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.

admit it, I was immensely attracted to her. Her long, wavy copper hair that shimmered like flame, her beautiful dark green eyes, and her full lips… even her 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

In fact, I hadn’t taken any interest in any woman after

this woman that I couldn’t get out of my head?

rang out

voice then said, and 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

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

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

in front of me and

the healer’s bags are

Keller’s house to pack her belongings while we spoke, so she wouldn’t have a chance to escape

anything suspicious?” I wondered, and I pinched my nose again as my head continued to pound.

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

before she fled to the forest.”

and my eyes

read it?”

that it had to be suspicious if even Lancel found

seems that the healer was preparing to leave this Pack for good. She planned to

back. “I’m not

there’s more, Alpha,” Lancel continued slowly, and he lowered his voice slightly. “There’s something I found very weird.”

I frowned. “Really?”

into the matter, but I think she may be

afraid of Anemond.”

repeated

guard nodded. “Yes, Alpha.”

laugh rose up from my chest.

I rested back into the seat. “She’s afraid she might struggle to take on the responsibilities I’m asking of her. Why else would she try to run away?”

felt foolproof, yet Lancel didn’t

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

it was, I needed rest, and my guard was taking too long to reach his point. What was