Chapter 26

Julian’s POV

I arrived at the hospital a few minutes earlier than necessary, wanting to speak more to Head Healer Eric before his press conference began. The timing of the announcement of this new cure just felt… off to me. I didn’t know how else to describe it.

My contract, and therefore the funding, had been made with Healer Amanda. Unless Head Healer Eric had also been working on a cure on his own…

That seemed unlikely.

I didn’t want to go around accusing anyone of anything, especially someone like Head Healer Eric, who had been a respectable member of the pack for even longer than I’d been alive.

But the timing…

It just didn’t make sense.

I was certain that by speaking with Head Healer Eric, he could quiet the alarm bells ringing in my mind and put me at ease. Perhaps he had been working on his own cure, maybe for some time.

Though wouldn’t he have mentioned it then when I made the proposal? He knew what I wanted to do, and that I was contracting Healer Amanda to help do it. Surely, at that point, he should have come forward with his research…

After asking a few hospital staff where Head Healer Eric was, I found him in one of the offices near the front of the building. The press conference was to happen outside on the stairs leading up to the hospital main entrance, so I wasn’t surprised to see that Head Healer Eric had turned this room into a sort of hair and makeup dressing room.

He was sitting in a chair, while a beautician was adding powder to his face. Another was carefully combing his hair.

“Not that way,” Head Healer Eric barked at the woman with the comb. “I prefer my part going the other way. Do you want me to look unprofessional?”

The woman seemed flustered but she quickly replied, “No, Healer.”

“Then do it right,” Head Healer Eric said.

I frowned as I approached. Head Healer Eric had always appeared calm and kind in front of me, but then, so did so many people. As Alpha, everyone wanted me to see their best face. I oftentimes had to look deeper on my own to see the true heart of the individuals in my pack.

Yet I’d known Head Healer Eric since I was a boy. His reputation had always been as a caring and dedicated Healer. Perhaps it was the stress now that was making him snap where kindness would do.

I didn’t want to believe that this was the way he’d always been.

Head Healer Eric spotted me in the mirror and immediately straightened. “Alpha! You came early!”

“Yes,” I said. “I was hoping to speak with you privately for a moment.”

“Of course! Ladies. Please.”

The beauticians set down their equipment and made their way to the door. I waited beside it for them to disappear through it and then closed it behind them. With it secure, and us now alone, I approached Head Healer Eric.

“What’s this about, Alpha?” Head Healer Eric asked. He turned in his chair to look at me more fully.

“This cure…” I wanted to broach the topic gently, but there were very few ways to ask someone if they stole someone else’s hard work. “How long have you been working on it?”

“Oh, very briefly,” he said. “In fact, it just came to me…” His eyes slipped to the side. He was lying.

I pressed onward. “Did you work with Healer Amanda on this? You knew she was also developing a cure.”

Head Healer Eric stilled for a moment, even as his eyes darted frantically around. It was like watching the cogs in his head turn, as he must have been thinking wildly. Then, he sighed.

“Healer Amanda came to me in tears,” he said. “She was in over her head. She’s under a lot of stress, you understand. She’s a good Healer, but young. She was totally lost on what to do with the potion. It was only in my good nature as a man and as Head Healer, that I should step in and do the job myself.”

“I see,” I said, narrowing my eyes.

“It was all for her benefit, of course,” Head Healer Eric said. “Naturally, I would have loved to see her succeed on her own. But she just doesn’t have the same experience that I do. Nor does she have the same strong disposition as me. She buckles under pressure, that one.”

I knew in that moment, with how he was gently but thoroughly dismissing Amber, that he had no idea Healer Amanda was my ex-wife.

I decided not to point that out, allowing him to continue weaving his tale.

I tried to think back on what I knew about Amber – if she had ever shied away from the pressure of a situation. I couldn’t think of an instance.

Even when I had treated her so unkindly, she pushed ever forward.

Would she really have gone crying to Head Healer Eric for help?

No, not just for help… but to take over the entire project?

Amber’s POV

Noah and I stood in the lab, looking through the reports, the results of the tests we ran on the potential cure.

What bothered me more than the potion being stolen was that it hadn’t been tested thoroughly enough. The person who took it likely didn’t know that there were still dangers to be uncovered with the tests.

Like this one…

“How many times did we run this test?” I asked Noah. I wanted to be certain it wasn’t simply a fluke in the results. These things needed to be tested and retested.

“Four,” Noah said.

“And this result showed up every time?”

“Yes.”

I frowned. This was very troubling. “We need to find that potion before it’s too late.”

It wasn’t ready for human consumption, not with these results.

While temporarily effective, the potion would wear off over a longer term. In the interim, any patient of the potion would suffer from severe stomach pain.

Truly, the potion just needed a couple more ingredients.

I hurried to adjust the formula, Noah watching over my shoulder.

“Ah,” he said. “That would solve that problem.”

I was glad he agreed.

“We need to hurry and make up this new potion,” I said. “I don’t know what happened to the old one, but we need to be ready with a fix in case it gets out.”

“I don’t understand why anyone would take an untested potion from a lab,” Noah said.

I had a few suspicions but I didn’t want to give voice to them. Most likely the potion was stolen. To have access to the lab, the thief would have had to be someone who worked at the hospital.

I was still trying to hope that Noah had been careless and misplaced it, but I knew that wasn’t likely the case. Noah was too good of an assistant for that, and very responsible.

With the new formula in hand, I moved toward one of the work tables in the lab, ready to mix a new batch. The table was close to a window that overlooked the front of the hospital.

Down below, I could see news vans on the street and a crowd gathering on the front steps of the hospital.

I asked Noah, “What’s going on?”

He came to the window and we both looked down.

“It looks like a press conference,” he said.

My stomach started to sink. I had a very bad feeling about this.

I asked, “Regarding what?”