Chapter 2: Five Years of Ghosts

The sterile smell of Crestwood Memorial Hospital was a far cry from the damp earth and pine needles of my youth. Here, in the human world, I was not Elara the Omega or Elara the Rejected. I was Dr. Vance, one of the most promising pediatric surgeons in the city.

I pulled my surgical mask down, letting out a long breath as I stepped out of the operating theater. The surgery had been successful, but the exhaustion was starting to settle into my bones.

"Dr. Vance, great job in there," one of the residents said, trying to keep pace with me as I walked toward the locker room. "The parents are in the waiting area. They are asking for you."

I gave him a tired smile. "I will be there in five minutes. I just need a moment."

I needed more than a moment. I needed a lifetime away from the memories that still tried to claw their way to the surface. It had been five years since the night I fled the Silver Moon Pack. Five years since I had stepped foot on shifter soil.

I had worked myself to the point of collapse to build this life. I had taken classes at night, worked three jobs, and hidden my nature so deeply that sometimes even I forgot I had a wolf. But then I would go home, and I would see their faces.

"Mommy!"

The sound of three overlapping voices greeted me the moment I stepped through my front door. My exhaustion vanished as three small bodies collided with my legs.

Leo, the oldest by exactly two minutes, looked up at me with silver eyes that were a mirror image of the man who had destroyed me. He was already so serious, his little brow furrowed as he checked my face for any signs of sadness.

Maya, my little light, was busy trying to show me a drawing of a flower she had made at preschool. She had my dark hair but her father’s stubborn chin.

And then there was Toby.

Toby was the youngest, the smallest, and usually the loudest. But today, as I picked him up, he felt heavier than usual. His skin was flushed, and a fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead.

"You okay, bug?" I whispered, pressing my lips to his temple.

"My head hurts, Mommy," he murmured, burying his face in my neck. "And my tummy feels hot."

My heart skipped a beat. A normal mother would have thought it was a cold or the flu. But I was not a normal mother. I felt a familiar, cold dread begin to pool in my stomach.

I carried him to the sofa and gently laid him down. I checked his temperature, but the thermometer showed a normal human range. That was the first sign. A shifter fever did not register on human instruments.

I pulled his shirt up and checked the small of his back. There, glowing faintly under the skin, was a series of swirling silver patterns.

Moon-fever.

My breath hitched in my throat. Moon-fever was a rare, deadly condition that only affected high-blooded shifter children. It happened when their internal power grew faster than their small bodies could handle. Without treatment, it would burn him from the inside out.

I knew the cure. Every shifter knew the cure. The Lunar Lily. A flower that only bloomed in one place in the entire world: the royal gardens of the Silver Moon Pack.

"No," I whispered, my hands starting to shake. "Not there. Anywhere but there."

I looked at Leo and Maya, who were watching me with wide, frightened eyes. They knew something was wrong. They could feel my fear.

"Maya, can you go get Toby’s favorite blanket?" I asked, my voice cracking. "Leo, go to the kitchen and get some ice. We need to keep him cool."

As they scrambled to obey, I looked down at Toby. He was breathing in shallow, ragged bursts. I knew I did not have much time. Two days, maybe three.

I looked toward the drawer where I kept my old things. The things I had promised myself I would never touch again. My old pack ID, a few human dollars I had saved from that first night, and a small, silver locket that I could not bring myself to throw away.

I would have to go back. I would have to walk back into the territory of the man who had humiliated me. I would have to hide my scent, hide my children, and risk everything to steal a flower from a king.

"I am sorry, Toby," I whispered, a tear falling onto his hot cheek. "I promised I would keep you safe from him. But I have to save you first."

The ghost of Killian Thorne was waiting for me in those woods. But he had no idea that the girl he had broken had grown into a mother who would burn his entire kingdom down to save her son.