The Shewolf Healer from Hell

My mate, Alex, had a childhood friend named Emily who was a healer. When she discovered that I was a highly sensitive person, she volunteered to put me through what she called 'desensitization therapy.' The first time, she told me I needed to learn to control my emotions, so she locked me in a noisy bar's storage room for an entire night. The second time, she said I needed to overcome my tactile sensitivity. She drenched me in ice-cold water and forced me to stand in the freezing wind for three hours. Alex was present every single time. Each time, he told her, "Thank you for all your hard work, Emily. I know how much you're doing for her." Then came the banquet, where she poured an entire vial of wolfsbane-laced potion into my champagne and announced that this would be my final desensitization therapy session. I clutched my swollen throat and collapsed to the floor. I couldn't speak or catch my breath. Alex merely frowned and said coldly, "Elena, this is for your own good. Just get through this one last session." Lying among the shattered glass, I closed my eyes and pressed the beacon badge I had never used before. When Dad finally burst through the doors, tears I'd held back for three years streamed down my face. It was time to end this. Chapter 1 Alex Darknight, my mate, grabbed my chin without warning and forcefully poured the shimmering silver champagne in his hand down my throat. The champagne had a strange sweetness to it. I felt a burning sensation travel all the way from my tongue down to my throat. It felt like I'd swallowed a red-hot iron ball that seared through my stomach. I doubled over and began coughing violently. My flailing hands knocked the champagne glass to the floor, shattering it into shards. The pain forced me to my knees in front of Alex. "Help me–" I struggled to force the words through my swollen throat, but Emily Marsh immediately cut me off. "It's started!" Her voice carried an unquestionable certainty. "This is the final desensitization therapy session. Her body is rebuilding its nervous system. Everyone, please stay calm!" But my vision was already turning blurry. It felt like a burning wad of cotton had been stuffed into my chest, and it was impossible for me to breathe. With the last of my strength, I clutched Alex's pant leg. "A-Alex, please get a real healer. I can't breathe." He looked down at me and frowned. "Why are you reacting so strongly?" "This is normal." Emily crouched down and flipped open a notebook. "This is her final session, so the effects will be more intense. She might experience a sensation of suffocation and a rapid heartbeat at first. Alex, if you take her to the healer's den now, all our progress will be wasted." Alex's frown eased a little. He patted my back. "Elena, just hang in there. We won't let anything happen to you. Emily is the most professional healer around." My vision had already gone mostly black. All I could make out was his blurry silhouette. "T-There's wolfsbane in the potion. H-Help me." "Elena!" Emily raised her voice while conveying just the right amount of hurt and exasperation. "Do you have any idea how much effort I've put into your desensitization therapy over the past three years? Alex and I approved every single treatment plan together. Have you even considered how this makes us feel?" Her words drew the attention of the surrounding guests. Some began whispering among themselves. Others pulled out their phones to record me kneeling on the floor. They all shared the same expressions of disgust and impatience. "It's her again." A woman in a dark green evening gown smirked. "She has to make a scene every single time. Then Alpha Alex and Emily have to clean up her mess." Alex's expression immediately darkened. He yanked his pant leg out of my grasp and took a step back before looking down at me. "Elena, get up. Look how many people are watching. How much more of a fool do you want to make of yourself?" The pain in my chest left me unable to respond. My teeth were chattering, so I bit down hard on my lip until the metallic taste of blood brought me back to my senses. 'I want to live!' Clinging to that desperate hope, I began crawling toward the exit. Maybe someone outside the banquet hall would believe me. But just as I was about to crawl out, a tremendous force seized me by the hair. It was Emily. She dragged me back to the center of the banquet hall like an old rag doll. She then tossed me onto the shattered glass. She covered her nose in disgust. There was a hint of delight in her eyes. "You can't leave, Elena. Your desensitization therapy isn't finished yet. Besides, there's no way the potion I gave you could cause such a severe reaction." Alex stared at me coldly. "Elena, have you had enough? Stop pretending and get up!" But the next second, he froze. The potion was tearing my body apart from the inside. I desperately tried to inhale, but my lungs sounded like broken bellows that wheezed with every labored gasp. Alex finally realized something was wrong. He stumbled backward and pointed at me in alarm. "Y-You're not actually dying, are you?" Chapter 2 Alex turned to face the crowd and shouted desperately, "Healer! Where's the healer?" Before he could get far, Emily stopped him. "This is what happens in the final stages of the desensitization therapy." She leisurely took a sip of champagne. "Once she makes it through tonight, her sensitivity symptoms will be cured. I guarantee she'll be a completely different person!" Alex glanced down at me. He then helped me onto a nearby chair. He reached out and brushed the sweat-soaked hair away from my forehead. His touch was so gentle that, for one foolish moment, I felt a flicker of hope in my heart. He said, "Just hang in there for another hour. Emily said it'll all be over in an hour." That tiny flicker of hope disappeared instantly. "This isn't treatment–" I used the last of my strength to weakly clutch his sleeve. "It's wolfsbane. She poisoned me with wolfsbane–" "What kind of nonsense are you talking about?" He pulled away, and his expression darkened. "Emily has spent the past year treating you. When has she ever done anything that wasn't for your own good? "Now you're accusing her of poisoning you in front of all these people? Do you have any idea how much this could damage her reputation if word gets out?" "Alex is right." Emily set down her champagne glass. "Elena, I know you've never liked me very much, but I thought that after a year of treatment, you'd at least acknowledge my sincerity." She lowered her head and gently dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a napkin. Alex looked down at me and clenched his jaw. Anger was written all over his face. "Apologize!" he ordered. When I didn't respond, he slammed his hand against the table. Every glass and plate rattled. "I said apologize!" The entire hall fell silent for a moment. "No," I said. My voice was faint, but in the sudden silence, every word carried clearly through the hall. Alex's expression turned completely cold. He stared at me for three seconds, then turned away, picked up his glass, and said to Emily, "I'm sorry, Emily. I'll apologize on her behalf." "It's fine, Alex." Emily looked up. Her eyes were slightly red with tears, but she forced a smile. "I don't blame her. She's just in too much pain–" The guests' expressions shifted from disgust to anger when they looked at me. Soft sighs and words of comfort filled the banquet hall. Everyone was comforting Emily. No one paid any attention to me. I leaned against the cold back of the chair as the lights in my vision began going out one by one. Just before I slipped into darkness, my fingers found the Silvermoon insignia against my chest. It was the beacon badge Dad had given me before I left my original pack. He'd told me that as long as I pressed it, he would come to me no matter how far away I was. For the past three years, I'd endured 21 such treatments. Each time, I told myself to give Alex one more chance. I thought he would eventually come to his senses. I thought he would eventually see what was happening. I never imagined that the 22nd time would hurt this much. My fingers settled against the edge of the insignia. At last, I pressed it. Chapter 3 My body was on the verge of collapsing, but I finally managed to regain a sliver of awareness I heard a shrill voice beside me. "Hold her down! She might hurt herself! Patients in the later stages of desensitization therapy can exhibit extreme behavior. Don't let her hurt herself!" Alex ran over. His fingers clamped around my hand like a pair of pincers before he pried open my palm. "What's this?" He frowned and snatched the insignia from me. "N-No. G-Give it back. T-That's from my dad." I tried reaching for it, but I immediately fell to the ground. "Your dad?" Emily sneered. "Elena, didn't you say you were an orphan?" My entire body went rigid. Three years ago, when I'd left my pack, I'd lied to Alex to conceal my identity. I'd told him I was an orphan from the north with no family and no connections. Alex had believed me, and so had Emily. "I–" I opened my mouth. "That's enough." Emily waved dismissively and slipped the insignia into her pocket. "We'll talk about it after the treatment." Alex nodded and reached forward to grab my arm. "Get up. Stop kneeling on the floor. You're making us look bad!" He pulled so hard that my entire body lurched forward. My forehead slammed into the leg of the table with a dull thud. The pain came slowly. By then, I could no longer tell which parts of my body hurt because of the poison and which because of the impact. Everyone in the banquet hall watched with undisguised amusement. Some even held up their phones to record the spectacle. "Alpha Alex, your mate sure knows how to drag out a scene." One of his friends approached with a glass of wine while grinning. Alex's expression darkened, but he didn't argue. He simply hauled me off the floor and dumped me back into the chair. He then turned around and said, "Stop recording. Spare her some dignity." But they'd already stripped me of every last shred of dignity. I slumped against the chair. Just before my vision went completely dark, I saw Emily holding my insignia. Someone splashed a cup of cold water in my face. The icy liquid jolted me into a violent coughing fit and reignited the burning pain in my throat. Through my blurred vision, I saw Emily standing over me with an empty cup. "Feeling a little more awake?" Her voice was soft. Only I could hear her. "Don't pass out. It wouldn't be any fun if you did. Hang in there a little longer. The banquet isn't over yet." I looked past her at the familiar face behind her. Alex had his back to me. He was drinking with his friends. He never once turned around to look at me. For the first time in three years, I understood with absolute clarity that no one in that banquet hall would help me. They'd all decided to watch this spectacle play out to the very end. They were waiting to see whether I would finally be 'cured' or die right there. "E-Emily." My voice was extremely hoarse. "W-What exactly did you make me drink tonight?" Chapter 4 "It's a healing potion I specially concocted just for you." Her voice was as soft as a sigh as her fingernails dragged across my face and left one bloody scratch after another. "A generous dose of silver powder mixed with wolfsbane juice, plus a little something hallucinogenic. Once you drink it, your nervous system will slowly burn away until the very last moment!" she added. My fingers clenched around the armrests of the chair. She reached out, grabbed my hair, and forced me to lift my head to face her. "Alex is the esteemed Alpha of Darknight Pack. You're nothing but a filthy rogue. You're not worthy of him!" She straightened up before slipping back into her usual gentle demeanor. "Personally, though, I wouldn't recommend going around telling people about this." She glanced at Alex. "After all, even if you tell him, he won't believe you." It felt like my body had been thrown into a raging fire. The agony burned through me from the inside out, leaving me unable to make a sound. All I could do was watch helplessly as she leisurely walked back to the table. Three years ago, I'd rejected my family's choice of mate for me and left Silvermoon Pack alone. I thought I'd found true love here. It turned out that everything had been nothing more than wishful thinking on my part. In my final moments, Dad's stern face appeared before my eyes. How heartbroken would he be if he knew how much I'd suffered since leaving home? Perhaps I'd never even see him again. Just as my consciousness sank completely into darkness, the banquet hall doors were violently thrown open from the outside. A howling wind rushed into the hall, extinguishing every candle on the banquet tables. Pale moonlight poured through the wide-open door to illuminate a tall silhouette. He wore a silver-white fur cloak. The Silvermoon Pack insignia was embroidered across his chest with two intertwined wolves. His eyes, which were the same color as mine, swept over the guests frozen in place before finally settling on me. He hurried to my side and crouched down. He gently brushed his fingers against my burning forehead before lifting my arm, which was beginning to turn dark purple. He said nothing, but I saw him clenching his jaw. At last, he spoke, and his deep voice brimmed with overwhelming fury. "Who gave her the wolfsbane potion?" Silence filled the banquet hall. Someone recognized the insignia on his chest and began trembling. Someone else even collapsed to the floor. Alex stepped forward with a frown on his face. His voice carried a hint of hesitation and trembled slightly. "Who are you?" Ryan Silvermoon slowly stood up and turned to face Alex. He didn't answer. Instead, he pointed at Emily's pocket. "That's my daughter's insignia. Who gave you the right to touch it?" "You're–" Alex stared at the insignia, and his eyes went wide. He staggered backward. "R-Ryan Silvermoon, the Alpha King from the north–" Alex murmured just as his face turned pale.