16. The Healer

Sona had to draw from an internal well of courage to follow behind Taos and ahead of two large Epsilon males while braiding her still-wet hair, though the sun’s pleasant warmth would dry it soon. Much more pleasant than her surroundings.
They’d left the forest and entered what could be the start of a town, the rough cobblestone street full of an absence of noise lined with homes that emanated a feeling of abandonment. She barely saw a dozen werewolves wandering as if they had nowhere to be or go. None of them looked her way or even acknowledged their Alpha as he strode with oblivious purpose through his own home—if it could be called that, Sona couldn’t be sure—as if his packmates didn’t look like they no longer had a will to live.
It heated Sona’s blood with a rage-fueled desire to help them.
“Don’t look too closely, trinket,” Taos said cheerily, but she narrowed her eyes at his back when it was said under his breath, as if some kind of warning. “Ah. Here is the first glimpse at your test.”
Taos stopped at one of the homes and opened the door without hesitation. “In we go,” he beamed, looking back at Sona, gesturing for her to enter.
She narrowed her eyes further. “You first.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I just thought you’d be eager to help an elder in need of medical assistance as soon as possible.”
It could be a trap. What for, and what kind, Sona couldn’t think of. He could be lying. But what reason would he have for that?
No, it was a goading. Mocking her. Testing her to see if she was indeed a healer and could be useful to him.
*Do I play this game?*
Inside, Sona heard coughing.
She stormed past Taos, flicking her braid across his face as she did. He barked in surprised laughter. But the room she walked into wasn’t a place for any kind of joy.
It was dark, the window shutters closed to let barely a sliver of sunlight in, shelves in front of all four walls with no food or herbs, and a jug of water beside the only other thing in the room: a bed. On it was an elder female tucked under a quilt. Beside her knelt a young female, who whipped around onto her feet with a growl and half-Shifted features.
When she saw Sona, she bared her teeth, but when she saw Taos enter, she seemed torn whether to stay hostile or force respectableness. She grumbled, “I never thought you’d bring an outsider this far in.”
Sona’s suspicion grew with each passing second. *Far in where?*
“Who said I trust her?” Taos said beside her with a smirk. “This is a chance to prove we may be able to. Will you let her examine your grandmother?”
The immediate situation was clear: a sick elder being cared for by her adolescent granddaughter. But that was only the bare minimum. It was all Sona needed to know.
The youngling, perhaps only in her teens, hesitated. Her snarl didn’t go away, but it lost some of its anger, remaining in its distrust. Her dark eyes looked between her Alpha and the foreigner suddenly intruding.
*Time to do what I do best*.
Sona took a step forward. When the youngling didn’t snap or lunge, she took another and knelt. “I’m a healer. I can take care of your grandmother.”
“Nothing’s wrong with her,” she said defensively. “She’s just tired.”
“I believe you,” said Sona carefully. She was obviously protective of her family member, and Sona always had to approach that emotion with empathy. “I just want to examine her, like your Alpha asked. What’s your name, young one?”
Her features Shifted back to non-wolf. Her eyes flicked to Taos as if asking for permission to speak. Sona didn’t see his cue, but she finally said, “Hazel.”
Sona smiled softly. “Hazel. I bet you’ve tended to your grandma very well. May I see her?”
Hazel hesitated again, and Sona never felt so scrutinized by someone so young. She grunted. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” Sona rose to her feet as Hazel backed up just a few feet away, prepared to watch the sudden stranger’s every move. Sona was content with that until a certain scent hit her nose. Dread sluiced through her veins. She forced her voice to stay light. “She looks thirsty,” she said as she came to stand over the elder. “Hazel, why don’t you refill this jug?”
Hazel hesitated, but Taos cleared his throat, startling her. “Go on, pup.”
It was likely meant to be an encouragement, but the tone sounded more of a threat. Hazel snatched the jug and scurried out. Sona heard the floorboards creak under his weight as he came closer. “Your test. Figure out what’s wrong with her.”
*Figure out what’s wrong with you*, she thought, examining first the elder’s face, the quilt concealing her body from the neck down. Her eyes were squeezed shut, skin glossy with sweat as she struggled to breathe. “Wait. You don’t know?”
“No. This is what killed my former healers.”
Sona whirled. “Did *they* not know what it was?”
“Seeing as it made them stop breathing…no. And no, I’m not aware either. What is ‘it’?”
“It’s obvious what it is,” Sona growled through gritted teeth, though she was more horrified than angry. “Don’t you smell that?”
Taos sniffed and shrugged. “Beyond the stench?”
“You’re unbelievable!” Sona knelt to gently press her fingers to the elder’s erratic pulse, feeling her throat.
“I warned you not to get close,” Taos suddenly growled. “I won’t have my healer die so soon.”
She shot him another glare. “It’s not contagious. That smell? It’s wolfsbane.”
There was a beat of silence. When Taos spoke, his voice was light, but anyone would be a fool to miss the strain in it. “Impossible, trinket. That fucking plant was eradicated decades ago. You think my pack wouldn’t recognize poison?!”
The female coughed and groaned, stirring restlessly. “Kindly lower your voice, Alpha,” Sona said flatly, her heart clenching. She pushed back her damp hair. “Elder, do you know what made you sick? Speak slowly and quietly.”
Her eyelids fluttered weakly, but her wrinkled hand escaped from under the quilt to grasp Sona’s hand. Breath rattling, the elder managed, “Cure me.”
Sometimes it was best to lie in the last few minutes of a wolf’s life. She squeezed her hand lightly. “I’ll try my best,” she whispered. “Keep breathing for me, alright? Know you are in my safe company.”
The elder nodded weakly. Sona slipped her hand free and rose to her feet. She had to take a deep breath before turning to Taos and meeting his hunter’s gaze. A jolt of fear went through her when she saw the look on his face—not amused, not coy, as she’d already assumed he would always look. And the picture of cocky ease? Gone.
Taos Redbone looked exactly as the stories painted him—a volatile male on the brink of enacting deadly action. Through gritted teeth he demanded, “Explain.”
“Wolfsbane *was* eradicated decades ago,” she told him quietly but firmly. “An effort all packs joined together for once to do so. That is why few would recognize it in any way.”
“*You* know what it looks like.” Taos stalked toward her. This time she didn’t shrink back. When she was with a patient, when she was in her element, there was nothing that could intimidate her. Even the feared Redbone Alpha. “And how do you know what it smells like?”
“Healers learn plants. Wolfsbane is a plant. It was banned by all packs to grow or have for obvious reasons. But all healers have at least one dried up in a jar and a detailed drawing of it.”
“How the *fuck* did it get into my pack?” Taos snarled, and before Sona could stop him, he stormed out.
Wolfsbane was exactly what it sounded like—the bane of a wolf’s life. Simply touched by it, and it burned the skin. Ingested…fatal. It all depended on the amount taken that decided how much time that wolf had left before dying.
Hazel returned, shoving past Sona to kneel at her grandmother’s side. “Is Nan still thirsty?”
Sona didn’t know when the elder ingested the poisonous plant, but she did know that there were mere minutes before the shadow of death would stretch toward her. Having to explain death to children never got easier. “Do you have a mama or dad?” she asked gently.
“No. Is Nan dying?”
It was better to tell the truth. “Yes, little one.”
“Soon?”
Each one was harder. “Very soon.”
“Can I say bye?”
“Of course. Do you want me to stay with you?”
“No.”
Sona bit her lip, but when she heard Hazel’s first whimper, she decided it best to leave her. Each step out of the house hurt as she suddenly thought of Auryn and Raff. It terrified her to think how this situation could easily be hers one day. Was her grandfather still alive? Did Conri still care enough to tend to his wounds?
In the perfect summer sunlight she found Taos speaking heatedly with a male who could only fit one word: lethal. His black eyes cut to Sona for the briefest of seconds; that was all it took for her to know he was the last werewolf to make an enemy of.
Taos didn’t miss the tiniest of movements. “Go,” he barked before turning to her. His own lethal look had already lightened into a subdued kind of neutral humor. “That is not the expression I like to see on such a strong female’s face.”
“You’d rather it the rage I feel toward you?” she snapped. “What the fuck is this test, Alpha?”
“Taos.”
“Did you bring me here just to make me watch more death? You cruel bastard.”
“Ah, the Luna died in front of you, I assume?” he mused flatly.“And now I’ve sent you to another’s deathbed.” Sona was struck wordless for a moment, so he continued, “I swear upon my blood moon god, Sona Mai, I had no idea the ailment was poison. Otherwise I never would have quarantined my own packmates.”