispering words of comfort as she brushed my damp hair away from my face.

The last thing I caught sight of before loosing consciousness was the clear look of guilt on the face of the scary Alpha.

But that was also certainly an hallucination caused by the pain.