chapter 5

The man on the table had been stitched, sedated, and moved.

The clinic was quiet again, the sudden silence was almost louder than the chaos that had filled the room just moments before.

Rose stood at the porcelain sink in the dim back room, scrubbing her hands under the rushing stream of water.

The water was scalding hot, but she barely felt the heat. She scrubbed until her skin was raw and red, desperately trying to wash away the memory of how that man’s flesh had felt beneath her fingertips.

It had been entirely too hot like a raging fever that should have cooked his internal organs from the inside out. But what truly fractured her mind was what happened next.

The jagged, deep lacerations across his chest had already started to close, the tissue knitting itself back together before she had even finished pulling the last sterile suture through.

It defied every medical textbook she had ever memorized during her years of intense study.

Mira walked towards her, the heels of her boots clicking sharply on the tile floor, breaking the suffocating silence.

She did not say a word at first. She just approached the steel workstation and started organizing the silver tray Rose had used, wiping down the instruments with practiced, mechanical precision.

Suddenly, Mira stopped.

Her shoulders tensed. "Rose.." "I saw his eyes, Aunt Mira. I felt his pulse," Rose interrupted, spinning around to face her fully.

Water was still dripping from her raw, shaking hands, splashing onto the floor. Her heart was pounding violently against her ribs. "It was two hundred beats per minute.

That should be biologically impossible. By all medical logic, that man should be dead on that table. That’s not normal."

Rose wiped her wet palms against her apron, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. "And Ace… he did not even touch him. He just spoke, and that man obeyed him completely without any resistance.

He turned a violent, towering man into a broken dog with a single word.

That was not leadership, Aunt Mira. That was something else. Something you're clearly not telling me."

Mira sighed, a deep, exhausted sound that seemed to make her age ten years in a matter of seconds. She leaned heavily against the edge of the cold metal table, her shoulders dropping as she looked at the floor, unable to meet her niece’s piercing gaze.

I wanted to give you a few days," Mira admitted, her voice tight with a mixture of guilt and weariness. "I wanted you to feel safe here first before everything changed."

"Safe?" Rose let out a sharp, dry laugh, the hollow sound echoing off the bare walls of the clinic. "I just watched a man’s jaw unhinge, Aunt Mira.

I watched claws grow out of living human hands. That doesn't make me feel safe. Tell me the truth. No more community leader talk. No more secrets.

What is this place?"

Mira finally looked up. Her eyes were no longer guarded; they were filled with a heavy mixture of pity and a terrifying kind of gravity that made Rose's chest tighten.

"Nightroot is not just a town, Rose," Mira said softly. She took a slow step closer, her voice dropping to a low, intense whisper that seemed to vibrate through the small back room.

"The man you saw today on the floor, and Ace… they are not just men. They are the descendants of the woods."

Mira took another step, her eyes locking onto Rose’s. "We are in the territory of the Nightroot Pack. And Ace? He is not a leader. He is the Alpha of the pack. The King of this forest."

Rose’s heart hammered so hard she was certain her aunt could hear it. A cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck. "You are telling me that werewolves exist?" she asked, her voice trembling as she shook her head in sheer disbelief.

"You expect me to believe in fairy tales and children's horror stories?" "Look at your hands, Rose," Mira said firmly, pointing a sharp finger down at the dark, dried smears of blood staining the front of Rose’s medical gown.

"You saw how he healed on that table. You heard the roar that literally shook the foundations of this building. You felt the power when Ace walked into that room. Is that a fairy tale? Is that what you just spent an hour stitching back together?"

Rose slowly looked down at her hands. The highly trained, logical, medical part of her brain was screaming, trying frantically to find an explanation,rabies, a rare mutation, a drug-induced psychosis.

But the rest of her the primal, instinctual part that had looked directly into Ace’s dark, commanding eyes knew her aunt was not lying.

The truth was written in the very air of Nightroot.

"Why me?" Rose whispered, the room suddenly feeling incredibly small, trapping her inside. "Why bring me here if it is like this?"

Mira’s expression shifted instantly, becoming guarded and defensive once again, the heavy mask sliding back into place. "Because you are blood, Rose. You belong here.

In this town, family blood is the only thing that keeps you protected. And you are safe as long as you are with me."

A heavy silence fell over the room. Rose swallowed hard, the vivid memory of Ace’s large, warm hand hovering near her throat making her skin flush with a sudden, unexplainable heat.

"And Ace?" Rose asked, her eyes locking onto her aunt's. "Does he know I am protected? Will he respect that?" Mira’s gaze turned dark, a shadow of genuine, deep rooted fear crossing her features.

"Ace is the only one who does not need to follow the rules, Rose. He protects his own from any danger."

Mira didn't wait for Rose to reply. She turned on her heel, her boots clicking sharply against the tile once more as she pushed through the heavy swinging doors, leaving Rose entirely alone in the suffocating silence of the back room.

Rose stood frozen, the phantom warmth of Ace’s proximity still lingering on her skin like an invisible brand. She turned back to the sink, her hands trembling so hard she could barely turn the handle to shut off the rushing water.

The silence in the clinic now felt heavy, almost predatory, as if the very walls were keeping secrets from her.

Slowly, she walked over to the small, barred window that faced the rear of the building.

Outside, the dense, black treeline of the Nightroot forest loomed under the pale moonlight. For the first time, Rose didn't just see trees and timber.

She saw a kingdom. She remembered her aunt's warning from earlier that morning: Don't look at it long... Because it starts looking back. As she stared into the deep, impenetrable shadows of the pines, a sudden, icy shiver ran down her spine.

Her brain was completely fractured, caught between the impossible biology she had just witnessed and the terrifying reality of the Alpha who ruled this town. She was nineteen, completely out of her depth, she doesn't understand anything happening in this town, and she was hiding a truth she didn't even know existed within her own blood.

Deep in the woods, a lone wolf howled, the sound low, mournful, and dominant. It echoed through the glass pane, vibrating straight into Rose's chest, sounding less like a warning and more like a promise