Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 251

KALEB

I diligently stood in front of my mother’s grave solemnly, and after staring at the ornately carved slabi to dust off the stone. This was my first visit in quite some time, and the thick coating of grime on the ston it had been in a while. I normally didn’t allow it to get this bad, but as of late, things had been infinitely busy had a moment alone.

As I cleaned it, I pondered the state of things and then allowed myself to consider my mother. Ever since she died, l’a had a nightmare about her passing or otherwise. Nor had I after I’d killed all of my siblings and most of my cousins. Not even when I’d ended my father’s life.

I wasn’t afraid of ghosts or gods. I wasn’t afraid of punishment from the Moon Goddess for the acts I’d committed in the

past.

But last night, I had a nightmare, one that I couldn’t shake. It was haunting my thoughts and bleeding into the waking world so vividly it made me uneasy.

In my dream, I saw my mother groaning in her bed. The scent of death permeated the air and filled my nose so much that I was practically choking on it. She was calling out for my father, her voice strained and pitiful. The agony of it was chilling. If it weren’t for her voice, I would have thought she was already dead. She appeared so weak, so feeble. Her skin was practically translucent, and her eyes, once vibrant, had lost their beauty.

Though she was barely clinging to life… she was still my mother.

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Despite being the lowest among all of the king’s wives, a desperate and cunning maid who seduced the king and elevated her status to become one of his mistresses because of her pregnancy, she delivered a prince. She made the king a legitimate

son.

She had always said she was lucky that she was fertile. She told me that I was a gift from the Moon Goddess, but I couldn’t help but wonder if she truly believed that idea. Was her life confined in a small room, waiting for a man who would never visit again, better than her life as a maid?

In the dream, I walked closer to her, trying to stop her groaning. As I approached her bedside and the stench of death grew stronger, I stifled my urge to retch and tried to calm her down. I told her gently that Father wouldn’t come. I wanted nothing more than for her to pull herself together and stop calling out for him.

But when I caught sight of her hollow face and stared into her eyes, I realized that the woman in bed wasn’t my mother.

It was Cassandra.

lovely doe-like deep green eyes with their long lashes, her full, pink lips… all weren’t normal. Her face was ravaged and contorted into anguish. Even her long, copper hair was brittle and matted. It was a

spoke some vulgar words, and then they gave way to more specific things. She cursed me for what

intense that I couldn’t think. All I could see was myself committing these atrocities over

great pain as if my very soul was going to dissolve as it grew stronger. It burned within me like a wildfire, and just as I

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Feb 23

Chapter 251

catch my breath. Sweat drenched my entire body and I gripped my sheets for comfort. Rationally, I knew that the dream wasn’t consistent, nor had it been real, but still, I felt

but as I stood in

discover Wegalla before he could approach the king. He asked if Roxy should be abandoned, and that he needed because if he got caught by

note for quite some time, unsure

Roxy be

essage I

case. I couldn’t make up my mind on the matter, but

for them as my trusted companions to gain their trust and loyalty, and

hair, a thought

I’d done

traced back to that awful competition in the dungeon. It was a brutal fight. We were all too clever, too hesitant, too indecisive. We were wasting time at first. We were all so young and stupid and thought we could change the way this country was ruled. We had believed that if we banded together and challenged the very idea of this

we had overestimated our willpower as well as how

we began to fight.

I hadn’t gotten the best training sessions. I was always excluded by my siblings when they accepted fighting lessons from the outstanding soldiers of Yurene. They

All except Eleanor.

was the only one that treated me like a brother rather than a nuisance. After their lessons with the soldiers, Eleanor would meet with me privately

future ruler of

promise to me that she would take me out

But instead…