Sierra
"She can't stay here," Rowan Nightshade, Alpha of Timber Ridge Pack, insisted as he watched Sierra bleed over his office floor, the wound on her side not healing despite her werewolf healing.
Leaning against Maya, it was a wonder she was conscious as the room swayed. It had drained everything to reach the Timber Ridge compound. She had barely confirmed her identity when a patrol wolf recognized her as "Maya's Silver Moon friend". But their assistance changed to hostility when she collapsed, powerless to maintain wolf form. Shifting back to human revealed the deep gash on her flank from rolling down the steep incline.
"With respect, Alpha," Maya said, supporting Sierra's waist, "she has nowhere to go. She was rejected by the Silver Moon Pack."
"Which makes her a lone wolf, basically a rogue." Rowan stated, his voice colored with regret rather than anger. "You know our laws, Maya. Lone wolves are unpredictable, unsafe and dangerous, especially those with such unusual markings."
Sierra felt his gaze on the silver streak in her hair, more pronounced than before. She wanted to defend herself, tell him she wasn't dangerous, but pain burned with every breath.
"She isn't dangerous," Maya said firmly. "Trust me. She's my friend and the best healer I've met. Silver Moon's loss could be our gain."
Rowan paced behind his desk, sunlight streaming through large windows, vastly different from Dominic's mountainside chambers. Everything differed about Timber Ridge; the open air compound, wood instead of stone, the lack of rigid formality marking Silver Moon.
"It's not that easy," Rowan said, pulling fingers through dark hair. "If they hear we've taken in a wolf they kicked out, especially someone with ties to their Alpha, they might consider it a threat."
Sierra forced herself to speak, each word taking tremendous effort. "I don't ask for protection. Just sanctuary. Until I heal... can move on."
Rowan's green eyes softened as he assessed her condition. "What happened, Sierra? The truth. Dominic Silvercloud doesn't have a reputation for being irrational. Publicly rejecting a mate? A high-ranking pack member..."
Sierra recalled Dominic's foot crushing her offering under his boot. That memory sent a pang through her chest unrelated to her wound. She swayed and Maya's grip tightened.
"Alpha! She needs a doctor first," Maya said urgently. "Questions after."
A knock interrupted. A slim woman with dark cropped hair, Rowan's Beta, walked in.
"The council is assembled," she reported, looking at Sierra critically. "And we received a message from Silver Moon. They want their 'unstable pack member' returned. Right. Now."
Sierra's heart sank. So quickly? How did they find her?
"That was quick," Rowan stated. "Too quick."
"They state she developed an unexpected condition after a pack ceremony," the Beta continued. "Potentially dangerous to herself and others."
Maya's expression showed outrage. "That's absurd! They caused her harm!"
Rowan raised a hand, silencing protests. He considered Sierra; she held his gaze despite overwhelming weakness. Whatever he saw sealed his decision.
"Elara, tell the council I'll be there soon," he instructed his Beta. "And tell Silver Moon there are no rogue wolves in our territory that we're aware of."
Elara's eyebrows rose. "You want me to lie to an Alpha?"
"I want you to be selectively honest," Rowan corrected. "None have taken refuge in our territory. That's all they need to know."
After Elara left, Rowan turned back. "You have three days," he said firmly. "Three days of sanctuary while I figure out what game Dominic Silvercloud is playing. After that we reconsider."
Sierra nodded weakly. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," Rowan warned. "You're going to the healer's cabin at our territory's edge. With two guards at all times. No pack contact besides Maya and our medical team."
"I understand," Sierra whispered.
"Maya, take her through back trails to the cabin. The fewer pack members that see her, the better."
Maya nodded gratefully. "You won't regret this, Alpha."
Rowan's smile was grim. "I already regret it. Now go before I change my mind."
The trip to the healer's cabin passed in a haze of pain and disorientation. Maya half-carried her along narrow trails through dense forest, whispering increasingly worried assurances as Sierra worsened. The silver in her hair had expanded to nearly half the left side of her head, and the wound continued bleeding despite Maya's efforts with shirt strips.
By the time they reached the small clearing with the healer's cabin, Sierra was nearly unconscious. She vaguely remembered being lifted onto something soft, Maya frantically gathering supplies, and gentle hands removing blood-stained clothing.
"Stay with me Sierra," Maya said, though her words seemed far away. "You're stronger than this. Fight it."
Fight what? Sierra wanted to ask, but words wouldn't come. Something was happening inside her body, a strange battle between the rejection's destructive forces and something else, something new, pulsing with her heartbeat. The warring forces manifesting in the wound that wouldn't heal, a physical representation of the internal battle.
"I've never seen anything like this, the tissue keeps regenerating and then dissolving again," Maya murmured, cleaning the wound. "It's like your body can't decide whether to heal."
Sierra willed her eyes open, trying to focus on her friend's anxious expression. "Silver," she managed to croak. "Feel it burning."
"The Silver streak?" Maya peered at Sierra's hair. "It's spreading, but I don't understand what—"
"No," Sierra murmured weakly. "In me. Like liquid silver in my veins."
Maya's brow furrowed as she crushed herbs in a stone mortar. "This doesn't look like any rejection symptoms I've read about. Something else is happening."
As pain muted everything else, Sierra recalled Dominic's visit after the ceremony, and the silver light that flared between them when he'd reached for her. Could that have started whatever was happening now?
"I'm putting a poultice on the wound," Maya said, approaching with a fragrant mixture. "It has wolfsbane essence, very diluted, not enough for long-term harm, but enough to subdue your healing so we can reset the process."
Sierra weakly nodded. Wolfsbane in high doses was dangerous to werewolves. In smaller doses, a competent healer could use it to reset healing. She had used it on Silver Moon pack members.
"This is going to hurt," Maya said, reaching for the wound.
When the poultice touched Sierra's skin, something deep inside locked into place and reacted with shocking fury. Shocking heat radiated from her chest, and silver light, the same light that had burned Dominic, burst from her wound. Sierra's back arched as light covered her arm and left side.
Maya was flung backwards, knocking over a supply shelf, glass containers shattering, tinctures and dried herbs spreading across the wooden floor.
Sierra's mind swam with confusion as her body began shifting, not full wolf transformation, but a partial change she couldn't control. Fur sprouted along her left side and her contorted arm turned into a half-formed paw. Her jaw stretched painfully, extending teeth into fangs, as she screamed a human scream that transformed into a howl.
The last thing she saw before darkness took her was Maya's stunned expression as she huddled against the furthest wall, seeing what shouldn't exist: a werewolf caught between forms, silver light pulsing beneath her skin, neither human nor wolf.