His Mate

Chapter fourteen

Aliyah sighed as she enjoyed Catherine's massaged on her back as she rubbed the medicine to heal her wounds. She refused herself from thinking about what happened in the woods or to even acknowledge that a nightwalker had bitten her. “What an interesting night, don’t you think?” Catherine’s voice sipped into her thoughts.
“Do you think they would be okay?” She asked about the wounded wolves.
Catherine sighed, “Yes they will, but we lost more.”
“How many?”
Catherine exhaled deeply, “fifteen. Ten were wounded.”
Aliyah shut her eyes at the numbers, they really did lose more and the sudden thought increased her burning hatred for a certain someone. “Don’t worry Catherine, we would have our revenge. Trust me.”
“Yes we will, but we have to know what we are up against first.”
“That’s not hard, it’s just a stupid…” Aliyah stopped, knowing that she almost spilled the beans.
“Just a what?” Catherine pressed.
“Nothing, don’t mind me.”
Catherine nodded and kept applying the balm. “Wow, either your healing speed has increased or my medicine has turned stronger that I wasn’t aware of.”
Aliyah frowned at that, “what are you talking about?”
“I have treated other wolves that were whipped but none of them healed this fast on the very night it happened. It often takes them a week to have their body looking like this.”
“What are you talking about?” Aliyah repeated, scared now as she got up from the bed and rushed to the mirror. She had noticed something was wrong earlier as well when her back wasn’t hurting as much as anymore. When she was in the shower, she had felt a soothing feeling that made her pass out in the bath and if Catherine had not entered, she was sure she would have still been in there asleep. She turned her back to the mirror and her eyes widened in horror at what she saw. Like Catherine had said, it would take a week for the strongest of wolves to heal from the whip marks but her body looked like she was just grazed by a knife, wounds that would heal completely by morning. How is that possible? She could remember the whip sliced through her flesh, leaving her back completely open that one clean look could see her bones.
Even if she didn’t have a look at her back at that time, she had seen countless wolves being whipped and how their back looked just after, so why don’t her own look like that? Why does it look like someone only gave her tiny cuts with a knife?
“Interesting, you are not limping.” Catherine said, calling her out of her thought.
Aliyah glanced at her and then her eyes went to her injured leg. That’s true, she could remember Sean had to help her to the execution ground because she couldn’t walk on her own and just now she had rushed to the mirror without a single ounce of pain. What is happening?
Catherine stood up and approached the little girl. “I have treated you ever since you were a child but you have never healed this fast. Even if the whip mark could be considered possible, healing from a Garuda flower so quickly…” she shook her head, “it’s not possible. Do you why know it hurt earlier? It was because there was still some poison in it and it would have taken me a few days to finally detoxify it and in that few days, your ankle is supposed to be hurting but you walked so perfectly now. I had noticed it when you walked out from the bathroom but had thought you hadn’t felt the pain because you were drowsy but now…” she sighed.
Aliyah was going crazy as she tried to figure out what was wrong with her. Even she knew she shouldn’t have healed so quickly. With how her back looked now, she would be completely healed by morning and it would look she was never whipped, how possible? And her leg, why doesn’t it hurt anymore?
“When I first noticed how quickly you were healing, I was first worried but then I figured it out,” Catherine said and Aliyah glanced up at her sharply. “Your fast healing has to do with this mark, who gave it to you?”
Mark, what mark? Aliyah asked as she turned quickly to the mirror and her eyes went to her neck. Right there, where her mate should have marked her was sitting a blood red flower. Her eyes widened in shock as she stared at the mark. Just then, she remembered the incident in the woods, the horrific look on his face when he glanced at her neck. How his bite had turned pleasurable, how touching her neck brought her a soothing sensation. It turned out that while biting her, the stupid idiot had marked her? He marked me! Aliyah screamed in her mind as her whole body was consumed in horror. She started scrubbing at her neck, wanting to wipe away the hideous mark. Marked by a nightwalker, how amazing, she rushed into the bathroom immediately and turned on the shower.
Reaching for her bathing soap, she started scrubbing her neck some more, praying that the stupid mark was just a stain and that it would be washed off. She kept scrubbing and soon, her neck started hurting her but she knew the mark was still there, she could feel its presence every time her hand touched it. No, no, this can’t be happening to me, it can’t. Why me? Why me? She kept asking herself as she broke into a sob and slumped on the bathroom floor, the shower running down on her.
Catherine sighed seeing her like that and she went to her. She squatted beside her, not minding that she was getting soaked by the shower. “Listen, I understand you didn’t know the mark is there but I also know that you know what that thing is. Otherwise, why would it just take you from your punishment and only to leave you lying in the woods? I believe that this is its way of telling us that you are its and no one should hurt you. Whatever it is, it must be a strong one if it’s healing properties can be transferred from its mark to heal you.”
“No, no, no,” Aliyah shook her head, “I can’t belong to him, I can never belong to him. This is an abomination. I am a wolf without a mate, how can I show up with a mark? An unusual mark in fact. There is no wolf park that has this kind of mark. Yes we do have flowers, but never a blood red one, never,” she sobbed.
Catherine stared at her, believing even more that she knew who gave her that mark and what he is. She exhaled deeply and stood up, turning off the shower. “Get up and dry yourself Aliyah, crying isn’t going to solve anything. From the looks of it, you don’t need my healing balm anymore so there is no reason for me to be here.”
Aliyah glanced up at her sharply, she touched her back and her skin was as smooth as always and there wasn’t even a single pain. She has completely healed. How?
“To be honest, I really want to know what that thing is but it’s obvious you don’t want to talk about it so I would leave you to rest now,” Catherine turned to leave.
Aliyah sat up and grabbed her hand, “Catherine, please, can you not tell my father about this? I can’t imagine what would happen.”
“I can, he will go in search of that thing that forcefully marked his daughter and he might die in the process. What I saw tonight is not something we should play around with and I am definitely not ready to rid this pack of its alpha. So rest assured that I won’t be telling the Alpha anything until I know what it is myself.”
Aliyah nodded and stood up, “thank you,” she sniffled as a few tears ran down her cheeks.
Catherine smiled and ran her fingers on her wet hair. She wanted to say comforting words but she doesn’t know what to say. She sighed and led her out of the bathroom. “You can cry here, on the comfort of your bed. It would be better than lying in the cold floor of the shower. Try and have a good rest, maybe you will feel better in the morning.”
Aliyah scoffed, “I will only feel better if I wake up in the morning and this is gone,” she pointed at her neck where the mark was and Catherine doesn’t know if the mark had turned redder or if it was her endless scrubbing that left the whole area on her neck red.
“Marks doesn’t work that way.”
“I know,” Aliyah sniffled and walked over to her bed. Climbing into it, she wrapped the duvet around her.
Catherine watched her, worried about her but she had to remind herself that as a wolf, it would be difficult for to catch a cold. She sighed and packed her medicines and with one more glance at her, she left the room. As soon as the door closed, Aliyah let go of the water-works.