Chapter 12

Lucas’s POV

“What happened to no discrimination and trust?”

Two of my warriors take Harper by the arms, and she cranes her neck to look back at me.

The way Harper looks at me as she asks if I’d just thrust a dagger in her back sends a pang of regret through me. She stares up at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. The deep green reminds me of the forest after a long bout of rain, and I have to force myself to look away before I change my mind.

I have to protect my pack and the best way to do that is to make sure any incoming members or guests aren’t a danger to the pack. Harper is no different.

At least, that’s what I tell myself as she’s carted away to the interrogation room. I follow behind them after instructing Sierra and her crowd to disperse. By the look on her face, Sierra is not happy that I’m not allowing her to be in on Harper’s interrogation.

Again, my mate’s greed for power and her clear dislike of people she sees as stationed below her make my heart heavy. It’s clear that she does not possess the usual traits of a Luna, but there has to be a reason the Goddess paired us together.

I just need to figure out what it is.

But that will be a task for later. Right now, I need to focus on finding out if Harper is a spy or an innocent woman.

Again, I find myself watching Harper as her eyes scan the numerous torture devices strewn around the interrogation room. She worries her bottom lip between her teeth as she looks around, her worried eyes finding me as I sit across from her.

“Are you going to torture me?” She asks, her voice breathy and afraid. I can see why she’s afraid, and I realize I should have brought her somewhere else for this test, but with my wolf being weakened, I sometimes have moments of fogginess in my mind.

I shake my head and explain, “You just need to pass our Grand Elder’s test. He is gifted in discovering truth and deception.”

The door behind me opens and the Grand Elder enters, making Harper look up. The old man walks forward and takes a seat in the empty chair beside me, his beads clinking when they knock against the table.

He nods in greeting to Harper, and she does the same, looking to me for instructions.

“You’ll need to answer his questions, and he will know if you’re telling the truth or lying,” I tell her, and she narrows her eyes at me indignantly. Sighing, I try to placate her growing anger, “I want to thank you for detoxing me. I realize I didn’t say it earlier, and if you really are a spy, I assure you that I won’t kill you. However, if that is true, never let me see you again.”

“I’m not a spy,” Harper grumble and rolls her eyes. I bite back the annoyance that surges at her attitude. The fear she displayed earlier falls away as she glares at me.

Nodding, I sit back and allow the Grand Elder to do what he does best.

“Young lady, did you come to this pack with the intent to harm anyone?” The Grand Elder asks, leaning in and thumbing a row of beads between his fingers.

“No, I came for a job and to figure out who marked me,” Harper answers. I’d known she was looking for the man who marked her, but I still look to the Grand Elder. When he nods, I relax a bit.

Truth.

Harper’s eyes move between the two of us before focusing on the Grand Elder when he speaks, “Harper, did you intend to use the herbs in your packet to let poison stay in the Alpha’s wound?”

“No. I wanted to stop his bleeding after I’d already removed the poison.”

Grand Elder nods again.

Truth.

“One more question, then,” the Grand Elder says. “Do you wish harm upon anyone in the Midnight Run Pack?”

Harper straightens up and clasps her hands together on top of the table before answering, “I do harbor anger and resentment for my family, who live in this pack as well as towards the people who bullied me when I was young. However, even though I hate what they’ve done, I don’t want to hurt people. I became a doctor to help people, not harm them.”

Again, the Grand Elder nods. She’s telling the truth.

“I apologize for doubting you, Harper,” I tell her, pushing as much sincerity into my voice as I can.

“I’m sorry too, but I can’t stay here and work for you if you’re going to treat me as a liar while also suggesting that I trust you. I an resigning from my position as your pack doctor,” Harper says while standing from her chair.

“Do you realize what you’re saying?” I ask, also standing from the shock of her words. No one has ever dared to turn me down for something like this. “This is not the human world, Harper.”

“You think I don’t know that?” She growls, glaring at me. “I’m a doctor, and my experience has taught me that if the patient doesn’t trust the doctor, even if the two of them force a ‘bond’, the treatment will eventually turn sour.”

What the hell is she talking about?

“I don’t think we need to continue this employer and employee relationship,” Harper says confidently. Her determined face fills my mind and something inside me cracks. It fissures then crumbles, crashing down inside me before it slowly begins to come back together.

Was it respect?

No one ever stands up to me, but Harper did, and I think I like it.

However, I don’t get a chance to understand the feeling rising in my chest because she turns and walks away. The Grand Elder hums from beside me, running his beads between his thumb and forefinger. The cryptic old man doesn’t speak much, and sometimes it’s annoying.

Like now.

A few moments after Harper disappears from the room, the bizarre discomfort that has been tormenting me returns.

My wolf rears its head and growls, “We need healer Harper.”

Harper’s POV

My arms shake as I lift my suitcase onto the bed and begin filling it with the few things I’d unpacked. I guess I need to call my clinic and let them know I’m coming back.

Pain pulses through my body, and while I try to ignore it, it’s nearly impossible. I’ve felt less pain since I’ve been here, but it comes and goes in strange waves now. Sometimes it surges forward and other times it falls back.

“Good riddance, I say,” one of the male doctors from earlier jeers as I exit my room.

“Serves her right for trying to be something she’s not. Get back to the rogue land where you belong!”

“Get out of here!” Nora shouts, shooing the men away while rushing forward. She looks me up and down, her eyes landing on my suitcase and then on the floor. “Uh, Harper, what is that?”

Leaning down, she scoops up a white envelope and holds it out to me. My name is written across the front, and when I tear it open, a blurry photograph of a man’s back is the only thing in the envelope. I flip it over to find more writing.

Nora leans in and reads the written message, “He’s the one you’re looking for, and he’s in the pack.”

Again, I flip the photo and try to make out who the image is of, but it’s a man’s back. He has dark hair, broad shoulders, and defined muscles.

“Who is he?” Nora asks.

“I’m not sure, but he looks a bit familiar.”