Page 6 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

Chapter 2

Alice

This strange sensation within me doesn’t fade away, even as I run the whole way to the healing center. I keep rubbing the center of my chest with my left hand, trying to get rid of this feeling.

The man doesn’t follow me, and I’m grateful for that.

I know most of the shifters around here. Whoever that man was, he wasn’t part of the Moonlight Pack. He seemed to be around the same age as me. There is no way a good-looking shifter like that would not have been included in the pack’s social events. The fact that he was sneaking around the border of our territory makes the whole situation even more suspicious.

I should just forget about the whole incident. About him. And whatever this feeling is, it’ll fade away soon.

The Moonlight Pack’s healing center is a large compound with different buildings. Each building is dedicated to different parts of the territory. This way, the healers are not overburdened. The building that covers my area is Number Five, but when I walk in, the receptionist looks up and then rolls her eyes.

“We’re busy today.”

I’m not in the mood to argue with her. “Is Mary in?”

“Do I look like your secretary?” the receptionist, Sarah, snaps. “I told you, we’re busy. Come back another time.”

I let out a long breath, trying to stay calm. My entire face hurts. So does my neck, and every other part of me that was beaten. The blood has trickled down the side of my face, and I can taste it now. I am pretty sure I have a concussion because everything seems to be spinning around me.

“You’re not busy.” I scowl. “You only have one patient, and I can see him all the way from here.”

Sarah gets to her feet, her voice haughty. “If I say we’re busy, we’re busy. We heal shifters, not useless lumps of meat like you.”

“Lump of meat?” I roll the words around in my mouth. “You’re not even a healer, Sarah. You’re just a receptionist. Why don’t you do your job for once and go get Mary? And if she’s not available, I want another healer.”

I don’t care that I’ve hit her below the belt. There are different kinds of shifters. Some are born with the ability to heal, but sometimes that ability is not enough for that shifter to become a healer. Sarah is one of those unlucky ones. She has a desperate desire to heal, as all healers to, but her ability is simply not strong enough.

I refuse to feel bad, though. She and others like her have used their words to hurt me plenty of times. I don’t believe in being the better person. I believe in getting even, if I can.

“How dare you?!” she spits out, her eyes welling up. “At least I have my wolf spirit! You are just a charity case living in our pack. You don’t deserve our resources! Get out of here!”

I refuse to budge. “Get me a healer, or I’ll file a report with the pack’s council for discrimination.”

The pack’s council is a group of elders who oversee civil matters that don’t need to go to the alpha. While they are a step below Alpha Black, they are known for being fair and just, and they are the reason I wasn’t killed when I was discovered.

Sarah’s face pales but she refuses to budge. “Report all you want! They don’t care. Even they would be glad if you dropped dead!”

I’m not surprised by her ruthless words. Sarah was one of the orphans I grew up with. I remember her being sweet and kind at one point. We shared a room till we were ten. She was the first to turn against me. Things like spitting in my food and cutting my hair while I slept were childish pranks she indulged in that soon escalated into violent ones.

“If you’re not going to get me a healer,” I say tightly, “I’ll just go inside and look for one myself.”

She immediately walks around her desk and steps in my path. “You walk past me, and I’ll kill you. Just give me a reason.”

I raise a brow even though it hurts my face. “You’ll kill me? For seeking the healer I have every right to see? I wonder how that’s going to look on your record?”

“Well, I stopped you from going in, and you attacked me. I had no choice.” Sarah looks smug, as if she has devised an ingenious plan.

“Why don’t you try it?” I sneer. I may not be as powerful as a shifter, but I can fight dirty. It’s the only way I survived as a kid. Young wolf shifters don’t really know how to hold back when fighting; whenever I was ganged up on, I had to do whatever it took to survive. And here, now, I may end up with some vicious injuries, but the prospect of being able to get some blows in has me motivated.

“There will be none of that!” comes a loud, annoyed voice.

Both of us stiffen, and I look behind Sarah to see an older woman approaching us. She’s one of the senior healers in the pack, Edith Monroe. Her silver hair is tied in a severe knot, but she looks quite good for her early sixties.

“Sarah, get back to your seat. I’ll be having a word with you later. And you, Alice, what in the world happened to you? Can’t you go one day without coming to me all black and blue?”

Sarah bristles. “Bitch probably deserved it.”

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