A Fight For Their Luna’s Heart: InBetween Three Kings

Hazel’s POV I jolted awake on my bed with a cold sweat on my face as my tiny door got busted open by two bald, fierce-looking guards who walked into my room. “You have been summoned to the Pack infirmary,” revealed one of them, motioning for me to get up as they drew closer. Their noses flared as they stood beside my bed, glaring at me with their hands in their pockets. Consumed by panic, I drew back a little, heart throbbing quickly as I was yet to fully recover from the last healing session that I had but I knew there was no use fighting it. No one gave a damn about me anyway. As I rose from the bed to avoid being manhandled by those men, I asked, “Am I being taken to hold a long session or a really short one?” Infuriated by my question, they grabbed me by the hands and began to pull. “Don't you dare ask us such a dumb question ever again,” warned one of the men as they dragged me out of the room straight to the Pack's infirmary. The Pack's infirmary was a large one. Painted all white, save for the snake sign in front of it, it contained more than 100 rooms and had a large conference room, enough to hold more than 300 people. When I was much younger, I used to love going there just to admire the magnificence of the building. Now, I dreaded the mere mention of its name as it reminded me of nothing but pain. As we got to the building, the guards pushed me into the conference room, causing me to almost fall but I managed to keep my composure. I was met with three children, barely breathing as they lay on the ground whilst their mothers sat beside them sobbing profusely with their teeth gritted. “What the hell are you waiting for, freak? Come over here and do your job!” “If my son dies, I'll make you pay for it with your life, you moron. Why stand over there when you can help us?” The women instantly yelled at me on sighting me, barking at me to heal their kids at once without even thinking to ask politely. Everyone in the Pack felt entitled to my powers. They didn't even think about the consequences for me. All they wanted was to use me whenever they pleased and there was nothing I could do about it. “Please calm down, she'll do what she ought,” Rosa, the Pack nurse said to the women, doing her best to calm them down before turning her attention to me. “And you… What the hell do you think you're doing standing around like a moron?” She barked at me as rudely as she could with her left hand on her waist. “Get to work, quickly! We cannot afford to lose any of these children.” “But you can afford to lose me,” I voiced in my mind as I walked over to the children and placed my hand on the first. Ignoring the pain in my limbs and the emptiness of my stomach, I crouched before her and began to sing under my breath. That was how my power worked. As I sang into the child's ears, I felt my powers begin to move through me into the child, coursing through every part of her body until she sneezed, fully recovered from the plague that was slowly spreading through the Pack. My bones felt like they'd been hammered and my eyes were hazy. Yet, I had two more children to heal and I had to do it. As I crouched up to the second child, I inhaled deeply. Tears rolled down my eyes as I held onto his little hand. Then I began to sing again, more slowly this time as it was the only way to conserve my energy. By the time I was done healing all three kids, I could barely even move and my breathing had become laboured. I clenched my teeth as I lay on the ground and writhed in pain. I watched on as the women picked up their children and threw me a disdainful glance as if they were disgusted by my presence before walking away without saying a word. “Ah,” I groaned, clutching my stomach with my right hand as I bathed the ground with my tears. The Pack nurse walked back inside too, pleased that I had healed the kids but what she didn't know was that the healing process wasn't quite as straightforward as it sometimes looked. Each time I healed someone, I didn't just take away their sickness. I took their pain, all of it into my body and felt it just as much as they did. That was the reason why I wasn't supposed to perform healing sessions on multiple people all at once because I got to take in all their pains inside me. It was why I was never supposed to try to heal anyone until I was fully rested from the previous session but no one cared about that. They didn't mind that I was always curled up in pain after sessions. It didn't bother them that I always sobbed, overwhelmed with the pain that quickly overwhelmed me after taking their ailment away. To them, I was nothing but a tool to be used for their selfish gains and I couldn't do anything about it. I'd been an orphan since I could remember. I had no idea who my parents were or if they ever lived in the Lycan Pack. All I knew was that I was an ordinary human living amongst lycans. At least, I thought so at the time. I lived a pretty normal life. Despite not being one of them, the Lycans treated me well. I had friends; great friends whom I shared everything with and who showed me true love and affection. The only thing that I lacked was a parent to call my own. That was until my friends and I went into the forest to play despite being warned not to by the older lycans. We wondered why they always tried to make our lives as teenagers less fun and decided to ignore their words and at first, it seemed like a brilliant idea as we ran around the forest cheerfully, climbing the trees and jumping from one to another until… “Ah! My neck,” one of my friends yelled, holding onto his neck as he fell to the ground from one of the trees. We ran up to him and tried to help as much as we could but there was very little we could do except stare at each other's faces, wondering what we were going to say to his mother. Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to place my hands on his neck and I did. The others stood by the side and observed while I brought my mouth close to his ears and began to hum a song. Slowly, I felt something proceed from me into him and in turn, I began to feel some pain around my neck. In a few minutes, he opened up his eyes once again, full of energy and I lay on the floor to recover. “What just happened?” One of the girls asked as they all gazed at me in shock. “You're a freak!” Another yelled and as I stood and tried to get to them, they all fled from me as fast as they could, screaming as they ran. That day, I lost all of my friends and when they told the story to the rest of the Pack, everyone deserted me and I became the freak of the Pack. That night, as I lay on my bed, tears streamed down my cheeks as I wondered what wrong I had done by healing someone. I had thought that they'd be glad that I saved all of us from trouble. Little did I know that my gift would become a curse to me. From that day, everyone in the Pack began to ignore me. They wouldn't even sit to eat with me anymore. They treated me like I was invisible until the day when one of the Pack members lay on his bed, on the verge of death. Two men approached me while I sat on a wooden bench in the garden, enjoying the sweet smell of the Lotus and rose flowers which filled the garden. They led me to the sick man and urged me to heal him. When I did, I thought my life would return to normal, having proved to them that I could be very useful. It didn't. Instead, they kept me under close watch and turned me into a tool for their use. They forced me to heal anyone they chose at any time of the day, even in the thick of the night. I hated myself and wished it could end. I tried to end it myself but always stopped short, hoping that somehow, things could get better but they didn't. Finally, I helped myself off the ground after regaining most of my strength. I shook off the thought that no one cared to help me off the ground and hastily made my way to the Pack's large kitchen so I could get something to eat. Stepping into the kitchen full of several maids and cooks with their sky-blue uniforms on, I picked up a plate from the large, blue rack just above the sink and gave it to the cook so she could give me some food. Food was a big deal to me as I was only served a meal each day and I had to earn it by healing every sick person who needed my help. Any day that I couldn't, I was made to sleep without food and expected to resume my healing duties the next day. “Here you go.” The cook handed the meal over to me and I smiled in gratitude. “Thank you,” I muttered and left the kitchen. As I trudged back home, I blocked out the mocking voices of random Pack members who were always keen to rile me up. “Walk away, freak! You're just a loser!” One of my old friends derided me as the others laughed and spat more demeaning words at me. It was my life for as long as I could remember and I loved to believe that I was used to it, even if it still killed me slowly on the inside.