Wolfsbane Accusation

One

“State your business!”

The guard’s voice rang out through the drizzle just as I stepped up to the gates of Dark Moors Pack, and for a second, I genuinely thought he was joking.

I stood there dripping from a miserable six-hour ride, mud clinging to the hem of my coat while my medical bag dug into my shoulder, and stared at him in disbelief.

Then I lifted the folded summons from my coat pocket and waved it once. “I came to decorate your gate. What does it look like?”

His expression flattened.The second guard snorted under his breath, quickly covering it with a cough.

“I’m Reylap Stark,” I said, slipping the paper back into my pocket. “Your Alpha requested a healer. Unless someone suddenly learned surgery overnight, I suggest you let me through.”

The first guard’s jaw tightened slightly at my tone.

“We were told a healer was coming,” he said carefully. “No one mentioned your name.”

“You summoned me.”

Neither guard moved.

A chill settled in my stomach. Healers were supposed to be welcomed, respected, and escorted straight to the patients, and allowed to leave once the work was done. That was how it had always been. That was what the summons had promised.

What's going on?

I’d dealt with suspicious packs before. Territorial Alphas. Arrogant betas. Idiots who thought healers were servants with herbs instead of people who literally kept their wolves breathing, but this felt different.

The second guard finally stepped aside. “You can enter.”

There was no apology, no urgency despite the desperate tone of the summons.

That alone told me something was wrong.

Most packs practically dragged healers toward the infirmary the moment they arrived. Injured wolves meant panic, noise, frantic relatives crowding the halls. But as I walked deeper into Dark Moors, the only thing waiting for me was silence.

By the time I reached the healer’s wing, my nerves were stretched thin enough to snap.

I knocked twice. Nothing. A hand closed around my arm before I could try a third time.

"The elders will see you now."

I turned to see a guard, already steering me away from the door before I'd even agreed to move. "I was brought here for patients," I said, pulling slightly against his grip. "Not elders.”

He didn't bother responding as he just kept walking.

We were halfway down the corridor when I saw another healer, bag over her shoulder, being walked in the exact direction I'd just been pulled from.

My feet stopped moving on their own. "Why is she going to my patients?"

"Keep moving."

"Those are my patients —"

"Move.”

The word landed and something in my chest tightened instantly.

So this wasn’t a misunderstanding. I hadn’t been brought here to treat anyone at all—at least, not in the way I had been told.

Then why bring me here?

My thoughts snagged, pulling tight. Tonight was my mating ceremony. Malik would be waiting. Whatever this was, it needed to end quickly. I needed to be out of here before sundown.

But when the guard pushed open the elders' chamber door and I stepped inside, that thought dissolved completely.

The room was too full — and not one face in it looked surprised to see me.

I stepped inside and didn't bother with pleasantries. "I was summoned to treat patients. I need access to them now."

"You will not be given access," an elder said. "Yet."

I let that word sit for a second. "Yet," I repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Circumstances have changed."

"What circumstances?" I looked around the room and realized with a cold drop in my stomach that nobody would meet my eyes. “You know, this would all feel significantly less suspicious if someone actually explained what the hell is going on.”

The first elder finally looked at me. "You are not trusted here."

For a second, I genuinely thought I misheard him.

A short laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “I’m sorry— what?”

No one laughed with me.

Not trusted? For a healer they’d summoned?

The words hit strangely hard, mostly because they made no sense. Healers were called when packs were desperate. People trusted us with their lives before they trusted us with their secrets.

“There’s clearly been a misunderstanding,” I said, more carefully this time.

“There has already been a report from your pack,” the elder replied.

That got my full attention.

“My pack?” I repeated. “What report?”

The second elder’s expression darkened slightly. “An elder from Emerald Diamond Pack died under your care.”

My heartbeat stuttered once. No! No!

“The cause of death was confirmed as wolfsbane poisoning.”

The room seemed to tilt slightly around me.

For one disorienting second, I couldn’t even process the sentence properly because it sounded too absurd to be real.

Wolfsbane?

My mind immediately rejected it.

"I — wolfsbane?" The word stumbled out of me like I couldn't quite hold it.

"No. I've never — that's not —" I stopped, pressed my lips together, forced myself to breathe. "I have never prescribed it, never stored it, never so much as looked at it sideways my entire career. I—*

"Your pack's report says otherwise."

Heat rushed up my throat so fast it embarrassed me, the kind that stung behind the eyes and made everything feel suddenly, humiliatingly close to the surface. "Then your— my— report," I said, and my voice cracked slightly on the last word before I caught it, "is wrong.”

I took a breath, trying to pull myself back together. No, I can't lose it. I had a ceremony to get back to — a dress hanging in my chamber, a mate waiting, a whole life about to begin — and I was not going to let this unravel me in a room full of strangers. "I was the lead healer on that case," I said, steadier now. "My pack would never confirm something like that without speaking to me first. So whatever that report says, someone is lying."

"Then why was she the last person to touch him?" a voice called from the side of the room.

I turned toward it. "Because I was assigned to his treatment. That's how healing works. Being last in a room doesn't make me a murderer."

"That's not what the report says.”

"Then show me the report." My voice came out harder than I intended but I didn't take it back. "If there's evidence against me, show me. I have a right to see it.”

The elder’s face hardened. “You will not be given access.”

And just like that, the last fragile thread of my composure snapped.

“Are you insane?” I demanded, my voice rising before I could stop it. “You drag me across territories under emergency summons, accuse me of murder the second I arrive, refuse to show me evidence, refuse to let me defend myself, and somehow I’m expected to stand here quietly while you decide whether I’m guilty?”

The second elder frowned. “Mind your tone.”

“My tone?” I laughed again. “You accuse me of poisoning an elder before I even step inside your infirmary, and my tone is the issue?I want to speak to whoever filed that report,"

"That won't be necessary."

My breath caught. I pressed my thumbnail hard into my palm because my hands had started trembling and I refused — absolutely refused — to let this room see that. "I'm sorry," I said slowly, "what did you just say to me?"

"That won't be necessary."

A bead of sweat tracked down the back of my neck. My heart was doing something awful and fast inside my chest and no matter how hard I pressed my nails into my skin I couldn't stop the slight dampness gathering at my hairline.

They weren't going to let me speak to anyone. They weren't going to show me anything. This was not an inquiry, this was already a verdict.

Malik.The thought of him, made my heart race. Malik would fix this.

"Then I'm leaving," I said.

"That may be best."

I spun on my heel and stormed out, my blood boiling. The heavy doors thudded shut behind me.

Outside, the cold air felt different and filled with suspicion. Conversations died instantly as I passed. Eyes followed me openly now—no more pretending. Great. I’d gone from unwelcome guest to public enemy in under an hour.

That was when I spotted Gaia. The little girl I’d treated for a brutal fever months ago.She was standing near the side courtyard and the moment our eyes met she took one instinctive step backward.

That step hurt more than anything the elders had said.

"Gaia." I stopped and crouched to her level, keeping my voice soft. "It's me. You remember me, don't you?"

She flinched hard.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said, lowering myself to her eye level with a small, hopefully reassuring smile. “The one who made the yucky medicine taste like berries, remember? I don’t bite. Promise.”

She hesitated, then gave a tiny nod, but her little hands stayed clenched at her sides.

I kept my tone light, even as my anger simmered. “Why’s everyone looking at me like I grew a second head? Come on, you can tell me. I thought we were friends.”

She glanced around nervously before whispering, “They said you killed someone.”

The ground shifted slightly under my feet. "That's not true."

"They said you poisoned an elder." Her eyes were wide and earnest and devastatingly honest. "People from your pack came yesterday and told everyone.”

Yesterday??

God. The trap had already snapped shut before I even crossed the border. who the hell would do this to me?

I forced a breath, standing up.“Thank you for telling me the truth, kid. That took guts.”

She looked up at me, worried. “Are you in trouble?”

“I… don’t know yet.” My attempt at a reassuring smile probably looked more like a grimace.

She chewed her lip. "Did you do it?"

I crouched back down to her level and waited until she had no choice but to look at me. "No," I said, quietly but without a single waver in it. "I didn't. And I am going to prove it.”

She studied me for a long moment, then looked away immediately.

"Don't let her leave."

The voice came from somewhere behind me and I turned just in time to see three guards cutting across the courtyard with a focus that made my stomach drop.

"She goes nowhere without escort," one of them said. They were moving with the calm certainty of men who had been given very specific instructions about a very specific person. "Alpha's orders."

"Which alpha?" I demanded.

No answer.

"Get your hands off —" I started, but one of them already had my arm and the words died in my throat because this was real, this was actually happening, and no amount of credentials or summons letters or eight years of healing this pack's wounded was going to matter in the next thirty seconds.

"Get your hands off me," I repeated, twisting against their grip. "I am a healer —”

" No one cares about that." The guard's grip tightened on my arm, steering me forward without breaking stride.

"You murdered someone. You're being returned to Emerald Diamond Pack tonight, and honestly?" He leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice."You should be thanking us. Most packs don't escort murderers. They cage them.”