Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 17 Healer’s fear

ASHER

Once the healer left, I leaned back in the armchair in Alpha Gareth’s meeting room and released a sigh. My head was aching, as if I had a million hammers, pounding at it at once. I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers.

It was difficult to say whether the headache was from the mysterious disease worsening or the lack of sleep. I barely got a full night’s rest these days, and it was, beginning to take its toll on my entire body. It was simply too difficult to rest when there was so much plaguing my mind.

And now, there was someone else to consider, someone I couldn’t get out of my

head.

Cas sandra Keller.

Even though she was gone, her name ran circles in my mind, over and over, as if it were a song rather than a name.

Ca ssandra Keller, a nobody healer from a long-forgotten Pack on the border of

Wegalla.

Over the past few conversations I’d held with her, I knew there was something special about her, something weirdly familiar that drew me in in unexplainable ways. As much as I wanted to dismiss those feelings, I knew they couldn’t be ignored.

Had I heard her name before? Or known someone with a similar one? Was her face similar to one I’d seen before? I couldn’t place it anywhere in my memory, but perhaps she just reminded me of another subject… It was so hard to say.

Either way, I couldn’t figure it out.

Deep down, I knew there was no need to bring the girl all the way to Anemond with me. My son was nearly healed from his encounter with the viper and was going

to make a full recovery. And she had been right- she could easily conduct her research here and report her findings to me in the capital city.

But I wanted her to come with me.

petite, lovely figure drew me in. Since yesterday, I’d fantasized about the way her slender hips curved and how much I wanted to place my hands on them and draw her to me in an embrace.

fact, I hadn’t taken any interest in any

that I couldn’t get

a knock rang out

I recognized it as Lancel, one of my guards. He’d been under my command for years and was one of the few I actually trusted. Despite being the king of the realm, there were few I could trust in Anemond. Everyone was conniving with ulterior motives and agendas that threatened to undermine my

my bodyguard since I was very young, and was the only one who still referred to me as

and Lancel entered. He was an older man of nearly fifty, with deep-set blue eyes, and hair

in

healer’s bags are all

pack her belongings while we spoke, so

happen to find anything suspicious?” I wondered, and I pinched my nose again as my head continued to pound. I closed my eyes again and leaned back into the chair.

we found on the kitchen table,” Lancel revealed. “It seems she

with her assistant before

my eyes

read it?”

had to be suspicious if even Lancel found it

for good. She planned

I repeated back. “I’m not

Alpha,” Lancel continued slowly, and he lowered his voice

I frowned. “Really?”

“I may be reading into the matter, but

afraid of Anemond.”

repeated

nodded. “Yes,

laugh rose up from my

afraid she might struggle to take on the responsibilities I’m asking of

yet Lancel didn’t seem

Alpha,” he said. “But that’s not quite what I

head pounding as severely as it was, I needed rest, and my guard was taking too long to reach his point. What was so