Page 9 of Destined Bear
“What do you need me to do?” Heath asks.
My head swivels back to my Beta. “Get the best healers we have and send them to Circe immediately. I want all the tests run, all the potions concocted.”
No one moves, and I wave toward the door. “What the hell are you waiting for? Get moving.”
“Viv isn’t going to like this.” Alessa shakes her finger at me like she’s scolding me. “You need to work with her to get the right healers.”
I’ve had enough of her attitude. “Vivienne isn’t the Alpha of Willow Grove. I am. You seem to forget these things.”
I stare meaningfully at Alessa, and she shuffles nervously under my scrutiny, though she’s trying to appear defiant.
“You should have listened to her years ago instead of letting your pride get in the way,” she mutters, stalking out of the office. “Maybe then you wouldn’t have lost five years with her.”
“Alessa doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Heath says after she leaves, but his voice lacks conviction.
The problem is, she does know. Vivienne had suggested peace treaties with all the neighboring territories years ago—exactly what we ended up doing anyway, just five years too late. If I had swallowed my pride and listened to her back then, we could have avoided years of territorial conflicts. I wouldn’t have humiliated her in front of the council. She never would have left.
Five years of peace. Five years with Vivienne. All thrown away because I was too stubborn to admit she was right.
“The pack is restless,” Heath continues carefully. “They think you need a mate, an heir. The recent negotiations haven’t helped your standing.”
I roll my shoulders back, trying desperately to relieve some of the tension threatening to snap my control.
My authority with the pack is weakening. The pressure to find a mate is mounting. And now Vivienne is back in my territory.
Everything is happening at the worst possible time.
CHAPTER 3
VIVIENNE
Healers start appearing at the cottage over the next three days.
Appalled, I hiss at Millie. “Did you arrange for this?”
She’s as baffled by their arrival as I am, and I finally clue in to what happened.
I confront Alessa on the fourth day, fuming at the intrusion on our privacy. “Who is doing this? Emeric?”
The cat shifter licks her paws, half in her animal form, her flippant nature infuriating me more.
“You’re acting like I had a choice in the matter,” Alessa says. “When the Alpha speaks, the rest of us have no choice but to jump. He ordered the healers to be at your mother’s bedside, and there’s really nothing you can do to change that. You of all people should know that, Viv. Emeric’s going to do what Emeric wants.”
Her unspoken words say so much.
The only way to put a stop to this nonsense is by confronting Emeric.
And I don’t want to do that.
While I would never admit it out loud to anyone, the attraction I thought had long faded away overwhelmed me at the packhouse office when I saw him.
I encounter yet another healer coming through my front door. Anger surges through me at the sight of her.
“Excuse me,” I intercept the latest healer before she reaches my mother’s room. “I need to speak with you.”
I walk her toward the front door. “From now on, no healers are to work on my mother without my approval first. I need to interview and vet anyone who treats her.”
The healer gives me a scolding look. “Your mother will never recover if you don’t let qualified healers work on her. Isn’t that what you want? For Circe to get better?”
