Chapter 51 The Healing

Chapter 51 The Healing

Luna's POV
Sarah's hospital room felt wrong the moment I walked in.
Too many machines beeping, too many people in medical scrubs moving with urgent efficiency, and Sarah lying unconscious in the bed with her pregnant belly showing visible distortions under the thin hospital gown.
My wolf recoiled immediately, every instinct screaming that what was growing inside Sarah was fundamentally wrong.
Dr. Chen gestured me closer to the bed. "We've stabilized her as much as we can, but the child is rejecting the containment. Without intervention in the next hour, we lose them both."
I looked at Sarah's face, pale and sweating even in unconsciousness, and felt no satisfaction in seeing her suffer.
Just exhaustion and the weight of a choice I'd already made.
"What do I need to do?" I asked.
"Maintain physical contact with her abdomen and channel your Blessed Wolf healing energy directly to the child." Dr. Chen pulled up more monitors. "The process will be painful and exhausting. Your wolf will be exposed to the hybrid's unnatural energy, which could cause permanent damage."
"How much damage?"
"We don't know. This has never been attempted before." She looked at me seriously. "You could lose access to your wolf entirely if the hybrid's energy corrupts yours."
Damien's hand was on my shoulder immediately. "No. This is too dangerous."
"I'm doing it anyway."
"Luna—"
"Theo's dreams have never been wrong." I looked at him. "He said this matters. That something important changes after I help her. I have to trust that."
"Even if it destroys your wolf?"
"Even then."
His eyes flashed gold but he stepped back, giving me space to move closer to the bed even though everything in him wanted to stop this.
I appreciated that more than I could say.
I placed my hands on Sarah's belly, feeling the wrongness of the hybrid child even through her skin.
The medical team positioned themselves around us with monitors and equipment I didn't understand.
"Whenever you're ready," Dr. Chen said quietly.
I closed my eyes and reached for the Blessed Wolf power that I'd only just started to understand.
It came easier than expected, warm energy flowing through my hands and into Sarah's body.
For a moment it was almost peaceful, like touching something ancient and good that had been waiting for me to find it.
Then the hybrid child responded.
The sensation hit me like ice water in my veins, violently wrong and hungry in ways that made my wolf howl in pain.
The child's energy was cold and parasitic, pulling at my power like it was trying to drain me dry.
I gasped but kept my hands in place.
"Luna, your vitals are dropping," someone said urgently.
"Keep going," Dr. Chen ordered. "The child is stabilizing."
Sarah's eyes flew open suddenly and she screamed, her back arching off the bed.
Our eyes met and for the first time I saw something other than calculated cruelty in her expression.
I saw shock and recognition and something that might have been shame.
She was seeing me save her life despite having every reason to let her die, and the reality of that was breaking through whatever lies she'd been telling herself.
"Luna," she gasped. "You're actually—why are you—"
"Shut up and let me work," I said through gritted teeth.
The healing took hours.
My wolf howled in agony as the hybrid's energy scraped against mine, trying to corrupt what it touched. I felt my power draining faster than should be possible, felt my wolf growing weaker by the minute.
The medical team called out vital signs in urgent voices, tracking both Sarah's improvement and my deterioration.
Damien stayed close, his hands clenched and his eyes pure gold, ready to pull me away if the damage became critical.
But I didn't stop.
I channeled energy until my vision started going dark at the edges, until my hands went numb, until my wolf felt like a distant echo instead of a living presence.
"The child is stable," Dr. Chen announced finally. "Sarah's organs are responding. They're both going to survive."
I tried to pull my hands back but couldn't move, my body not responding to commands.
Damien caught me as I collapsed, lifting me away from the bed before I could fall.
"Luna? Can you hear me?"
"Yeah," I managed, my voice barely a whisper. "Did it work?"
"They're both alive." His arms tightened around me. "You saved them."
Sarah was crying, tears running down her face as she looked at me being held by Damien.
"Why?" she asked. "Why would you save me after everything I did?"
I didn't have energy to answer, but Sarah kept talking, words spilling out like she couldn't hold them back anymore.
"Vivienne promised the child would be powerful. That it would help me rise in pack status, that Marcus would give me everything I wanted." Her voice broke. "But she lied. The doctors just told me while you were healing. The baby isn't hybrid at all."
I forced my eyes open. "What?"
"It's pure human. No supernatural genetics." Sarah's hands went to her belly. "Vivienne lied about everything. The pregnancy was never special. She just needed me to believe it was so I'd play my part in destroying you."
The words didn't make sense through my exhaustion.
If the baby wasn't hybrid, then why had it almost killed Sarah?
Why had it required Blessed Wolf healing?
Dr. Chen stepped closer, her expression grim. "The pregnancy complications were artificially induced. Someone has been slowly poisoning Ms. Lynd for weeks, creating symptoms that mimicked hybrid rejection."
"Poisoning?" Marcus's voice came from the doorway where he'd been listening. "Who would—"
"Vivienne," I said, understanding clicking into place even through my exhaustion. "She poisoned Sarah to create this exact situation. To force me to use my Blessed Wolf healing and prove I could be manipulated into helping my enemies."
Sarah sobbed harder. "I'm having a human baby. No special powers. No pack status. Just a normal child that Vivienne convinced me was worth destroying people's lives for."
And Vivienne had just proven that she could make me dance exactly when and how she wanted.
Even knowing it was a trap, even understanding the manipulation, I'd still done exactly what she'd engineered me to do.