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 my head.

I said, and I peeled my gloves off and dropped them into the waste basket beside

Becky nodded. “Right.”

the double doors and stepped out into the hallway.

the chamber,” I requested, and the guards

and the pair raised their staffs to show they were serious.

go.”

smile, and then

and traveled down the halls until we reached

lights were brighter than I’d anticipated, and after I took a moment to let my eyes adjust to the harsh light, I headed over to my station. The room was enormous compared to what I was used to back in my clinic

and a small testing

to my desk and scanned the rows until | found Emmett’s book. I held it aloft to show Becky, and after my assistant’s face brightened

Becky, and without any hesitation, she brought the papers over to me. Once they were in my hands, I set them on my desk. and began to rifle through Emmett’s book. My eyes scanned the pages quickly while my brain processed the

me nearly fifteen minutes to sort through the book until finally, something seemed promising. My eyes widened as I took in the information on

something,” I

of the venom

plaguing the Alpha

that made me hesitate. It was written very tinily in the margins of

poison was invented by a sorcerer

I froze.

What?

What did the

way, I didn’t have time to ponder it.

save Asher.

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

carry me.

would have taken care to remain 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 quickly.

the right hallway, I was stopped in my tracks. Kane stood there against a pillar, his arms crossed against his

tilt of his head. “Have