chapter 4

The sound was really loud. A scream followed by the sharp crash of glass. It was not something falling it was a fight.

Mira did not wait.

She was already moving before the noise stopped, her face changing to a sharp and deadly focus.

Rose was behind her her medical instincts kicking in. They turned the corner into the trauma room.

The air hit Rose like a punch. The nice smell was gone, replaced by the smell of blood and a thick dirty heat that made the hair on her arms stand up.

"Get back!" a nurse yelled, running away from a hospital bed that had been flipped over. In the middle of the room stood a man. Or what used to be a man. He was huge his shirt torn, his skin slick with sweat and deep cuts that should have made him pass out..

He was growling, a sound so low and rough it vibrated in Roses teeth. "Sedate him!" Mira ordered, reaching for a syringe.

"It won't work, Mira!" the woman at the desk cried out her voice shaking. "He's changing! It's too early!" Rose stared, her mind racing through every book she had read. Was it psychosis? Rabies? Adrenaline? None of it made sense.

The mans eyes were not red they were changing. The brown part was turning into a melted gold.

"Rose, the restraints!" Mira yelled.

Rose grabbed the leather straps from the wall but before she could move the man jumped. He did not move like a patient he moved like an animal.

He slammed his fist into the medicine cabinet shattering the glass into a thousand pieces.

Then he turned his gold eyes on Rose.

She froze.Every bit of her training told her to stay calm but her heart told her to run. He let out a roar that shook the clinic.

He stepped toward her his fingers turning into claws his jaw opening in a way that was not human.

CRACK.

The back door of the clinic did not just open it exploded inward.

The temperature in the room dropped. That smell. Rain, forest and storm. Filled the space suffocating the heat of the frenzied man.

Ace was there. He did not have a bag. He did not have tools. He just walked into the chaos with his hands in his pockets his presence so strong that the snarling man actually flinched.

"Ace..." Rose breathed, feeling scared. Ace did not look at the nurse. He did not look at Mira. He looked directly at the man who was threatening Rose.

"Shift" Ace said. It was not a request. It was not a yell. It was a command that seemed to control the mans blood.

To Roses horror the mans knees buckled. The growl died in his throat replaced by a sad whining cry that sounded like a beaten dog.

His big frame trembled the gold in his eyes flickering like a dying flame before fading to a dull scared brown. He did not just shift he collapsed onto the floor his head bowed low exposing the back of his neck in a gesture of submission.

The silence that followed was deafening. The only sound was the mans breathing and the soft clink of shattered glass.

Ace took a step forward. He did not look angry he looked bored which was somehow scarier. He walked past the nurse and the hospital bed his boots crunching over the glass without him even looking down.

He stopped in front of Rose. The cold air around him was a contrast to the hot air the other man had given off. Rose felt a shiver. Her fingers remained gripped tightly around the leather straps.

Aces eyes dropped to her hands then slowly traveled up to her face. A small smile touched his lips. Sharp and dangerous. "Still holding onto things you don't understand Rose?" he asked, his voice a low hum that made her heart beat fast.

"He... He needs a doctor " Rose managed to say her medical brain finally fighting through the shock.

"Those cuts his heart rate. He's going to bleed out if we don't..." "He's not in shock " Ace cut her off his gaze shifting to the man on the floor. He's lucky I was close enough to hear him screaming."

Mira stepped forward her face pale. Her hands steady. "I had it under control, Alpha Ace." "Did you?" Ace tilted his head, his eyes flashing with a icy light as they flicked to Mira.

"Because it looked like your niece was about to get hurt."

He turned his attention back to Rose stepping well into her personal space. He reached out his hand hovering near her throat not touching. The heat of his skin was unmistakable.

"Go back to your house Mira's niece " he whispered, his voice dropping to a predatory tone. "The clinic isn't for 'observing' today. It's for cleaning up messes."

Rose stood her ground, her jaw tightening. "I'm not leaving a patient in this condition.

I don't care who you think you are.

The nurses gasped. Miras eyes went wide. Ace froze. For a second the temperature in the room dropped.

He stared at her his dark eyes narrowing as if he were seeing her for the time. A low rumbling sound started in his chest. Not a growl,. Something deeper.

"A doctor with a spine " he murmured, his eyes searching hers with intensity. "that's Dangerous. Especially in Nightroot."

He suddenly turned to the man, on the floor. "Get him up. Put him in the room. Let the girl stitch him." Mira blinked.

"Alpha Ace you're letting her..." "She wants to be a doctor?" Ace said, walking toward the door without looking. "Lets see if she can handle the sight of what lives in these woods.