First Touch

Emma's POV

"Run, you fool!" Kai hissed, trying to push me away from him.

But I couldn't move. Alpha Marcus's words echoed through the trees, getting closer with each word. In the book, Marcus was the one who had ordered Kai's exile. He was meant to be long gone by now, not coming back to check if Kai was dead.

"I said run!" Kai grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly strong for someone who'd been dying minutes ago.

The touch sent another shock of that strange warmth through me, but this time it was different. Instead of healing power, I felt something else flowing between us - his feelings. Terror, pain, and underneath it all, a pressing need to protect me even though he barely knew me.

"I'm not leaving you," I whispered back.

Kai's mismatched eyes went wide. "Are you insane? He'll kill us both!"

Heavy footsteps crunched through the falling leaves, coming from the north side of our clearing. I could hear at least three different sets of feet, maybe more. Through the trees, shadows moved that were too big to be normal people.

"Found his scent trail," a rough voice called out. "Blood, lots of it. He should be dead by now."

"Should be, but isn't," Marcus answered, his tone ice-cold. "I can smell something else too. Someone new."

Kai went rigid beside me. "They know you're here."

My heart hammered so hard I was sure everyone in the forest could hear it. In the book, this scene never happened. Emma was meant to find Kai alone, heal him, and then they'd have time to talk and plan. Marcus wasn't supposed to come back.

But nothing was going according to the story anymore.

"Maybe we can hide," I whispered, looking around the area for somewhere to go.

Kai shook his head. "Werewolves can track by smell. There's nowhere to run that they can't follow."

"Then what do we do?"

Before Kai could answer, the footsteps stopped. The forest went dead silent - no birds singing, no insects buzzing, even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

"I know you're here, boy," Marcus yelled out. His voice was closer now, maybe just one or two trees away. "Come out and face your punishment like the man you pretend to be."

Kai tried to stand up, but his legs shook and he almost fell. Whatever fixing I'd done had closed his wounds, but he was still weak from blood loss.

"Stay behind me," he said, trying to position himself between me and the coming voices.

"You can barely stand!" I protested.

"Doesn't matter. I won't let them hurt you."

The fierce protection in his voice made my chest tight. This boy who'd been thrown away by everyone he'd ever known was still trying to save a stranger. How could anyone think he was evil?

A branch snapped somewhere to our left. Then another to our right. They were surrounding us.

"Last chance, Kai," Marcus's voice was right at the edge of the clearing now. "Show yourself, or we'll come in there and drag you out."

Kai squeezed my hand once, then stepped forward into the open space. "I'm here."

Three massive figures came from the trees. The man in front had to be Marcus - tall and broad-shouldered, with gray-streaked hair and cold blue eyes that seemed to look right through you. Behind him stood two other men, both younger but just as threatening.

Marcus's gaze swept the area until it landed on me, still crouched behind the oak tree. His eyes narrowed.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" He took a step closer. "A little human girl, all alone in the big scary forest."

"Leave her out of this," Kai said, moving to block Marcus's view of me. "Your fight is with me."

Marcus laughed, but there was no fun in it. "My fight was with you, boy. Past tense. You were meant to die quietly and save us all the trouble of a messy execution."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"Oh, you will be sorry." Marcus's smile was all teeth. "But first, I'm curious about your little friend. How exactly did you manage to heal from injuries that should have killed you?"

My blood turned to ice. He knew. Somehow, he knew what I'd done.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kai said.

"Don't lie to me!" Marcus's voice boomed through the clearing. "I can smell the magic on both of you. Old magic. Powerful magic."

He started walking toward me, and Kai immediately stepped in his path.

"I said leave her alone."

Marcus backhanded Kai across the face so hard that Kai spun around and hit the ground. Blood dripped from his split lip.

"You forget your place, freak," Marcus growled. "You have no pack, no family, no right to give me orders."

Rage boiled up inside me like a volcano about to burst. Without thinking, I jumped to my feet and ran to Kai's side.

"Don't touch him!" I shouted at Marcus.

The Alpha's eyes rose. "Brave little person. Stupid, but brave."

I knelt beside Kai and pressed my hands to his face where Marcus had hit him. That warm, golden feeling ran through me again, and the cut on Kai's lip sealed shut.

All three werewolves stared at us in shocked silence.

"Impossible," one of the younger men breathed.

Marcus's face had gone pale. "What are you?" he whispered.

I honestly didn't know how to answer that. Three days ago, I was a normal college student. Now I was apparently some kind of magical doctor who'd fallen into a book.

"I'm just Emma," I said.

"Just Emma," Marcus repeated slowly. Then his face changed from shock to something much worse - hunger. "No, little girl. You are definitely not 'just' anything."

He lunged forward faster than I could blink, his hand grabbing for my throat. But Kai was faster. Even weak and hurt, he threw himself between us, taking Marcus's claws across his chest instead of letting them reach me.

Kai cried out in pain as four deep scratches opened up where Marcus had hit him. Blood soaked through his shirt instantly.

"No!" I screamed, catching Kai as he fell backward.

Without delay, I pressed my hands to the new wounds. The golden light poured out of me stronger than before, so bright that all three werewolves had to shield their eyes.

But this time, something else happened too. The light didn't just heal Kai - it spread outward like waves in a pond, washing over everything in the clearing.

Where the light touched the ground, flowers bloomed quickly. Dead twigs on nearby trees suddenly sprouted green leaves. A bird that had been lying motionless near the tree line flapped its wings and flew away.

When the light faded, everyone stared at me in total silence.

Marcus was the first to speak, his voice barely above a whisper. "You're her. The one from the vision."

"What prophecy?" I asked, but I was afraid I already knew the answer.

"The Healer who would come to unite the packs," Marcus said. "The one who would choose the next Alpha King."

My heart stopped beating. "Alpha King?"

Marcus's eyes moved to Kai, who was staring at me with the same shocked expression as everyone else.

"The prophecy says the Healer will choose her mate from among the wolves," Marcus added. "And whoever she chooses will have the power to rule over all the packs in the world."

He smiled, but it was the scariest smile I'd ever seen.

"Which means, little girl, that you just became the most important person in the supernatural world. Every Alpha in existence will want to claim you."

The two men behind Marcus started moving toward us, their eyes shining yellow in the dim light.

"And I'm going to be the first," Marcus said.

That's when Kai did something that changed everything.

He grabbed my hand and pressed it against his chest, right over his heart.

"Emma," he gasped. "Whatever happens next, remember - you saved me first. That has to count for something."

The moment my hand touched his skin, the world exploded.

Power rushed through me like a tsunami wave, but this time it wasn't just healing energy. It was something older, deeper, more dangerous. I felt linked to every living thing in the forest - the trees, the animals, even the werewolves standing around us.

And through it all, I felt Kai's beating under my hand, strong and steady and somehow perfectly in sync with my own.

Light exploded from our joined hands, brighter than the sun. I heard Marcus screaming something, but his words were lost in the roar of power flowing between Kai and me.

When the light finally died down and my vision cleared, everything had changed.

The three werewolves were on their knees, heads bowed like they were praising us. The entire clearing had changed into a garden paradise, with flowers and fruit trees that definitely hadn't been there before.

And Kai... Kai was shining. Not with golden light like my healing power, but with silver light that seemed to come from inside his skin. His mismatched eyes now shimmered with the same silver brilliance.

"What did we just do?" I whispered.

Kai stared at his hands, which were still glowing softly. "I think," he said slowly, "we just fulfilled the first part of that prophecy."

Marcus raised his head, and when he looked at us now, there was fear in his eyes instead of hunger.

"Hail the Healer," he said in a shaky voice. "And hail her chosen Alpha King."

The other two werewolves repeated his words, and somewhere in the distance, I could hear howls starting up all across the forest. Not frightening howls like before - these sounded like... celebration?

"Emma," Kai said quietly. "I think we might be in trouble."

Before I could ask what he meant, the screaming got louder. Much louder. And it was coming from all directions, like every werewolf in the area was running toward us.

"The other packs," Marcus said, his face pale. "They felt the power rush. They're coming."

"How many?" Kai asked.

Marcus swallowed hard. "All of them."