Chapter 37

Lucas’s POV

“I can’t come with you, Sierra,” I growl for the millionth time. She wraps her arms tighter around my waist, pulling on me as I try to make my way outside.

“But you’ve been on patrol already today! When are you going to spend time with me?” She cries indignantly just before she stomps her foot and glares at me like a toddler.

Her whining has gotten more and more bothersome over the last few days, and I find myself growing more aggravated with each time she talks. Suddenly, it’s like her voice is a piece of metal grating on my last nerves.

“I told you that we are having to put more people on patrols because of the rogue attacks,” I growl, pulling her arms off me. “It’s my duty as Alpha to help protect my pack.”

“And it’s your duty as my mate to spend time with me! I thought you loved me!” She cries, turning and running back into the pack house.

Sighing, I scrub my hand down my face. On top of patrolling twice a day, I’ve been leading training in the mornings as well as still performing my normal Alpha duties. I haven’t had much time to do anything over the last few days, especially dealing with her whining.

All she wants to do is go shopping anyways, and I have better things to do. Like paying an overdue visit to the former Beta.

He’s waiting just beyond the tree line like I told him to, and when he sees me, Henry smiles, “Alpha, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I told you at the banquet.”

The smile falls from the former Beta’s face, and satisfaction fills me. He thought I was bluffing when I said I’d punish him.

“A-Alpha, I don’t think you know the whole story.”

“I know enough. Follow me.”

He glances at the pack house but decides to follow me, knowing this would be worse if he ran. Not that he could outrun me anyways. I lead him further in just so no one will see what happens. I don’t need rumors being spread around, or for a child to see this. That’s the last thing I need.

“Alpha, let me—”

“Be quiet and be still,” I order. He goes silent, and I focus all my energy on him. I feel for his wolf soul, finding a thin, frail soul woven with his. It barely responds when I tug on it, but Henry does. He groans, then cries out as I do exactly what he did to Harper.

I rip his wolf soul from his body, the light shining for a moment before it solidifies and forms a skinny, nearly starved wolf. The poor animal looks too skinny to stand, but it still manages to hobble away as its former owner lays on the ground in pain.

“You are stripped of your wolf and your rank is revoked.”

“W-what about Sierra?” He rasps. “This will hurt her.”

Crouching, I take his chin between my fingers and bare my fangs at him, “Do not use your daughter to threaten me, or I won’t be so merciful next time.”

Dropping him, I leave the trash where he is and walk into the forest to join my second patrol of the day.

Harper’s POV

After running back to the pack house four days ago, I couldn’t find Lucas. I looked for him everywhere and even looked for him the next day, but I couldn’t find him. It gave me time to think and to come to the conclusion that I need to keep a level head. I don’t need to act rashly.

The next time I see Lucas, I’ll ask him about the plan Logan mentioned. For now, I focus on working and spending time with Logan. I went back to my normal life, helping people, healing people, and reacclimating to pack life.

“Harper, this note was left for you,” one of the nurses calls, holding up a sticky note. I take the note to find a short message.

Meet me at our spot.

-L

I smile and tuck the note into my pocket, heading out to the forest. Logan and I have been walking around the forest and meeting at our little hang out spot where we sat and talked the other day. It’s in a little patch of flowers about a mile into the woods. We meet when we can, meaning when I’m not healing people and when he’s not on patrol.

It’s nice to get away and not have to worry about being interrupted.

When I arrive, I sit on a large boulder and watch the flowers sway in the breeze. I wait for five, ten, then twenty minutes before I stand up and look around for Logan. If he dropped the note off, he should have made it out here by now.

Instead of just standing here, I decide to walk around the small clearing and pick a few flowers. Just as I pass by a bush, a whimper sounds, making me stop. It comes again, sounding small and broken, and when I move the bush’s lower branches, I find a sickly-looking wolf. It whimpers again, clearly in pain and probably starving from the looks of it.

“It’s okay,” I whisper, crouching beside it. “I won’t hurt you.”

I don’t know what injury the animal has, but I reach out, letting my magic flow from my fingers and into the wolf. My magic fills the animal, touching the injuries. I push a little extra into the poor thing, surprising myself when I even heal a bit of the wolf’s starvation.

When it finally stands and stretches, it licks my hand. I don’t think it’s a werewolf, which means it’s a real wolf that somehow made its way into the pack lands. That doesn’t happen often because regular wolves are too scared to come near werewolves. This one must’ve been so hurt that he didn’t care.

He licks my hand once more before turning and walking further into the forest. He seems like he knows where he’s going, and because my curiosity gets the better of me, I follow him. I want to know where he’s going or if he lives here.

Before I know it, I’ve gone much further than I meant to.

A crack sounds from somewhere near, and the wolf takes off running. It disappears into the trees, leaving me alone and in an unknown area. The rustle of something off to my left and the fact that I’m alone have my heartrate picking up and fear curling in my chest.

A loud thud makes me jump, and I spin around.

One of Lucas’s warriors is pinning a man to the ground. Actually, the man on the ground looks like he couldn’t be any older than his early twenties, just older than me, maybe? I take a few steps closer to get a better view when the man on the ground, a rogue, begins pleading with the warrior.

“Please!” He cries, “I’m innocent! I didn’t do anything, and I didn’t mean to trespass!”

“Your lies won’t work on me, rogue,” the warrior snarls, lifting his hand. I notice his claw tipped fingers just before he swings his hand down.

His claws tear right through the rogue’s neck, blood splattering and pulling a scream from me.

“Who’s there?” The warrior shouts, and then he spots me. His eyes widen, “Healer Harper, what are you… You need to get out of here. It’s dangerous.”

“He… you didn’t even listen to his side of the story.”

“What? Get out of here and go back to your operating room,” he growls. “You don’t understand what’s going on.”

When I don’t move, he drops the dead rogue and moves toward me. I stumble backwards and run before he can get to me.

Anger, confusion, and fear create a tsunami of emotions within me as I do my best to run back to the pack house.