Semua Bab HIS FATED LUNA DOCTOR : Bab 11 - Bab 20

IRENE.The first incident happened four days after the rogue tracks.I was in the pack kitchens, grabbing a late dinner after a long day in the medical wing, when a commotion erupted outside. Shouts, running footsteps, the sound of someone screaming in pain.Finn burst through the kitchen door, his face ashen. "Doctor, you need to come. It's Marcus. He collapsed during training."I followed him outside, my heart pounding. Marcus was one of the pack's senior warriors, a man in his forties with a reputation for being unshakeable. Now he lay on the ground, his body convulsing, dark veins spider-webbing across his exposed skin.The curse.It was the same pattern I had seen in Tom. But this time, it was different. This time, it was moving faster, spreading through Marcus's body like wildfire."Get him inside," I ordered. "Now."The warriors carried Marcus into the medical wing, laying him on the nearest bed. I pushed through them, my hands already reaching for his chest."Everyone out," I

IRENEWe sat in the fading light, and neither of us spoke for a while, and it was the most at ease I had felt in days.It was two mornings later when everything changed again.I was crossing the main courtyard just after seven, medical bag in hand, heading to the wing where Tom was doing his morning exercises. The pack was already moving around me, warriors heading to the training ground, omegas carrying baskets toward the kitchen, a cluster of children chasing something small and fast across the cobblestones.I had almost made it to the far archway when I heard the gates.The sound of a vehicle on the gravel road outside. Tires on stone. An engine cutting out.I would have thought nothing of it. Packs had visitors. Deliveries arrived. I had learned not to pay attention to the rhythms of the gate.But then I heard the voice.And my feet stopped moving of their own accord."....appreciate you meeting me. I know it's short notice. I'm Dr. Daniel Reid. I believe someone on your staff may

IRENEDaniel Reid made excellent coffee.It was such a small thing that I was almost embarrassed by how much I looked forward to it. Every morning, without discussion or arrangement, a cup appeared on the counter of the medical wing before I arrived. Black, strong, no sugar. Exactly right. I had never told him how I took it. He had simply paid attention, the way he paid attention to everything, quietly, without making a production of it.The first morning I found it there, I stood holding the cup for a long moment before I drank it.The second morning, I stopped standing and just drank.By the end of the first week, I stopped noticing that I had stopped noticing.Tom was well enough now to sit in the chair by his window for several hours each day. I found him there one afternoon with a book open in his lap and his eyes on the training ground below, watching the warriors run drills with the particular expression of a man who wanted badly to be among them and was making peace, daily, wi

ASHFORDThe mark started three days after the courtyard.Not the baseline warmth I'd carried since the moment I saw her, that had always been there, steady and manageable. This was different. This was the mark waking up angry.The first time it hit I was in a meeting with Finn, going through border reports. A deep searing pulse radiated from my shoulder down through my arm. I gripped the desk hard enough that the wood creaked.Finn stopped mid-sentence and looked at my hand."Keep going," I said.He kept going.It came in pulses after that. Irregular. Tied to something I couldn't always identify from a distance.I said nothing to anyone.Margaret left a poultice on my desk one afternoon without a word. I used it. It helped with the physical burn. Nothing else.Finn watched me the way he watched things he was waiting to become problems. He quietly added a recovery day to the training rotation after I went through three of our best warriors in one session and Callum ended up with a brui

ASHFORDI heard her laugh from the corridor.I pushed the door open and walked in.Reid stood the moment he saw my face. Picked up his jacket, looked at Irene once, and walked past me without a word.Irene watched him go. Then she looked at me.She was still in the chair, legs tucked under her, the book closed in her lap. She didn't move. Just watched me come into the room with an expression that started careful and was already becoming something else."Ashford…""How long are you going to let this continue."She went still. "Let what continue.""You know why he came here. It wasn't medicine. And every day he's here you let him further in."The careful expression left her face entirely."Excuse me," she said quietly."I'm not attacking you. I'm asking…""You walked in here because you heard me laugh." She unfolded herself from the chair and stood. "That's what this is.""That's not…""That's exactly what it is." Her voice was still low but something under it had shifted. "You've been