She arrived on the third day.
I was reviewing post-operative charts in my office when the commotion started—raised voices echoing down the medical wing's corridor, the sharp click of heels moving too fast. I set down my pen and listened.
"Where is she?" The voice was high and trembling, threaded with barely controlled panic. "I need to see Head Healer Watson immediately!"
I recognized that voice.
Five years hadn't changed it. Still that particular pitch that managed to sound fragile and demanding at the same time, still that breathless quality that made every sentence sound like a plea for rescue.
Juliana Harper.
I stood slowly, pressed two fingers to my collarbone—Kingston's mark warm beneath my touch—and walked into the hall.
She was standing near the nurses' station, one hand braced against the desk like she might collapse without it. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face pale, her dark hair slightly disheveled in a way that looked deliberate. She wore a soft blue dress that made her look smaller, younger, more vulnerable.
The white lotus, I thought distantly, in full bloom.
Behind her stood two Silverfang Deltas, clearly uncomfortable to be in foreign pack territory. And behind them, moving slowly but upright, was Xavier.
He shouldn't have been out of bed. The shoulder wound wasn't fully healed. But he was dressed, his Alpha aura projecting outward in waves, and his eyes locked onto mine the moment I stepped into view.
"Healer Watson," Juliana said, her voice breaking beautifully on my title. "Thank the Goddess. I need to speak with you about Alpha Xavier's treatment."
I stopped three paces away and kept my face neutral. "Alpha Xavier's treatment is progressing as expected. His recovery timeline—"
"No." Juliana's voice sharpened, then immediately softened again, like she'd caught herself. She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. "No, I... I've been reviewing his medication logs. The dosages you administered—" Her voice dropped to a horrified whisper. "They're wrong."
Silence dropped over the hall like a stone into still water.
I felt every Moonveil wolf in the corridor turn to look. Felt Marcus Reid, who'd been observing from near the recovery wing entrance, go very still.
"Wrong," I repeated, voice flat.
Juliana nodded, and a single tear tracked down her cheek. "I didn't want to believe it. I told myself there had to be a mistake, that someone as skilled as you wouldn't... but the numbers don't lie." She looked up at me with those wide, wounded eyes. "You gave him twice the recommended dose of silverroot extract. That's... that's toxic to an Alpha's healing process. You could have killed him."
She let the accusation hang in the air, delicate and devastating.
I watched her performance with clinical detachment. The trembling hands. The tear. The way she positioned herself slightly behind Xavier, like she needed his protection from my response.
She'd practiced this.
"Are you accusing me of malpractice?" I asked quietly.
Juliana flinched like I'd struck her. "I'm not accusing anyone of anything! I just... I'm worried. Xavier almost died, and if the treatment was compromised because of—" She stopped herself, bit her lip. "Because of personal history..."
There it was.
The implication, delivered with perfect deniability. That I would harm a patient out of revenge. That my professional integrity was compromised by emotion. That the girl Xavier rejected five years ago was still broken enough to sabotage his recovery.
I felt my wolf stir beneath my skin. Not with rage. With something colder.
"Estelle." Xavier's voice cut through the tension, rough and commanding. He stepped forward, and his Alpha aura expanded, pressing outward like a physical force. "I think we need to clear this up. Now."
Every Moonveil wolf in the corridor flinched.
I didn't.
Xavier's eyes narrowed. He took another step forward, and his aura intensified—the full weight of an Alpha's dominance, the tone that compelled submission from every wolf ranked below him.
"Kneel," he said, and the command rolled through the hall like thunder. "You will kneel before your Luna and apologize for this disrespect."
His aura crashed over me.
I felt it—the pressure, the weight, the ancient instinct that demanded I drop to my knees and bare my throat. I felt every Moonveil Delta in the corridor struggle against it, their wolves responding to a foreign Alpha's command on their own territory.
I stood perfectly still.
My wolf, bonded to a Lycan Prince, absorbed Xavier's Alpha tone like rain against stone. It rolled off me without purchase, without effect, because the bond that might have made me vulnerable to his dominance had been severed five years ago—and the mark on my collarbone connected me to something so far above Alpha authority that Xavier's power barely registered as a threat.
I met his eyes and watched confusion flicker across his face.
"You're in Moonveil Pack territory, Alpha Xavier," I said quietly. "You have no authority here."
I turned to Marcus Reid, who was watching with carefully controlled expression.
"Beta Reid," I said. "Would you please retrieve my complete treatment records for Alpha Xavier? All dosages, timestamps, and observational notes."
Marcus nodded slowly and disappeared into my office.
Juliana's face went white.
Xavier's jaw tightened. "Estelle—"
"Healer Watson," I corrected. "And you should return to your recovery bed. You're not cleared for extended activity."
"I'm not going anywhere until—"
Marcus returned, carrying a leather-bound file. He handed it to me, then—deliberately, publicly—handed a second copy to Alpha Garrett of Moonveil, who had appeared at the end of the hall, drawn by the commotion.
I opened the file and read aloud. "Day one, 0300 hours: Silverroot extract, 15 milligrams. Standard dosage for Alpha-class accelerated healing. Day two, 0800 hours: 15 milligrams. Day three, 0600 hours: 10 milligrams, reduced due to improved tissue regeneration." I looked up. "Every dosage is documented, witnessed, and falls within established Healer protocols. There is no error."
I held the file out—not to Xavier, but to Alpha Garrett.
He took it. Reviewed it with the careful attention of a wolf who understood exactly what was at stake. Then he looked at Juliana.
"These records are meticulous," he said quietly. "There is no evidence of malpractice."
Juliana opened her mouth. Closed it. The wounded expression flickered, and for just a moment, I saw something else beneath it—something sharp and cold and furious.
Then the mask smoothed back into place.
"I... I must have misread..." She pressed her hand to her chest. "I'm so sorry. I was just so worried—"
"Security," I said.
Two Moonveil Gammas stepped forward.
I looked at Juliana—really looked at her, for the first time since she'd walked into my medical wing and tried to destroy my credibility with a performance.
"The visitor," I said to the Gammas, "is disrupting recovery protocols. Please escort her from the medical wing."
Juliana's eyes went wide. "You can't—"
"I can," I said quietly. "This is my facility. You are not pack. You are not family. You are a disruption."
The Gammas moved forward.
Xavier stepped between them and Juliana, his Alpha aura flaring. "You will not touch her."
"Then you will both leave," Alpha Garrett said, his voice cutting through the standoff with absolute authority. "Healer Watson's professional judgment is not in question. Your presence, Alpha Xavier, is a courtesy extended to an injured wolf. If you cannot respect the protocols of this facility, that courtesy will be revoked."
Xavier stared at him. Then at me.
I looked back with perfect, clinical indifference.
He took Juliana's arm and walked toward the exit, his movements stiff with barely controlled rage.
At the doorway, he stopped and looked back.
"This isn't over, Estelle," he said.
I didn't respond.
I watched them leave, then turned back to my office.
Marcus followed me in and closed the door.
"That," he said quietly, "was the coldest thing I've ever seen."
I sat down at my desk and picked up my pen.
"She tried to accuse me of malpractice," I said. "In my own facility. In front of my pack."
"And you dismantled her without raising your voice."
I looked up at him.
"I don't need to raise my voice," I said. "I have the records."
Marcus studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly.
"He's not going to let this go," he said.
I pressed two fingers to my collarbone, felt Kingston's mark warm beneath my touch, and smiled without humor.
"I know," I said. "Neither am I."
