Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 36 The poison

CA SSANDRA

As my assistant walked toward me, my mind ached with a million questions. What were the results? Was this dire? Were we going to be able to save Asher after all?

Becky pushed her round glasses up the bridge of her nose. She was a beautiful girl- petite with short dark red hair and a pale, angular face full of freckles- and under normal circumstances, she had a pleasant demeanor. But tonight, her russet eyes were underscored by dark circles. She looked visibly worn out. Her lab coat had been hastily pulled on over her night clothes. I felt bad that she’d been awoken at this late of an hour.

“Ca ssandra,” she greeted me as she approached, and then her eyes fell to Asher. “How is the Alpha King?”

“Not great,” I admitted, and then I gestured toward the stack of papers in her hands. “You have the results?”

“Sort of,” Becky replied, and her eyebrows creased together. “But sort of not at the same time. I… I couldn’t identify the venom.”

My heart dropped in my chest.

“Oh,” I whispered, and when my lower lip began to tremble, it took all of my effort to keep from falling to the ground. The world spun around me a little until I took a long, deep breath.

“It doesn’t resemble any of the ones in our texts,” she continued on.

“Did you check the book in my laboratory?” I asked.

Surely the book that Emmett had recorded strange poisons in would have the answers we needed.

But Becky shook her head and frowned.

“Which one?” she asked.

I realized then that I hadn’t actually taken the time to show my assistant the book. Things had been so frantic and hectic around here lately that I hadn’t gotten

around to it.

“We need to go back to the lab,” I said. “I think there’s an answer in that book. somewhere. There has to be.”

can go-” Becky insisted, but I shook

faster if I come with,” I said, and I peeled my gloves off and dropped them into the waste basket beside me. “I’ll just need to

Becky nodded. “Right.”

and stepped out into the hallway. The

to enter the chamber,” I requested, and the

and the pair

go.”

you,” I said with a courteous smile, and

traveled down the

my station. The room was enormous compared to what I was used to back in my clinic in Wild Crawler territory. I’d been assigned my own workspace

wood desk, rows of bookshelves, and a small testing station that allowed

| found Emmett’s book. I held it aloft to show Becky, and after my assistant’s face brightened with understanding, I

me. Once they were in my hands, I set them on my desk. and began to rifle through Emmett’s book.

minutes to sort through the book until finally, something seemed promising. My eyes widened as

found something,” I

compared the composition of the venom

plaguing

pages, I caught sight of a sentence that made me hesitate. It was written very tinily in the margins

invented by a sorcerer

I froze.

What?

did the sentence mean?

understand. Either way, I didn’t have time to ponder it. We needed to act

save Asher.

lab’s supply shelves. I worked quickly and filled a spare kit with the other necessary things like gloves, syringes, and cotton pads, and

carry me.

quiet at an hour like this, but time. was of the essence. I figured no one had entered the Alpha King’s chamber while I was gone, but I didn’t want to waste a second anyway. Asher needed me and he needed me

I was stopped in my tracks. Kane stood there

me with a tilt of his head. “Have you