Chapter 11

Harper’s POV

Emptiness.

Darkness.

Anything is better than letting the nightmares of my childhood take over. So, I allow every thought to leave my mind as I pull my knees to my chest and stare ahead.

For seconds, minutes, hours… I don’t know how long I watch the tree line before a sound off to my left catches my attention. I lift my head, thinking it might be Nora come to look for me again, but I pause when I see Alpha Lucas standing nearby.

He watches me, his brows pulled together in either confusion or questioning. It’s probably not proper to stare at the Alpha, but I can’t find it in myself to do anything else. Until he lifts a hand and motions for me to come over. I force myself up on shaking legs and walk to him, watching as his eyes move down my body then back up.

“Are you feeling unwell?” Alpha Lucas asks, studying me. I feel shaken, and from the way he’s looking at me, I can tell I don’t look my best. Though, I’m not sure why he cares. He’s been cold toward me since I got here, and even though I treated him earlier, he didn’t thank me.

I shake my head, wishing I could crawl in bed and sleep off the memories threatening to surface.

“You can go back and rest first. You don’t have to wait out here,” he says before motioning to the pack house and the doctor’s quarters where I stayed last night. I sat here because I wanted some space to breathe and to get away from the doctors inside, not because I wanted to see other people.

Lucas knows the doctors better than I do, so he has to know what they’re like. Did he hear how they treated me after I left his room? If he did, did he do anything to punish them?

I almost laugh at the thought. Lucas may be an Alpha, but I’m not in his pack. I’m a rogue who happens to be a healer in his pack now. I know that if I go back inside, and those doctors are there, I’ll only face the same resentment I faced a little while ago.

For once, I would like some peace and quiet, but now, I guess I’m going to leave. Because he gave me permission? No. I’m leaving because I want to be alone. Going to my room, where I don’t have to be around anyone else is probably the best choice.

“Wait.” His hand wraps around my arm, stopping me. “What happened? No one looks so desolate for no reason.”

Honestly, I don’t want to talk to him. Opening up about my dark secrets is the last thing I want to do with this man. He’s the Alpha, the pride of the Goddess. How could he empathize with what I’ve been going through?

An Alpha like him would have grown up with a golden spoon in his mouth, never dealing with hatred from family or bullying from others.

“I have an obligation to help those under my care,” Lucas says, and I don’t detect a trace of hatred or deceit in his tone. I didn’t expect to trust him, since I’m not sure how long I’ll be here, but I can’t deny his sincerity.

“Alpha Lucas, I don’t expect you to understand my troubles or care about them—”

“You’re my responsibility as my healer now, so I want you to confide in me if you have troubles,” he says seriously while stepping toward me. I mirror his moves, but I walk backward, keeping the space between us.

Sighing, I nod and admit part of my worries, “I have no wolf, so I don’t have the instincts everyone else does anymore. That and the fact that I was exiled will make me an easy target for discrimination in the pack.”

I’m not sure if I can trust him with the full truth yet. Only having been here for a day, I don’t have much information on Alpha Lucas. He seems to be an upstanding leader, but I don’t have enough solid proof.

“I’ll remind everyone that discrimination will not be tolerated in my pack,” he tells me with a single nod. “Trust me. Everything will be fine.”

“Trust is earned, Alpha.”

“That it is.”

His bright blue eyes find mine and I freeze, unsure what to say or do next.

“So, this is where you’ve been hiding!” Sierra screeches, making me jump back. She sweeps in, with a large group behind her, and comes between me and the Alpha while waving a small packet in my face. “You call yourself a healer but look at what you’re using!”

When she finally slows her movements, I realize she has one of my herbal packets in her hand. It’s the same one I used on Alpha Lucas earlier after removing the poison.

“Do you admit that you gave this to Lucas earlier?” Sierra asks with such venom in her voice. I take a moment to look at the packet, not finding anything wrong with it before nodding.

Several whispers break out among the gathered people, and one of the doctors from earlier steps up. He holds up a book to a pre-marked page, and announces loudly, “These ancient texts prove that the herbs Harper used on Alpha Lucas show negative effects on detoxification.”

Sierra crosses her arms over her chest and smirks, “You can’t deny it with all the evidence in front of you.”

Lucas is the first to move, taking the book from the doctor and scanning its contents. When Sierra offers the herbal packet to him, he accepts it, comparing it to the text by the label I created for the packet. It lists the herbs clearly, which Lucas mutters under his breath as he reads.

“I want to hear your explanation,” Lucas says, looking directly at me with raised brows.

“These herbs have the function to stop bleeding,” I tell him. “At the time, you needed to stop the bleeding more than you needed detoxification. It’s what my mother taught me.”

Laughter breaks out around us, loud and boisterous and condescending. It echoes around me, making me feel like I’m surrounded… which I am. Alpha Lucas is in front of me while Sierra and the crowd she gathered are at my sides and back.

Couldn’t she just leave me alone?

“The poison was so powerful that your words hold no weight,” one man says.

Another throws a fist in the air, declaring, “You’re a clever spy that your methods of keeping traces of poison in our Alpha’s system are this subtle.”

“You lie and quote the words of your mother, who is a witch of unknown origin,” Sierra says haughtily. “Why should we believe that you truly healed my mate? You left the pack for an entire year, and Goddess knows what you did or who you plotted with while you were out there—”

“I didn’t plot with anyo—”

“Shut up, Harper. I already told you that you should never have come back here!”

Unable to reason with someone so bullheaded, I turn to Alpha Lucas. Surely, he sees that they’re spouting nonsense, but when I face him, a dark, unusual look takes over his features.

“Take Harper back,” he orders. “I want to interrogate her.”

Shock rockets through my system, and I stare up at him.

“Is this the trust you were speaking of moments ago?”