Chapter 3 The pull

He told himself it was protocol.

The first time he went back to the medical wing, it was on the third morning after her arrival. He had paperwork that needed Helena's signature, a supply request that had been sitting on his desk for three days. It was a reasonable errand. It had nothing to do with the girl.

He waited while Helena signed what needed signing and left without looking at the examination room.

The second time was that same evening. He had been doing his rounds, the nightly walk through the pack grounds that he had maintained since his first year as Alpha King, a habit born of discipline and kept out of duty. The medical wing was on his route. It would have been strange not to stop.

Helena gave him a brief update without being asked. The girl was stable. She had been placed in a medically induced coma to allow her body to recover without the interference of consciousness. Two cracked ribs, hypothermia, malnutrition, and the cumulative damage of injuries that had clearly been sustained over a long period of time. Helena's voice was professionally neutral when she said it. Her eyes were not.

Eric said nothing. He nodded once and left.

The third time, he had no excuse prepared.

It was past midnight and the pack grounds were quiet, the kind of deep quiet that only settled in the coldest part of winter when even the night birds went still. He had been in his office for six hours and had accomplished very little, which was unlike him. Reports that should have taken an hour sat unfinished on his desk. Two messages from Steven had gone unanswered. He had read the same border patrol summary four times without retaining a single line of it.

He was at the door of the medical wing before he had consciously decided to go there.

The corridor was empty. He pushed open the door to her room and stood in the doorway.

She lay exactly as she had on the examination table, pale and still against the white of the pillow, her breathing slow and even on the monitor beside her. The bruising along her jaw and cheekbone had deepened overnight, the way bruising did before it began to fade, dark purple and green against skin that was too pale. Helena had cleaned the blood from her hair, and it spread across the pillow in pale tangled waves, catching the dim light from the monitoring equipment.

He stood at the foot of the bed and, for the first time, took a good look at her. Even like this, all bruised up, there was something about her face that was hard to ignore. She was beautiful, almost serene, he thought reluctantly. He crossed his arms and slowly averted his gaze to the monitors.

She was human. She had crossed his border uninvited, which meant she was either desperate or stupid, and given what Helena had told him about the pattern of her injuries, he suspected it was the former. She had come from somewhere bad. She was running from something. And whoever had done this to her was still out there, and by allowing her to remain on his land, he had potentially drawn danger closer. He had learned a long time ago that humans brought their problems with them. It always spread, and it always reached things that had nothing to do with them.

He thought about his pack. About the people he had lost in the fight that had cost his father his health. About the months that followed, taking command at twenty years old of a pack that was still grieving, facing a world that had decided a young Alpha King was an invitation to test boundaries. He had proven them wrong. He had learned early that softness was a luxury he could not afford, and nothing in the years since had given him reason to think differently.

The logical course of action was clear. She would recover enough to be moved, and then she would be escorted to the border and released. He would ensure she had food, clothing, and enough money to get somewhere safe. That was more than generous. That was more than anyone could reasonably expect from him.

He looked at her face one more time. She was still, pale against the white of the pillow, her breathing slow and even. Whatever she was, whatever trouble she had brought with her, she looked like someone who had already paid a price far beyond what anyone should have to pay. He stood there a moment longer than he intended to. Then he uncrossed his arms, turned, and left the room without looking back.

Danielle saw him come out.

She was at the end of the corridor with a cup of coffee, leaning against the wall the way she had every night since the girl was brought in. Nobody had asked her to stay. They hadn't needed to ask.

She watched Eric close the door behind him. He stood in the corridor for a moment with his back to her, his hand still on the door handle, his head slightly bowed. It lasted only a second. Then he straightened, dropped his hand, and turned to walk back toward the main building.

He saw her.

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"How is she?" he said.

"The same," Danielle said. "Stable. But Helena says it will be at least a few weeks before she starts bringing her out of it."

He nodded. His eyes moved back to the closed door for a moment, then away. Something crossed his face that she couldn't quite place, and then it was gone and he was looking at her with the steady expression she knew well.

"You should get some sleep," he said.

"Probably," she agreed.

He looked at her for a moment longer, then walked past her without another word. She listened to his footsteps until they faded and turned back toward the corridor.

She took a slow sip of her coffee and thought about what just happened. So unlike Eric, but she was not the person to say something about it. Not yet. She simply filed it away in the quiet part of her mind and went back to her chair.

She sat down, pulled her knees up, and looked at the closed door of the girl's room. Three visits in two days. She had counted. She was fairly certain he didn't know she had counted, and she had no intention of telling him. Some things needed time before they were ready to be spoken, and this was one of them.

She stayed where she was and waited for morning.