That made her pause entirely. “The one under Bertrand’s command?”
“No. There’s a smaller one, still under Wulfbane control. Far less output, but the seams are cleaner. Safer. It’s dark and damp. It won’t smell as pleasant as a walk in a rose garden, but you’ll get to see the crystal at its source.”
“I’d like that.”
Of course she’d want to see for herself. JingYi had never recoiled from ugliness. She chased truth, however foul the road. She’d examined a corpse for the cause of death without flinching.
“We’ll go,” he said, voice firmer now, “first thing tomorrow.”
“After I check on Annett. I promised Ulrik.”
“Of course.”
Silence enveloped them. The crickets hummed beyond the windows. Something had changed. Not just duty. A delicate tethering connecting them.
The raven and the wolf, an auspicious pairing, they said. He’d always dismissed it as pretty heraldry, empty words for a political match. But lying here, vulnerable under her careful hands, he understood it differently.
Where the wolf held the line, the raven watched from above. She saw what he could not—the subtle poison in a bruise, the suffering in a village. He provided the strength, the shield. Different vantage, different instincts, but stronger when paired.
For the first time, he didn’t see a liability or a duty. He saw . . . apartner.
The thought settled him with a rightness that felt deeper than bone.
CHAPTER 28
JINGYI
The needles had been in long enough. She moved to his side and let her fingers hover for a breath before removing them one by one, careful not to disturb the surrounding muscle. His skin was warm beneath her touch. Smooth in some places, scarred in others, old wounds telling stories she didn’t know about.
He didn’t stir. Only his breath moved, steady and even. When she reached the last one at the base of his spine, her hand stalled. He had a soldier’s body—broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist, back lined with strength earned, not inherited. Alexander Wulfbane would never preen, but his form was made to lead, protect, endure.
She didn’t think the sight of his male beauty would make a difference. She hadn’t expected to care so much.
Pulling the final needle free, she stepped back, the distance a poor shield against the warmth in her belly.
‘You’re running warm.’He’d known in the garden. He’d smelled her Heat approaching and given her the grace of a lie to hide behind. In that moment, his restraint had felt kinder than any touch.
Jingyi forced her healer’s instinct forward, slicing through the fog. She leaned over him, scanning his back—not the landscape of his shoulders, but what she dreaded: the bruised shadow of poison. She found none. Only faint, healthy pink dots, already fading.
The needles were clean. He was safe.
Her last defence fell. Her breath left her in a sigh. Now there was only the man, the bed, and the warmth suffusing her blood—a slow, insistent tide.
She swallowed, her throat closing. “You may turn over now,” she croaked.
He obeyed without question, rolling onto his back with the same unhurried ease. And just like that, she was looking at him again. His chest rose and fell, the lines of him elegant and powerful. No reluctance, no shame, only the silent confidence of a man who knew his body was strong enough to be seen, be vulnerable, even in front of an Omega.
Her mouth went dry.
He wasn’t the first Alpha she’d treated with needle therapy, but he was calmer than the last. Captain Huang of His Majesty’s army had snarled at the idea of being laid flat by a disgraced Omega, let alone touched by one. He’d called her an ugly, broken-caste sow. The moment her fingers brushed his skin, he’d grabbed her wrist so tight that her bone cracked beneath his grip.
She hadn’t cried out. She’d finished the treatment with the other hand, teeth clenched against the pain, then wrapped the fracture herself afterward.
Alexander didn’t even flinch once.
JingYi turned away under the pretext of cleaning her tools, her fingers moving dutifully over her medicine chest. She hated the flutter in her chest. Hated how it made her feel unsteady—how it reminded her she was not just a healer.
She was also a woman, and an Omega.
