Accidental Surrogate for Alpha

Chapter 358 – Healing

Ella

I push my suspicions aside as I come to Cora’s side as she explains to Conner – the bright, red-haired young man who noticed that the men who attacked me didn’t transform into their wolves – our plan.

“Sure,” ,” he says, blinking up at both of us when Cora asks if he’d be willing to let me try to heal him with the Goddess power. “Um,” he says next, hesitating a little, “does it hurt?”

“Um,” I reply, rubbing an anxious hand up and down my arm, “I don’t think so? But then again, I’ve only tried it on myself?” I look over at Cora to see if she has any ideas, but she just shrugs.

“Consider it a very experimental treatment,” Cora says, turning back to Conner. “But I think Ella is right – it never seemed to hurt her before, when she used it. Or that one time I used it. But if it works!” she gives him a big smile now, “I think you will be a very happy little guinea pig!”

“Guinea pig?” he asks, confused. “Will I is this going to transform me into a guinea pig!?”

“No,” I say, laughing and sitting down on the edge of his bed, reaching for his arm, which he pulls away from me in sudden anxiety. “Seriously!” I say, laughing still. “That’s just a common phrase – you don’t know it? Maybe it’s a human phrase. For like, a creature who gets experimented on first.”

“Oh,” Conner says, relaxing a little but still looking at us warily. But then he nods, letting us know that he’s on board. “Just a lot of strange….magic, I guess, these days. Magic that I don’t think we’ve had a lot of exposure to before.”

“You’re telling me,” Cora murmurs, checking some final details as she runs a hand over her stomach, which is hosting what we can best describe as the first human-wolf hybrid pup ever conceived.

Conner doesn’t get it, but I do, and I give her a bright grin, which she returns. “Okay!” she says. “Conner, can we try it on the burn on your arm?” she asks, pointing to the gauze on his right forearm. “I think that’s a minor enough wound that it could be a good place to experiment.”

red wound. I sit back again, grimacing at it, reminded again of why I didn’t become

at me, as lost as I am. “I don’t know, Ella,” she says, waving a vague hand at me. “Do your… meditation thing. Access the

And then because it feels strange not to be doing anything to engage with the

or growing a child, or stressed in any real way. This time, the relaxation comes almost immediately and I find myself sinking quite deeply into that space where the light behind

Ella,” Cora whispers next to me, and I can tell that she’s excited but working hard

breath and, when I exhale, I begin to seek for pain. I feel the gift move then, as it’s done before – it sweeps through me first, seeking to heal anything, but when it doesn’t find anything

asking it to look…further than me. To go outside. And it feels, a very little bit, like the time that I passed it to Cora – though it’s hard to compare, because I had been so

– like I don’t have to shove the entire gift into someone’s hands before I collapse under the weight of it. But instead, like I can just take a piece of it, and move it forward

to feel a very real pain in front of me, radiating up towards my hands. And so I give it a little nudge, and push the gift towards it, and I feel it flowing

sharply, but I do my very best to not let myself be drawn

pull my hands back, and lay them in my lap, and take a

Conner are staring at me, their jaws wide open. “Did it work?” I breathe, curious. And neither say a word,

own

His wound it’s…

bring it closer to my eyes. And as I study it I realize that the wound is not gone it’s just…fixed. The skin has closed over what

flesh, still tender and pink and hairless, without any

I breathe, staring at it, and then up at Cora, and then over

see the bright smile on his face, the tears in his eyes, I burst into joyful laughter myself, hardly able to believe it. And then Cora lets out a shriek of joy and throws herself on top of me in a crazy hug, knocking

she stumbles over the words. “It’s incredible! Ella! Think of

I yell, giddy with excitement for it and hugging my sister close to me. Then men in the room are all turned towards us now, even those at