Painted Scars

DAISY

April 2015

Lumen, Oregon

Working as the head healer was often hectic, but days like today were downright chaotic.

“Grace!” I yelled as I shoved the door open to the Pack House’s emergency room. “Where the fuck is Mae, and why the hell did she let Kaylon escape?!”

Grace, one of my healers, squirmed under my anger as she infused the unconscious female soldier with extra blood and tried to heal all the surface scratches.

“I—I don’t know, ma’am,” she whimpered, not taking her eyes off the injured wolf. “M-Mae said that Kaylon w-was fine.”

“How could he be fine with two broken legs and a twisted arm?!”

I couldn’t believe this. Werewolves might have superhuman self-healing abilities, but even a strong werewolf couldn’t simply walk away, not with those injuries.

Grace was under enough pressure, so instead of pushing her farther, I left her with a furious growl and went from bed to bed in the ER, checking on all the wounded.

Then I went to hunt down Kaylon, who couldn’t have gotten too far.

I found the stupid wolf in the backyard of the Pack House, almost passed out.

“Someone help me carry this dumbass back to his room!” I barked.

Into the backyard skipped Claire Hill. She was a cute girl with soft chestnut hair and startling hazel eyes.

She was plump and voluptuous and had Zachary Greyson wrapped around her pinkie.

She had also become some sort of a friend to me in the past few weeks, ever since Chloe Danes’ death.

But that was a story for another time.

Claire smiled faintly at me. Without words, she helped me carry the twenty-year-old soldier back inside the house.

“Damn, he’s heavy,” she said, her face strained.

I grunted. “Thanks for the help. I can’t believe he’s too stupid for his own good.”

She chuckled, dragging the man along.

She was stronger now that she was a werewolf, but Claire was still getting used to her new strength, her werewolf senses—everything the world now had to offer her.

“It’s good exercise, Zack would say,” she said, her voice affectionate. “He’s been trying to get me to lift weights for a while now. I told him that if I did, he would end up being mated to a wrestler.”

Despite the current circumstances, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Fuck men,” I said, and Claire laughed along with me.

Our laughter died when we got to Kaylon’s room and dropped him on the bed. He moaned in pain.

I sighed. “Thanks again, Claire. I got it from here.”

She gave me a concerned look. “You sure? You seem really pale. Do you want me to talk to Daphne?”

People always assumed that Daphne was the big sister between the two of us.

She was tall, with a mature, beautiful face. And she was part of the Millennium Wolves crew.

She had a confident air about her that I lacked, and I think it was because she was much prettier than me.

She had soft, wavy brown hair, smoky blue eyes, and a slender yet curvy figure which was covered by a gorgeous, natural tan.

I, on the other hand, had such a light skin that it looked pale most of the time, because of my dark brown hair.

My eyes were blue, but they were a boring blue. And while I was pretty enough, I was short and slim, and practically flat-chested.

I was so tiny, people always thought I was about five years younger than I actually was.

But that was beside the point.

“Daphne’s spent,” I told her. I began checking for additional injuries in Kaylon’s broken body.

“She’s been healing the injured, one after another, since they arrived. She needs to rest a few hours, recharge, and then she can continue again,” I said.

Claire didn’t seem to like this. “What about you, Daisy?” she inquired. “Aren’t you getting spent as well?”

That was my secret, one I hadn’t told anyone. When it came to healing abilities, it took a lot more than that to exhaust me.

“Don’t worry about me.” I waved her off. “But, since you’re free, please help me and get updates on everyone who’s wounded, or no longer injured.”

“You got it,” she said, and went out the door.

As she left, I began sending some magical healing from my skin to Kaylon’s. Then the idiot opened his eyes and looked at me with a lazy grin.

I gave him a stern gaze. “Don’t give me that look, Kaylon.”

“Hmm…” He hoisted himself up on his elbows and I almost slapped him for using his twisted arm.

“Having you fawn all over me like a worrywart…I can’t say it’s not a fantasy come to life,” he said.

Ignoring him, I began bandaging an open bullet wound in his waist.

But Kaylon seemed to have a death wish, because he continued to push.

“Rumor has it the season's just ’round the corner, Daze,” he murmured in what I think was supposed to be a seductive voice, “I wanna have fun with you again.”

I wrapped the bandage so tightly around his waist that he grunted. Then I looked at him. “I’m not having sex with you again, Kaylon.”

It had been a mistake a year ago, when I’d let him sweet-talk me into being his lover for that season.

He’d been good, but not enough to make me feel sated, like a werewolf should feel during the Haze—the sex-craze all werewolves felt.

Now Kaylon had gotten it into his head that he had a shot with me again.

Nope. Not happening.

He sighed. “You’re breaking my heart.”

I hummed my healing magic to quicken the fixing of his broken bones. “You’ll get over it.”

“But you’re so pretty,” he pouted.

“You’ll deal,” I said again.

“But—”

“Kaylon!” I snapped, giving him another stern look. He looked startled.

Whenever I was having a day like this, I tended to get snippy. Most people knew that, and Kaylon quickly realized that he’d pushed too far.

“Our pack has just been attacked by the Divine Hunters. So while you’re spouting nonsense, our soldiers are dying out there. So shut the fuck up and let me work!” I glared at him.

Kaylon finally listened to reason and clicked his mouth shut.

Once I was finished with the young soldier, Claire gave me updates about the others and I went to talk with my healers.

“Eliza,” I told the newest one in my group, who was only seventeen, “do you think you can hold the fort for now?”

Eliza needed to know those kinds of things. She was an intern, and interns learned from situations like these.

I might be the youngest head healer in West Coast Pack history, but I’d been practicing this kind of scenario long before Eliza had even manifested her healing powers.

She nodded jerkily. “Most of the injured here are not critical anymore. The others and I can handle them, if you need to rest.”

I trusted her word, but decided to ask Iris, too. The old healer said the same, even though new wrinkles lined her face.

All the healers were about to reach their limit, but Daphne needed to recharge, and they had said nobody was critical anymore.

I knew they could handle this for now. There were more important things to take care of right now.

Not wasting time, I went to Gabe’s office and knocked.

“Come in, Daisy,” he said, and I entered.

Gabe was on the phone, a grave expression on his face. Zavier was pacing, watching the video on his phone.

I’d already watched it a few hours ago. It had already gone viral worldwide—the open attack the Hunters had launched.

This day was abnormal on all accounts.

I tapped my foot impatiently on the floor, my arms crossed as I waited for Gabe to finish his phone call.

Zavier glanced at me, and I gave him my moody, annoyed look. He scowled. I scowled back.

He sighed and continued pacing, knowing that irritating me further in this mood was stupid.

Gabe finally hung up and looked at me. He had short, dark brown hair, and golden eyes a shade darker than those of his “brother”, Rafe.

He was tall and lean, built more like an athletic dancer than a muscular fighter, like most of the other alphas.

Beside him, Zavier looked like a Hollywood actor, with long dirty-blonde hair, the greenish-blue eyes that were a Greyson family trademark, and a tall, ripped body with sun-kissed skin.

He was attractive, I guessed, just like Gabe was hot, but since I was so close to them that I couldn’t view them as anything more than comrades.

That’s if I didn’t consider what happened at the last mating season. So I didn’t.

Even though Gabe sometimes tried to remind me.

Thankfully, Gabe picked up on my mood and decided against pushing my buttons today.

“What’s going on with the injured, Daisy?” he asked, his eyes dead-serious.

I could deal with him when he was serious. It was when he tried to sweep me off my feet that I wanted to throttle him.

“No one is critical anymore,” I said. Both Zavier and Gabe relaxed. “But the fight’s still going on. I need to go there.”

Gabe’s eyes turned flat. “No.”

“It’s not up for negotiation, Gabriel,” I said. “The Hunters, for whatever fucking reason, are attacking all of our sentries just outside the forest.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Eve and Raphael are halfway across the ocean, Jed’s in Texas, and our numbers have been lowered significantly, in preparations for the Solstice Assembly.”

The Solstice Assembly, unlike the Yule Ball, was more of a familial kind of gathering.

Families visited their family members in different packs, single werewolves went to roam in groups, and so on.

Since the Solstice was only a couple of months away, Gabe had allowed many families, and even soldiers, to leave the territory to visit their families.

And then today, without notice, a group of cloaked figures who’d claimed to be the infamous Hunters had attacked the sentries of Lumen.

A battle had broken out.

Some wolves had been killed. The injured were brought here to the Pack House.

But some were still fighting. It was almost evening now, and the unexpected attack was still underway.

With Raphael and Eve visiting the Shanghai Pack, Jed at his post in Texas, Daphne out of commission, and our numbers dropping drastically, I needed to take action.

I hated when my people died, just like Gabe hated it, and I wanted to save whoever I could. We could think about the details afterward.

“No.” Gabe’s voice was final, his eyes flashing wolf-gold. “You’re not going into that war zone. You’re the head healer, and you’re staying here. Everyone else will be fine.”

“You’re being a fool, Gabriel,” I snarled at him, letting my own wolf out, my eyes shining a brilliant sky-blue.

“People, your people are dying because of the Hunters. I need to be out there, to take care of them. What do you think Raphael would say if Shade, or Zack, or Omar died?”

“He’d say they died fighting for what’s right,” Gabriel snarled back.

“Don’t recite cliched phrases to me!” I sniped, feeling my wolf bristling against my skin. “I need to be out there, helping. That’s my job. My true job. You know it, and so do I.”

He stood up and gave me his alpha stare. I winced, my wolf immediately wanting to shrink away, despite my resolve.

Sometimes, when Gabriel was being infuriating, I forgot that he was truly an alpha.

But when he gave me that look, I remembered.

“No,” he growled. “My decision is final. You’re too important. If something happened to you, all those people would think they got wounded for naught. You’re staying here, Daisy, even if I have to lock you up in a cellar.”

A growl rose in my throat at the threat, but Gabriel was unmovable. He simply folded his arms and dared me to argue with him.

That just pissed me off even more, and I found myself breaching a subject I’d done my best never to bring up again.

“Is it because it’s me?” I asked, indignant at the thought that what Gabe felt for me might be one of the factors he took under consideration.

“If Flora or Celia was the head healer, and asked you the same thing, would you still say no?”

It appeared that I’d crossed a line. He growled deeply, and I involuntarily took a step back.

“You’re staying here,” he said. I finally heard it in his voice—his worry, his almost fear for me. “Now go back to where you belong, Daisy.”

I gave him a spiteful look, then stormed out of his office and slammed the door shut.

Goddamn him. Goddamn him.

This was not over. It didn’t often happen that our pack came under a direct threat. It’d been years since the last time someone tried to poach on our territory.

We were the strongest pack in North America, the biggest, too. Nobody dared touch us.

But now this had happened. The Hunters, who used to keep a low profile and only targeted small groups of werewolves, were attacking us in full force.

I felt responsible, more than ever, to my people. I felt the weight of my job on my slim shoulders.

My wolf needed me to help. We shared our healer nature.

We needed to help. I was going to help.

For the first time in my life, I was going to disobey a direct order given to me by the alpha.

I wouldn’t let Gabriel make decisions just because he was attached to me.

Not if I could help it.