Chapter 3

Kayla Hendrix POV:

Walking down the corridor, I gripped the cold metal handle of the VIP examination room, pushed it down, and shoved the door open.

Inside, Chelsie lay slumped against the leather sofa, clutching her chest and gasping for air, while Dale stood by the window with his broad back stiff with impatience.

"Doctor Melly, you're finally here! My heart feels like it's tearing apart," Chelsie whimpered, dropping her chin to look frail the second she saw me.

I walked over and stopped two feet from the sofa without even reaching for a stethoscope.

"Palpitations and shortness of breath, yet your cheeks are flushed and your lungs are loud enough to shake the glass," I said flatly.

Dale turned around from the window, his dark brows pulling together as his Alpha pressure filled the room.

"Watch your tone, Healer. Cure her."

I met his gray stare without blinking.

"Alpha Hood, I'm a medical professional, not an extra hired to play along with her melodrama."

Chelsie let out a sharp shriek, pointing a trembling finger at my nose.

"Dale, look at her! She's humiliating me on purpose! She's just jealous because I'm going to be the Luna of the Hood Pack!"

A dry laugh escaped my mask. I dropped my gaze to the bare skin where her neck met her shoulder—smooth, pale, and completely empty of a mate mark.

"The future Luna?" I dragged the words out, letting them echo off the tiled walls. "In every pack on this continent, an unmarked female without a permanent bite on her neck doesn't even have the right to enter the inner circle, let alone call herself Luna."

Every drop of blood drained from Chelsie's face. Her hand flew up to cover her bare neck, her voice cracking in panic.

"You're lying! Dale only held back from marking me because my body is too weak!"

I flipped open the chart in my arm and tossed three lab sheets onto the glass coffee table between us.

"Whether your body is naturally weak or your inner wolf dried up because you secretly drank illegal silver-laced potions, you know best."

The air in the room froze solid. Dale's head whipped toward Chelsie, his gray eyes narrowing to razor slits.

Chelsie shook all over, scrambling backward on the cushions.

"No! Dale, don't listen to her! This quack is framing me!"

Ignoring her screams, I pulled a small vial of pale blue liquid from my coat pocket and held it up to the light.

"This is genetic vitality reagent. One drop of your blood in here will show everyone if silver poison killed your wolf."

I stepped forward with the vial. Chelsie gasped and slid right off the sofa, landing hard on the carpet on her rear.

Just as I reached for her wrist, Dale took one long stride and planted his wide chest directly between me and the woman on the floor.

"Enough," Dale growled, his voice dropping to a dangerous rumble. "This is Hood Pack business. An outsider doesn't get to draw blood here."

I stopped in my tracks, looking up at the harsh jawline of the man who had once sworn to protect me, my stomach twisting with cold disgust.

"Then take your precious fiancée out of here, Alpha, and stop dirtying my clinic."

I spun on my heel and walked straight out the door.

Dale Hood POV:

I stared at the woman calling herself Melly as she walked out. Her cold eyes left my chest feeling like it was crushed under a boulder.

The way she held her spine straight, the brisk rhythm of her boots hitting the floor without looking back—it overlapped completely with the figure that had walked into the canyon blizzard more than five years ago. And it was more than the silhouette. The way she'd flipped the chart onto the table—two fingers at the corner, a practiced flick of the wrist—was Kayla's exact geometry. The slight tilt of her head, chin up, as if daring me to contradict her, was a mannerism I had memorized and buried.

My heart gave a violent lurch. Inside my head, my Dire Wolf slammed against my mental walls, letting out a raw, desperate howl.

"Mate... that's our mate!" my wolf roared, his voice ragged after more than five years of howling at the full moon in agony.

I pressed two fingers hard against my temple, my jaw clenching until my teeth ached. Kayla was dead. My scouts had brought back frozen, mangled remains from that canyon blizzard.

Then why did every single breath this healer took make my blood boil like I was standing next to my fated mate?

Looking down at Chelsie sobbing on the carpet, the sweet floral perfume she wore suddenly made my stomach churn with nausea.

Without offering her a hand, I strode past her out into the hallway, where my Beta, Brien Potter, stood guard by the wall.

"Dig up everything on this Healer Melly," I ordered, keeping my voice low and tight. "From the day she was born to five minutes ago. I want every secret she's hiding."

Brien blinked in surprise before bowing his head.

"Yes, Alpha."

As Brien hurried away, I leaned my shoulder against the cold hallway wall, my breath coming fast and shallow. If she really was Kayla... if she had survived that deadly frost...

I drove my fist straight into the plaster wall, white dust flaking over my bleeding knuckles.