Heart of a Wolf

Surprised, I shook my head as I honestly didn’t have an answer for him. “I’ve thought about it, but that possibility’s a lifetime away. I’d honestly settle for getting to visit my sister. I can still do some good back at the manor.”

“Ash got lucky with you. I’ve heard stories about humans being turned before out time that I dare not repeat. Essentially, those who were turned would take revenge on the pack that claimed them.”

I could understand that. “If someone knowing did this to me, I’d feel differently about the pack.”

“But someone did do this to you,” he reminded me.

“And they’ll have to answer for their actions once we figure out who they are.”

“And because it’s under your jurisdiction, we’ll never get the closure we seek,” Ash cut in, joining us moments later.

“Not for my transplant, no. As for Dani’s death, it’s still possible that was caused by a wolf,” I said.

“Yes.” She nodded gently, placing a hand on her chest.

“Is there something I should know?” Zander asked, looking at her again.

“Not yet,” she assured him. “Not until I have my proof.”

“Fair enough, but we’ll speak about this later regardless of what we find now.”

“Of course, Alpha,” Ash said, bowing her head in respect.

It didn’t take long for Jeremy to return with a huge pile of papers in his hands.

“Well?” I urged, stepping between him and the other wolves. “Did you find anything?”

“Not at first, no,” he said with an exasperated sigh, but whoever tried to cover this up did a terrible job deleting the original files from the system. Here. Take a look for yourself.”

Jeremy handed me two sets of paperwork, one that was falsified and the other that he had to dig around in order to find.

The false reports went on to explain a complicated surgery where I almost died on the table. There were complications after the fact, which was why they kept me under as long as they did.

Complications happen on a regular basis, and since I didn’t pass away, it was never questioned.

The other report was more complex, detailing the surgeon’s work almost like it was intended for a medical article.

Again, complications were mentioned in the text, but the reason the heart transplant was changed was because the human heart didn’t take. If the surgeon waited any longer or closed me up, I might not have survived. So he made a call, taking a healthy heart from the other side of the hospital even though it’d never been done before. There was no way to determine the outcome.

“Doug?” I asked with disbelief. “He was the one who did the surgery? What happened to Carter?”

“He was called away at the last minute,” Jeremy offered,

“but he said he oversaw the entire thing.”

I doubted that. “Jeremy…”

“You died on the table, Jo. What were they supposed to do?”

“I died?” The reports didn’t say anything like that.

“I was in the gallery when you coded. Your heart was in shreds and the other one didn’t take.”

Oh my god. “You asked them to do it, didn’t you?” I couldn’t believe it. I refused to believe it. Not Jeremy. Not my sweet, amazing Jeremy.

Jeremy turned away from me and ran his hands through his hair. “They came to me about the new heart and I agreed without thinking. God, I’m such an idiot.” He looked back at me, his eyes full of tears. “You need to believe me. I had nothing to do with this. I saw you code. I was getting ready to tell your sister when they pulled me aside and mentioned another donor in the hospital. I didn’t think to ask where it was coming from because… I am so sorry, Jo.”

Zander snarled in response. “That was meant for another wolf.”