The devil doctor

Prologue

From the Journal of Bill Grimley

I was born to a she-wolf who deemed me worthless, except when I provided her with a convenient spot for the back of her hand. I learned well to avoid her, to hide in corners, to find a way to be far from her reach. As soon as my legs could keep up, I began to accompany my father on his nightly runs to the graveyards.

He was a grave robber, you see. And he treated me much more kindly than my mum ever did. He saw potential in me, because I was willing to help him dig for the treasures. That was what he called them. Often the rich members of the high packs were buried with their jewelry. Some fancy Alphas had gold teeth. All were cadavers, needed by the hospital for teaching potential physicians about the intricacies of the human body, and they put coins in my father’s pockets.

I never feared the dead. They could no longer hurt me.

When my mum died, my father took her straightaway to the hospital because she would fetch us a tidy sum. But that time… after they paid my father… I lingered about, caught glimpses of the reverence with which the bodies were handled and the secrets they revealed.

When I returned home, my father was gone. I never saw him again. I don’t know if he was robbed and killed on the way for his full pockets or if he decided he wanted to be rid of me, realizing my mum was correct and I wasn’t worth the effort of keeping alive.

I was eight at the time, and soon found myself on the streets where I fell in with a fellow who went by the name of Feagan. He managed a group of child thieves, and soon taught me to rob Alphas of their silk handkerchiefs. My fingers were nimble and quick, well suited to the task.

However, Fate is a fickle lady. Eventually it was discovered that one of Feagan’s lads was actually a lost child of an Alpha, and when Luc went to live with his grandfather, the Alpha of Claybourne, he took me with him. I was tutored in mathematics, penmanship, and reading. When I was of a proper age, I gained admittance to a teaching hospital.

I was comfortable around the cadavers, eager to understand all they could share with me. In time, I was able to apply what I learned. I became a renowned physician, treating the poor and ranked alike. Eventually, my skills became known to the lycan queen, and she bade me to serve at her pleasure, which I did gladly.

But I never forgot my humble beginnings, never forgot that the dead always tell their secrets.