Chapter 142

Aria

By the time we reached the pack house, Alfira fading in and out of consciousness in Darren’s arms, the local doctor was already waiting for us at the front door. Darren whisked Alfira inside to be examined, and I followed, Lucas trailing behind me.

The infirmary was a small room on the first floor of the pack house, equipped with basic medical supplies. Darren gently laid Alfira on the examination table while the doctor began gathering what he needed.

“What do you think happened to her?” I asked, my eyes fixed on Alfira’s pale face.

The doctor shook his head as he cut away Alfira’s tattered clothing to reveal her injuries. “It’s hard to say without a full examination, but it certainly looks like she’s lost a lot of blood.” He pointed to a deep gash on her side. “This looks like a stab wound. Appears she broke her ankle, too.”

My stomach lurched at the sight. I went to usher Lucas out of the room, not wanting him to see this, but he wrung his hands and asked first, “Is she gonna be okay?”

The doctor didn’t look up from his work. “If you hadn’t found her when you did, I doubt she would have made it through the night. A few more hours…” He trailed off, the implication clear enough without even having to say it. “But she’ll pull through.”

A wave of relief washed over me. I suddenly felt grateful for Lucas’s strange intuition. If he hadn’t wandered off, then we might have found her too late, if we even found her at all.

“I need to clean these wounds and get her stabilized,” the doctor said. “It would be best if you waited outside.”

Darren nodded, guiding me and Lucas out of the infirmary. We found Wendy waiting in the hallway.

“How is she?” Wendy asked.

“The doctor is treating her now,” Darren replied, running a hand through his raven hair, which had come loose from its low knot during our run through the forest and was now nearly touching his shoulders. “He says she’ll make it, but it was close.”

Wendy pressed her lips into a thin line. She placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “This little one is quite the hero, isn’t he?”

Lucas beamed up at her, but his smile faltered when he caught the serious look on Darren’s face. Darren crouched down to Lucas’s level.

“Lucas, we need to talk about what happened tonight,” he said firmly. “You can’t just run off into the woods by yourself. It’s dangerous.”

Lucas’s lower lip trembled. “But I had to help. I felt it.”

“What do you mean, you felt it?” I asked, kneeling beside Darren.

Lucas shrugged, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. “I don’t know. I just had this feeling that someone needed help. Like a tug. I followed it until I found the lady.”

I exchanged a glance with Darren, unsure what to make of this. He looked just as dumbfounded as I felt.

“Well, even if you feel that tug again,” Darren said, “you need to tell us first. Promise me, Lucas.”

“But what if there’s no time?” Lucas protested.

“There’s always time to be safe,” I said, taking his hands in mine. “We were so worried about you. If something had happened to you out there…” My voice caught in my throat at the mere thought.

Lucas looked down at his feet, then nodded slowly. “Okay. I promise. Next time I’ll tell you first.”

I hoped there wouldn’t be a ‘next time’.

After that, we spent the next few hours waiting for news about Alfira’s condition. Lucas eventually fell asleep on my lap, exhausted from the night’s events, while Darren, Wendy and I drank cups of strong tea in the den. When the doctor finally emerged from the infirmary, he looked tired but relieved.

“She’s stable,” he announced. “The wounds have been cleaned and stitched. She’s still unconscious, but her vitals are strong. She should make a full recovery with time and rest.”

By morning, Alfira was still asleep. Darren and I moved in and out of the infirmary, occasionally checking on her.

It was nearly noon when she finally stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, and confusion crossed her face before she turned and saw us sitting there. She tried to sit up right away but winced in pain.

Darren gently eased her back down. “Take it easy. You’re injured.”

“How did you find me?” she croaked.

“Lucas found you, actually,” I explained. “He led us to the cave where you were hiding.”

A faint smile touched her lips. “Smart kid.”

“Alfira, what happened to you?” Darren asked softly. “We found your camera in the woods. We saw the footage…”

Her expression darkened, and she turned her face away. She was silent for a long moment, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. When she finally spoke, her voice was hardly more than a whisper.

“I was gathering footage for the documentary,” she began. “I wanted some shots of the forest at sunset. My crew had already headed back to the pack, but I stayed behind.” She swallowed hard. “And then I saw a man. A human man.”

Darren and I exchanged wary glances. Alfira went on, “He was just... standing there, watching me. I asked him how he’d gotten so close to the pack lands, but he wouldn’t answer. He just stared at me with these... these glazed eyes. His pupils were dilated, too, like he was on something.”

“Then he started following me,” she continued. “I tried to lose him, but he just kept coming. And then he started chasing me. I ran into the woods, but I got lost. He chased me for what felt like hours.” Her breathing quickened. “Eventually, he caught up to me. He attacked me, tried to... force himself on me.”

My blood ran cold. I reached for her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“That was when I smelled it,” she said, her eyes meeting mine. “This strange scent on his skin. It made my wolf go crazy. I’ve never felt anything like it before. I just... I lost control. I only meant to hurt him enough so I could get away, but…”

She trailed off, tears filling her eyes.

“You were defending yourself,” Darren said firmly. “Anyone would have done the same.”

She shook her head. “But I killed him, Darren. I’ve never even dreamed of killing anyone before. And the scent... it made me more aggressive than I would have been otherwise. I could feel it affecting me.”

The scent. Just like what Liam had described that day at the park. My stomach twisted at the implications.

“He stabbed me during the struggle,” Alfira continued, gesturing to her side. “And I think I broke my ankle while running from him. By the time I managed to get away, I was losing too much blood. I couldn’t make it back to the village. The cave was the closest shelter I could find.”

“You did what you had to do to survive,” I said, squeezing her hand. “No one will blame you for that. We’ll clear this up.”

“But they will. Humans always blame us, no matter what.”

“Not this time,” Darren said. “We have your camera. We have footage of him chasing you. We’ll make sure the truth gets out.”

Alfira looked skeptical, but nodded.

“You’re safe here,” Darren assured her. “Even if the human authorities try to blame you, we won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes drifting closed once more. “I’ll make it up to you. I’ll finish the documentary.”

“Just rest for now,” I said gently. “We can talk more when you’re stronger.”

We left Alfira to sleep, stepping out into the hallway. Darren pulled me into his arms, his lips brushing the top of my head.

“Do you think it’s connected?” I asked quietly. “The scent she described? It sounds like what happened at the park.”

Darren’s jaw feathered. “I think we would be fools not to consider it a possibility. It’s too much of a coincidence. Perhaps whoever is leading the human protesters is using some kind of pheromone to make themselves stronger and werewolves more aggressive.”

I shuddered slightly despite the warmth of his arms.

That evening, we compiled all the evidence we had and sent it to the chief of police, Bella’s father. We didn’t know if it would make much of a difference at this point, or if it would have been wiser to keep Alfira hidden, but it felt like the right thing to do. We hoped it would help clear Alfira’s name and perhaps reduce some of the anti-werewolf sentiments in the human world.

We fell asleep with that hope warming our hearts, only to have it shattered the next morning when Darren’s phone suddenly began to ring before the sun had even risen. He fumbled for it on the nightstand, his voice gravelly from sleep as he answered.

“Hello?”

I watched as his expression shifted from confusion to horror. He sat up abruptly, fully awake now.

“What? When?” he demanded, his free hand clenching into a fist. “Are you both safe?”

I sat up too, my heart pounding. Darren put the phone on speaker, and Bella’s frantic voice filled the room.

“We’re fine, but Lunar Labs isn’t,” she said, her voice shaking. “It happened last night. A mob broke through the security gates. They—they destroyed everything. Lunar Labs HQ is practically gone. They set it on fire.”