Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 42 Prince is adopted

CA SSANDRA

Once dinner was over, a se rvant guided me back to my chambers, and when I entered the room, the lights were dimmed and Finnick was fast asleep.

Erika sat at the table, reading a book by candlelight, and when she looked up to face me, her kind eyes were wide with concern.

“You look stressed, Ca ssandra,” she noted quietly, and she patted the seat beside her. “Come, tell me what’s wrong. Did something bad happen at dinner?”

I crossed over to the table and took the seat next to her. The entire way there, the weight of the conversation earlier hit me hard, and my hands began to shake.

“Lady Margaret made me an offer earlier,” I remarked. “She suggested that Finnick should join Prince Marco in his afternoon lessons.”

“Oh,” Erika said simply, and her brows furrowed. “That… seems… generous.”

I could tell the maid was stringing her words together carefully in hopes not to offend me, but little did she know, she could never say anything to hurt me.

“It is,” I replied, and I leaned my elbows on the table and placed my hands on my temples. I massaged them for a moment and then continued processing my thoughts. “I’m worried about Finnick, though. He can be… audacious at times, and I’m worried that he could say something to offend the prince. The last thing I want is for Finnick to be punished for something he didn’t mean to say.”

Erika considered my words and nodded to herself for a moment. She seemed -like she was on the verge of saying something but the words didn’t come. After a

minute of hesitation, she let out a soft sigh and touched my arm.

“Ca ssandra, there’s something you should know about Prince Marco,” she said quietly, and then she looked around the room. “But this must stay between us.”

“Of course,” I replied as my heart began to race. The maid’s tone was serious, and though there was no way for our privacy to be betrayed in the room, I leaned forward anyway.

“I used to primarily clean the Alpha King’s study,” she began. “It was and still is, as you know, a forbidden place to just about everyone in Merliscire. The only ones. allowed in when the Alpha King isn’t present is housekeeping.”

nodded in

to get me to open up the study for him. He knew that I had a key and could grant him access. I explained to

Even when Finnick was a tiny boy, he’d never thrown a tantrum like that

him a glimpse. I made the boy promise he would leave right after. Suddenly, he stopped crying

and her expression grew more weary.

and insisted

I whispered.

vexed when he saw the prince in his study and demanded to know why he was in

head. The boy was even more spoiled and

I

making it seem as if I’d told him to go into the study. Luckily,

such behavior from Adalyn? Surely a six-year-old boy wouldn’t know how to use such tricks to avoid punishment.

he punish Prince Marco?”

“The Alpha King hardly scolds him. In fact, he spoils him more than any child

and fast asleep in bed.. Bitterness rose in me as I thought

father,,” I said when I turned around, and I absently tugged on a lock of my long hair. “He must love the prince

else to know about all of this. Prince Marco isn’t Adalyn’s. He was

a beat and my

I repeated back in

an inspection. He was investigating the other Packs. He found Marco abandoned out in the forests by the

in shock. I’d assumed Marco was Adalyn’s. The two shared similar features, but then again, perhaps they weren’t as alike as I thought.

explained how Marco was six instead of five. Adalyn

pregnant after all.

against it,” Erika continued on. “Mostly because Marco wasn’t born into the royal family and couldn’t be able

“Why?” I wondered.