Aryanna POV:
I woke to the scent of leather and antiseptic herbs. I was lying on a cot in a spartan room, the kind used by soldiers. A rough wool blanket was draped over me. The searing pain in my back had been dulled to a throbbing ache. Someone had cleaned and dressed my wounds.
Dennison Russo sat in a wooden chair across the small room, watching me. His helmet was off, revealing dark hair, cut short and practical. In the dim light, his features were even more severe, carved from granite.
He said nothing, his silver-gray eyes simply observing me, his expression unreadable.
"Where am I?" I asked. My throat was raw.
"A temporary barracks inside the Citadel," he answered, his voice a low rumble. "You're safe."
He leaned forward, and for the first time, I noticed the subtle signs of exhaustion on his face. The faint shadows under his eyes, the slight tension in his shoulders.
He held out a small, leather-wrapped object. "This is yours."
I pushed myself up, wincing, and took it. My fingers fumbled with the ties. Inside was a silver pin, tarnished with age. It was fashioned in the shape of a soaring eagle, its wings spread wide.
A memory, sharp and painful, pierced through the fog in my mind. A woman with a kind smile and eyes the same color as mine, pinning this exact crest to her cloak. My mother. Eleonora Sterling.
"I found your mother's remains on the northern border," Dennison said quietly. "She was given a warrior's burial. This was all that was left."
The Sterling family. A name whispered with reverence in the pack. Warriors, all of them, who had died defending the territory years ago. My mother, the last of her line.
I closed my hand around the cool metal of the eagle crest. The grief of the girl whose body I inhabited washed over me, a fresh wave of loss. It mingled with my own respect for a woman who had died a hero.
"Thank you," I whispered, and the words felt inadequate.
As I looked up at him, my professional instincts took over. I saw past the stoic warrior. I saw the patient.
The way he held his left arm, just slightly too stiffly. The almost imperceptible pause in his breath when he shifted his weight. The pallor beneath his tanned skin.
"You're injured," I stated. It wasn't a question.
He stiffened. A mask of indifference dropped over his features, but it was too late. I had already seen the truth.
"It's an old battle wound," he said dismissively.
I shook my head. "No. It's new. And it's silver."
His silence was a confession. The air in the room grew heavy. A silver wound was a death sentence for a werewolf. It festered, blocking their legendary healing abilities, poisoning them from the inside out.
"There's a sliver," I continued, my voice low and confident, the voice of a surgeon delivering a diagnosis. "Lodged deep in your chest, near the pericardium. It's suppressing your healing factor and causing a slow, systemic infection. The pack doctors can't find it because it's too small and too deep. They think you're just exhausted from the war."
His eyes, which had been as hard and remote as a winter sky, now held a storm of shock and disbelief. He had hidden this from everyone, and I had unmasked him with a single glance.
"How do you know that?" he demanded, his voice a low growl.
"I know things," I said simply. I met his gaze, holding it. "You saved my life out there. Let me return the favor. I can save yours."
Doubt warred with a desperate flicker of hope in his eyes. A wolfless Omega, a disgraced girl, claiming she could do what his best healers could not? It was madness.
But he was dying. And he knew it.
I didn't have time to explain the unexplainable. I swung my legs off the cot. My torn dress was barely holding together. I ripped a strip of cloth from the hem. Biting my lip, I pricked my own thumb on the sharp point of the Sterling eagle crest.
Blood welled up, dark and red.
Using my thumb as a pen, I quickly sketched a design on the scrap of cloth. It was a plant with a distinctive five-petaled flower and serrated leaves. A plant that didn't exist in this world's botany, but was a staple in 22nd-century trauma medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties.
I held the blood-stained cloth out to him. "Find this herb. It grows in cold, rocky soil, usually near waterfalls. It won't cure you, but it will slow the poison. It will buy you time."
He took the cloth, his fingers brushing mine. A strange jolt, like static electricity, shot up my arm. He stared at the drawing, his brow furrowed in concentration.
I stood up, my body protesting every movement. "Where are you going?" he asked, his voice sharp.
"Home," I said, my hand already on the door latch. "To the Mcknight Estate."
A sharp knock interrupted his reply. A warrior entered. "The square is cleared, Alpha Dennison. The body is gone. Damien has returned to his father's estate."
"Good," Dennison said, his eyes still locked on me. He held the bloody cloth out to the warrior. "Marcus. Find this herb. Now."
The warrior took it and was gone.
"You won't be safe there," Dennison stated, a muscle working in his jaw.
I looked back at him, a cold smile on my lips. "Don't worry about me. Worry about your brother." I paused. "And tell Damien... the next time he wants something from me, he should be prepared to pay a much higher price."
I left him there, alone in the dim room, the weight of my words hanging in the air.
