His Luna, His Enemy, His Doctor

hum of urgency: the rolling squeak of gurney wheels, the clipped cadence of nurses calling out vitals, the constant electronic pulse of moni

t isn'

" someone yells f

r than my mind does. Hair tied back, hands washed, gloves ready, eyes scanning the board

sprinting for miles. A third keeps pressure on something under a blood-soaked sheet. Behind th

ly thirties, found off Blackridge Highway near the woodland service road. Multiple penetrat

ask as we steer int

burner phone. We followed coordin

but my brain stores it. The way you store anything

the side as the team transf

rse says, eyes on the monitor. "Heart rate

ively hemorrhaging on my table. That alone would be enough to make me wary. Then

e kind of mass you see in working bodies, in fighters, in men shaped by violence. His chest rises with shallow breaths that shouldn't be possible through the

back th

uries a

ss his ribs, deep enough that I can see the pale glint of bone under blood. There are puncture wounds near his shoulder and abdomen, but the spacing and

econd IV line. Type and cross. Prep O n

someone who has watched too much death and chosen not to flinch. An intern h

" he says,

tell him without looking up. "Firm p

ng out more blood than it is. That's another thing that unsettles me. The sheet is soa

p?"

t one," Helena re

d loss. Still, the numbers don't add up. A man with these injuries an

ery. His pulse beats steady beneath my glove, strong a

say. "He's not pro

e. A cut at the corner of his mouth that looks like it came from a blunt impact, not a fall. I've

sharp tang of blood and antiseptic. It is not cologne. It is not sweat. It's somet

ld mean

makes my sto

ready," He

attention on the t

p back but remain near the doorway, as if they can't quite believe they've left him here. When the tube slid

nounces, lifting the

ars. Shadows. Bone. The faint white o

need imaging-CT if he can tole

or again. "His pressure's r

blood yet. We haven't corrected anything that would produce that effect. It

the depth. The cut is ugly, but the edges look... tight. Like they're shrinking, dr

and lo

oser than they w

ds behave. They do not close like that. Not without sutures, not witho

ce is careful now, as if

my voice comes out flatter

s it into

tincts, the ones that kept me alive through residency nights where we lost patients

ide the wound. Controlled. Minimal.

ads up, bright

t tightens, seals, and disappears

light, too cold. The room feels like it's t

e snaps to m

hispers, "Wh

not ready to speak aloud. "Continue with labs," I say, forcing my voice into its profession

drug? A condition I've never encountered? The list is short because medicine doesn't inclu

elids

itor st

ing up?" s

im. We intubated him. The

ashes

open, the entire room

o

sunlight. This is an unnatural, luminous gold that looks like it's lit from withi

locks onto me

und my wrist, fingers hard enough to hurt through the glove. Gasps ri

I've been swung at, cursed at, spat on. I know how to

travels up my arm and into my chest, as if some

ot elec

els o

expected to hear. For the smallest moment, my vision sharpens. Sounds become too crisp. I can hear the

is head slightly, nostrils flaring, and I have th

low, rough with pain and something

," he

room. It hits my ribs like a fist, reverbe

ct than choice. "Security," Helena snaps

e restraints we didn't even have time to place are absent, and he looks

react properly, th

nu

orde

in b

them. They move like they've rehearsed this entrance, like they've done it before. Two of them step in f

" he says, v

ou can't be in here. Thi

tly, and the gesture is calm enoug

steel into my tone. "No one removes a patien

me. They are too cold.

is too smooth. No trembling. No dizziness. No collapse. He is a wall of muscle and raw pr

to blood loss. Instead, he steadies himself with a hand on the bed rail and look

ave touched me,"

nt I hate myself for the tremor in

e's memorizing it, like he already

loser to him. "Alpha, we need t

ph

, not in a hospital, not in a trauma bay, b

oat, then my wrist, then back to my eyes. The movement feels intimate in a way that

a step

ir ch

patient and an unpredictable one. I know danger. I've walked

s diff

standing too c

n a way I can't explain. My pulse picks up. My skin warms. Some part of me, buried

whisper before I

o a smile but into something sha

mber

it in my own ribcage. He sways again, and this time it's more pro

says, though the mo

cally, my doctor brain fighting back

man interrupts, eyes

cient. Unquestioning. Like the hospital is n

ollowing. "He needs surgery. H

ad and gives me a look that chill

. "That's not h

eyes are half-lidded now, but they find mine again. Even fad

this time, but it st

u," he says. "You

the air they leave behind feels too

speaks. Then the trauma ba

ust hap

u see h

e, are y

something stupid like chase a convoy of armed strangers into the night. "Aria," she say

grabbed me. I can still feel the imprint of his fi

nd it's the truth. "I do

ch my face. "Do we

otocol says yes. Every part

ng that flared when he touched me-ti

r myself sa

s me more than th

s blurring past, my mind replaying the night in fragments that refuse to settle into sense. I

wash off the feeling of him. It doesn't. When I wrap myself in a tow

creating meaning where there is none. That t

keeps driftin

d feels warmer than

y reading, but the words slide off my mind. Outside, the city wakes up, car horns st

methin

grip the edge of the coffee table. The pain isn't like indigestion or muscle

ill, breathin

in. I hate that. I hate that he has drag

I hea

tant, like a growl c

My hallway is empty.

n't coming f

ng from i

ls pressing into wood. I try to laugh at myself, to dismi

ir sh

with a change in tempe

nce of my apartment. The door is still

ock c

o

ibe

nward, just enough for shadow to spill across the

werful filling the space, like the

t by the dim corridor light. Tall. Bro

gnite in th

or behind him as if he owns it,

in the trauma bay, but it carri

and the way he speaks the title makes it feel

force my voice to work.

ep forward, and my body reacts-heat rising under my

d his mouth curves slightly, like he

murmurs,