I brace myself as the rude doctor turns his attention fully on me. His eyes are cold, assessing, and I feel stripped bare under his clinical gaze.

"Ava Grey," he says, no longer even pretending to look at my chart. His tone is cold. He''s a frigid man of ice, and I want to take a pickaxe to chip him into tiny little ice pieces that I throw into the toilet.

I straighten my back as best I can around the pain, lifting my chin as high as it can go with the bandages and pain. I refuse to be looked down on by some asshole with a superiority complex.

I had that enough from my own pack!

His lip curls into a slight sneer. "Let''s get one thing straight—you''re getting far more care and attention than you deserve, but you''re stable, and you''ll be on your way to recovery soon enough. You can thank me for that later."

I shoot Vanessa an incredulous glance, and she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

Yeah. That''s what I thought.

He''s just taking the credit for all the work she''s put in. I can remember, now, her soft voice just before I lost consciousness. She was in the car with me, wasn''t she? Where was this guy? Probably at home, drinking some wine and browsing some sort of medical journal.

He looks at Vanessa too, but his face is full of disdain. "Honestly, I don''t know why we''re wasting resources on a Blackwood mutt."

The insult stings, but I force myself to keep my expression neutral. I won''t give him the satisfaction of a reaction.@@@@

Turning back to me, he levels me with a scrutinizing stare. "Tell me, are you a shifter or a human? Your scent varies too much for me to be certain."

I hate having to tell him anything, but he is the doctor providing care, so I answer. Reluctantly, and only with the partial truth. "I''m unable to shift."

Does him saving me really change the dynamic between us? He made it clear at the Lunar Gala that he wanted nothing to do with me. And even if he''s had a change of heart, I''m still just me. An outcast in my own pack. A shifter who can''t shift.

It feels like a lifetime ago now that he was trying to reconnect with me in Cedarwood. I hadn''t been ready for that then, either. Full of suspicion, which seems to be my default.

The logic of my own reasoning rings false now. It makes no sense at all. Lucas went to incredible lengths to get me out of that hellish situation. He put his own life on the line for me. He lost one of his men to rescue me. Surely that has to mean something.

It isn''t that his rejection should be erased, but—

He''s been apologizing since he found me in Cedarwood.

Is it okay to take his change of heart at face value?

Not necessarily to accept it all and walk into this connection without a second thought, but to give him a chance at starting over?

And yet my paranoia simmers beneath it all, questioning why he would change. Why, for someone like me?

After a lifetime of being treated like a burden, like a source of embarrassment and shame, it''s hard to shake those deeply ingrained feelings of unworthiness.

I look up at Vanessa, searching for the right words to explain the tangled mess of emotions swirling inside me. "I don''t know," I admit, my voice barely above a whisper.

Vanessa''s worry is present in her knitted brows and pursed lips. "I''ll suggest therapy along with your physical injuries. I''m sure there''s a lot you aren''t telling me. Having no ability to shift in a pack like Blackwood must have been..." Her voice trails off. "Well, we have some great therapists. No one like Dr.

Ellison, and I''m sure he won''t be here much longer once Alpha Lucas hears about this."