Chapter 45

Sheila’s POV

Lucian once told Sheila that he only appreciated Dr. A because of her professional merits, but Sheila knew that had been a lie.

Men and women could never have a relationship of any kind without desire and love.

That Dr. A lusted after Lucian was obvious. He was Alpha King, everyone wanted him for his power. That he was attractive only added to that desire.

Yet for Lucian to continually choose Dr. A over Sheila herself, always siding with the Healer, Sheila suspected that desire ran both ways.

She didn’t understand why. Dr. A was rather plain, just as Aria had been. Yet now, both Dr. A and Aria, two bland and ordinary women, were somehow standing between Sheila the title of Luna.

It couldn’t be allowed.

Sheila dialed the number for the hospital on the phone in Lucian’s office. He had a private line back here, which meant that even if the head housekeeper picked up her phone, she wouldn’t hear this conversation.

How delightful, that the measures Lucian took for privacy would benefit Sheila now.

How Sheila hated Aria and Dr. A. She couldn’t wait to see them both burn.

When the receptionist answered for the hospital, Sheila had her reroute the call.

“Extension 321,” Sheila said.

“At once,” the receptionist replied. It took a moment – during which Sheila’s annoyance spiked, why was everyone so damn incompetent? At last, the line began to ring again.

“This is Dr. Carl,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. Ah, Carl was his name. Sheila always forgot it. All of these old healers sounded the same anyway, and each one suited her purposes in the same manner. She hadn’t bothered learning their individual names and would soon forget Carl’s as well, when this conversation was done.

“This is Sheila.”

“Ah, Miss Sheila. A pleasure.”

“Have you found the proof that we need?” Sheila asked.

“Proof is a strong word…” Carl said.

Irritation clawed inside of Sheila’s chest. “You assured me that you would find something we could report to the World Healer Association.”

Shelia had been hoping that she could have used Lucian’s guilt alone to convince him to make Sheila his Luna, but so far, that had not worked. This failure forced her to search for other means of claiming Lucian as her own.

As his relationships with both Aria and Dr. A were the biggest obstacles in Sheila’s way, she’d been plotting ways to handle them both. First and foremost, however, was ruining Dr. A’s reputation and therefore driving her out of the pack.

Personally, Sheila would have liked to remove the threat of Aria first, as she was still Lucian’s current wife, but when opportunity knocked, Sheila couldn’t resist moving against Dr. A first instead. This controversy with Lucian presented itself like a perfect gift; Shelia couldn’t ignore it.

If only these old healers could get their heads out of their asses long enough to assist her. Confined as she was to the house, she couldn’t do anything for herself right now. Thusly, she was forced to rely on more incompetent people.

An endless, but necessary annoyance.

“We are close, Miss Sheila. We need just a little more time.”

“I am tired of your false promises. We are running out of time, and need to act now, before Caleb takes a dirt nap.” People didn’t care as much about corpses as they did about dying old men. If Sheila and the healers wanted to garner the most outrage against Dr. A, they had to act before Caleb died.

Her crass tone made Carl pause, but he quickly fell in line. They always did.

“I understand, Miss Sheila. And I agree, time is running out.”

“Then make your report. Send whatever you have to the World Healer Association. Make something up if you have to, I don’t care. I’ll attest to anything. I just want that bitch out of this pack,” Sheila growled into the phone. “Do not forget that I have the Alpha King’s ear. If you fail me, I’ll see you expelled as well. Got it?”

A shiver of fear ran through the old healer’s voice as he said, “I-I understand.”

“Good. Now make this happen.” Without a goodbye, Sheila smashed the phone down onto the cradle. She hoped that old healer – what was his name again? – heard the smash right in his ear.

Satisfied that her threat had been taken seriously, Sheila lifted the phone again and made her second call of the day. This one was to the local news media.

With her plethora of interviews lately, she’d made some good friends at the station. When one of the picked up, Sheila laughed.

“Oh, have I got a scoop for you,” she said. “I have reason to believe that the World Healer Association is about to oust Dr. A.”

Aria’s POV

“This medicine? It will help?” Montgomery asked me as I pushed the needle, administering the new dosage into Caleb’s IV.

“Yes,” I said. “So far we’ve been busy concentrating on containing Caleb’s pain that we haven’t fully focused on finding the cause. The most recent x-rays show some specks of dark among his lungs.”

“Those are from old war wounds,” Matt said.

He stood near the wall, his arms crossed. Montgomery was closer, more watchful. The rest stood out in the hallway.

“Shrapnel,” Matt said.

That made sense. “Likely coated in silver then.” Anything else, Caleb’s healing factor would have pushed from his body. For them to still be there, still like this, meant that Caleb had been feeling some pain since the war.

This wasn’t the root of our problem them. The cause of his new pain had to be elsewhere. Or…

I looked closer at the x-rays. I had a suspicion but I couldn’t be positive without more tests.

I inwardly cursed. This was taking too long. Every minute was precious, and all of it was being wasted. It didn’t help that I had to explain everything I was doing to Montgomery like I was teaching a class.

Looking at the x-ray, I needed a magnifying glass.

“Luna,” I whispered in my mind. “Please help me…”

I felt her push against me, asking for permission for a partial shift. It could be dangerous. Taking too much of her focus away from keeping my scent hidden could reveal my identity. I couldn’t let that happen.

But I needed to save Caleb, and with time so short, I had to take some personal risks.

“Go on,” I said.

Slowly, the x-ray came into fuller focus, the heightened senses of my wolf assisting me. Like this, I could see what was wrong.

“The shrapnel has moved through his body,” I said.

“What does that mean?” Montgomery demanded.

“The silver has moved into his liver, which in attempting to cleanse its toxins, is inadvertently pushing it through the rest of his body.”

“He has silver poisoning,” Matt said.

“I’m afraid so,” I replied.

“What can be done?” Montgomery said. “You wanted to cure him with other treatments. What treatments do you have for this?”

“There are things we can do,” I said, though admittedly, those treatments had limited range of success. Silver poisoning like this, where the source was already in the liver, couldn’t be fully cured without invasive surgery. Surgery I wasn’t sure Caleb could survive in this state.

However, Caleb’s wolf was a strong one. Perhaps less invasive means could help stimulate the wolf, upping the healing factor, which could help expel the silver from Caleb’s body.

I would just need more of –

A thunder of footsteps pounded down the hallway, stopping my train of thought. Immediately, I looked at Matt, reminded of the mob that had tried to forcibly enter the room before.

A knock sounded on the door. It opened without waiting for a reply.

Outside were an army of security. The footsteps had been theirs.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“The protestors have forcibly claimed the entire first floor,” the head of security said. “We need to get you to a safe location, Dr. A.”

“I’m working,” I said. Time was of the essence here!

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but we need your cooperation here,” the security man said. “It’s you the mob is after. They are calling for your head. If we don’t get you to safety, your life may be forfeit.”