Chapter 42: The Bitter Realization

Raul's POV: The girl’s screams resonated through the store room, each cry igniting a firestorm of fury within me. Every piercing shriek, every terrified gasp seemed to stoke my rage, making me wish I could resurrect Francis just to kill him again, over and over. How dare he lay his hands on my mate? And the girl herself—she was a sight I hadn’t expected. Young, trembling, and exposed, she huddled on the floor beneath the remains of the man who had wronged her. I quickly shed my thick coat and draped it over her fragile frame, my eyes cold and unfeeling as she wrapped it around herself. Her hands shook violently, her eyes darting away from the gory sight of Francis’s severed head, and then back to me, filled with terror. The sight was unsettling. Was she the one the Pack doctor had been protecting all this time? Had he somehow known she was meant to be my mate? The thought was inconceivable. The Pack doctor’s role was to heal, not to play matchmaker. The notion had struck me as absu