To heal a Rogue

LYSANDER

If she did this here, in front of every visiting Alpha, every Luna, the entire Elder Circle watching with their own agendas sharpening behind their eyes, what would happen to her afterward? Could I actually protect her from what came next? She had already survived a life difficult enough for three lifetimes. I didn’t want to hand her more of that. Not because of me.

"Sorry," I heard her say, and I tried to force the shape of a scream past my ruined throat, tried to tell her that whatever she thought she was about to do could not happen, not like this, not in front of all of them.

It was all hypothesis and speculation of course. But my gut was never wrong.

Then the light came.

A blue, brilliant and total glow exploded outward and swallowed my vision whole. I felt something pour back into me in its wake, vitality flooding through every part of my body that had gone cold and distant only seconds before.

When the light finally receded, she said, "I’m sorry I lied," and collapsed forward against my chest.

I couldn’t move for a long moment. My body simply refused to process what had just happened to it, healed and whole and thrumming with borrowed strength.

Then the voices around us came rushing back in.

"Did she just—"

"Is she a healer? She healed him... We... We all saw that, right?"

"What in the goddess’s name—"

"Who cares what she is," someone shouted over the rest. "Do you understand what this means?"

I sat up, gathering her into my arms as I rose, my clothes soaked through with my own blood, and the sight of me standing whole in front of them silenced most of the murmuring outright.

The look on Johann’s face would have been priceless if the boy was not beginning to scare me.

"This procession is over," I said, my voice carrying despite everything my throat had just been through.

I turned to the nearest sentinels. "Put the attacker in custody. I want to interrogate him myself."

I started walking, cradling her against my chest, heading straight for my mother’s old room without waiting for permission or ceremony. A few elders trailed after me, already trying to raise questions about the girl, about what had just happened, about what it meant for the court and the crown and every carefully constructed plan they’d built for tonight.

"Your Highness!" One Elder called after me. "You cannot simply remove the girl. She has just demonstrated an ability unseen for centuries."

"She requires examination," another elder said. "Immediately."

"Examination?" The third said. "We have fucking eyes. She is a healer from the age of legends."

"I’m certain I’ve made myself very clear," I said, without slowing.

That was all I needed to say before they all fell back.

I kept walking until I heard hurried footsteps behind me, light and quick, and I turned expecting another stubborn elder determined to argue with me despite everything. Instead I found Fia.

Her expression was apologetic before she’d said a single word.

"Did you see this coming?" I asked.

"All I saw were glimpses," she said. "But I believe this had to happen exactly the way it did."

"In front of practically the entirety of werewolf society?" I said. "There was a reason I needed to protect you from my father’s obsession, Fia. He was open about his fixation with healers. There are plenty out there who are not, but will want her now, for exactly what she just showed them she can do."

"I’m sure you can protect her," Fia said. "I’ve seen what you’re willing to do for the people you care about. You’re going to be King, Lysander. That should be more than enough to make plenty of people fall in line."

"I didn’t exactly want the throne," I said, a short laugh escaping me despite everything. "But more reasons keep appearing for why I should keep it anyway. I suppose I’m never actually escaping it."

"A rogue was even here tonight," I added. "Who knows what anyone actually saw, or what conclusions they’ll draw from it. My whole show of strength turned out to be entirely useless. I was shot in front of every Alpha in this territory by a rogue nonetheless."

"You were saving your subject," Fia said. "And your mate."

"They don’t know that," I said. "To everyone in that hall, I was simply saving a breeder."

Fia stepped closer and reached out, laying her hand gently against Bonnie’s head. A soft blue glow spread beneath her palm, and Bonnie stirred slightly against my chest, some tension easing out of her unconscious frame.

Fia looked back up at me, something knowing settling into her expression.

"I don’t think so," she said. "A healer of legend returns to this world, and the very first thing she does is save a regent, soon to be named Alpha King, a man who supposedly condemned her to a fate worse than death only minutes earlier." She smiled faintly. "If that isn’t the goddess herself backing your claim to that throne, I don’t know what is. And thank the goddess werewolf society happens to be as prejudiced as it is."

"I heard plenty of ugly talk about the girl on my way here tonight," she continued. "About how she insisted she didn’t kill the Alpha King. I imagine the tide has turned rather dramatically now. Plenty of people will start wondering why a killer would be blessed with the source itself. Maybe, just maybe, she was never the killer at all." Her eyes met mine, steady and certain. "You can use that. Turn the narrative in her favor. Propaganda or whatever. You can save her from the breeder fate entirely, using the very story they just watched unfold in front of them."

I felt something loosen in my chest for the first time since that gunshot rang out.

"Thank you," I said.

"You saved me once," Fia said, stepping back. "I’m simply repaying the favor." She winked. "And of course, if your new healer ever needs help, you know where to find me."

Then she turned and walked away, leaving me standing in the corridor with Bonnie unconscious in my arms, blood drying stiff against my collar, and something that felt dangerously close to hope settling in beside everything else I now had to carry.

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