Amber’s POV


    When I walked into work that morning, I was determined to have a normal day. After the fight the day before, I was emotionally exhausted. So my n for today was simple. Focus on work. Continue to make strides to help the pack. Then go home. Eat, spend time with Alice, sleep. Repeat.


    The morning started well enough. I was able to aplish a lot. But, around midmorning, I was paged to the reception area, where Rafael was standing beside a woman who was slightly older, thin with severe


    features.


    This woman looked me up and down, with a growing unimpressed look on her face.


    “This is Healer Amber?” she scoffed.


    Rafael ignored her. “Amber, hello. Please meet our cousin Mary.”


    “I’m Rafael’s cousin,” she said.


    “Right,” I replied. I held out my hand to shake hers. She looked at my hand like I had something contagious. I let it linger there for a moment, waiting, until it became abundantly clear she wasn’t going to shake my hand. Embarrassed then, I let my hand drop.


    “Rafael,<i>” </i>Mary said, speaking to her cousin while still looking me over. “There’s no way this person could be a member of our family. Look at her. She’s too short, too fat, too pale… Look at her stubby knees.”


    There was nothing wrong with my knees, thank you very much.


    “Gics works in curious ways,” I said, trying to be polite even as my annoyance was spiking. “While you and Rafael take after one side of the family, I could take after another side.”


    Plus I was pale because I spent so much time working, away from the sun. I was a little bit heavier for the same reason. My work hadn’t let me get to the gym as much as I would like. But I wasn’t even that heavy,


    either, thank you! At most, I was curvy.


    I didn’t want to dislike anyone from my potential family, but this was almost too much to bear. I didn’t know who this woman was, outside of this introduction, or why she felt she had any right to criticize me.


    She also seemed to not be the best listener, as she ignored me entirely to look at Rafael instead.


    “Since Amber is a Healer, <b>I </b>suspect any test result thates back will be positive, don’t you Rafael? Either by her tampering or her influence, she can affect the results however she wants.”


    “I would never do such a thing,” I said. “That would require a tant disregard of the healer code. I swore an oath against doing such an hical thing.”


    Mary’s gaze slid back to me. “The promise of wealth and power will make anyone do anything.”


    “Not me,” I said. “I don’t need your wealth or your power.”


    She clucked her tongue. “Easy for you to say. Harder for you to prove.”


    “Mary, that’s enough,” Rafael said. “You are being purposefully hostile against Amber, who hasn’t done anything to either of us.”


    “Maybe she hasn’t yet, but she will,” Mary said. Her sharp look at me turned into a full–on glower. “You aren’t the first pretender to try to infiltrate our family, and you won’t be thest either.”


    “Mary,” Rafael said, tone scolding.


    “Rafael has a soft heart,” Mary said to me. “But I don’t. I will protect my family from people like you.”


    Julian’s POV


    While Amber had to work, I decided to call Alice out from her tutoring so that she and I could have some father–daughter fun together. She’d talked about wanting to go to the zoo, so I was happy to take her.


    Even before we went though, I could feel something… off… about myself.


    “I warned you…” my wolf whispered, but even in my mind, he sounded so very far away.


    I knew Alice was beside me, I could feel her hand in mine, but my other wolfy senses, my instincts, felt numb. I had to fully concentrate to feel the familial bond connecting me to Alice. The one tying me to Amber, who was farther away than right next to me, might as well have been nonexistent.