Her Forgotten Mate

Chapter 3: The Healer’s Rooms

Elizabeth woke up in her new bedroom, and for the first night in a long time, she couldn't remember what she'd dreamt about.

That wasn't to say she hadn't thought about him. The man she dreamt about that somehow existed here, in the Moirai Pack. She must have met him somewhere before, but where? She hadn't even gotten his name last night, not that she would have remembered. She was very bad with names.

Still, he'd offered to show her around today, so she might see him again, she thought wistfully.

Those thoughts led her to her fiancé, the person she wished more than anyone in the world she could see again. She wondered what he would think of this place, of the Moirai Pack and her new home. She missed him.

She moved around her little apartment quickly, getting ready for the day. Whoever had set her apartment up had been kind enough to stock it with groceries as well.

She'd brought her clothes with her, though. So she ruffled through her suitcases and trunks, and pulled out black jeans and a white shirt. She didn't have to be too formal for her first day at work.

She was told there would be a coat for her at the healer's rooms.

She made herself breakfast of wild salmon, seeing her freezer was stocked with about three whole fish, and prepared some toast and coffee.

The apartment had come fully furnished. That was the deal. They would provide her with everything. A house, furniture, appliances, everything inside of it, completely set up. In return, she would join their Pack as their healer. Everything was hers, but if she ever left the pack for whatever reason, the house had to be given back to the Pack.

It made sense. Who would she sell it to? If she left the pack, she wouldn't be welcomed here again. And Wolves just didn't do visitors on their lands.

She had a small mailbox outside her cabin door. It would list her patients for the day, and various other important notices. The Alpha and his Luna were to always be her absolute priority, so if they needed her during the day, she would be expected to drop anything and everything and attend to either one of them. Today though, she had a normal list of patients she was supposed to see.

Elizabeth retrieved her mail, along with her patients list, and went through them as she ate breakfast. She sorted through her patient list, about three pages long, but nothing too extravagant, and then found three more pages underneath it.

*Healer Chores to be done Daily*

All bedding in Healer Rooms to be washed, dried and replaced.

All bathrooms to be cleaned.

Every patient room to be cleaned.

All dirt to be thrown away outside by the dumpsters.

All towels to be replaced at the end of the day. Used ones to be washed.

Windows to be cleaned, curtains to be washed.

The list went on and on; it was like someone had detailed every possible thing that could be done, then added more, and then made some up. Elizabeth stared at the list, absolutely confused. Were these delivered to her by mistake? There was no way she was expected to do all of this while seeing to patients.

She made it all the way to the end of the list, and saw the signature of the Beta, Bass.

Alright, so it wasn't sent to her by accident. It was just part of her duties.

Elizabeth didn't mind the list of chores; she was more than happy to work hard. She was also very grateful to be given a home and everything here. But, she wondered, how was she supposed to function doing all this and seeing to injured paws and pups?

Being so overworked, she was worried she would end up making a mistake.

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Her day wasn't too bad once she'd gotten in the swing of everything. She'd come up with a system for herself.

She stripped every single piece of linen that could be stripped. She'd taken bedding, sheets, towels, curtains, everything she could find that was on her list of to be washed, and started them in the huge washing machines before doing anything else.

Then she swept and mopped all the patient's rooms and the entrance room. She'd forgone her personal healer room for now.

Then, while the rooms and floors were drying, she'd quickly hung up all the washing on the lines that were provided behind the healers tents, and went back inside. When she deemed the floors and surfaces cleaned and dried, she put new sheets, towels and bedding on everything.

All before her first patients ever arrived.

As her patients arrived, first a little boy with an injured paw he'd managed to half transform while hunting, she set up her salves, ointments and equipment as she needed them for each patient.

It meant she kept each patient a bit longer, but she didn't mind. She spoke to all of them as she rooted around for the stuff she needed to treat each of them with, and each of her patients had things to tell her about her new home.

Like all Wolf Packs, the Moirai were ruled by their Alpha's word. But his word was kind and wise. It seemed everyone in the pack had good things to say about their Alpha, and having just acquired a healer for their Pack, everyone was especially grateful.

When she asked about the name of the Pack, one old woman had given her a very strange answer.

“The Moirai are those who control the strands of fate and time," the woman explained. “They can create life, lengthen or lessen it, and end it. But they can also change it. They work the grand design of time, they can shift it as they wish, change the course of people's lives. The can even undo things that have already been done, they can change rivers, remove memories."

The lady had stopped her story as Elizabeth rooted through a box to find some herbs and a salve for the woman's burn that wouldn't heal on its own.

“Why is the name of this pack the Moirai?" Elizabeth asked, more into the cupboard than anything else.

The woman waited until Elizabeth turned back to her, applying the salve over the burn wound.

“The Lunas get their gifts from the Moirai; truly, some believe the Moirai were three Luna sisters. Able to change the tides of time, by seeing what could be, and helping to shape the future." The woman paused to draw breath; she was old, talking was not as easy for her as it once had been.

Elizabeth almost wanted to tell her that she didn't have to speak, but she could see the woman wanted to weave her tale.

“We have a prophecy for our Pack, an old superstition. It's said we will one day have the most powerful Luna of all. Someone that the Moirai will share their secrets with. A Luna with perfect sight."

All Lunas had sight; her wisdom matched the Alpha's strength. But perfect sight was impossible. The future was too changeable to be predicted perfectly.

“A Luna that will give life," The woman held Elizabeth's gaze. “A Luna that will know how to lengthen it." She patted the bandage Elizabeth had wrapped around her wound. “And a Luna that will end it."

“That is," Elizabeth cleared her throat. “Some belief, hey."

The woman patted Elizabeth on the hand, “It will be some Luna."

The woman left without saying anything else, and Elizabeth watched her last patient leave, the young woman exhausted from the day.

She went home immediately after finishing her chores, and she just managed a quick shower before collapsing on her bed, exhausted.

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James was almost ready to snarl at Bass when he saw the duties Elizabeth was carrying out. At first he'd been confused, wondering why she was doing those tasks. Then he just assumed she was helping out wherever she could, in between seeing to patients. Then when he saw her sit down on a random wall to close her eyes for five minutes, clearly exhausted, he knew no healer would endanger their patients by overworking themselves, and that she must think those are her responsibilities.

James had been half-way ready to rip Bass's throat out, when he stopped himself.

James prided himself on his patience. He had become Alpha through patience and perseverance. James had trained, fought and served his old Alpha dutifully. But he had not been their Alpha's son. He had, truly, never wanted to be Alpha.

But when the old Alpha, Stephan, had died, his son Jackson had challenged James to a fight. He'd felt threatened by James. Why exactly, James himself couldn't say. But they fought, and James had won.

And all he'd had to do was be patient.

So James watched, and waited.