Chapter 118: The Alpha’s Medical Hold

The wrist grab was on the good arm and still managed to be a problem. It jostled Nova hard enough to affect her fucked shoulder. She winced as pain shot through her body.

The medic didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he did not care.

He turned her forearm over, pulling it into the light, his thumb pressing against the inside of her wrist where the silver cuffs had lived for as long as Nova could remember.

"No scarring from the silver," he stated. "The tissue remodeling is complete. That’s not possible."

He reached for her other arm, the bad one, and the movement sent a bolt of pain so electric it traveled down Nova’s spine. She let out a whimper that she couldn’t have stopped if she had tried.

Alpha Thunderfang’s hand closed around the medic’s wrist. "Let go of her."

The medic’s fingers opened like they’d been spring-loaded.

"Treat the Emberclaw Princess. Now."

"Yes, Alpha."

The medic moved to Maria’s side of the ambulance hover so fast he left an afterimage. Tavian stepped aside to let him through without taking his eyes off Maria.

Nova blinked down at her wrist through tears. The scars were gone. Completely. Like they had never existed. Derek had been applying the cream Astra gave him every morning and every night. She had assumed it would take months. Maybe longer. Maybe never fully.

She filed it. Her brain’s filing cabinet was overflowing and the drawer labeled things I cannot explain tonight was jammed shut and she shoved it in anyway.

"If your brother gets up to come over here, I am sedating him," Astra stated, voice flat.

Alpha Thunderfang turned around to look at his brother, who was thirty feet away. "I said I would handle it, Derek. Stay."

Their conversation was muffled. Astra was speaking to Alpha Thunderfang. Alpha Thunderfang was speaking back. Words moved between them that Nova could see happening but could not hear because her brain had turned the volume down on everything that wasn’t the pain in her shoulder.

It was only when she felt the warmth behind her that she realized Alpha Thunderfang had moved.

Her back was against his chest. His legs were on either side of her, bracketing her, his arms wrapping around her with a firmness that communicated this was a medical hold that he had done on battlefields.

The position registered a half second before the implication did. Astra was going to pop her shoulder. Alpha Thunderfang was the brace. The realization produced panic that flooded her chest like ice water through a funnel.

A growling noise rumbled behind her at the exact same moment. The noise barely registered.

"Nova, hey. Deep breath."

Alpha Thunderfang’s voice was close, right behind her ear. The warmth in his tone was unexpected. Everything about this man’s proximity and his voice and the fact that he was holding her while a healer prepared to relocate her shoulder was so far from the version of him she had been carrying in her head that the two images couldn’t coexist.

She inhaled. The oxygen mask filled her lungs with clean air that her chest accepted grudgingly.

Then Celeste’s voice cut through the courtyard.

"I’m sorry, am I hallucinating or is my fiancé, the Alpha, spooning a slave?"

"Medical hold," Astra replied without looking up. "Dislocated shoulder. I need a brace while I reset it."

"Then use a wall. Use a chair. Use literally anything that isn’t my future husband wrapped around that harlot."

"The Alpha is standing in for his brother, Princess. Take it up with him after I finish."

"I’m sorry, who are you? You’re speaking to the future Luna of Thunderfang like I’m someone you can dismiss. Name and rank. Now."

Astra stopped and turned her head slowly to look at Celeste. There was a long pause before she answered.

"Astra Sparks, Master Healer of Thunderfang, Your Highness."

The situation would have been almost funny under any other circumstance. But Nova had been mentally bracing herself to get her shoulder popped back into its socket and now it was being delayed and the panic in her chest was building in anticipation.

"Wonderful to meet you, Master Sparks. Now that we’ve been introduced, let’s prioritize correctly. The Luna gets the Master Healer. The slave gets whoever is available. This is not complicated."

"Are you hurt, Luna?"

"Yes. My ankle. My lungs. Possibly my head. I was in that keep too tonight. I was evacuated from a building that was on fire. I ran down four flights of stairs and inhaled smoke. Nobody checked on me. Nobody asked if I was alright. It’s been a long night. I haven’t complained because there are worse injuries than mine, but I am not alright, Master Healer."

Astra stared at Celeste for a full ten seconds.

"Are you—"

"Let me simplify this for everyone. There is a ranking system. It exists in every pack. On every continent. Since the beginning of time. The Luna is at the top. The slave is at the bottom. Treat accordingly. And I will remind this courtyard that every pack in Helix is watching how Thunderfang treats its Luna. If word gets out that the Master Healer refused to treat the incoming Luna because she was busy with a slave, that is not a good look for anyone."

Astra’s jaw tightened. She stood. Crossed to Celeste.

"Show me."

Nova felt Alpha Thunderfang exhale behind her.

Celeste sat on a bench.

Astra knelt in front of her. Pressed her ankle. Rotated. Celeste winced.

"The good news is there’s no swelling. Range of motion is—"

"Is a problem," Celeste finished Astra’s sentence. "I am having difficulties breathing as well."

Astra stood. Pulled a scanner from her belt. Held it in front of Celeste’s mouth. The reading projected onto the device.

"Your oxygen levels are perfect."

"I don’t care what your little device says," Celeste snapped. "I know what my lungs are doing and they are not doing well. Your scanner reads surface levels. It doesn’t read inflammation in the bronchial passages. It doesn’t read fluid buildup that hasn’t reached critical mass yet. I grew up in Starborne, Healer. We have the best medical infrastructure in Helix. I know what a scanner misses. Do you?"