Chapter 46

Aria’s POV

I wanted to help Caleb, but I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was dead.

Glancing at Montgomery, he seemed torn. Matt, however, was already stepping forward. Grabbing me by the arm, he yanked me toward the doorway.

“What are you waiting for?” Matt grumbled. He stayed with me as we pushed out into the hallway. “Where?”

“Two stories up, we have a secure panic room behind one of the break rooms,” the security man said. He eyed Matt with suspicion, but didn’t oppose him. Maybe he recognized a fellow solider, or more likely, Caleb’s son.

Because of Caleb’s reputation as a war hero, his family was blanketed with the same honors. For some, like Montgomery, that honor wasn’t warranted. But for Matt, it felt valid.

“I trust Matt,” I assured the security captain.

Matt glanced at me, a touch of confusion in his eyes. Since he didn’t know I was Aria, he must have found my easy trust foolish, or maybe suspicious.

Currently, I couldn’t be bothered to try to reason it out.

“Let’s go,” the security captain said.

Six guards stayed with us, while the rest pressed on to the stairwells. While they headed down, we went up.

“We turned off the elevators to make their infiltration more difficult,” the security captain said. “We need to be careful, however. Some likely pushed through before we realized what was happening.”

I couldn’t believe something like this was happening. This wasn’t some enemy invasion or another pack trying to stir up trouble. These were my people, my pack, being driven by Sheila’s false accusations and lies about my medical efficiency and background.

As we reached a landing in the stairwell, the next floor up, the door burst open and protestors pushed forward. The group of guards around me splintered.

“Go!” the captain shouted, staying behind.

Turning, I rushed to hurry up the stairs. In my fear, my wolf Luna was with me, giving me strength, pushing me onward.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my elbow, yanking me back. Turning, I gasped. An angry protestor was clutching my arm. His mouth quirked in a vicious smile, as if he was so self-satisfied that he had caught me, their prize.

My heart lurched in my chest. At once, I wished for Lucian, my mate. If he were here, he would protect me, defend me like a mate should.

But Lucian wasn’t here.

Instead, Matt punched the smirk clean off the protestor’s face. The man dropped, immediately unconscious. Matt pushed my lower back.

“Move!” he shouted, rousing me from my stupor.

Hurriedly, I pushed onwards, clawing up the stairs.

Matt stayed behind, helping to keep the angry protestors back. I only had two guards with me now, but they remained diligent, looking all around, bodies tense and ready for action.

We pushed into the breakroom, and then found the steel door at the back of the room. One of the guards punched in a code and a door opened. Then, I was ushered inside. The guards remained outside as the door closed again.

The inside of the panic room nearly matched the breakroom outside of it, with comfortable chairs and tables scattered throughout. The only difference, that I could tell, was the steel walls and a guard at a desk filled with monitors.

The grainy black and white footage on the monitors showed the angry mob terrorizing the first floor. Folders and files were scattered around. The nurses and administrators were sitting in the waiting room, watching in fear.

Several old healers were sitting in the room, but I didn’t see Cathy or Piper. Hopefully they were elsewhere when the protestors stormed in. I imagined that my office was one of the first places hit. I sent a quick prayer to the gods for their safety.

Hopefully, if I was truly the only one the protestors wanted, they would leave Cathy and Piper alone.

“This is your fault, you know,” said one of the old healers. I recognized him as one of my most vocal dissenters. His name was Carl. “If you would have just given up your claim to that formula, we’d all be spared this inconvenience.”

This inconvenience was a threat against my life.

Once more, I hated that life-extending medicine and wished I’d never even thought to create such a thing.

“Because of your selfishness, none of us can treat our patients,” Carl continued. “They suffer because of you.”

The other healers in the room were silent, but I could tell from their glares and nods that they agreed with Carl.

To them, I was in the wrong here. It didn’t matter if my decisions were based in medical reasoning. The fact that their days had been disturbed was reason enough for them to want to stand against me.

Not to mention, by holding onto the formula, I was denying them a hefty payday. In the wrong hands, my medicine would have absolutely gone to the highest bidder. All the efforts I’d made to see it evenly distributed to all the classes would have been for nothing.

“She doesn’t know yet that even the president of the World Healer Association will soon be publically standing against you,” Carl continued, speaking to the other healers. One of them laughed.

“You reported me to the World Healer Association?” I asked. I had always been in good standing with them. Unless someone acted against me now, that should have remained so.

“I’m not the only one,” Carl said, looking at me again. “It’s not just the public that take offense to what you are doing, Dr. A. Many of us healers are against you as well.”

“I’ve done nothing to warrant this,” I said. “I’ve cared about my patients and provided them with the best care –”

“You’ve neglected Miss Sheila.”

“It is taking time to resolve her issue,” I said. “I am not ‘neglecting her.’”

“I’d have it solved by now,” Carl said, a blatant lie.

He hadn’t made any progress in modern medicine in his entire life. In fact, many of his treatments were severely outdated. He obviously didn’t keep up to date with any medical journals.

“But you don’t have to take my word for it,” Carl said. “Soon, the president of the World Healer Association, Silas, will be here to drive you away from Nightfall pack, back to whatever corner you crawled out of.”

I didn’t want to believe that could be true. After all, didn’t I have Lucian on my side? And he had said that I would be welcomed.

Even so, the World Healer Association was united over all packs, not just Nightfall. Lucian, therefore, might have to bend to their will or risk making himself an enemy against it.

With how few healers there were in this pack, Lucian likely wouldn’t risk ostracizing Nightfall against the will of the Association.

That meant, if the president of the Association did arrive here, I would likely have to face his judgement on my own.

Swallowing thickly, I turned my attention back to the monitors. Through them, I watched as a black sedan pulled up to the front of the hospital. It was surrounded by dark vans. From the vans, a slew of soldiers poured out.

From the sedan, first stepped Lucian.

Whatever hope I might have felt at seeing him vanished as soon as I saw who he was with.

“I told you they move quickly. There he is,” Carl said. “The president of the World Healer Association, Silas. Time to pack your bags, Dr. A.”

……What？Silas？

I widened my eyes.

But, Silas is my teacher！