THE INNOCENT

COURTNEY

I walked into the dark on bare feet, the jagged stones and thorns cutting into my skin, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the bleeding gaping hole inside my chest. Somehow, through the haze of tears and despair, I still remembered my way to the wolf nun quarters at the edge of the sacred mountain.

When I arrived at the heavy iron gates, shivering and broken, the Mother Superior took me in without asking a single question. That night, I gave up my old life and enrolled as a wolf nun.

Becoming a wolf nun meant living a life of absolute devotion—no sex, pure celibacy, and spending every waking hour offering sacrifices and prayers to the Moon Goddess. I shaved my hair, traded my fine clothes for a plain gray robe, and swore to never look back.

I am a medical doctor by profession, a skill I had abandoned when I married Diego to become his dutiful Luna. To keep my mind busy and stop myself from going crazy with thoughts of my son and husband, I began to practice medicine again within the holy sanctuary. Here, we rendered free services to anyone in need.

Word spread quickly. I performed a lot of successful surgeries—saving wolves with severe silver burns, rogue attacks, and rare blood diseases that other doctors had given up on. Soon, I became so well known that wolves from all over the continent came and insisted I treat them personally.

Five years passed in a flash. My hands became steadier, my heart grew colder, and my reputation grew larger. Eventually, high-ranking Alphas and Lunas started to troop into the convent, asking for my private medical attention.

Unfortunately, that sudden crowd exposed me.

Some visitors recognized my face. They knew me as Courtney, the former Luna of the Crescent Moon Pack, a woman who had given birth to a son. They began to whisper, and soon the noise became too loud for the sanctuary to ignore.

The Mother Superior called me into her private study with deep sorrow in her eyes. The law of the wolf nuns was absolute: no mother could be a nun. The Moon Goddess decreed that if you have brought a child into the world, your primary duty is to be in the world to care for that child.

"We love you, Sister Courtney," the Mother Superior told me, holding my hands gently. "You have brought life back to these holy grounds. But rules are rules. The Goddess calls you back to the world."

They held a quiet ceremony, prayed over me, and bid me a tearful farewell.

When I stepped outside the sanctuary walls for the first time in five years, Alpha Lucas was waiting for me. Lucas was the Alpha of the neighboring Silver Fang Pack. He had been treated by me three years prior for a deadly chest wound, and ever since, he had held a quiet, respectful love for me. He was openly happy when he heard I had left the nuns.

"You don't belong in hiding, Courtney," Lucas said softly, offering me a place in his territory. "The world needs your hands."

Lucas helped me secure a massive loan to build and establish my own private medical facility. Within two years, it became the biggest hospital in the entire region, equipped with state-of-the-art technology. I was doing so well. I was wealthy in my own right, respected by powerful Alphas, and running a massive team of elite doctors. I thought I had finally built a life strong enough to block out the ghosts of my past.

Until one rainy Tuesday.

My chief administrator brought in a influx of emergency patients from various pack territories. I spent the entire morning approving charts and managing high-level surgeries. But around noon, a strange, undeniable force began pulling at my chest.

It was a sharp, magnetic tugging sensation—a force that kept attracting me toward Ward Ten.

I tried to ignore it. I had dozens of highly qualified doctors under me, and Ward Ten was a long-term care wing managed by my top pediatric specialists. There was no medical reason for the Chief of Medicine to personally inspect a routine room.

For two straight weeks, every single time I walked down the main corridor, that same powerful force tugged at my wolf's soul, screaming at me to go to Ward Ten.

Finally, after another sleepless night of feeling that invisible string pulling at my heart, I decided I had to go. I needed to kill this foolish curiosity once and for all so I could focus on my work.

I walked down the quiet, sterile hallway of the pediatric wing, my white doctor’s coat swooshing around my ankles. My heart began to pound against my ribs for no reason at all. My palm felt sweaty as I reached out and gently turned the handle of room ten.

The door clicked open.

The room was dimly lit, the rhythmic beep... beep... beep... of a heart monitor echoing in the heavy air. Flowers sat withered in a vase on the windowsill, covered in dust.

I stepped closer to the small hospital bed in the center of the room, looking at the patient chart hanging at the foot of the bed. My eyes scanned the name, and the breath was instantly sucked out of my lungs.

Patient: Bryan. Condition: Advanced Stage IV Bone Marrow Cancer. Status: Abandoned.

My clipboard slipped from my fingers, clattering loudly against the cold floor.

I staggered to the side of the bed, my hands trembling violently as I looked down at the pale, frail boy lying under the white blankets. He was ten years old now, thin, gaunt, with dark circles under his closed eyes and his dark hair falling out from heavy treatments.

It was my son.

My Bryan was down with cancer. And according to the chart, he had been dropped off at my hospital three weeks ago under a fake name by a driver, with no family visits, no phone calls, and no one checking on him.

He had been abandoned to die alone in the dark.

A ragged, agonizing sob tore from my throat as I sank to my knees beside his bed, taking his tiny, cold hand into mine.

"Bryan..." I choked out, tears instantly blinding my vision as I pressed his frail knuckles to my cheek. "My baby... Mommy is here."