Chapter 2- STOLEN WORK

Soon the pack soon grew busy with the annual Healer’s Judgment.

It was a contest only for the young she-wolves. Girls had to identify herbs by sight and smell, treat mock injuries, and decide the best care plan under strict time pressure. Skill and calm thinking mattered more than strength. The winner would receive the head healer’s blessing and a place of honor at the Coming-of-Age ceremony.

Families began preparing at once. Cassia studied with the other top girls in the main hall. People gathered to watch them sort dried plants and practice bandaging.

I watched from the edge while carrying baskets or scrubbing floors. When no one was looking, I still prepared in my own way. At night I sat on the floor of my small room with stolen leaves and old healer notes. I learned the difference between fever root and blood leaf by smell alone. I practiced tying bandages on my own arm until my fingers moved without thinking. I whispered the names of every healing plant until I could say them in my sleep.

If my wolf never came, then my mind would have to be enough.

One morning, I slipped into the woods before sunrise, a small basket on my arm. I needed a fever root and a clean blood leaf for the Healer’s Judgment. If I could show the elders I knew the plants better than anyone, maybe they would look at me differently for once.

Rhett was alone in a small clearing, shirt damp with sweat, moving through slow combat forms. I froze and stepped back, hoping the trees would hide me. His head turned anyway.

“Nora?”

I forced a small smile. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’m just looking for herbs. For the contest tomorrow.”

He lowered his hands, surprised. “You’re entering?”

“Yes.”

“Even with how they treat you?”

I shrugged. “I don't care about what they say. I'll try my best to prove myself.”

Something soft passed through his eyes. He picked up his shirt and nodded toward the deeper trees. “Fever root grows near the east slope. I’ll show you.”

We walked side by side. He pointed out plants I already knew, and I corrected him once on the difference between two similar leaves. He laughed, low and real.

“You’re sharper than half the warriors,” he said.

“Don’t tell them. They’ll think the cursed girl put a spell on you.”

He grinned. For a short while the forest felt lighter. We talked about nothing important. He made a joke about an elder who once ate the wrong berry. I actually laughed.

That was the mistake.

Two scouts passed on the ridge above us and saw everything, I knew they were going back to the pack and rumors about me and Rhett would spread.

My stomach dropped. I stopped walking.

“I forgot something,” I said quickly. “You go ahead.”

“Nora, wait—” He tried to say

But I was already running.

I didn’t stop until I reached the quiet bend near the old stream. I sat on a fallen log and pressed my palms to my eyes. The warmth from his laugh still lingered, and it hurt.

Footsteps came behind me a short time later.

Cassia.

She stood with her arms crossed, face cold.

“Stay away from him,” she said. “I heard you were walking with him earlier and you were smiling. If you keep walking around with Rhett, you won’t like what happens next.”

I looked up at my twin. Not the same face but the same eyes and softness left.

“He’s only being kind. So I—”

“Kindness from the future Alpha is dangerous when it lands on you.” She stepped closer. “Remember your place, Nora. Mother and Father already chose.”

She turned and left without another word.

I stayed on the log long after her footsteps faded. The sister who once shared my bed and my secrets was gone. In her place stood a stranger who looked exactly like me, and the parents who once loved us both now only had room for one.

I never knew Rhett was on the other side listening to everything.

The next day, the Healer’s Judgment contest began under the morning sun.

One by one the young she-wolves stepped forward. Some mixed the wrong leaves. Some tied bandages too loose. Some froze when the sand timer ran low. Cassia waited near the front, calm and sure of herself.

When my name was called, the clearing went quieter than before.

I walked to the long wooden table. Three mock wounds waited for me, along with baskets of fresh and dried herbs. The head healer watched with folded arms. The sand timer was turned.

I did not rush, but my hands moved fast and sure.

Fever root for the deep cut. Blood leaf crushed with clean water for the burn. A tight, even bandage that would hold even if the patient shifted. I named every plant as I used it. I explained why the order mattered. Why too much of one herb would thin the blood. Why the second mixture need to cool before it touches the skin.

I finished before the sand ran out.

For a moment no one spoke. I saw the surprises on their faces.

I heard someone whisper, “She did that without mistakes.”

Another voice answered, “How does the wolfless one know all that?”

I stepped back, heart beating hard. A small, dangerous hope rose in my chest.

Then the whispers changed.

“She must have had help.”

“Cassia probably taught her last night.”

“They’re twins. Cassia is too kind to let her fail completely.”

“That has to be it.”

The head healer frowned and turned to my sister.

“Cassia. Did you assist your sister with this knowledge?”

Cassia’s eyes flicked to me, then to the watching crowd. I saw the exact moment she decided.

She lowered her gaze, the picture of gentle honesty.

“I only wanted to help her,” she lied softly. “She has always struggled. I couldn’t watch her fail in front of everyone. I went over the herbs with her yesterday. I didn’t think it would cause trouble.”

My stomach dropped.

“That’s not true,” I said. My voice came out louder than I expected. “I learned everything myself. I studied alone. She never helped me.”

The healer’s face hardened. “You accuse your own sister of lying?”

Before I could answer, Cassia stepped up to the table.

“I can show you,” she said.

Then she repeated everything I had just done. The same herbs. The same order. The same words I had used. Even the small warning about cooling the second mixture. She copied me so perfectly that several people nodded.

“You see?” someone muttered. “She knew it all along.”

“Nora only copied her twin.”

“Even after Cassia helped her, she still tries to take full credit.”

“Ungrateful.”

“Enough,” the head healer said. His voice was cold now. “Cassia has proven the knowledge is hers. Nora, you will not speak further. Using another’s work and then denying it is shameful.”

“I didn’t—”

“Silence.”

I looked toward the side of the clearing. Rhett stood with the other young warriors. His jaw was tight. He took one step forward.

“She—”

Alpha Gideon turned his head just enough to catch his son’s eye. The look was sharp and final. Rhett stopped. His hands curled into fists, but he said nothing more.

Cassia was declared the winner.

People clapped. Some even smiled at her with new respect. She accepted the head healer’s blessing with a graceful bow, then glanced at me over her shoulder. There was no softness in her eyes.

I turned and walked away before anyone could see my face clearly. My vision blurred. All those nights on the floor with stolen leaves and aching fingers. All the quiet hope that this one thing could be mine. Stolen in front of everyone, and twisted until I looked like the liar.

I kept walking until the noise of the contest faded behind me. The trees closed in. I stopped beside the same fallen log where Cassia had warned me the day before and pressed my hands to my eyes.

Footsteps came softly over the leaves.

“Nora.”

I looked up. Rhett stood a few paces away. His expression was stormy.

“I know you didn’t cheat,” he said. “I watched you. That knowledge was yours.”

My throat felt tight. “It doesn’t matter. They already chose what to believe.”

He stepped closer. “It matters to me.”

For a second the woods felt very small. The same pull I had felt the day he caught me when I fell moved between us again. I wanted to tell him to leave before someone saw. I wanted to ask him why he kept looking at me like I was worth something.

I never got the chance.

New footsteps, heavier this time, came from the path behind him.

Cassia’s voice rang out, sweet and loud enough to carry.

“They are here. I told you she was trying to be alone with him again.”

Alpha Gideon stepped into the clearing, face like stone. Cassia stood just behind his shoulder, the same satisfied look she had worn the first time she brought him to catch us.

Rhett went still.

I felt the ground tilt under my feet.