In the healing house of Silver, Doctor Gilbert stood in the lab, working on testing different medical chemicals to create an antidote for the Luna’s strong wolf suppressant. He had taken blood samples from the Alpha yesterday and still had some preserved ones from the Luna that he could use as a basis for experimentation. The Alpha’s blood carried the strongest healing effects, and since she was his mate, as he had quietly worked out, it might be the key to making it work and heal her.

However, for some reason Gilbert could not concentrate on the work, which he knew he should be completing as fast as possible given that the Supreme Alpha was impatient and had firmly ordered him to set everything else aside and focus solely on his wife.

His mind kept drifting to Laila, to the way his usually silent wolf was longing for her like a starved beast, but he refused to give in to it in any way and forced his thoughts back instead to the Alpha’s sister’s text message from yesterday.

Was Miss Zoe really serious about everything she had sent to him?

Gilbert’s eyes drifted from the microscope to his phone sitting on the counter beside him.

He picked it up and opened the message again without fully meaning to.

*"Okay so I have been staring at this blank text for like an hour trying to figure out how to start this and I still don’t know how so I am just going to say it before I lose my nerve and delete everything again.*

*I like you. I really really like you and I have for a while now and it’s getting to the point where I can’t pretend I don’t anymore.*

*I know you are probably the most oblivious person in all of Silver and you probably haven’t noticed anything because you never notice anything that isn’t medical related but I think about you a lot. Like embarrassingly a lot.*

*I like how serious you are about your work and how you don’t try to impress anyone and how you eat an unreasonable amount of shrimp and somehow make it look completely normal.*

*I don’t know if you feel anything or if this is completely one sided and I am about to make everything between us incredibly awkward forever, but I decided I would rather know than spend another year smiling at you and pretending my heart isn’t doing something ridiculous every time you walk into a room.*

*So. Yes. That is everything. I have fallen in love with you and if you feel the same way, I hope you will ask me out on a date someday and give us a chance."*

Gilbert set the phone face down on the counter and stared at the wall for a long moment, bewildered.

Then he picked it back up and read it again. Was she really serious? To be honest, he didn’t feel anything particular toward her beyond being her doctor. And he was stunned that she felt that way toward him, even when he shouldn’t have been surprised because many she-wolves in Silver had been straightforward with their feelings in the past, and he’d had to turn them down to stay away from distractions.

He was surprised because Zoe was the Alpha’s sister, and he saw her as... perhaps a friend who liked to talk too much sometimes without caring if the other person was listening or not, and though he never minded her talking and quite liked it, Gilbert just didn’t see her as a love interest.

But rather than allow his mind to circle back to Laila and the unsettling mate bond he wanted nothing to do with, he found he would far rather think about the Alpha’s sister, who had just openly poured her heart out to him.

She wanted to go on a date with him. He turned the idea over carefully. If he could make it work, Doctor Gilbert thought, he could reject Laila, and if the Alpha gave his blessing, he could take Zoe as a chosen mate. Once he had a chosen mate and marked her, the bond with a fated mate would naturally dissolve. It had happened before.

Laila was not the kind of woman he wanted in his life. Not that his mother and aunt would ever accept anyone from the Serrano family regardless, that alone would be a battle not worth fighting. So despite his long-standing personal rule against dating and his commitment to keeping his time outside work entirely his own, Doctor Gilbert made a quiet decision. He would reply to Zoe’s message and arrange a date, after he had finished developing the Luna’s medicine.

He pulled off his gloves and stepped away from the counter, beginning to type a reply, but just then his phone rang. He picked it up automatically, the way he always did, because only a small number of people had his personal number and calls on this line were almost always emergencies.

Picking it up this time, however, was a mistake he felt the moment he heard the voice on the other end.

"Hello, Gilbert." Laila said sofly, sitting cross-legged on her couch and fighting the wild, strong spark dancing through her body at the faint sound of his breathing alone, something that made absolutely no sense and yet made her wolf stir to life all the same.

"Where did you get this number, Miss Serrano?" he asked, keeping his voice level and professional despite the scowl pulling at his face. He didn’t want her calling him. It had taken a huge amount of meditation to clear away the sensation of her lips against his.

Laila chuckled softly. "Does that really matter? Do you always ask your patients where they got your number when they reach out? I need you, doctor." She said.

Gilbert’s hand tightened around his phone. "I don’t want to be a part of this, Miss Serrano, and as much as I don’t think I should say this on the phone, I will—" he began to say the words of rejection outright, but then she gasped, and the sound that followed made him stop cold.

"I really need you." She cried. "I’m bleeding." And before he could respond, his phone gave a soft beep, a picture message. He pulled it from his ear and looked at the screen, and his jaw tightened at the image of a wound on her thigh, deep enough that her body couldn’t heal it fast on its own. She was hurt.

Gilbert’s blood ran cold at the sight of the wound. His mate bond flared without warning and he didn’t even realize he was already reaching for his medical bag as he said, "Stay where you are. I will be there right now. Don’t move."