Chapter 2
Accusing me of stealing again? I stared at the Beta. "When I found him, he was wearing rags and nothing else. If he ever had a moonstone, those rogues must have taken it."
"We already looked into that. They didn't have it," he said.
"So you're blaming me? He was a lost man with no memory when I found him, okay? He was a pushover.
"He could have lost that stone himself. Or someone could have stolen it. I helped him, and this is how you repay me?" I let that sink in.
"Chloe, our investigation shows you received 10 thousand dollars six months ago. Your clinic wasn't giving bonuses then, and you had no other income. You have two friends who don't make much money. No boyfriend, no family. So where did that money come from?"
They'd dug deep. They'd already decided I stole the moonstone and sold it.
"Tell me where the stone is," he continued. "I'll pay top dollar to get it back. As for this half million, consider it payment for the time you spent with our heir. Take it, and don't use your past kindness as leverage against him."
His tone was polite, but every word stung like venom.
I wasn't too proud to take the money. But if I accepted it and the moonstone never turned up, that check would be my funeral fund.
I wished I'd never saved Ethan. None of this would be happening.
"I never saw that moonstone," I said again.
Maybe it was the look in my eyes, but the Beta frowned. After a long pause, he said, "Fine, you'd better not."
I was losing my mind. I helped someone, and now my life was in shambles. What had I done wrong?
*****
A week later, I went to work.
Just as I sat down, an elderly couple stormed in, and the nurse couldn't stop them.
Before I could react, the old man swung a wrench at me. I barely dodged, and the wrench slammed into the table, leaving a dent.
I immediately told the nurse to call the pack guards.
"Give me back my son!" the old woman screamed.
She handled the weeping. Her husband handled the violence. They had their system.
The guards arrived and pinned the old man down. Then the woman pulled a silver dagger from her pocket and lunged at me.
A fellow healer yanked me out of the way, but the blade cut his hand.
I checked him immediately, terrified of nerve damage. He was a lead healer too. Our hands were everything.
Once the guards got things under control, the couple made a scene in the clinic, crying that I'd killed their son and demanding justice.
I looked up the records. Their son had been in a car accident. He came in with massive internal bleeding. I did everything I could, but no one could have saved him, not even the Moon Goddess.
The den elder tried to explain, but they wouldn't listen. They wanted me dead.
In the end, the pack enforcers had to drag them out.
Over the next two weeks, people kept showing up to cause trouble. The den elder had to suspend me.
Before I left, the den elder asked, "Did you piss someone off?"
That was when it finally clicked. Ethan was behind all this.
He wasn't just a wolf in sheep's clothing. He was a total scumbag.
I didn't even get a chance to confront him. The moment I stepped outside the clinic, I was kidnapped.