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.”

in

“And yet, he still tried to get me to open up the study for him. He knew that I had a key and could grant him access. I

a tiny boy, he’d never thrown a tantrum like that before. He’d always

I made the boy promise he would leave right after. Suddenly, he stopped crying and nodded. I thought he understood. I let him-inside

sigh and her expression grew more weary.

threw yet another fit and insisted that he belonged in his father’s

I

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

head.

I

making it seem as if I’d told him to

words sank in. Had Marco learned such behavior from Adalyn? Surely a six-year-old boy wouldn’t know

he punish Prince Marco?”

shook her head slowly. “The Alpha King hardly scolds him. In fact, he spoils him more than any child should be.”

in and fast asleep in bed.. Bitterness rose in me as I thought about Prince Marco and the way the Alpha

a good father,,” I said when I turned around, and I absently tugged on a lock of my long

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

and my jaw dropped a little.

back in

He found Marco abandoned out in the forests by the border. No one was around, he

was Adalyn’s. The two shared similar features, but then again, perhaps

also explained how Marco was six instead of five. Adalyn hadn’t been

pregnant after all.

couldn’t be able to compete for the throne later in life. But

“Why?” I wondered.