（Aurora's POV）
My agonized expression startled Marcus, and he withdrew his power, but the wound on his leg still throbbed with pain. "Aurora, what have you done?"
Charles, Sarah's brother, also advanced aggressively. "What kind of magic did you use on my sister?" he demands, but his eyes hold a calculating gleam that matches Sarah's perfectly.
"Please," Sarah gasps, her hands clutching at Marcus's shirt. "Make it stop... it hurts..." She presses her face into his chest, her body trembling. "I trust you, only you..."
I watched in disbelief as Marcus shielded Sarah behind him. "Aurora," he continued to question me, "what is going on?"
"Marcus, you can't seriously believe-"
"I believe you have no ill intentions, but I need an explanation--" Marcus's words were interrupted by Dr. Steve. "Okay, calm down, Alpha, I don't believe it's Aurora's problem. Why don't I take another careful look at this lady?"
Steve approached Sarah. Sarah, however, refused, "Oh, respected Alpha, I feel as warm as the sun by your side. Because of your proximity, I now feel much better."
"Well, later then," he waved Steve off, his attention having returned to Sarah. His hand soothingly stroked Sarah's silky hair as Sarah continued to shiver against him.
Sarah lifts her tear-stained face just enough to shoot me a triumphant smirk behind Marcus's back. Then she buries her face in his chest again, her shoulders shaking with what seems like sobs but could be laughter.
"You poor thing," Marcus murmurs, and the tenderness in his voice makes my heart crack. "Dr. Steve, she needs rest. Can we move her to the guest quarters?"
"Of course," Sarah whispers, her voice breathy and weak. "Whatever you think is best. You've been so kind... so strong..." Her hand traces patterns on his chest as she speaks, each touch seeming to bind him closer to her.
"Marcus—" I called his name again. He raised his head, his eyes still warm, but I felt something had changed. "Okay Aurora, you must be tired today. Your wound is not healed yet, you should go back to your room and rest. I will settle their siblings, and I will go to your room to talk."
His words were still gentle, but I could still sense that he was distracted. Jack beside him also advised me, "Aurora, go back and rest. We've got us to help Marcus." The other warriors nodded in agreement, except for Alexis.
It was unbelievable that this woman came out of nowhere, bearing suspicious wounds and an even more suspicious story, and they didn't even think anything of it. I was about to argue when Fiona's warning in my head stopped me." Watch and wait," Fiona was whispering." We need to understand what we're facing first."
As I turn to leave, I catch one last exchange between Marcus and Sarah.
"You'll be safe here," Marcus is saying, his voice gentle in a way he's never used with me. "I give you my word as future Alpha."
Sarah's response is barely above a whisper, but my enhanced hearing catches it clearly. "I knew from the moment I saw you that you were different from other Alphas. So powerful, yet so... compassionate." A pause, then even softer: "I've never felt safer than I do in your arms."
With Sarah's words, the mate bond told me Marcus's heart was beating faster, and the sound was the final blow to me. I fled the clinic, my injured leg protesting, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony in my heart.
Behind me, I can hear Sarah's perfect, musical laugh, followed by Marcus's deeper chuckle - a sound that had once been reserved only for me.
The wound in my leg throbs in time with my heartbeat, a physical reminder of my own sacrifice for Marcus. But unlike Sarah's miraculous recovery, my injury remains stubbornly unhealed - just like the new wound that has opened in my heart.
(Alexander's POV)
"Keep your power in check. You're just Alexis, a common wolf warrior. Nothing more."
I repeated this mantra as I patrolled the borders of the Storm Pack territory. Logan's words from our last conversation echoed in my mind.
"The assassin who killed your father has connections to both the Wolf Pack and the Storm Pack," he had said. "Be careful, Alexander. One wrong move could expose everything."
Now, disguised as a simple warrior named Alexis, I found myself witnessing something that made my carefully maintained control waver. In the clinic, the scene before my eyes was both captivating and startling -- Aurora, the future Luna of the Storm Tribe, her hands shimmering with pure white light, healing that woman.
"Moonlight Rose bloodline," my wolf Robert growled in my mind. "How could it be possible! We thought they were extinct."
I watched from the shadows, analyzing every detail. The healing power emanating from Aurora's hands was unmistakable – the signature ability of the legendary Moonlight Rose pack. But a few years before my father was assassinated, this Pack mysteriously disappeared overnight.
"She can't be just an ordinary werewolf," I thought, watching the pure white light dance across her skin. "The Storm Pack has been lying about her origins."
Dr. Stone's voice broke through my thoughts. The older healer's eyes narrowed as he examined the wounds on the newcomers. "But concerning. There are traces of black magic here."
I stepped forward then, unable to remain silent. "Dr. Stone is right," I said, making my presence known. "These wounds have an unusual pattern."
The woman – Sarah, she'd called herself – flinched at my words, pressing closer to Marcus Storm. My eyes narrowed at her obvious manipulation. The future Alpha was already falling for it, his protective stance and softened expression telling me everything I needed to know about his character.
"Fool," Robert snarled in my mind. "Can't even sense the deception right in front of him."
"They'll stay in the guest quarters," Marcus declared, his tone brooking no argument.
"Enough!" Marcus's voice carried his Alpha command, though it was nothing compared to the power I usually wielded. "You're out of line questioning your Alpha."
I forced myself to back down, though every instinct screamed to expose these intruders for what they were. The scent lingering around Sarah matched exactly what we'd found at the scene of the violent incident in the north – a fact I couldn't reveal without exposing my true identity.
I observed the interaction between Aurora and her wolf. Unlike Marcus, Aurora's intuition is sharp, and she turns a blind eye to Sara's behavior. Her white wolf's reaction to Sara confirms my suspicion——these newcomers are somewhat off.
Marcus' behavior towards Sara became increasingly intimate, while Aurora's confusion and pain also became more and more evident - Marcus even used the power of the Alpha to oppress his partner.
"This is ridiculous, how did he become the leader?" Robert howled again. The future leader of the wolf pack in the blizzard, actually courting a mysterious Omega, while his mate watched by the side.
Later that night, I waited until the pack house had quieted before slipping out to make a secure call to Logan.
"The situation is more complicated than we thought," I murmured into the phone, keeping my voice low. "The Storm Pack is harboring someone connected to the northern incidents. But there's more."
"What did you find?" Logan's voice crackled through the encrypted line.
"Their future Luna... she has the Moonlight Rose healing gift. It manifested tonight."
A sharp intake of breath. "Impossible. That bloodline was wiped out."
"Apparently not." I glanced toward Aurora's window, where a light still burned. "She doesn't seem to know what she is. She seems to be unaware of her own abilities, and she even appears to be frightened by her own abilities.The Storm Pack has been keeping her in the dark about her heritage."
"This changes everything," Logan said. "If there's a surviving member of the Moonlight Rose pack..."
"There may be some big secret in between, it must be related to my parents' affairs," I said and added. "The question is, why did Baofeng Bao hide her real identity? And why did these suspicious newcomers just appear at the moment of her power awakening?"
"Be careful, Alexander. If they realize who you are—"
"They won't," I cut him off. "But I need you to dig deeper into the Storm Pack's history. Focus on the time around my father's death and the Moonlight Rose pack's disappearance. There has to be a connection."
After ending the call, I stood in the shadows of the pack house, watching Aurora's window. Her silhouette paced back and forth, her agitation clear even from a distance. The power I'd witnessed tonight was remarkable – not just her healing ability, but her intuition about Sarah and Charles. While others were fooled by their act, she and her wolf had sensed the truth.
"She's strong," Robert observed. "Stronger than she knows.""Yes," I agreed quietly. "And that might make her a target.""I don't understand how her partner could be that idiot Marcus."Robert's words left me a bit unsure how to respond.
The moon hangs high in the sky, almost a full moon, and the Spring Moon Festival is approaching. If Sarah and Charles are indeed involved in the northern incident, it could be dangerous, but they do not appear to be strong.
I touched the shadow-walking pendant hidden beneath my shirt, my father's last gift to me. "I won't let another pack fall," I whispered to the night. "Not while I have the power to prevent it."
Movement caught my eye – Sarah, slipping out of her guest room and making her way toward Marcus's wing of the pack house. Her injuries, so dramatically displayed earlier, seemed to cause her no discomfort now.
Strangely, I also detected a scent on Sarah that was the smell of a lure for werewolves, something often used by werewolf hunters, which can influence the weak-willed werewolves and make them willingly walk into a trap. Why would she have this?
"We should follow her," Robert urged. "Catch her in whatever game she's playing."
But I held back, knowing that exposing her now would mean exposing myself. For now, I needed to watch, to gather evidence, to understand the web of secrets that seemed to center around this pack.
And most importantly, I needed to figure out why Aurora – this supposed ordinary wolf – possessed one of the most powerful gifts of an extinct bloodline. Because something told me that mystery was tied directly to my father's murder, and to the dark forces gathering around the Storm Pack.
I melted into the shadows as Sarah disappeared around a corner, her satisfied smile visible in the moonlight. Whatever game she was playing, whatever her connection to the violence in the north, one thing was certain – the Storm Pack's peaceful facade was about to shatter.
"Sleep well, little rose," I murmured, looking one last time at Aurora's window before disappearing into the darkness.